The Sunday Mail
There has been a lot of melodrama in Zimbabwe since the last Politburo meeting. A lot of political themes and sub-themes have been exposed and no one, not even President Mugabe, could remain silent and he weighed in on Friday with his commanding address.
He proved once again that he is made of sterner stuff and any attempt to blemish his glittering legacy will come to nought.
Some of us were shocked last week when the war veterans had an impromptu Press conference to abuse the First Family following the Chiweshe rally.
In that Press conference the war veterans declared that they were ready to fight, in fact go to war, but it was puzzling who they wanted to fight since they were attacking the wife of their own patron.
President Mugabe in his Friday address roundly reminded them that he is their patron and such reckless and abusive statements would not be tolerated.
However, the question remains, who are they fighting against? And if they are fighting against something or someone then they must be fighting for something or for someone.
It certainly cannot be a fight for the President and the First Lady because they roundly undermined the latter in their accusatory Press conference last Monday.
They threatened to go war, 37 years after demobilisation they still threatened to go to war.
Before the ink was even dry in the newspapers, the youths challenged them to a war. Now really guys. You want to go to war with your own parents?
Clearly the conclusion cannot be escaped that we are faced with a grave and monumental generational warfare if it does not get nipped in the bud as President Mugabe began to do on Friday.
The generational warfare is the crux of the matter in Zanu-PF and indeed in the country.
This warfare is based on two competing claims: one says a peer of the President should succeed him and the other says it should be someone of a different generation.
We are faced with battle-lines between the old-guard and the fresh-blood and in brief this is what Lacoste and G40 is all about.
Both have a sense of entitlement with the old guard basing theirs on wisdom, experience and loyalty and the others on the claim that young blood will do it for Zimbabwe.
There is no need for such a contestation to turn violent and destabilise the country.
The best way of showing that you are fit for leadership is by working hard and proving to the people that you can be trusted.
This business by the war veterans and the youths of threatening war on each other is not only counter-progressive, but indeed also borders on treason.
We must remember that Morgan Tsvangirai went through much grief for his “remove him viorentry” outburst back at the turn of the millennium.
The people of this country should not tolerate anyone who threatens our peace and stability in whatever way.
Zimbabweans must think in terms of creating a future that we all would want. Everyone must choose to preserve the legacy of peace that we have worked so hard to build.
Dubulaizitha!
