Our land is a great gracious gift from Musikavanhu.
We are the custodians of this land, its owners.
This is a land dedicated to a particular people; the Africans who live on the plateau between the Zambezi and the Limpopo, a sacred heritage set aside for a specific people.
Who has jurisdiction over this land except us?
To accept that anyone but ourselves has jurisdiction over this land, kupanduka, kutengesa; it is to sell out, to betray a sacred trust.
Nhaka haitengeswi.
You tormented us for 90 years, now you want to tell us how to be just and truthful; you masquerade as paragons of justice and truthfulness but history does not absolve you.
You call for security sector reforms, electoral reforms — who does not know that the demand for security sector reforms is to get rid of freedom fighters.
lt is the freedom fighters who ended the armed seizure of this land and they did this through the barrel of the gun.
Those who chant electoral reforms have never been correct themselves and history will not absolve us if we do not expose their crimes against humanity.
They want electoral reforms so that they can manipulate the electoral process and put their stooges in power so that they can loot and plunder our resources as in the days of colonialism.
Hatiudzwi zvekuita nani kana ani zvake wokupi kana kupi zvake. Takazvifira izvozvi zvekuti tisaudzwe zvekuita.
The Nigerian elections of 1956 were so costed by the British that everything that could have been so special for Nigerians was destroyed.
We do not need for this kind of thing to be repeated anywhere in the world, it is crimen injuria.
Instead of the British ending their colonial occupation of Nigeria, they interfered and intervened in the electoral process to favour their own stooges.
This they did so they would continue to perpetuate and protect British interests in that African land; so that British looting and plunder of that nation’s resources would continue unabated.
This criminal interference and intervention in the internal affairs of Nigeria resulted in the Biafra War which cost at least one million Nigerian lives.
This is what capitalism does; no price is too high to gratify its insatiable greed for what belongs to others.
In the period leading to the Zimbabwe elections of 1980, which were held after we had defeated the British in a bitter armed struggle, the British brazenly and without compunction manipulated all factors in favour of the Rhodesians and their stooges.
The ink was not dry on the Lancaster House Agreement when the British set into motion a series of catastrophic manipulations to steal the victory which the liberation forces had won for themselves through a 16-year bitter armed struggle.
The British Governor, Lord Soames, who, according to the Lancaster House Agreement, was to referee a free and fair election, is the very same person who contemptuously breached the terms of the Lancaster House Agreement to engineer a victory for the Rhodesians and their stooges, such as Abel Muzorewa.
On January 6 1980, Lord Soames ‘authorised the redeployment of the pro-Rhodesian security forces which included 15 000 of Bishop Muzorewa’s auxiliary forces’, brazenly violating the ceasefire agreement of December 21 1979. (Muchemwa:2015)
Specifically the re-deployed Rhodesian forces did everything to ensure the Rhodesians and their stooges would steal victory from the liberation force and they left no stone unturned to achieve that:
The SAS and the Selous Scouts openly distributed anti-Robert Mugabe leaflets Muzorewa’s auxiliary forces openly campaigned for him Rhodesian security forces prevented ZANU and ZAPU supporters from campaigning and threatened ZANU and ZAPU supporters with death for campaigning
This is precisely why Lord Soames authorised the redeployment of Rhodesian forces and violated the ceasefire agreement.
The spectre of British/Rhodesian intransigence was to haunt the whole period leading to the elections.
In violation of the Ceasefire Agreement, Lord Soames left 15 000 South African Defence forces in the country; they only left after the election victory of the liberation forces.
There was no attempt to level the playing field. There was no attempt by the Governor to be fair, to be neutral, what he was saying in all this, to the liberation forces, is that you won the war but we will not respect anything we agreed on. They would not respect their terms of surrender as the British, as a defeated foe.
Under ‘Operation Hectic’, the Rhodesian forces; SAS and Selous Scouts, with the approval of General Peter Walls and Combined Operations Headquarters, launched a series of assassination attempts on the late former President Mugabe and other senior ZANU officials, as well as other sabotage attacks on ZANU and smear campaigns against ZANU and ZANLA.
Muchemwa (2015) chronicles the criminal attacks by the Rhodesians:
On February 3 1980, Selous Scouts ambushed a bus carrying about 70 Muzorewa supporters who were coming from a wedding. They hit the bus with an RPG 7, killing the bus driver and all but 16 of the passengers. The 16 survivors they murdered in cold blood. They attempted to lay blame on ZANLA, but it did not work
On February 6, SAS deployed by Combined Operation Headquarters attacked Comrade Kangai’s house in Marlbrough and Comrade Mugabe’s house in Mt Pleasant
On February 10, Rhodesians ambushed Comrade Mugabe who was travelling from Masvingo using ‘command detonation’
On February 10, a block of municipal offices in Mutapa, used by ZANU, was bombed by Rhodesians
On February 14, Selous Scouts bombed a number of Church buildings so as to smear and de-campaign ZANU and ZANLA as anti-Christian. Among the Church buildings were the Catholic Cathedral on Fourth Street (now Simon Muzenda Street) and Anglican St Michael’s Church in Mbare
On February 24, Rhodeisans also bombed Mambo Press printers in Gweru.
There were also attempts to attack Assembly Points, as well as an attempted coup by General Peter Walls.
It was a reign of terror by the British and the Rhodesians. They did not attempt to adhere to the Lancaster House Agreement but what they did was to do everything possible to defeat the electoral process by foul means, by criminal means.
The liberation forces won the elections despite everything horrendous by the British and Rhodesians to defeat the electoral process and give victory to the defeated foe.
The British never acted honourably in the 90 years of the armed robbery of our land, and even after we defeated them in a bitter armed struggled and they signed terms of surrender, they still sought to criminally subvert the agreement and steal victory from the liberation forces.
Whenever we hold elections in our land, no-one shouts louder than the British about electoral violence and yet everyone knows their stooges, schooled by them in electoral violence, spark the violence in order to hide their defeat.
The British are not worthy advisors to anyone. They do not have the credentials.
Haungati iwe wakashama woti kunavanhu musafambe makashama.
