ZANU PF is a Political Party Full of Liars and Hypocrites

By Levi Mhaka

Published on March 6, 2008

On Friday, February 29, 2008, Joseph Msika, the ZANU PF Vice President had no decent words for presidential aspirant Simba Makoni, just like his boss Robert Mugabe, who cannot present himself in a campaign without insulting rivals. Msika attacked Simba Makoni for having been associated with him in the media. In his attacks, Msika should have simply directed his anger to the media. One wonders why he would insult Simba Makoni as if Makoni owns the media in Zimbabwe or as if Makoni had made a statement associating himself with Msika.

Msika even went ahead by claiming that he was making the insults in the name of the ZANU PF political leadership of Matebeleland, especailly the National Chairman, John Nkomo and politburo member, Dumiso Dabengwa.

Proving that Msika was lying, the following day on Saturday, Dumiso Dabengwa disassociated himself from Joseph Msika's statement by publicly endorsing Simba Makoni. In his public endorsement, he was joined by a highly respected lawyer and former Speaker of Parliament, Cyril Ndebele.

In his first public statement since Simba Makoni declared himself a presidential candidate, Dabengwa revealed that there has been a general desire in ZANU PF to have President Robert Mugabe take a rest by not having him re-run. This was after an exchange of views between Dabengwa and Patrick Chinamasa, the incumbent Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. Ironically, Chinamasa is part of the architects of Mugabe's ZANU PF candidature in the re-election.

On Sunday, the State-owned newspapers had no kind words for Dumiso Dabengwa through the statements of Zanu-PF secretary for education in the Poliburo and also Minister of Information and Publicity, Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu; a civil servant who is the permanent secretary in Ndlovu's ministry, George Charamba; Bulawayo Metropolitan provincial Governor, Cde Cain Mathema and Zanu-PF secretary for administration, Cde Dydmus Mutasa.

Dabengwa, said although he wanted a change of leadership he however, respected President Robert Mugabe for the role he played both during the liberation struggle and after independence.

These Zanu-PF luminaries not heavyweights as suggested by the State-owned newspapers, condemned Dabengwa for supporting Dr Simba Makoni's contest as a presidential candidate as if the position is a preserve of Robert Mugabe.Charamba said: "What is Dabengwa worth by way of supporters? He brought none to Zanu-PF, he takes none to the independent. The people of Nkulumane had long rejected him anyway."

This loudly applies to Cain Mathema and Ndlovu, who have been always mere Mugabe appointees who have no grassroots constituencies. Charamba must be reminded that ZANU PF lost majority of legislative (house of assembly and senate) and local authorities seats in the three provinces of Matebeleland - Bulawayo, Matebeleland South and Matebeleland North. Its fair game for Makoni!Mathema then attacked Dabengwa for being a tribalist. If he is a tribalist, why would he work with a Shona, Simba Makoni?

Mathema also made serious allegations insinuating that Dabengwa was sell-out and an agent of the Smith regime just because he has made a democratic choice to support another candidate other than Mugabe. Dabengwa can successfully sue for defamation.

Mathema, whose wife lost the Tsholostho parliamentary seat to an independent and former minister of information and publicity, Professor Jonathan Moyo, said: "They have been in the Politburo for a long time and why did they not raise those issues they say are dirty? They are irresponsible reactionaries. They have been ministers and what did they do for the people? Let them show us what they did. They are the people who have been telling the people that the Government has done nothing for the people of Matabeleland."

This allegation by Mathema must be directed to Matebeleland senior politicians other than Dabengwa only - the late Joshua Nkomo, Joseph Msika and John Nkomo. Apart from Kembo Mohadi, the minister of Home Affairs; Abednigo Ncube, the Deputy Minister of Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare; and and Andrew Langa, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism, all the ministers, deputy ministers and senior ZANU PF officials from the three provinces of Matebeleland lost their parliamentary seats to MDC. They were only saved by the Mugabe's patronage of appointing non-constituency MPs. They were appointed to "preserve" the ZANU PF Unity Accord without electoral support in thir chosen constituencies.

Is it not intiguing that Joseph Msika, John Nkomo, Cain Mathema are arrogant to be embrassed to lose that they are not contesting the election? they are epecting Mugabe to protect their political careers under the remaining appointed positions of the Constitutional Amendment No. 18.

What did Ndlovu as minister and Mathema as a governor, achieve, respectively? Are they not beneficiaries of Mugabe's patronage? Mathema was appointed to frustrate, take any credit from and overshadow the Bulawayo mayor, Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, because he won on an MDC ticket.

Didymus Mutasa said Dabengwa and Dr Makoni were not qualified to discredit the land reform programme and talk about multiple farm ownership."It's nonsense for them to talk about the multiple farm ownership. I am the Minister of Lands, (Land Reform and Resettlement) and what they are saying is rubbish. They should tell me the cases of multiple ownership and I will deal with them. They are just parroting what other people have been saying," he said.

There has been endless land audits Flora Buka, Charles Utete and many others numbering more than four under Mutasa. The issue of multiple farm ownership has been a thorny one. Mugabe has expressed anger about it. His public statements as reported by the State-owned newspapers can be extracted. Land audits have been carried and reports not published. They were meant to inform the nation about farm ownership patterns following the land redistribution exercise, the level of productivity, etc.

Didymus Mutasa delivered an undated 2007 speech (http://www.lands.gov.zw /speeches/speech%20by%20mutasa .html) in which he said "I am also presented with an opportunity to set the record straight on claims from some quarters that Government is engaged in endless land audits. Those who go to sea with such allegations should know that an audit in any organization is not a once off function but a continuous process to establish what is going on and what corrective measures need to be taken to ensure that implementation is on course. The land audits we are undertaking are no different from financial or organizational audits carried out in the private or public sector. Through the land audits Government will obtain vital data and information on a number of key issues such as plot take-up rates, land allocations to various categories, levels of land utilization and productivity, challenges facing the new farmers etc. It does not require a rocket scientist to grasp the importance of such data and information in land management. Let me advise the nation as I have done before through the press that land audits for both A1 and A2 resettlement programmes will be a continuous exercise to enable us to obtain up-to-date data to effectively manage the land reform programme."

On July 15, 15 2004, the Financial Gazette business newspaper reported: "According to the latest confidential report compiled by Special Affairs Minister John Nkomo's Land Reform Committee, business people connected to ZANU PF have also joined the land reform gravy train, amassing several farms, some measuring 2 000 hectares each. In total, the committee reports, 329 people had multiple farms measuring 55 513 688 hectares. These have continued to cling firmly to several lucrative properties in a clear rebuff to President Mugabe's official one-man-one-farm policy. Reads part of the report: "A total of 329 people have multiple farms measuring 55 513 668 hectares. In excess of 45 000 hectares of land were recovered during this exercise but there continues to be some resistance from high-ranking members of the ruling party and senior government officials to surrender the land. "This resistance and the clandestine manoeuvres have a combined effect of maintaining the status quo on the ground as regards the issue of multiple farm ownership."

"According to the latest audit, there are 249 473 landless people on the Model A1 scheme waiting list and 99 971 on the A2 list.

"The report says double allocations riddled both schemes as the Agriculture Ministry, headed by Joseph Made, then had no computerised data on land parcelled out to beneficiaries.

"President Mugabe has on several occasions pleaded with his Cabinet and other ZANU PF supporters with extra farms to surrender the properties for possible redistribution to deserving landless blacks. It is however important to note that just like two other government-sanctioned audits of the land reform exercise, the latest report is silent on the identities of the 329 people with multiple farms.

"Political commentators this week however expressed fears that the figure of 329 multiple farm owners being provided by the land audit report could be an understatement as a majority of party "chefs" used proxies in registering the properties. They said the government's inaction over the sensitive issue could suggest that there were powerful politicians caught up in the net whom President Mugabe was wary of upsetting by sanctioning their prosecution. "

ZANU PF is a political party full of liars and hypocrites that is desperate. Mugabe and those who have no source of income other than through his continued stay, cannot decently respond to Makoni vision of a sensible and economically-sound Pan-African and nationalist renewal without isolating ourselves from the world. All they do is deliver insults through the public media and use uncouth and negative militaristic language to describe a fellow Zimbabwean!

No day passes without Simba Makoni this, Simba Makoni that, yet we do not even know why ZANU PF candidates deserve anyone's attention under the current difficult economic circumstances