The self annointed Zanu PF Bishop Trevor ManhangaTrevor Manhanga has for long vowed to die supporting Zanu PF and Mugabe in particular.
The howling in state media over sanctions Dr Gono and Johannes Tomana would not be meaningful if it did not get endorsements from the men of cloth.
It had to be either Kunonga or Msindo or Wutaunashe or Manhanga or all of them.
Trevor Manhanga stood up to the plate. First at the funeral of Gideon Gono’s elder brother and later through an article posted on the Zimbabwe Guardian website that many in the Diaspora refer to as the Diaspora Zimbabwe Herald.
After eulogising the virtues of the signing of the 15 September 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) between Zanu PF and the MDC without any reference whatsoever to the fact that the agreement supplanted the electoral wishes of Zimbabweans by accommodating electoral losers in a violently imposed coalition government with critical powers they were denied the right to exercise by the electorate Manhanga went on to single out the National Healing objective of the coalition as the most critical of all its objectives.
Subscribers to the GPA committed the feuding political formations to come together in a coalition government with the interim objectives of achieving;
Humanitarian assistance;
National healing and reconciliation;
Economic stabilisation and
Democratisation of the country.
Trevor Manhanga understands these objects to be;
Constitutional reform,
National healing and reconciliation and
Economic revival.
The obvious disparity between what was agreed upon and what Manhanga believes was agreed upon aside, in his opinion, Manhanga believes the objective of national healing and reconciliation is the most critical of the four.
“However – again, in my opinion - chief among the three objectives would be national healing and reconciliation, for the other two processes are incapable of realisation in the absence of a conducive atmosphere which would be ushered in through the national healing and reconciliation process,” he bleated.
All because National healing and reconciliation encompasses the transformation of everything else and recent events in the nation around the positions of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Attorney-General are a cause for grave concern for him.
The disputed appointments “are now threatening to tear at its seams the very fabric of the GPA, and in doing so plunge the nation into an unprecedented and cataclysmic catastrophe,” said Manhanga
Because of the threat Manhanga wants political leadership in government to “desist from fence-sitting and DO something.”
“Put simply: our leaders must take charge, lest the situation deteriorates and begins to build a momentum of its own. Our inclusive Government, from the Executive to the Legislative branches, cannot sit idly by while the current situation continues to unfold. They must take action and exhibit initiative — that is what we expect of our leaders,” he implored them.
“It is my conviction that the Organ on National Healing and Reconciliation must, without fail, step up to the plate and provide leadership on this issue that threatens to tear us apart when we should be moving away from the suspicion, acrimony, division and hatred that defined our relationships as Zimbabweans in the past, to the unity, cohesion and mutual respect for one another that should define our collective future.”
“The current toxic environment where certain sections of our nation have become inebriated with the "Gono must go" chorus is not conducive for the nation to move forward and to deal with the real issues that we need to deal with.”
“The sad reality of this most unfortunate episode is that the real issue is not the removal of RBZ Governor Dr Gono, and the AG Mr Johannes Tomana.
To the discerning eye it is clear that we are faced with a well-scripted hymn here, which has a predetermined final stanza.
The first verse of this hymn is the now well-rehearsed line "Gono must go".
The second stanza resonates with the line "Tomana must go".
While the public in general have not yet seen the rest of the hymn it must be clear to the discerning eye that the next verses build on the first two and will declare that "Chihuri must go….Bonyongwe must go…..Shiri must go….Sibanda must go….Zimondi must go…Chiwenga must go".
Now, let us not be in any doubt that the final verse of this well-orchestrated and rehearsed hymn will culminate with the line "Mugabe must go!"
That is exactly the point that was made in the March 2008 harmonised elections Bishop Manhanga. Why should these people who have been at the helm for decades without achieving meaningful progress for our nation be allowed the privilege of lifetime terms of office as if the country is short of fresh idealists to move the country forward?
“The tragedy of all this is that the script is being written and orchestrated from outside our borders, with our internal players simply reading from the script and making sure the correct notes are being played. It is now crystal clear that Dr Gono is the fall guy but the real target is President Mugabe, who certain sections of the international community cannot bear to see still as Head of State and Government of Zimbabwe.”
Nothing can be further from the truth than this myopic statement from Manhanga. How many foreigners voted in the March elections where Mugabe lost to Tsvangirai? Not a single one.
Why should Gono be the fall guy when Mugabe was felled in the elections but refused to accept the verdict using Gono and the military to prop up his undesired stay in office? If Gono and the Military commanders are the bases upon which Mugabe refuses to listen to the electorate how can they be fall guys when they are in charge?
The call for the termination of Gono and Tomana’s appointments is not premised solely on them being impediments to the flow of desperately needed foreign aid to reconstruct the battered economy but because they were made in contravention of the GPA in that the appointments were not discussed by the agreement signatories but were unilaterally made by the Zanu PF signatory.
National Healing and reconciliation cannot be achieved through blatant breaches of signed agreements. On the contrary it is respect of agreements that will enhance mutual trust among Zimbabweans and thus feed into reconciliation and ultimately national healing.
“This is in direct contrast to the "Zimbabwe the people of Zimbabwe Want", a process they started with the signing of the GPA,” bleated Manhanga.
But the GPA did not start the process of the Zimbabwe we want but rather was a step back from the Zimbabwe we want. The Zimbabwe we want is one that is ruled by those with the consent of Zimbabweans to rule not those imposed by SADC and AU foreigners.
The only people who see the GPA coalition Government are Zimbabweans who voted for a Presidential candidate who won but was militantly denied the right to exercise presidential powers and ultimately was forced to satsifice for the Premiership which position is being frustrated by an imposed President and his hoodlums who include “Bishop” Trevor Manhanga.
If there are any foreigners sympathetic to the deprived electorate they can’t be faulted.
“Should the authors and supporters of the script I have alluded to above succeed we can kiss goodbye to the National Healing and Reconciliation, the bedrock on which the turnaround we all desire is to be built upon,” declared Manhanga.
But healing can only be induced by appropriate therapy. How can only the people Dr Gono reduced to paupers be healed when they see him firmly ensconced in the position that wiped their lifetime savings to nothing?
How can all the people persecuted by Tomana and vandalised by Zanu PF militia including the police and army heal when the very commanders who ordered their subordinates to vandalise them are firmly ensconced in their former positions with the same powers to order recurrence of past impunity?
If reconciliation and national healing is interpreted to mean the deprived must not seek restitution then such healing will not be genuine.
“When our memory of the past is greater that our vision of the future we are in deep trouble.”
That is exactly why we are in the economic quandary we are in. Zanu PF’s memory of past glories in reclaiming the country from colonists is greater than the vision it has for our future. That is why its loyalists think the impunity of the past decade must be wiped off the slate of our history by living the perpetrators in chief firmly in positions they can abuse in similar fashion in the future in the “true” sense of the Zanu PF reconciliation script.
“No one, no matter how powerful, militarily or economically should try and impose their will on us.”
Indeed and nobody wishes to do so. It’s a figment of the imagination of a political mind frame steeped in past misgivings which is driving Zanu PF paranoia.
“We must, with one voice, speak against the setting up of parallel financial or any other structures where these donor nations want to channel their funds and resources.”
Indeed but we are being failed by Manhanga and company who when a donor states intention to help but expresses misgivings about the trustworthiness of a fiduciary gatekeeper with a proven history of stealing from individual accounts to support a political project of a particular party, demand parliamentary resolutions barring such aid if the thief is not involved in managing the funds.
“There are certain things that are non-negotiable and our independence and sovereignty is one of them,” declared Manhanga.
Haven’t we heard that before from politicians and not men of the cloth? But then Manhanga has never been a true religious leader but a politician disguised as a church leader.
Multi Donor Trust Funds were set up to ensure the humanitarian assistance project moves forward without donor funds falling prey to the thieving RBZ governor.
Dr Gono and Johannes Tomana are not by any stretch of imagination symbols of sovereignty and their tenure or non tenure of any office does not compromise national sovereignty. If anything their past actions are a scourge on national ethos and the sooner they are removed from the limelight the better the chances our country has on improving its soiled international image.
“It is a great tragedy and travesty of justice that we have allowed corruption, ineptitude and downright greed from preventing us from fully exploiting and utilising our vast mineral and other resources.”
And that tragedy cannot be corrected by retaining trust in failed leaders.
“The continued goings-on at the Chiadzwa diamond fields cry out for resolution and one wonders why we don’t seem to be putting in place a permanent solution to fully utilise this national treasure.
These diamonds could go a long way in solving the current economic woes.”
Indeed they could if only the law enforcement chiefs are made accountable to government and not vice versa.
They are now busy shooting each other for the loot and do not want anyone other than themselves to be in charge of the deposits.
Should we not call for them to go and be replaced by loyal Zimbabweans then?
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