Zimbabwe -- Zanu PF willing to let Ndebeles starve

BULAWAYO-A senior government official has warned Matabeleland residents that Zanu PF is willing to let thousands of people in that region starve, unless they stop supporting the opposition MDC.

This stark warning was delivered by deputy foreign affairs minister, Abednico Ncube, when he addressed villagers last Saturday at Nkashe growth point in the arid Gwanda North district.

The villagers had thronged to the growth point to buy maize from the Grain Marketing Board (GMB). Zimbabwe is currently facing an acute shortage of maize, the country's staple diet, following government-inspired disruptions to commercial farming since February 2000. As a result, hundreds of thousands of impoverished villagers are now relying on food handouts from the donor community which are being channelled through government sources but Ncube, the MP for Gwanda South, warned them that government was considering a freeze on food aid to people opposed to Zanu PF.

"As long as you value the government of the day you will not starve, but we do not want people who vote for colonialists and then come to us when they want food. You cannot vote for the MDC and expect Zanu PF to help you," Ncube told a hungry crowd.

He added: "Maize is in abundance but very soon it will be available only to those who dump the opposition and work with Zanu PF. The party will start feeding its children before turning to those of MDC."

Launching a blistering attack on Gwanda North MP, Paul Themba Nyathi, Ncube said the MDC legislator had nothing to offer his constituents. "What has he done for you since you voted for him? How can you say you have an MP who stays in Harare? I am the MP for Gwanda South but I realised that you people are desperate for help. That is why I came here with these trucks to feed you. This shows I still forgive you despite your persistent support for the MDC," said Ncube.

Turning to council elections scheduled for September, the deputy minister stressed: "You have to vote for Zanu PF candidates in the next council elections before government starts rethinking your entitlement to this food aid. One can only get help from where he or she deserves to get it," he said. Shortly after his address, Ncube went into a fit of rage when he realised that The Standard was part of the crowd he was addressing. "What are you doing here? I don't talk to the independent press. If you write anything negative about this address I will deal with you personally," he said.

However, villagers who talked to The Standard expressed disapproval of Ncube's behaviour. "He is a fool. He cannot remember that we saw more than just threats for supporting Zapu in the early 80s. Our political loyalty is our business and if he thinks he is more menacing than the Fifth Brigade he will have to reread the history of this place. He should try to consult Enos Nkala and Mark Dube if he is to learn what kind of suffering we went through," said an irate villager.

Nkala, the Gukurahundi era defence minister, roamed the villages threatening people who opposed Zanu PF and ordering a few live public demonstrations of what the ruling party did to 'traitors'. Dube, the former provincial governor Matabeleland South, made similar rounds and would order the beating and arrest of anyone who did not appear to be singing the Zanu PF one party song which almost became the anthem during that time.

Council elections for Gwanda district are due in September and Zanu PF which has been whitewashed by MDC in Matabeleland elections is seeking a change in political fortunes this time around.

20 000 people, mostly Ndebele, were killed by the army's North Korean-trained 5 Brigade in Matabeleland and Midlands during the Gukuranundi.

Thousands are buried in mass graves.

"Gukurahundi" is a Shona word meaning "storm that sweeps away the chaff".

The gall of this buffon Ncube !!!!

Let me tell you something, MR. Ncube: God is watching. You and your Party of Death, ZANU-PF, are not so high and mighty as you think.

Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind.

Of course, Ncube is merely making explicit the policy that has been implicit since the presidential election disclosed that the people are not with Zanu PF.

Suppress opposition using any means available.

The fish rots from the head.

Hopefully some day Ncube's speech will be quoted in testimony against him in a trial for crimes against humanity.

I do not consider any element of Zimbabwe's troubles to be my problem or that of the United States.

We are out of this one.

However, simply knowing that a government in power is able to steal property, starve dissonant citizens, gather aid from abroad and horde it in order to sustain it's own members (only), and presumably stash funds away for an eventual comfy retirement far from the scend of the crime, and do all this with no action from those who DO share in the problem, is frightening.

That the world today is capable of putting on trial a national leader who tried to keep his federated state in one piece (after all, that's what Lincoln is praised for - despite a campaign aimed at civilian society) sickens me. That this goes on while virtually ignoring Mugabe's genocidal policies is enough to convince me that we must continue act independently.

The US must act only in our own best interests, and despite what the cowards who seek to rule the "new world order" may say or do.

Further, I scanned the L.A. Times again this morning. Noted nothing on Zimbabwe. Some comment about the Congo, usual stuff about local ethnic politics, lots about GWB's conservatism, nada about genocide in Africa's cape.

Thanks Clive.

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