Itai Dzamara: COMPELLING, BLATANT CASE FOR ACTION NOW
Opinion & Columnist

Itai Dzamara: COMPELLING, BLATANT CASE FOR ACTION NOW

By Itai Dzamara

Of all the options now practically available to us, Zimbabweans, only one can really bring the desired result – of stopping the sinking of the ship, dragging it to the shores and starting to repair it.
Action, and now, is the only route left for the masses to stop the national crisis and rescue the country’s destiny from the patently unprogressive, uncertain and unpredictable path we are currently limping on under a long failed Zanu PF administration.
It is vital and illustrative that l articulate my points through identifying and unpacking all the practical options available, outlining why and how only action now can stop the descend into a permanently failed state.

WAITING FOR 2018 POLLS
To all purposes and intents, anyone who desires a new Zimbabwe and end to the Zanu PF cycles of failure, should easily see and understand that this option is inherently rendered unviable.
In short, given the obtaining circumstances, it can only mean that, the rest of us, Zimbabweans choosing to shepherd Zanu PF to another rigged election in 2018, most probably by an even wider margin than last’s electoral fraud.
For, absolutely nothing can be done under the current circumstances, by anyone, to stop another rigging jamboree in 2018.
The talk about ‘key reforms’ being implemented towards 2018 becomes a virtual fallacy in that, the chances of that wholly depend on the ‘benevolence’ of Zanu PF.
There is everything to prove that Zanu PF holds all the keys to determining what goes or comes about anything and everything towards 2018 – unabated.
Zanu PF enjoys unbridled domination of parliament and shall certainly continue using it to both undermine the reformation agenda as well as even reverse it where it suits them.
The MDC’s presence in parliament is just cosmetic and symbolic – the opposition party can’t even stop a mosquito out to do a Zanu PF mission through parliament.
That effectively, and virtually, means under these political and legislative circumstances, the path to 2018 can only be crafted at the whims and selfish desires of Zanu PF.
No prizes for guessing both what Zanu PF will do along the way and with the elections of 2018.
I have no doubt that choosing this route simply means us surrendering to the desire and plot by Zanu PF to totally kill the reformation and national democratisation agenda.
It inevitably would mean surrendering Zimbabwe to the vagaries of Zanu PF’s entrenched skulduggery, plunder, corruption and thuggery.
You only get a guaranteed failed state out of that.

GNU PART 2
There are signs of some warming up and desiring for another largely elitist political deal between Zanu PF and other political players, yet, which objectively should simply be viewed as it is – effectively meaningless and unhelpful to the cause for a new and better Zimbabwe.
That is because, there cannot be any expected, practical or achievable substantive national gains from another such arrangement.
Slightly over just a year since the previous coalition crashed into a dead end, it must be easy to recall and understand key issues.
These include the easily predictable lack of sincerity on the part of Zanu PF, in using a coalition for the general good and achievement of national goals.
Zanu PF would certainly yet again use the coalition to swallow whichever political opposition entities it charms into the deal.
I don’t see any chances of better prospects for the coalition – whatever size or shape it takes – tangibly addressing either the deep economic crisis or political conundrum.
In the broader picture, therefore, such a coalition would merely prove to be another opportunity by some groups and individuals in opposition circles getting the largesse of executive positions and benefits, without anything tangible cascading down to the masses.
Zanu PF would prefer doing such a deal because it loses nothing. It even wouldn’t care about trebling the executive expenses and burden on the taxpayer, as long as it serves its political interests.
I find some elements within opposition circles willing to put their selfish interests ahead of the national cause and going into another coalition, but only to effectively become acolytes in the plot to derail the aspirations for a new Zimbabwe liberated from the Zanu PF bandwagon of failure.
The political economy will certainly remain subdued in response to the establishment of such a meaningless elite deal.

WAITING FOR MUGABE OR ZANU PF TO DIE
There has been a lot of free drama in Zanu PF around serious power struggles, but which have had the dire effect of diverting the attention of many Zimbabweans into lost direction as well as harboring serious misconceptions.
One of those misconceptions is the view or hope that at the end of the Zanu PF fights, there will emgerge a new Zimbabwe or opportunity for us to create one.
There is just no logic nor basis in such delusional imagination, because, obviously, at the end of the fights there will still emerge a Mugabe monarchy-like outfit, ready and set to continue with its agenda of further capturing and sinking the state and nation.
The Mugabe machinery is almost done with the purging of the Mujuru faction, which had angled to take over power. After that, it will be back to the national business for the Mugabe machinery, to crush voices of dissent, derail reformation processes, create fake signs of reformation for selling to the world and effectively march on.
The hope and anticipation by some, for the defeated Mujuru team joining us in the struggle for a better Zimbabwe to me appears too far-fetched and shallow to be a reality.
I don’t see Joice Mujuru and company choosing to sacrifice their vast tracts of wealth by fighting the Mugabe monarchy – which, in any case, they are failing to do now as they are being crushed like ants, barbarically.
And, one of the laziest anticipations or illusions around is that the death of Robert Mugabe would create way to a new Zimbabwe, just like that.
If Mugabe dies, obviously his dynasty will simply find a replacement to further his agenda.
In fact, the war ongoing in Zanu PF is specifically aimed at preparing for a ‘suitable’ individual to replace Mugabe when he dies.
Mujuru has been deemed not to be one and the road ended for her, meaning, whoever it will be, shall have to carry on with Robert Mugabe’s agenda of sinking Zimbabwe to the bottom of the sea – dictatorship, economic failure, national plunder and human rights abuses, just for the sake of furthering its interests.

SADC and AU
There is really nothing more to expect from the regional bodies that can influence positive developments in our current circumstances, because there is not basis for such.
In other words, to SADC and AU, Zimbabwe is fine and going down in failure out of its people’s choice.
The regional bodies have no business of intervening in a ‘peaceful’ and ‘orderly’ state of Zimbabwe, where those ideals prevailed right after last year’s rigged elections and all the way through the rigmarole of democratic skulduggery as well as economic decline.
The point is that the regional bodies simply have no plan to change things for us if we are not striving to do so, or creating circumstances for their intervention.
In fact, Sadc and AU shall always be ready to come and bless, say another meaningless coalition deal.
They will rightly say ‘we respect what the people of Zimbabwe have chosen’ and leave us to sink under such false deals.
The regional bodies will happily accompany us to 2018, if we choose to, watch and bless another electoral farce and leave us to partake of our rotten cakes.

ACTION, ACTION, ACTION
All the above options highlight one thing, which is that there is now need for an effective plan to enforce an end to the path we are following as a nation, behind the Mugabe monarchy’s charge towards nowhere.
No, not war, not chaos nor bloodshed, but committed and resolved standing up to demand an end through mass action.
We have the constitutional provisions and guarantees to stage peaceful protests and which can take diverse forms certainly capable of bringing pressure to bear on the Mugabe regime.
[05:53, 24/11/2014] Itai Dzamara:
We have various platforms to use for drowning the nation in a sea of protests.
For example, if the MDC chooses to truly draw a line in the sand, they can turn their useless presence in parliament into a protest agenda.
Civil servants have more than sufficient grounds and justifiction to start effective protests.
The pretending by 80% of the population to be doing something when it is basically merely scratching the surface can be stopped and people express their demands for an end to the crisis through civil, peaceful and resolute means.
College and university students can wake up from their slumber and unequivocally declare that they have had enough of failure.
I do not see the Mugabe regime having any other way to respond and get away with, if substantive protests are rolled out, save for capitulating and starting to engage, under a lot of pressure.
The objective should be to push the regime enough that it stops its arrogant pretending to be having things under control or to be leading a happy nation.
It is our right and responsibility to demand that the Zanu PF regime has failed and must be forced to step down and pave way for a new national agenda, now not in 2018.
After all, Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and, although we let it get away with that, we still have a legitimate basis, because, that electoral sham is the root cause of the current sinking of the ship.
Only action and people power forcing Zanu PF to stop pretending, coming down and engaging under pressure can start a new course for the nation, towards creating a better Zimbabwe.

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