The Flame Lily has long been portrayed and accepted as Zimbabwe’s national flower. It is a bright and joyous flower thatbrightens Zimbabwe’s landscape, just as much as the people of Zimbabwe themselves do.
Positively complementing the Flame Lily on the international stage is a dog.
Yes, a dog.
The Rhodesian Ridgeback isa dog breed peculiar to our country, internationally popularized by colonialists as if they had brought them from Europe. Because of this international popularity and, of course, foreign currency derived, half its name (Rhodesian) was allowed to stand after independence, just as much as we kept the name of the renowned Victoria Falls.
Botswana dog breeder, one Innocent Unaswi Letsholathebe, should be able to concur that apart from its unique physical built, the Rhodesian Ridgeback has unique peculiarities that mirror the people of its nation.
It is described as fiercely loyal, intelligent, strong-willed and “possess a penchant for mischief of the loving kind”.
I look at the Flame Lily on my house wall and I see the green, green grass of home; then I see the yellow flames that enable combustion and the red that is the fire that warms and protects.
Nothing depicts Zimbabwe’s situation more than the Flame Lily, whose trinity of colours (red, green and yellow) all found their way onto the national flag.
The yellow flames that enable combustion and the red that is the fire…
Our cabinet is in flames; our government in tatters. Zimbabwe Ruins, indeed!
We have a president in distress while his wife is distressing. Grace Mugabe jumped the queue onto the political stage with no intention to heal Zimbabwe but with a vengeful intent to divide the nation as she seeks to harvest what she did not sow. She was nowhere near the fields but has now chased away all the farmers and wants the country itself. In her misguided, reckless behavior, she has split the nation into tiny factions; she has split the cabinet and party and has caused havoc within the civil service community.
All because of no other reason than that she presumably sleeps with Robert Mugabe.
About two years ago, there were two most talked about successors to Robert Mugabe ÔÇô Joyce Mujuru, his deputy of ten years, and the ambitious Emerson Mnangagwa.
Mujuru had far more people and popularity than Mnangagwa and then Mnangagwa managed to use a clique made up of Mugabe’s staunch supporters and some family members, including Grace Mugabe.
As soon as she demanded and was given a doctorate, she started gnawing at Mujuru with Mnangagwa stroking the fires and happy to see the misfortune that had befallen the latest hindrance to his ascension to the presidency.
Of cause, Mujuru was hounded out of both the vice presidency and the party.
For a few months, Mnangagwa wallowed in the belief that he was finally home, that his years and years of patience and loyalty to Mugabe had paid off.
Now Grace Mugabe and her group, referred to as the G40(for Generation 40) or so-called Young Turks, have turned the tables on Mnangagwa and his Team Lacoste. (Mnangagwa’s nickname is ‘Ngwena’ ÔÇô crocodile, hence the name Team Lacoste).
The result is that the party and cabinet that Grace Mugabe split in half a year ago are now split into two more halves, or quarters, if you will.
The burning tongues of the Flame Lily!
With Mujuru out of the picture, it is now G40 versus Team Lacoste as cabinet ministers are in open warfare against each other and protocol be damned. Among those feeding coal into the engine is Jonathan Moyo, the mosquito that everyone has tried and failed to swat flat. He recently called Mnangagwa just an ambitious lizard, not a crocodile.
Last week Jonathan Moyo (G40), the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, accused War Veterans minister Chris Mutsvangwa (Lacoste) of stealing women’s knickers and petticoats from laundry lines for resale during the war of liberation.
Mutswangwa hit back on radio saying he could not possibly have done thatwith guns and bombs exploding everywhere. He further wondered to whom he would sell such items and using what currency in the bush. Mutsvangwa then accused Moyo of deserting the war of liberation and added that Moyo was the illegitimate child of the late nationalist Ndabaningi Sithole, the founding president of Zanu before the ‘PF’ was added to it.
Mutsvangwa went as far as organizing war veterans to block Moyo from attending a Zanu-Pf Politburo meeting slated for last Wednesday but Moyo managed to attend after Youth and Empowerment Minister Patrick Zhuwao (G40)threatened to organize youths to engage both Mutsvangwa and the war veterans.
During that face-off outside Zanu-Pf Headquaters, a Member of Parliamentwho is the Women’s League Secretary of Finance and ally of Grace Mugabe (G40) addressed a rally of thousands of women and ominously warned Vice President Mnangagwato his face: “Stop your people or else you will die in your house. These things you are seeking will get you killed.”
Of course, although Mnangagwa used Grace Mugabe to get rid of Mujuru, Grace now considers Mnangagwa a foe because she too now wants to succeed her husband.
Meanwhile, Sports Minister Makhosini Hlongwane, Tapiwa Matangaidze (Public Service Deputy Minister) and Annastacia Ndhlovu (Tourism Deputy Minister) ÔÇô all G40 ÔÇôhave written a letter to both Zanu-Pf’s National Commissar SaviourKasukuwereand to the other Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko accusing Mnangagwa and his loyalists of harassing them because they belong to the G40 faction.
It is interesting, is it not, to see cabinet ministers reporting one vice president to another but such is the decay in Zimbabwe today and Mugabe is simply powerless to stop or to steady the infighting caused by his inability to plan for a smooth transition when he retires.
In another bout, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa (Lacoste) locked horns in public with Zhuwao, whose real and only qualification is that he is Mugabe’s nephew.
Chinamasa had announced that part of the indegenisation requirements, particularly one that demands 51% local ownership, had been suspended to attract investors. Zhuwao, who had neither been informed nor consulted, went public calledChinamasa ‘treacherous’.
“If we implement the policy successfully as we are going to do over time,” said Chinamasa,“there may be no need for a Ministry of Indigenisation.”
That really would be welcome because Zimbabwe’s Indigenisation Act ‘indigenises’ air, grass, birds and swamps.
Mugabe and his thieves have stolen everything and now want every cent that fell into the mud.
Team Lacoster is fighting the G40 and Zimbabweans are caught in between.
When a mistake is committed by an idiot, it might be forgivable but when the same mistake is committed by someone deemed educated enough to know the difference, it cannot be forgiven.
Last week, Mugabe declared that he will rule until God asks him to come yonder.
The Lord is welcome to call His servant any time. I am sure many can chip in to raise a little bus fare for Mugabe’s trip because we really do not need him in Zimbabwe except, maybe, the morons at the African Union and at SADC.
