THE crucial meeting of liberation movements held in Victoria Falls recently was timely and significant in that it came up with strategies on countering neo-colonialism and the continued interference in the internal affairs of sovereign States by Western countries.
Zimbabwe hosted the meeting as the chairperson of SADC whose 44th Ordinary Summit will be held in Harare in August this year.
The Summit was attended by secretaries-general of Zimbabwe’s ruling Party, ZANU PF; the ANC of South Africa; FRELIMO of Mozambique; People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA); Chama Cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania; South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) of Namibia; while Botswana’s Democratic Party was an observer.
Liberation movements have, in recent times, been under the cosh from the abrasive West that wants to install puppet governments in those countries as well as to regain control of land and natural resources.
The pervading seismic shifts in the global political and economic infrastructure where progressive nations, led by China and Russia, have been vigorously pursuing a world of equality have necessitated that frenetic move by the West to subdue liberation movements.
But Western countries want to maintain their hegemonic control of global affairs hence their funding of opposition parties across the continent.
Now, liberation movements have upped the ante in fulfilling and preserving the ideals and value of their various liberation struggles.
This, too, is why we prefer not to prefix their hallowed title with the demeaning word ‘former’.
The struggle continues as seen by the brazen attempts by Western countries and their local lackeys to take aim at ZANU PF in Zimbabwe during the country’s harmonised elections on August 23 2023; and the ANC, heading into the May 29 2024 general elections, is also under siege from the West.
The struggle continues too in that the anti-liberation movements project is not only premised on weaponising elections to oust them from power, Western powers have employed several other strategies, like besmirching liberation movements by openly funding opposition parties to unseat sovereign governments.
They derisively call that project ‘the struggle for democracy’ to gain traction with the masses.
But the liberation movements’ struggle is far much bigger than democracy which was achieved during the liberation struggle; it is about regaining control and ownership of the means of production and handing it over to the masses like what Zimbabwe did through its heroic Land Reform and Resettlement Programme of 2000.
As a result, Harare is grappling with the Western-sponsored and imposed illegal sanctions which have been renewed every year since 2001.
The message to other liberation movements and progressive minds of the world is that: If you economically empower your people, we will make your economy scream!’
That strategy has been a monumental flop!
Where it was supposed to galvanise the masses to turn against the Government, it has, au contraire, brought them together.
Still Western countries are not about to give up on their futile exercise — they are too fixated on plundering Southern Africa’s resources to shore up their faltering economies.
In Victoria Falls, the liberation movements exchanged notes on how to guard against infiltration by the West.
The perils of neo-colonialism were also up for discussion during that crucial gathering.
While preparations for the liberation movements’ summit were taking place, Zimbabwean opposition stalwart of the now fragmented CCC and the US’ blue-eyed boy in Harare, Tendai Biti, was dutifully wading into South African politics, taking aim at the ANC.
Recently, Biti, a key member of the pro-opposition and regime change outfit, the Brenthurst Foundation, was speaking during the ‘The Gathering Twenty Twenty Four Election Edition’ at Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Of course we know that this was not Biti speaking — it was his handlers who sought to achieve two things, namely, building an international profile for him as he takes over the opposition, and the usual agenda setting by his handlers who are trying to push for an ANC defeat in May.
All that will come to naught as it did in Zimbabwe.
Reading from the usual West’s anti-liberation movements script, Biti was not typically generous with liberation movements which he claimed had ‘failed’ to transform and democratise.
South Africa, Biti said, must use the May 29 elections to vote ‘wisely’ and prevent their country from ‘going the same way as Zimbabwe’ in his alarmist best which has often landed him in trouble with authorities in Harare.
“The liberation movement that fails to transform, the liberation movement that fails to democratise itself, atrophies, it disappears,” he said.
“And I think you are seeing slowly here in South Africa the withering of the liberation movement….if they get 40 or 44 percent, they would have done very well. So the acceleration of South Africa towards a state of failure is beholding and bewildering to many Africans who live north of the Limpopo because of the huge vast resources that your country has.
But the story of South Africa is a story that has been narrated and lived in much of Africa, where it’s been characteristic of State failure, of pseudo-elections, the ritual of elections that are held every five years.”
Ironically, he has been part of that five-year election ‘ritual’ where he has been arrested several times for announcing false election results.
That includes his walloping in the CCC so-called primary elections where he was eyeing opposition leader of business in Parliament.
We are well aware that Biti is on a mission to give a seemingly ‘noble’ voice to the elections in South Africa by flaunting himself as a ‘democrat’ and ‘reformist’, something his handlers believe will stop the ANC’s march towards economically empowering its citizens.
Zimbabweans have been down that road before and they know how it ends.
Let those with listen.
