The era of cashvists is long gone!

Although our society is considered patriarchal, by virtue of the way it is ordered, the extent of patriarchal dominance is often exaggerated.

If you were raised the same way as Bishop Lazi, you would surely know that real power in the household is wielded by the matriarch.

A running theme in one of our literary gods Charles Mungoshi’s work of genius, “Some Kinds of Wounds”, which is a collection of short stories, is on domineering women.

And this is hardly surprising.

Our mothers ran their households in the same way the military runs its boot camps.

These tough-as-nails characters did not brook no nonsense.

They really took Proverbs 13 verse 24 — “Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children. Those who love their children care enough to discipline them” — to heart.

In fact, it was their daily hymn.

There was hell to pay for misbehaving or crossing the line.

And one of the gravest crimes and unpardonable sins a child could commit was to misbehave or speak out of turn around visitors.

This naturally attracted the most vicious and brutal of punishments — of course, long after the visitor had left.

No matter how much you tried to be on your best behaviour, sometimes, but not often, the demons got the best you.

You could just find yourself unwittingly crossing the red lines, which often attracted a censorious eye that warned you of the thrashing that was sure to follow.

It was, therefore, safe to play far away from the visitors and leave adults to mind their own business.

But it is this obsession with discipline that helped to mould the decorous, hospitable, courteous and well-mannered society that we have today.

Hebrews 12 verse 11 teaches us: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

Proverbs 29 verse 17 also says: “Discipline your children, and they will give you peace; they will bring you the delights you desire.”

Evil neither tires nor sleeps

Not long ago, the Bishop told you of a press conference that was convened by “Wiwa” (Job Sikhala) and Jacob Ngarivhume on July 5 to offer themselves to lead Zimbabweans to protest against the Government.

Their message was jarring as it was clearly not prompted by both the politics and circumstances at the time.

“If the masses clamour for protests, we will only just be the conveyers of the messages that come from the people that the masses have asked us to protest; we are here at your service,” said Ngarivhume at the presser.

“We are going to be part and parcel of what you have asked us to do.”

Unbeknown to many, there was, still is, a plan to spoil the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit that Zimbabwe will host next week.

Hosting such an auspicious convention and assuming chairmanship of the bloc, itself a diplomatic milestone for a country that perennially remains under siege, obviously does not sit well with those who have worked assiduously to besmirch the country’s image over the years.

The calculation of schemers of this ill-fated not-so-secret plot to stage demonstrations was to provoke a heavy-handed response from the Government that would elicit those sanctimonious statements from Western embassies, all in the hope of creating a contrived climate of opinion that casts Zimbabwe as an irredeemable rogue state that deserves continued isolation.

When Magufuli cracked the whip

We have been down this path before.

When President ED assumed the chairmanship of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation at the summit held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, around the same time in 2019, we also saw an eerily similar plot, where local cashvists, using the cover of a non-governmental organisation, Southern African People’s Solidarity Network, travelled all the way to East Africa to ostensibly protest against ED’s assumption of the position.

In all, they planned to hand over a petition to the SADC Secretariat after the demonstrations.

Although leaders of this elaborate scheme luxuriously jetted into Dar, the rest of their rag-tag team, most of whom were just cash-seeking young men and women — oblivious that they were being used as cannon fodder — were bussed all the way from Harare.

But, as they are wont to do, the Tanzanian security agents, who are also referred to as “mandugu” in intelligence circles,
got wind of the plot, which would have stained the regional gathering, and duly pounced.

On the eve of the demonstrations, they fished out the cashvists from their hotel rooms in the dead of the night and relentlessly grilled them, after which they were ordered to pack their belongings and return from whence they came. Kikikiki.

They had to endure the arduous bum-battering bus ride to Harare with nothing to show for their troubles, except the US$50 plus per diems.

Pathetic!

While this was unfolding, the then-United States envoy Brian Nichols, his deputy Thomas Hastings and regional security officer Patrick Bellinger were in Chitungwiza, meeting the garrulous “Wiwa”, who also took the diplomats on a tour of Chigovanyika, Chikwanha, Huruyadzo, Makoni and Zengeza 2 shopping centres.

But the visit was meant to throw weight to Wiwa ahead of demonstrations that were planned that week.

It all, however, came to naught.

For a country that has been subjected to various types of asymmetrical warfare from forces that are maniacally determined to topple the ZANU PF-led Government, we can now see and smell such mischief from a mile away.

Misreading

Zimbabwean politics

But those who continue to hatch such ill-fated schemes are misreading developments that have taken place in local politics over the past five years since the advent of the Second Republic.

ED, as the torchbearer of the liberation project, is laser-focused and determined to achieve his ordained duty to set Zimbabwe on the golden path to prosperity and development.

But to achieve his lofty goals, peace is obviously an indispensable ingredient, which must be necessarily maintained.

So, our security forces will neither shirk their sworn duty nor hesitate to maintain peace and stability.

We will definitely not switch off our heavy machinery that is daily moving up and down our roads to spruce up our cities that were left to rot through decades of misgovernance and malfeasance by opposition-led councils just to yield space for mischief makers who want to demonstrate.

We have an economy to grow and a country to build; therefore, we will not be distracted.

In his previous musings, the Bishop has often questioned the character and mission of the opposition in African politics.

What are its goals?

What, too, is its motivation if it cannot align itself to the national interest?

What are these creatures that are now called human rights defenders?

Who funds them to the extent that they afford a jet-set life while purporting to be fighting for the poor?

Why do they not celebrate with us when we mark milestones such as the beginning of production of steel billets at the new multi-million-dollar steel plant in Manhize?

Why do they not also celebrate the opening up of more than 200 hectares of irrigated land in Chirumhanzu at such a time when climate change has become a grim reality?

But nothing will turn on this.

We will continue our journey regardless.

The era of cashvists is long gone.

They will never succeed.

Not now. Not ever.

They should play far away from visitors and leave adults to mind their business.

Bishop out!