GETTING REAL CHANGE..........Putting Our Best Brains Forward and Boots On The Ground...

A lot has happened in the past few days, the ‘An Yue Jiang’ weapons shipment incident.... the violent assaults and torture go on unchecked...the continued results delay.

Through it all I have wondered long and hard as to why the OPFOR regime has been allowed to run away with the initiative time, after time, after time.

The issue is a simple one, an election has been stolen, the OPFOR regime does not wish to concede and the people are under attack. Yet the response to this internally and externally has been abysmal.

Once again innocent people who risked much to put faith in the democratic process and in the 'need for change' political project are being exposed to an OPFOR backlash, (think Ghukurahundi and Operation Murambatsvina combined, this time called Operation Makavohterapapi - where did you put your X), yet what has been the response from the so called forces of good...?

This article is about the facade, the pretences that have stalled our path to gain real change.

The trouble with the issue of Zimbabwe's freedom is that methods and mindsets that do not work are still used without question.
Why do some seem to seek a change with minds cocooned and wrapped in falsehood.

The pains involved in the birth a nation are many, the whole excersise is a challenge to our concept of values and our concept of nationhood.
Consider for a moment the defenceless people being attacked in this time, what sacrifices will have to be made if Zimbabwe is to ever really find normalcy as a nation.

Watching in the media over the past few weeks I noticed that there have been many protests by different people all over the world; people rioting and demonstrating about various issues.

Some might fear such things but look at it more closely; people who have a grasp of their rights who have standards of what they wont tolerate were exercising their human right not to be taken for granted by their Executives.

Yet our own reaction in our own crisis is a form of spineless pacifism founded upon a false morality,that enables an abusive regime to be even more abusive. Some justify this as honest principle but it has lead to nothing but national apathy and displacement.

Encouraged by utopian liberal agendas Zimbabweans cry for help. We cry instead of organising properly, we fear our anger instead of using it as a line that no Government would be stupid enough to cross. We have been lead to this, to cry for help from a world that has its own interests and problems...

When I take a good look at this struggle, I see that Zimbabweans are not really in charge, outside forces set the protest agenda by pulling the social / political / monetary strings.

I remember a conversation with a member of the NGO/civil action/ charity bandwagon (those well meaning enablers of continued tyranny who have hitched their cart to the Zimbabwe issue), where I was told Zimbabweans could not rise up because we are so peace loving and helpless and defenceless.
Reviewing this talk I realised that the person failed to realise that the process of empowering people did not involve viewing them as eternal victims. Our freedom will never come via giving people all ways and means to run away from confronting the problem. For 10 years we Zimbabweans have externalised so much of our power and responsibility, whilst dreaming about and witnessing the kind of power that other people and nations have.

We see the facts and have the 'agency', but our sense of needing to organise properly, or act decisively has been undermined by a method of struggle imposed upon us from outside, a method that doesnt work against violent dictatorship.

The OPFOR bands together as a unit because they see all that they have to lose if change takes place. The OPFOR organises its members in country in a military way and kills as a means of survival.

The opposition in its many shades and colours has failed to band together in an effective way because within it are a great many, small ambitions and hidden agendas that interfere with the objective of seeking the long term greater good of the nation.
The opposition strategy shuns self defence thus its members are killed and its leaders cry louder and gain more sympathy from outside supporters. Yet that support dose not translate into any form of protection for opposition members on the ground.

The fact that the same repression was seen in 2000...2002...2005 and is repeating itself in 2008; shows a lack real depth of foresight, care and planning on the part of the opposition leadership and the rest of us who say we care about our nation’s future...and this is shocking.

Evidence of what was going to take place was there for all to see.
The events of the past eight years were there to be studied, yet no one was prepared when the obvious occurred.
Excuses and entrenched justifications for yet another grave error of judgement that could have been seen with simple honest analysis are becoming the norm.

Real students of the art of politics and power see the difference in the priorities and outlook and planning between the OPFOR and the OPPOSITION, they see who always has the initiative in the game and who is always lagging behind without a PLAN B.

Locked in states of denial more rhetoric and more slogans will make up for poor planning and wrong analysis... "We want our freedom; we want a new day in Zimbabwe..."

Yet to gain those things we cannot use the same failed mindsets and methods or live by the same quiet diplomacy dogmas of the past.
The selfishness, the ineffective general ship, the excuses and justifications for continued failure that are thrown up without any attempt at critical thinking whatsoever.

In short if we want freedom we must be genuine in our quest to get it and fully active; taking all the necessary steps that are in accordance with the truism that real freedom is only gained through struggle... it is never just given.

An editorial in The Zimbabwean newspaper on the 24 April states MDC supporters in Masvingo and Mashonaland East provinces organised themselves into local defence units to fight back against violence and intimidation by war veterans, military personnel and Zanu (PF) militia.
The article goes on to state that there were fierce battles in the village of Makaha in Mutoko/Mudzi, Mashonaland East as MDC supporters repelled an attack by OPFOR REGIME soldiers and militias.
The worry here is that the acts of self defence mentioned were not part of some well prepared strategy or plan; they were spontaneous outbursts born of rage, fear and frustration.

Disorganised the opposition leadership will of course try and claim some credit for the acts of defiance, but their lack of readiness and lack of genuine national authority is clear.

The blunders, megaphone dipomacy and half hearted therapeutic efforts of these ambitious party politicians (that vocal few oft seen in the media), who on closer inspection turn out to be little more than the proxies of larger hidden powers, are not good enough. One wonders what they would do to oppose the OPFOR regime without the support of the neo-liberal press.

A clear analysis of this whole process indicates that this crisis will only be solved once the scope of reference has been expanded beyond the narrow WINNER TAKES ALL party political arena.

Can it really be said that Zimbabwe's best brains are involved in solving the problem?

The truth is that the incumbency has refused to do the decent thing; some sanity might prevail in the weeks to come, but until it does a better more organised framework of opposition is needed, one with nationwide reach and nationwide influence. A way forward fully supported by an aware and involved Zimbabwean Diaspora honestly centred on the national interests of Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans.


I often think of all the talking being done, the amount of words expended over 10 years.

For all the hot air coming out of certain mouths, these people and governments aren't doing very much. On the ground it is Zimbabwean cadres in the rural areas fighting back.

None of the big Western powers making the most noise will send troops to stop the attacks on those poor innocent people. The more noise and pressure they place upon African states to oppose an incumbency many owe a great deal to, the more they push a failed 'colour revolution' template, the more they misunderstand the dynamics of that region and the more resentment they breed.
Why are they making it look like an issue of pressure and imposition from the outside, when a far better approach can be used?

For all their rhetoric and noise and anti OPFOR sabre rattling and their lavish donations to those certain political parties and civic groups that do their bidding, what will they do? The International Community has done nothing for 10 years, when what was required before was a no-nonsense approach.

What is required now is direct intervention to halt these attacks and were they really that concerned that would already have happened.

In the end as demonstrated on April 24th, the ending of this tyranny in Zimbabwe will depend upon brave Zimbabweans being the boots on the ground and acting as the deterrence against the OPFOR regime bullies so that the violence will stop and good sense might prevail.

Zimbabweans who would be free must act.

Zimbabweans who would be free must organise properly and where its required strike the necessary blows.