Aide memoire on Million Man March

29 May, 2016 - 00:05 0 Views
Aide memoire on Million Man March President Mugabe and First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe greet multitudes that turned up for Million-Man March on Africa Day

The Sunday Mail

When the decolonisation process of Africa commenced, Ghana – under Kwame Nkrumah where Cde Mugabe was employed as a teacher – became the first independent African colony from British rule in 1957.

There were rising sentiments of African nationalism across the continent, which started and were largely initially characterised by peaceful negotiations with the Colonisers, but which later degenerated into violent confrontations and armed conflicts, particularly in Southern Africa.

In the early 1960s, Cde Mugabe joined the political fray when he returned home from Ghana; first as Publicity Secretary of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union, before becoming Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe African National Union.

White settler leader Ian Douglas Smith declared UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) from Britain in 1965, and was threatened with war by the latter – which never happened.

Both Zapu and Zanu had by then been banned and most of the leadership, including Cdes Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo and Reverend Sithole were at either Gonakudzingwa or Whawha detention camps or elsewhere in the country.

Those lucky enough to have been out of the country at the time continued with political activities from there, and were to lay the groundwork and prosecute the armed struggle, mainly from Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Cde Mugabe was detained for 11 straight  years, together with the other prominent nationalists, only to be released in 1975 at the time of the détente which was being spearheaded by Zambia (with the backing of Frontline States) and South Africa, and also encouraged by Britain and the United States.

After crossing into Mozambique to join the Second Chimurenga in 1975, Cde Mugabe was to be elected President of Zanu in 1978 at the Chimoio Congress in place of the then discredited and rejected Rev Ndabaningi Sithole.

This came after his declaration as leader of Zanu, and not just Secretary-General, much earlier in 1976 by a large group of fighters at the main Zanla Military Camp of Mgagao in Tanzania.

He thus found himself at the helm of both the political and military leadership in the decisive stages of the liberation struggle.

Zanu won the first democratic elections in 1980 with a massive landslide margin after the Lancaster House talks that culminated in a political and military settlement.

Cde Mugabe became the first black Prime Minister, before he became the first Executive President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

To the complete surprise of almost all and sundry in 1980, Cde Mugabe initiated and proclaimed the policy of National Reconciliation with erstwhile enemies.

It is also pertinent to mention that prior to 1980, black Zimbabweans by and large had no rights and were excluded from economic advancement.

During this whole period, to the ultimate victory in 1980, some political parties and personalities betrayed the ideals of the struggle for liberation, or simply got tired of it.

To their credit, Cdes RG Mugabe and Nkomo, among many others, remained resolute, committed and consistent on all policy matters pertaining to the struggle, its substance and direction to the very last day.

Cde Mugabe has stayed true to the course to today.

Our leader and his Government preached reconciliation after his election victory in 1980, and he meticulously observed the stipulations of the Lancaster House Agreement on land redistribution and reserving parliamentary seats for whites.

He achieved national unity and cohesion with Cde Nkomo and his party in 1987 after unfortunate disturbances in the period in between.

But in 1997 the British government, then under the Labour Party of prime minister Tony Blair reneged on the Lancaster clauses on the principle of fair compensation payments to white settler farmers, for both land and improvements for land acquired for resettlement of the black majority on a willing seller-willing buyer basis.

Cde Mugabe then spearheaded the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme from 2000 as provided for in the amended constitution in use then.

There was to be no compensation to disposed white farmers, save for compensation promised for improvements, and only when funding for such became available.

More than 300 000 indigenous households benefited from this programme.

Britain in 1999, founded and funded the Movement for Democratic Chang, ex-Rhodesians and a host of NGOs to oppose Cde Mugabe in the hope of stopping our Land Reform Programme.

The MDC first initiated job stayaways and boycotts, in 1999 going into 2000, to disastrous effect to the economy; before campaigning for the imposition of international economic sanctions on Zimbabwe.

The opposition succeeded in its endeavours by getting the US to pass a sanctions law, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, in 2001.

European and other Western nations were to follow suit and came forward with all manner of sanctions.

In 2003, local opposition forces even tried to persuade South Africa to cut fuel and electricity supplies to Zimbabwe, but failed in this regard.

We were to later to learn with utter shock (in Blair’s own biography) that Britain at that time even contemplated a military invasion along the lines it and the US had undertaken against Iraq, on the false premise that the Middle Eastern country had weapons of mass destruction.

Faced with overwhelming hostility from the West, our President embarked on the wise Look East Policy which is now starting to bear fruits for Zimbabwe as seen by the mega deals signed with various countries outside of the international West.

Cde Mugabe soldiered on in defence of his people.

He then advocated for the indigenisation and economic empowerment policy as a natural follow-up to land reforms.

From 2000 to 2013, several elections were held as per the Constitution, whose results and outcomes, in almost every case were disputed and contested by the local opposition and their Western masters, on the unsubstantiated and false claims of rigging by the victorious Zanu-PF and its President, Cde RG Mugabe.

After his most recent and huge election victory in 2013, Cde Mugabe and the ruling party initiated and embarked on the well thought out Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).

Zim-Asset has four main clusters: Food Security and Nutrition, Infrastructure Development, Value Addition and Employment Creation, and Poverty Eradication and Social Transformation.

Between 2014 and 2016, Cde Mugabe, besides being the President of Zimbabwe, has also been Chairman of Sadc or the African Union, or both at the same time, serving all these demanding positions with amazing and admirable distinction.

During that time he has been crucial, decisive and instrumental in the crafting and adoption of, first, the Sadc 10-year Industrialisation and Infrastructure Development Programme; second, the continent’s 50-year Africa Vision 2063; and third the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals to 2030.

As it were, all these programmes are almost in complete sync with Zim-Asset’s clusters.

Since 2002, Cde Mugabe has fought – relentlessly and almost single-handedly – for the recognition of Africans as equals in the world, and for our right to control our resources for our own development.

In recent years, he has managed to solicit and get useful support in this regard from Sadc, the AU and the generality of developing nations across the world.

Even the European Union is beginning to review, rethink and relax some of its sanctions.

Going Forward

The people must vote overwhelmingly – as they did in 1980 and 2013 – for Cde Mugabe and Zanu-PF in 2018 so that the following may happen without fail:

◆ Synchronisation of Zim-Aseet, the SADC 10-year Industrialisation and Infrastructure Development Programme, the AU’s Vision 2063 and the UN’s SDGs so that we achieve prosperity and development;

◆ Get sanctions removed in their entirety and unconditionally long before 2030;

◆ Local oppositions groups, who have now fragmented into more than half-a-dozen formations do not have reasons to falsely claim rigging and are thus confined to oblivion.

Hopefully some of them will be made to account for their treachery and treason when they called for sanctions on Zimbabwe.

 

Edmore AM Ndudzo, a chartered accountant, was the first black treasurer of the City of Harare and lead consultant on drafting of the Public Finance Management Act.

 

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