*The bell tolls indeed for Bob
*Red Card for SADC?
*Zimbabwe as part of the African conundrum
What is to be done?
Zimbabwe remains the great story of the week. Zimbabwe remains in the news because it is the end of an era and the beginning of a complicated transition in one African country that didn’t perform. Why it didn’t perform is a different story but it has certainly not been a Cuba where the revolution performed. Or, Rwanda where dictatorship is performing wonderfully to the embarrassment of democracy. And even Ethiopia which is sending strong signals of the African stubbornness and determination to make it against all odds. Transition in Zimbabwe is, therefore, going to be of interest to the African Union, to South Africa, China, Britain, the US the Southern African civil society, especially the labour coalitions. So far, the Southern Africa Development Community, (SADC) has suffered a yellow card from incipient anti-Mugabe forces within Zimbabwe who suspect that SADC has been providing safe landing for Mugabe historically although some people think SADC is most likely to be hostile to Grace Mugabe succeeding the husband. It is interesting that there has been no word from limited SADC meeting on Thurday on the crisis. How does it shave close without cutting in?
Africa has overwritten coups but here is a coup although basically a party affair. Africa is not too conversant with the national liberation culture where the military is part and parcel of the political party. But how does insisting on returning Mugabe to power for that reason not get misunderstood. Catch 22 all the way down.
As things stand at this moment, power can now be said to have actually slipped Robert Mugabe’s hands for ever unless miracle occurs. Indications are that he runs the risk of being de-registered from ZANU-PF which would close his little remaining bargaining chips. As things stand, key centres of power are shipping out residual solidarity, stretching from the politburo and even the war veterans. If the Parliament as is most likely votes for his impeachment in the sitting on Tuesday, he would be as good as politically dead. This is more so with the military out of his control.
Cde Abiodun Aremu
So, what’s to be done? How far does the view below, for instance, offer an alternative perspective with the writer, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, the Lagos based ideologue of the Kolagbodi Foundation and a Cabralist insisting on anti-imperialism as the corner stone of the transition in Zimbabwe? – Editor
Unlike in the Gadaffi Libya political tragedy and reversal, what is heart warming for now is that ZANU-PF appears to be in control of the political transition to ease Robert Mugabe out, using the instrumentality of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. The strength of the ZANU-PF seems to be in its military wing which may likely be comprised of some elements willing to tow the party organisation line. The Zimbabwean situation is not the usual military coup stereotype parroted by imperialist narrators. The purging of the supposedly criminal or corrupt elements might also likely be a party cleansing.
It is heart warming because it suggests that the internal organs of the ZANU-PF (political and military), whatever its limitations, appears now to be in control of a power transition, outside the dictate of the imperialist forces. It is left to faithful political cadres (political & military) within the ZANU-PF to enrich the process of the political transition, by insisting on a popular & democratic Congress of the ZANU-PF to refocus and sustain the agenda of genuine liberation of the African people in Zimbabwe. The land question should never be reversed but deepened to accommodate the control and democratic management of all national productive forces in Zimbabwe.
So soon, the imperialist forces will resort to inciting its civil society organisations (CSOs), right wing oppositions and lackeys in Zimbabwe to begin to drum for a new election in order to gain inroad into dictating the political and economic direction of Zimbabwe. The legitimate rights of Zimbabweans to a political transition of their own creation, outside the Western models should be respected and commended by working people and oppressed classes.
The Zimbabwean situation may still be fluid as for anybody to ascertain the correctness of the above analysis. But if it is the reactionary tendency within the ZANU-PF that is in control of the ongoing political direction, it will soon become glaring when they start to romance the imperialists and their CSOs’ lackeys. We may still need to await further developments such as pronouncements from the working people and organisations of the oppressed classes in Zimbabwe in order to assess the situation more properly. The bottom line is for the Zimbabweans rather than the imperialist forces to be in direct control of their struggle for true liberation.
