Whites fine for Zanu-PF, not for MDC
September 8, 2008
Geoffrey Nyarota
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip flank President Mugabe on May 17, 1994.
THE campaign pitch of President Robert Mugabe in recent elections has been consistent.Since the electorate shocked him out of deepening complacency in the aftermath of the constitutional referendum held back in February 2000 Mugabe has sought to portray himself as a patriot, while presenting his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, as nothing more than a groveling puppet of the West.
Mugabe and the former ruling Zanu-PF have paraded themselves as paragons of post-colonial political virtue, while dismissing those who oppose them as shameless sell-outs, permanently at the beck and call of a dispossessed white farming community and a Western world seeking to re-colonise Zimbabwe.
In the world of make-believe painted by Mugabe and his surrogates at Zanu-PF campaign rallies, political correctness entails having nothing or as little as possible to do with white people especially those of Zimbabwean commercial farming stock or with the representatives, even accredited diplomats, of Western nations, particularly the United Kingdom, the United States or Australia.
This essentially racist posturing was evolved and fine-tuned in the period after the 2000 referendum, when it suddenly dawned on the Zanu-PF leadership that they no longer enjoyed the fawning support and unquestioning loyalty of the Zimbabwean electorate.
Evidence abounds, however, that Mugabe’s and Zanu-PF’s racist pretensions are based on a false premise and shrouded in hypocrisy and double-speak. Zanu-PF has thus continued to delude both itself and party loyalists over the years simply because its rivals in the MDC have somehow allowed the party to get away with what essentially amounts to telling two self-serving falsehoods.
Mugabe in the early days of Zimbabwe’s independence basked in the glory of overstated Western adulation, while Zimbabwe benefited from the backing and support of a Western world anxious to support a government they somehow believed would constitute a departure from the African post-independence stereotype of corruption, economic mismanagement, lawlessness and abuse of civic rights. Aid funds poured into Africa’s newest nation while Mugabe was toasted in Western capitals. A knighthood was conferred on him by Queen Elizabeth the Second at Buckingham Palace while members of the Zanu-PF Women’s League ululated in Harare. A number of universities on both sides of the Atlantic recognised him through honorary degrees.
The first lie is that Western nations are natural enemies of Zimbabwe.
The second falsehood, more significantly, is that Zanu-PF hates while people. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, Zanu-PF has built a strategic circle of its own white friends over the years. Not only does Zanu-PF have dealings and cordial relations with its white allies; the people concerned are in most cases capitalist entrepreneurs who have prospered magnificently in Zimbabwe through their association with the ruling elite. Some prosper through exploiting the very people Zanu-PF pretends to protect.
Back in 1980 Mugabe went out of his way to prove to an anxious world that he was more than willing to abide by the non-racist tenets of his party’s first election manifesto.
Zanu-PF’s election manifesto stated categorically: “Zanu wishes to give the fullest assurance to the white community, the Asian and coloured communities that a Zanu government can never in principle or in social or government practice, discriminate against them. Racism, whether practiced by whites or blacks, is anathema to the humanitarian philosophy of Zanu. It is as primitive a dogma as tribalism or regionalism.”
The Zanu-PF of today publicly castigates and demonizes opponents such as the MDC who espouse similar non-racist policies and openly engage with members of the white community, branding them as enemies of the people and as puppets of the West.
Surprisingly, supporters both in and out of the country who hailed Mugabe for his former concern for the welfare of the ordinary man and his policy of national reconciliation, still glorify him long after he abandoned both the concern and the policy and now constantly spouts racist diatribe without the mandate of the majority of his people to do so.
But then to a considerable extent Mugabe and his acolytes depend for their survival on the existence of powerful white supporters who manipulate and strategize behind the scenes.
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Great stuff.
One of the points you brought up that is well worth repeating is MDC’s apparent failure to deal with Mugabe’s repeated tormenting of the party and its leadership as being puppets of the whites. There are countless stories of Mugabe bootlicking his white “bosses” MDC could and should have used.
The second point your articles raises; is the willingness of our lack leaders to sell their national and public interest to whites for selfish personal gain. I do not think this will ever end.
‘As for those who seek to cause confusion, well, in our society, men who were known to be foolish were sent to skin goats, leaving adults to discuss matters of substance.’ – So said Clapperton Mavhunga in this same blog. He literally took the words out of my mouth.
The trouble with us Zimbabweans, since the political patronage from the MUGABE era, is we lack respect for each other. We undermine each other at the earliest opportunity. We tend to be so selfish we allow insignificant distractions to derail our erstwhile good judgement. Take the role played by ex combatants in the liberation war. Read Nyarota’s Against the Grain to get a genuine and deeper insight into how Zanu PF under Mugabe practically high jacked the Pan African nationalism and held Zimbabweans hostage for years on end.
I also have a story to tell about the double standards and the hypocrisy which the likes of Mbeki and Mugabe copied from the West and have been busy perfecting in their countries in complete betrayal of the ideals of the genuine revolution. A genuine revolution knows no colour, no tribe, no age, no sex, no political orientation,no corruption and no hidden agenda. This was totally obliterated by a regime that was selfish and callous enough to say if I wont be in control then nobody will. The little grip we have managed on Mugabe and cronies we shall amplifiy and wrest control. Enough of Mugabe’s praise singing.
Note that it is not Tsvangirai that some of us support, but his courage to stand up against evil. He is interested in justice, the justice he is aware can strip or regulate his powers – not the slave Master relationship we had with Mugabe and his cronies. We want to perfect our African values. I am now in the West and am very sorry for the people here. They have materialistic assets but nothing in the nature of that cohesion, and integrated and extended family and ultimately community unit as a single system where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Let us reclaim our heritage of the selfless and empathetic African culture which was about to be corrupted bt the corruption and political patronage that had invaded our country. I for one am optimistic that only good can come out of this less than desirable government of National Unity which Mbeki and Mugabe forced on us.
Those who claim we could have done better do not understand that we were against people with guns and a shamelessly partisan mediator and actively biased electoral commission on the one hand and Tsvangirai and Co only had the economy and unarmed people whose will was being ignored. The West? Ask those trying to eke a living there whilst negotiating landmines called immigration rules and lotteries called asylum applications.
Sadly my people have been reduced to frabricating stories, faking necessary living conditions in order to survive. Frankly, I am glad it is on the way to being over. I am glad too that Mbeki is being stopped in his tracks in trying to turn South Africa into some model of a collapsed Zimbabwe. Dreams come to an end too. Just like tyrannies. I saw people of all colours and creeds pray for divine intervention in Zimbabwe’s problems. I know, we have had it and fervently pray that the tribalism which the elections partially settled will be consolidated when we have genuinely free and fair elections after five years.
We just need to be alive and God help us in that regard.
This is truly a great article. It made for interesting reading i must say, but i question why you did not provide us with the facts concerning the lives of these “MDC whites” as well. i think we would have had a better judgment of their characters as well and been able to fully contrast them with those of the “ZANU whites” which you cleared laid out.
This is what you had to say about Eddie Cross, “Cross then went into business in his own capacity when he started a group of companies, which he now runs with increasing difficulty. He joined the MDC at inception in 1999 and is currently the policy coordinator of the party and was elected to Parliament in March.” Is this not the same Eddie Cross who was part of the the CZI (i stand corrected). you seem to have missed a lot since the Beira Corridor years to his insolvency which is why i think you could have provided your readers with a bit more there. The same applies to David Coltart. Any reader would be interested to know of his role with the Selous Scouts and other matters of relevance.
The idea should not be to portray this group of white people as saints simply because they do not lead lives as lavish as the Zanu-PF cronies but rather to bring the truth out to the fore. For even after reading this i know as little about Trudy Stevenson et al as i did before.