Faced with the phenomenon of undocumented foreigners, narratives have been projected from various angles. However, narratives remain, whether unacceptable or acceptable to some, what is needed most is a truthful confrontation. Like the dissident phenomenon in the 1980s, the Dudula phenomenon needs honest handling, for the restoration of normalcy.
The commonly adopted viewpoint has always been that the Zimbabwean government is manned by irresponsible people. But how did the irresponsible people come to power? This requires the common people to be in strategic positions of responsibility. The laws of nature include the ripple effect, whose tidal wave cannot be wished away, as following its natural destiny. If you throw a stone in the deep sea, the ripple effect forms up to spread as broadly as possible.
There is no way any person can control the ripple effect, manifesting the magnitude of the stone thrown into the deep sea. If the stone would be small, the ripple effect would be minimal. However, if the stone is of magnificent size, the ripple effect would be bigger. This creates magnificent waves, causing a ship to capsize, elsewhere. It would not be necessary to blame the captain of the ship.
The ripple effect of the current Dudula phenomenon comes from the unresolved Gukurahundi riddle. This resulted in the majority of people from Matabeleland migrating to South Africa, whether legally or illegally. The current statistics on the Population Census reveal that there is no significant numerical growth in Matabeleland. The causes of disparities have not been appropriately documented.
The straight question ought to be, what has caused the stifled numbers of population growth in Matabeleland? The reflexive influx into South Africa was an inevitable cause. Many people, formally resident in Matabeleland, have forgotten about Zimbabwe, as they have since become South African citizens.
However, tracing the ripple effect roots requires going earlier than that. The Gukurahundi originated at the formation of ZANU in 1963. That which is called the war of liberation should not be limited to the narratives of taking power from colonialists. If ZANU ever advocated for a one-man one vote in its ethos, it would have been dishonest. The ZANU formation was not through an elective congress. It was configured by a few disgruntled individuals under the ZAPU leadership.
History has it that, from then on, the seed of hatred between the Shona-speaking cadres and the Ndebele speakers was sown. To say this was a tribal division could be inaccurate. The tribal flame, over time, was facilitated by propaganda, to reach out to most people. However, to ZANU pioneers, the leadership question was more important than the liberation of ordinary people. Hence the philosophy of controlling people was adopted.
The idea of controlling people is what Smith’s government was accused of. But this was attractive to ZANU leaders. They had assumed control of the newly formed party, but without an elective congress. Anything dubious invites dubious narratives. The one expediently found to be saleable to ordinary people was a tribal narrative. The leader of ZAPU, Joshua Nkomo, came from Matabeleland.
The cadres who joined ZANU for the liberation struggle were oriented to adopt the narrative that the Ndebeles, were their enemies. The fight against Ian Smith became a sideshow. The real enemy of the Zimbabwean people was conceptualized as being the Ndebeles. Nkomo was declared unacceptable.
The tribal narrative was a ruse, intended to draw support from the naïve populace. Bear in mind that an evil system is highly efficient in using propaganda. The intention was to concentrate power in the hands of individual power-hungry people. It may be true that a few ZANU cadres could not agree with the tribal narrative, designed to draw support. But, within the clique of the trusted ones, an un-communicated philosophy appears as having remained.
The history of the mysterious deaths, even during the armed struggle suggests that the dissenting voices were eliminated. This was a Mafia-like organization, disguised as a liberation party. The greatest treachery was their agreement to the configuration of the Patriotic Front alliance. The majority of Zimbabweans hailed the move, but there was nothing good about that arrangement.
Mixing good and evil cannot produce acceptable results. The only result of mixing good and evil is negative, rather than positive outcomes. This exposes how evil can triumph when observing that the Zimbabwean majority claim to be Christians, yet produce negative results.
What transpires is the mixture of Christianity with evilness. The two should never be mixed if goodness is to prevail. The apostle Paul uttered the same sentiment, suggesting that nothing positive could come from mixing the two.
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15 NIV).
Anyone can ignore this passage of scripture, at one’s own peril. God’s laws are scientific. One cannot escape the effects of such violations. The Lancaster House Agreement was considered the greatest achievement for the Zimbabwean people. However, behind the secretive corridors, an evil arrangement was afoot.
The British appeared as the best facilitator, under the leadership of Margret Thatcher. However, historians have since advanced a narrative that the British government had a secret arrangement with Robert Mugabe. By excluding the other participants at the Lancaster House talks, that arrangement could not be favourable to Zimbabweans.
During the Lancaster House talks, the warring factions resolved to infuse the Patriotic Front into a single party. This could not be favourable to the British government, unsure of the Russian influence, through Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU. This was also not favourable to Robert Mugabe’s party, having pretended, but not believed in the Patriotic Front arrangement.
To the majority of the Zimbabweans, everything appeared normal, until Robert Mugabe dropped the bombshell that ZANU would campaign independently. What Robert Mugabe uttered, was allowed in a democracy. But it was treasonous; also appearing as treacherous to the ideals of the Patriotic Front. Just about that time, the Commander of ZANLA was mysteriously involved in a car accident.
Mugabe’s declaration evaded the question of handling the Patriotic Front cadres, fighting under different military formations. That declaration was an onset of a disastrous future for Zimbabwe. The British were completely aware of the possible irruption of the civil war. Apparently, they were hooked to appreciate the North Korean arrangement, by ZANU.
While all efforts were made, by both ZANLA and ZIPRA commanders to unite the forces, something sinister was brewing, already. The 1982 announcement that weapons were found in ZAPU properties, triggered an unprovoked civil war. The little-known to the public, is that over twenty thousand civilians were massacred, leading to the nefarious 1987 unity accord.
Falsehoods and carefully crafted propaganda cannot remove the barbaric debacle. Truth needs unveiling to free the victims and perpetrators, alike. The idea of covering up evil; leads to committing more evil. The Bible reveals what happened after David committed adultery, with Uriah’s wife. Uriah was murdered to cover up the sin of adultery.
David escaped God’s wrath through his prostrate repentance before God. Otherwise, he could have continued to commit more sins, in his endeavour to protect his primary sin of adultery. He could have gone on a trajectory to eliminate suspects of exposing his sin of adultery, thereby committing more sins.
The effects of sin, while committed in secret, are manifested in public. For those unable to behave like David, continue with the trajectory on an evil path. Those aware of this scientific reality cannot be surprised to see blatant election rigging.
The change of government exposes criminals, all along hiding behind power. Their hope is to avoid being subjected to public justice, until their natural demise. Who cares when people say what they say, after one’s death? This exposes the reasoning behind the behaviour of those in authority.
This also exposes reasons for giving criminals, positions of authority, whether in government or other areas of influence. It takes only criminals to protect criminals. The most dangerous thing for the governing authorities is to allow ethical people to take positions of influence.
To criminal authorities, justice is workable when manned by unethical people. However, this creates more problems, not only for the country but for criminals themselves. Criminals know what is good and what is bad. It is only a question of protecting their backs that becomes more important for them.
The effects of Gukurahundi in Matabeleland spring from a dubious formation of ZANU. In the minds of ordinary people, ZANU deserves credit for the liberation of our country. But there is no truth in that narrative. That party can only be credited with complicating our country’s independence.
Such dubious liberators are exposed by their constant claim for the credit that was never associated with them. Criminals are introverts, by nature as they value themselves more than other people. Calling them dictators is not accurate, without grasping the actual reason for their conduct. They are preoccupied with how to free themselves from the shackles of harmful conduct.
The special reason for a person turning out to be an introvert is hiding the committed crimes against humanity. The more one commits harmful conduct against others, the more one continues in that trajectory, seeking to justify himself. The easiest way of justifying oneself is to make the victim wrong, even though aware of that being false.
Adults can attest to this being practised by young children. The one, who beats another without reason, justifies himself as right and the other wrong. The idea of justification always makes one feel good and innocent when the opposite would be true. Bring in the ANC, failing to honestly confront its neighbour for wrongdoing, which cannot be easy.
The two parties were comrades in the armed struggle. There are a lot of bad things that were committed during the armed conflict. The ANC cannot accuse ZANU PF of things that they know were common in the liberation struggle. Apartheid was unacceptable. To ordinary people, waging a war against apartheid appears as having been a noble endeavour.
But the methodology used was that of committing harmful acts, which the armed cadres know to have been wrong. Without addressing those, a person takes the trajectory of blaming others for his own harmful acts. This leads to committing more crimes, making the armed struggle unacceptable as a way of pursuing freedom. Hailed as having been good, the armed struggle keeps one on the trajectory of harming other people, rather than confessing one’s sinful acts.
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10 NIV).
Former President F. W. de Klerk made a public confession at his point of death. Those unable to accept his apology, have a propensity to commit more harmful acts than him. The surprising thing about human behaviour is that the emotionally vocal against injustices could be guilty of more atrocious offences.
A man with a clean heart can never keep grudges. Both the ANC and ZANU PF could be yet to confess some atrocious offences of the past. While the best advice for them would be to confess those sins, it may be unlikely to see that happening. Operation Dudula comes from the assumption that blaming other people brings relief. But it is a carryover from the liberation struggle.
In the leadership of the ANC are people in need of confessing sins committed during the armed struggle. This is just as the leadership of ZANU PF is burdened with more harmful acts than they can afford to confess. Their refusal to move out of power cannot be necessarily for protecting people’s interests. It is more about protecting their own survival interests.
The curse, now manifesting in the operation Dudula movement, cannot be wished away. It can only be exorcised through confessions, by those having committed harmful acts on other people, in the past. Reaching the stage of confession can be very difficult when caught up in the condition of pride.
However, as long as the Sins of the past are not confessed, Zimbabwe, now affecting South Africa, remains under a curse. The only way out of this curse is to confess the sins of the past; More so, by ZANU PF leaders of the armed struggle. Otherwise, the only hope for Zimbabwe lies in a leader without being associated with the sins of ZANU PF.
Andrew Masuku is the author of Dimensions of a New Civilization, laying down standards for uplifting Zimbabwe from the current state of economic depression into a model for other nations worldwide. A decaying tree provides an opportunity for a blossoming sprout. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is a product of inspiration, bringing relief to those having witnessed the strings of unworkable solutions––leading to the current economic and social decay. Most Zimbabweans should find the book as a long-awaited providential oasis of hope, in a simple conversational tone.
The Print copy is now available at Amazon.com for $13.99
Also available as an e-copy at Lulu.com for $6.99
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