Mukuru decided to celebrate his birthday at the Holy Shrine, the Great Zimbabwe.
The Great Zimbabwe was the last monument built by our ancestors south of Egypt, between 1100 and 1450 AD when the inhabitants were driven away by persistent droughts.
There is no harm in celebrating a birthday in such a place with his wife, Sister Auxilia and their children in a quiet manner.
However, organising a congregation of 30 000 rambunctious youths, and perhaps blessed with spiritual waters aided by generous puffs of the ganja leaf, who, informed that their host was the great Munhu-Mutapa (the incarnation of the Great Zimbabwe King) brings about the possibility of sacrilege.
I have been told that sycophants like Brother Tino Machakaire, wanting not to be outdone, were singing songs such:
ED hapana kwaanoenda
President is going nowhere
Mu 2030 anenge achipo
In year 2030, he will be kicking and going strong.
There is nothing wrong with these words if they were said in a private and select gathering of intimate friends, joking as is common among the Bantu.
But these celebrations were presented to the world, with pomp and circumstance, in a manner that can be interpreted as a coronation.
Munhu-Mutapa was a divine king. Divine kings reign and rule for life. That is the interoperation of the last sentence in the song.
The celebration, supposedly innocent, was therefore not so innocent at all.
It was interpreted as provocative, gross in the reference to divine rulership and an afront to political competitors who have constitutional right to succeed Mukuru after his term has expired.
In any case, Mukuru has enemies as it is. There is no reason to make, create, or confirm old or new enemies.
Terrible fates befell the Englishmen who disrespected the tomb of Egyptian Tutankhamun in Egypt (1923).
Sir Richard Bethel tried to escape from his blanket which successfully smothered him to death. His wife committed suicide.
Such offenses serve no purpose whatever. The great Saint Paul gave this advice. “I can say to each one of you: Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement.” (Romans 12:3)
I am surprised that Mukuru’s advisors have a short memory.
There was once a Sister Grace Mugabe, who walked in the land, making herself to be mightier than all the angels of heaven, acting out, cutting up and cursing folks as she wished, grabbing a doctoral degree and forcing herself to be counted among the learned.
Oh, ye sinners, you have short memories.
There are more serious issues to handle.
I have examined with some thoroughness the regime-change theories that surround the government of Zimbabwe.
While it is true that journalists are used as the first front by imperialists when change of regime is being completed, I have ruled out US interference. The provocations in Zimbabwe are self-inflicted.
Zimbabwean Tik-Tok media houses, such as Chatufa, Gambakwe, Killiat and Rumbi Uncensored are poorly financed. Their lack of editorial supervision reveals the amateurishness of their operations.
Despite the weakness of the opposition party alternative media houses, the Zimbabwe government faces credible forces against it.
The first and most formidable issue is the complete absence of sovereign currency.
While Zimbabwe has been blessed with abundant sources of gold, it alone cannot be the basis of a viable currency.
Singapore does not have one tenth of what we have.
In any case, government cannot be regarded as a serious player if Sister Henrietta Rushwaya, a twice convicted gold smuggler, remains president of the gold miners’ association.
Here, I return to Professor Gift Mugano’s article of April 19.
Speculative investment in Zimbabwe has been directed towards housing and direct currency transactions rather than towards production of goods.
It is a rule of nature that wherever the US currency has been allowed to compete with a local currency, the later has been run out of town in favor of the US dollar.
The Reserve Bank and its surrogates are at the center of currency speculation, taking advantage of their access to foreign currency.
Professor Mugano alleges that the Reserve Bank, having promised corporations a percentage of foreign currency retention, reneged on that commitment, converting the amounts retained to Treasury bills at 7.5%.
This “theft” is only part of a slew of unpredictable policies that have made investors’ lives a nightmare.
The government is not a serious economic thinker while at the same time it is the worst its own economic saboteur, patron of the Gold Mafia, protector of gold smugglers and its officers the chief malefactors in speculative enterprises.
Gathering storm.
What the extravagant birthday celebration has demonstrated beyond doubt is that, like in the days of Noah, Mukuru and his sycophantic acolytes, oblivious to the gathering storm around them, are merry-making even while the flood rises.
Gambakwe says that since 2017, 11 top military officers involved in a coup of that year have been humanely assisted to meet their ancestors. General Shadreck Vezha’s car accident may have been part of an assisted event.
Some died after “short illnesses”.
US ambassadors Linda Thomas Greenfield and Bruce Wharton, writing in the US Military Review argue in the past, it was expected that: “those who threatened Mugabe’s power such as Commander Josiah Tongogara and General Solomon Mujuru and others found themselves demoted or victims of suspicious accidents.”
Assisted car accidents are therefore not unusual. But what is unusual is the number of high-ranking officers who have died since the coup of 2017.
Greenfield and Wharton point out two issues relevant to our situation.
While the destruction of opposition politics and government monopoly of the media obscured the tensions between the ethnic groups as well as within the ruling party itself, it was not enough to obscure the impending economic disaster.
It’s the economy stupid!
Another US ambassador, Johnie Carson observed that the leadership was surrounded by ruthless and willing associates ready to kill perceived enemies.
But the real enemy is the economy. Stupid.
*Ken Mufuka served as a director of Museums and Monuments at Great Zimbabwe in his second life. He writes from the US. He can be reached at mufukaken@gmail.com