Mugabe must take blame

IT is now widely accepted that Zimbabwe has been turned into a land of chaos and desperation, and the answer as to who is responsible was emphatically provided at the just-ended Zanu PF congress in Harare last week.

IT is now widely accepted that Zimbabwe has been turned into a land of chaos and desperation, and the answer as to who is responsible was emphatically provided at the just-ended Zanu PF congress in Harare last week.

Although President Robert Mugabe has been in power since the country got independence from Britain in 1980, a faction that controlled last week’s congress wants to convince Zimbabweans that this country would have been a land of milk and honey had the president been allowed to have his way only.

President Robert Mugabe
President Robert Mugabe

The faction demonstrated this by swiftly amending the party’s constitution to bar elections and instead gave Mugabe all power in Zimbabwe to handpick all senior party officials, departing from the five-decade tradition of holding internal elections.

While Zanu reserves its right to defer internal elections, we are worried that the party’s just-ended congress was very simplistic in its dissection of Zimbabwe’s socioeconomic problems.

It is simplistic of the victorious Zanu PF faction to think that the axeing of Vice-President Joice Mujuru and her supporters would restore this country’s path to economic prosperity.

For the two months leading to the congress, we were told of how Mujuru had sabotaged the economy by demanding a 10% stake in every big company operating in the country and demanding the same shareholding from would-be investors.

She was also accused of looting the country’s diamonds and of running a parallel government since 2009. And this faction wants us to believe that her removal would ensure stability and cohesion.

Vice-President Joice Mujuru
Vice-President Joice Mujuru

What simplicity dear comrades! Where are the two million jobs the party promised through its manifesto?

Was Mujuru the stumbling block and the cause of massive job losses announced by Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa in his budget?

When Zimbabweans ask who was responsible for Gukurahundi genocide, they are simply told it was a moment of madness, but not whose madness.

The West, Mujuru and sanctions have been blamed for Zimbabwe’s ills except the captain of the ship. When will Mugabe be blamed? Why is he allowed to place blame elsewhere and for how long will party officials continue to shield him from blame? We need leaders that admit failure when they mess up.

If officials serve at the pleasure of Mugabe, then they equally mess up at the pleasure of the president as long as he continues to retain them.