We must be careful what we wish for!

The currency attached to the idea that the people backing Simba
Makoni are noble reformists creates a democracy deficit which renders
Zimbabwe a de facto one party Bantustan.

Collective amnesia by the gullible Zimbabwean electorate allows the
transmutation of yesteryear's fraudsters, murderers, and enablers of
tyranny into today's senators, parliamentarians, and presidential
aspirants.

Who is the change agent? Makoni has declared his irrevocable
allegiance to ZANU (PF)'s archaic Maoist and Marxist-Leninist
policies, violent traditions, and its agenda for looting national
assets. We now have a fox watching the henhouse. Change happens from
the grassroots up and not from the top down.

The internal power struggles and fissures within ZANU (PF) should not
be allowed to influence the national political discourse. Theirs is a
mere village succession process in which the subjects are trying to
choose a headman (sabhuku). Let them fight and challenge their pre-
historic party constitution and presidential election procedures
without involving the rest of society. ZANU (PF) is not Zimbabwe and
Zimbabwe is not ZANU (PF)'s private fiefdom.

Makoni is part of the furniture in ZANU (PF) and is equally
responsible for the demise of our currency and the economic
hemorrhaging that occurred under his watch. Black mambas do not
provide the antidote for their own venom. How Makoni can profess to
have solutions for rebuilding the country's future when he was part
of its destruction defies logic.

"First let me confirm that I share the agony and anguish of all
citizens, over the extreme hardships that we have all endured for nearly ten
years now. I also share the widely held view that these hardships are a
result of failure of national leadership and that change at that level is a pre-
requisite for change at other levels of national endeavour," said
Makoni.

For the past 10 years Makoni has been sitting in on every ZANU (PF)
Politburo meeting as the party's Secretary for Finance and voting for
the policies that are now responsible for what he now terms "extreme
hardships."

"One does not test the depth of a river with both feet." The space
that Makoni and his secretive backers now occupy was created by
ordinary Zimbabweans who challenged ZANU (PF) through organizations
such as the NCA and the MDC. Ordinary citizens are brutalised by
people dressed in Seville Row suits by day and uniforms of brutality
by night, the likes of Simba Makoni, who sat and crafted "Operation
Murambatsvina, " at politburo meetings. The election rigging apparatus
that has ensured Makoni's cabinet post for the past 28 years is
intact and some of the architects and operatives now form part of his
bloc. What has Simba Makoni delivered to the nation since
independence? Twenty years in government and all he has to show for
it is his "Mr. Nice" image.
"ZANU (PF) ndeye ropa," – this ominous slogan – "ZANU (PF) spills
blood," is entrenched in the psyche of the ruling party of which
Makoni espouses to represent. ZANU (PF) is the African continent's
franchise holder for political dirty tricks, the intellectual
property rights owners for political violence.

Makoni said, "Let me affirm here, my faith in, and loyalty to the
Party. I would very much have wished to stand as its official
candidate."

As a conservative African democrat, I find it unpalatable to support
a political project consisting of an elitist clique whose financial
backers are the godfathers of private property seizures, sleaze and
bloodshed. "Ukadziya moto wembavha, newewo uri mbavha." - "Call
kinship with a hyena and all hyenas are your friends." My umbilical
attachment to my country Zimbabwe and its core cultural, human
values, coupled with the tenets of democracy and the rule of law, is
genetic and forbids my moral fibre from supporting enablers of
tyranny, their surrogates, and leaders. Dr Makoni is equally culpable
for ZANU (PF)'s evil deeds.

Men who have accumulated obscene wealth and opulence through
patronage and pillaging the national treasury, the "nouve riche,"
feel threatened by a new political dispensation. They are now funding
a political project that will maintain the status quo and ensure the
retention of their ill- gotten wealth. Makoni permitted state
sanctioned fraud and embezzlement.

The politically connected individuals seized farms under the guise of
decongesting communal areas and redressing a colonial imbalance. They
have carved these very farms into private residential plots and sold
them for forex to ordinary Zimbabweans in the Diaspora who were meant
to be the beneficiaries of land reform in the first place.

In the process these ZANU (PF) reformists, "indigenous
entrepreneurs, " accumulate massive profits in illegal foreign
currency for themselves and ultimately for their principals. This
money is then used to fund unlawful diamond sales, fuel, and other
criminal black-market activities. The immense earnings undermine
democracy through subsidising tyranny and the creation of a coalition
of the elite. Makoni is a closet dictator who has willingly coalesced
evil individuals for his support network, a who is who of Zimbabwe's
overt pillagers.

"A Frankenstein can never be reformed it must be destroyed."

Zimbabwe has produced a plethora of intellectuals, academics and
technocrats who have occupied cabinet posts and senior government
positions since independence. Below are a few notable examples:
Dr Simba Makoni, (Zoology), PhD (Chemistry) –Minister of Finance,
when inflationary economics became entrenched; Minister of Industry
and Energy, when Zimbabwe experienced its first fuel shortages in
the 80's.
Dr Jonathan Moyo, PhD (Political Science) – Minister of Information,
declared a war on the independent media, crafted and introduced
draconian legislation before proclaiming that title deeds should be
worth less than toilet paper.
Dr Joseph Made, PhD (Agriculture) – CEO –ARDA, Minister of
Agriculture, blamed monkeys for sabotaging the country's sole
fertiliser plant and formulated a ludicrous idea of trying to grow
winter maize in 2002.
Dr Sydney Sekeramayi, (Medical Doctor) – Minister of Defence,
responsible for sending 1256 Zimbabweans to their death in the DRC
War and appeared barefoot inspecting hillsides in Chinhoyi for diesel
oozing from rocky outcrops produced by a clairvoyant.
Dr Dzingayi Mutumbuka ( Chemistry) - Minister of Education, barred
the construction of private universities in the early 80's and became
one of the Ministers nabbed by the Sandura Commission for corruption
over the Willowgate motor vehicle scandal .
Dr Gideon Gono – (Honorary) - Governor of the RBZ, the godfather of
cash barons, has predicted the mother of all harvests. His poverty
stricken housemaid found a stash of illegal foreign currency under
his bed and converted it to her own use. The charges were dropped
against her.
Dr Simon Muzenda – (Honorary)-Life Vice President, "Chero tikakupayi
gudo kuti murivhotere muZANU (PF) munotorivhotera. "(2000
parliamentary elections) "Even if we nominate a baboon for you, you
have to vote for it, that's the ZANU way". His security details shot
Mr. Kombayi (Mayor of Gweru) in the gentilia in his presence in Gweru
during parliamentary elections in the 90's.
Dr Fay Chung (Education) – Minister of Education, "I think, to say
that as many as 20 000 people were killed during Gukurahundi is not
true. I think it is a few hundred."
Dr Eddison Zvobgo- PhD (Law) - Minister without Portfolio, the
architect of the 1987-1990 constitutional amendments that created
Mugabe's powerful position.

Other intellectuals that have been part of the ZANU (PF) machinery
since independence include;
Dr Naomi Nhiwatiwa, Dr Bernard Chidzero, Dr Felix Muchemwa, Prof
Walter Kamba, Dr Robbie Mupawose, Dr Ibbo Mandaza, Dr Nkosana Moyo,
Dr Nthuli Ncube, Dr Julius Makoni, Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi, Dr Sam Moyo,
Dr Herbet Murerwa, Dr Utete, Dr Taka Mutunhu, Dr Ignatius Chombo, Dr
Samuel Udenge, Dr Tafataona Mahoso, Dr Samuel Mumbengegwi, Dr
Sikhanyiso Ndhlovu, Dr Nathan Shamuyarira, Dr Stan Mudenge, Dr Kombo
Moyana, Dr Liberty Mhlanga etc.

The only visible monument the above-mentioned collective
intellegencia has left on our landscape is a gleaming cemetery (the
National Hero's Acre). What did the country get in return?
Hyperinflation, the world's fastest shrinking economy, the world's
lowest life expectancy, irreversible land degradation, international
isolation, inferior Chinese factory rejects and shortages of
everything from electricity to toilet paper.

"Tisarove imbwa takaviga mupini – lets call a spade a spade." At
independence in 1980, ZANU (PF) inherited an economy and
infrastructure that had been built by farmers. 60% of the Rhodesian
government cabinet and indeed its leader were farmers. To the
contrary 70% of the ZANU (PF) government ministers are doctors,
academics, intellectuals and its leader holds a Masters in Economics
and various other degrees in violence. In other words it has taken
educated people twenty-eight years to dismantle an economy which
rebel settler farmers, albeit using cheap black labour, built over
one hundred years.

One does not need to be a nuclear physicist or molecular biologist in
order to lead a nation. Common sense, principled African values,
universal norms, tolerance, and the rudimentary understanding of
sadza and gravy issues, must be the hallmarks of our next leader.

"The agricultural sector faces a decline of 24.6 percent," Makoni
told the
House in July, 2002 when seeking approval for a $52.97 billion
supplementary budget for food imports and farming inputs for farmers
resettled under the government's land reforms. The same year he
allocated $4 billion to Minister Elliot Manyika and his permanent
secretary Dr Thompson Tsodzo, PhD, for the establishment of youth
militias training camps at the former 2 Brigade Army Barracks in
Mount Darwin.
On 1 August, 2000 Dr Makoni announced a 24% devaluation of the
Zimbabwe dollar against the US greenback, taking it down from its
pegged level of 38:1 to 50:1. On August, 3, 2000 in his address to
parliament Dr Makoni announced that Zimbabwe's total revenues were
Z$87.2 billion with total expenditures of Z$141.9 billion, a budget
deficit as a percentage of GDP of 14.9% with an average annual
inflation of 59%.
Zimbabwe is now endowed with, amongst others, presidential aspirants
who are qualified to fly unmanned drones to outer space, interpret
the sexual behavior of monkeys, theoretical reasoning in the
application of quantum chemistry and yet have failed to perform the
simple task of creating a national balance sheet for communal
farmers. Men, who cannot even address rural folks back home in the
vernacular, now derive visible support from aloof, desperate Diaspora
citizens who do not vote.
Dr Simba Makoni has been hunting with the hounds and now he wants to
run with the hares. He now enjoys the support of all the service
chiefs, from the CIO, ZRP to the Zimbabwe National Army - the
gravitational force that supports the regime and ensures it remains
in its political orbit. Makoni is riding on the vapour of the valor
of men who constantly visit danger. He has been conveniently tucked
way in the bosom of the beast as it committed infanticide, only to
reappear on the eleventh hour as the saviour of the beast's surviving
infants.
We must be careful what we wish for. Cautious pragmatism must prevail
and Zimbabweans must interrogate the issues at hand before making
another monumental mistake. If we do not change direction we will get
to where we are going.

(Author to be revealed later!)