No government should be without critics. If its intentions are good then it has nothing to fear from criticism.’ Thomas Jefferson.
They say the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I am therefore writing to voice my concern on the statement you made at the Goromonzi conference where you said if elections fail Zanu PF will use any means necessary to remain in power.
I know my views and opinions on this matter will open the floodgates of fierce criticism, condemnation and damnation from pseudo revolutionaries masquerading as servants of the people yet they are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
I am going to be lambasted and ridiculed but you know what: I DON’T CARE for a true hero isn’t measured by the size of his strength but by the strength of his heart.
I believe any man that’s got the guts to sell his soul for Justice has got the power to change the world. At the risk of seeming ridiculous let me say that a true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.
The liberation struggle was an emancipatory project aimed at ending all forms of oppression not a ticket to the political casinos for the elite.
COMRADE allow me to say your party have become a potent engine by which unscrupulous , cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men have been enabled to subvert the power of the people and usurp for themselves and feast undisturbed on the choicest portions of the national cake.
The independence you always talk of is only enjoyed by you and to some of us it has remained an illusion and a pipe dream. Mind you revolutionaries are not selfish but selfless. They have genuine interest in people’s welfare not themselves.
Unfortunately absolute power has corrupted you so absolutely. Your statement at the conference betrayed you and it clearly shows that anarchy is in your blood and like Stalin you believe death is the solution to all problems, no wonder when you are pushed killing is easy as breathing.
The problem you have is that you prefer to be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. I know criticism may not be agreeable but it is necessary, for it calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.
Our country is dying from internal rottenness. Jefferson said, once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring it’s lost principles, every other correction is either useless or a new evil.
The problems bedeviling the country are deeply rooted in a bad governance system, the lack of free elections , independent courts and freedom of speech.
Your prime mandate therefore should be helping us, but if you can’t at least don’t hurt us. Strive to leave Zimbabwe a little better than you found it.
Matemadanda, now gird up thy loins like a man for I demand thee to go and deliver this special message unto your brethren.
Tell them the Povo, using the moniker you are so familiar with have lost hope and confidence in Zanu PF because you have turned into monsters who eat their own children. Don’t stop there, go on to give them this lecture on democracy. Tell them the people are saying In a democracy elections are free, fair and meaningful.
The playing field is even and opposition party leaders are not arrested or denied access to the political space. People have fundamental freedoms such as freedom of association, assembly and expression. The law is blind and it protects it’s citizens. The state does not ambush it’s citizens and there is transparency and accountability.
I sign off with a heavy , sorrowful and brooding heart because your party have failed to live up to our expectations. Your only concern is fattening your pockets and filling your stomachs with all the niceties at the expense of the masses who are still languishing in agony and writhing in the pain of poverty.
I know you will take my views for a joke but in your gatherings in the comfort zones of your gastronomical paradises just know that to the masses you have become a thorn in the flesh and more of villains than heroes. The masses see you as perpetrators of injustice and oppressors than liberators.
Remember where poverty is enforced, where Justice is denied and where one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade others, neither persons nor property will be safe.
Whenever men take the law into their own hands and treat the masses as pawns for sacrifice the loser is the law and when the law loses freedom languishes.
I rest my case.
Tendai Manika- Founder of the Zimbabwe Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation.