Two weeks ago we ran an oped under the headline Moyo raising the sceptre of racism. We carry Prof Moyo's reply below. DOES criticising Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's controversial choice of Roy Bennett as Deputy Minister of Agriculture amount to raising the sceptre of racism against whites?
In the same vein, is it racist to merely remind those among us with short or treacherous memories that Bennett is a former member of the Rhodesian Selous Scouts who served in the similarly murderous Rhodesian infantry whose indisputable agenda was to entrench the ideology of white supremacy over blacks by torturing, maiming and killing freedom fighters while terrorising and subjugating blacks in this country in the vain hope of defeating the liberation struggle?
These and other related questions have come to the fore of national debate following the publication by this newspaper of a racially motive article, "Moyo raising the sceptre of racism" (November 13 to 19).
While the article itself did not contain anything worthy of a response or comment, its packaging and layout betrayed what could be interpreted as a despicable attack on free speech in the interest of public debate.
The article in question purported to be a rejoinder to a recent contribution made by this writer to the Financial Gazette and the NewZimbabwe.com website which categorically and unapologetically maintained that Tsvangirai's nomination of Bennett as Deputy Minister of Agriculture is an unacceptable insult to our country's liberation struggle and the legacy of national independence.
In packaging that article, this newspaper astonishingly inserted Bennett's picture with a scandalous caption that said "Roy Bennett...persecuted for being white".
This was contrasted with a picture of this writer which was outrageously captioned "Moyo...takes refuge in racism".
In the circumstances, the title of the article and the captions of the pictures that were inserted in it were arguably defamatory and thus beneath the high standard of fair and balanced media coverage which has come to be associated with this otherwise leading newspaper.
It is preposterous in the extreme for anyone to suggest that recalling Bennett's undeniable membership of the murderous Selous Scouts as a Rhodesian infantryman is tantamount to racism.
Just how does a fact, even if disgusting, become racism? Is there anyone out there who does not know of the wicked atrocities and massacres that were committed by the Rhodesian infantry and Selous Scouts in this country and in the refugee camps in Zambia and Mozambique during the liberation struggle between?
With the obvious answers to these questions in mind, it is clearly outrageous for anyone to claim that this writer was "taking refuge in racism" when he strongly objected to Prime Minister Tsvangirai's nomination of Bennett as a Deputy Minister of Agriculture and when he warned of dire electoral consequences for the MDC T should that nomination succeed given Bennett's unacceptable background as a former active member of the Rhodesian infantryman and Selous Scout whose toll of combined massacres and atrocities is yet to be fully appreciated.
For the sake of perspective it is important to note that while this newspaper's racially emotive packaging of the story in question might be an isolated editorial incident, it is nevertheless a telling example of an emerging and orchestrated MDC T propaganda ploy whose treacherous purpose is to brand by definition as "racist" anyone who criticises former Rhodie whites who, like Bennett, hold key and very influential positions in the MDC T.
The fact that there are many more Rhodies behind the MDC T, who are very influential as fundraisers and not as officeholders, makes this propaganda trick even more sinister.
It is also notable that, with the author of the article in question as a case in point, virtually everyone from the MDC T who has written on the Bennett issue uncritically defending white Rhodies and attacking this writer has an Ndebele surname.
Of course people are who they are or perhaps even who they say they are. But a well documented Selous Scout tactic is to create pseudo events--such as fake violence that is typically blamed on opponents--and the use of crude propaganda penned by Rhodies and peddled by their tribal puppets under ethnically convenient pseudonyms.
There's more to be revealed soon about this unfolding ethnic strategy with its origins in Rhodesia. It seems that just like Rhodesians say they never die, they think the same is true of their dirty tricks like manufacturing pseudo political violence and using ethnic pseudonyms in the media to peddle revisionist propaganda whose not-so-hidden import is that white Rhodesia was better than black Zimbabwe.
Arguably, there is a context to this and it is that, as the twist of history would have it, the same international powers that supported the illegal and racist Rhodesian regime are now actively supporting former Rhodesians in the MDC T, such as Roy Bennett, and they are presenting these Rhodies not only as human rights victims of Zimbabwe's historic land reform that was launched in 2000 but also as the new champions of democracy in our country.
This is the essence of the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy Act (Zidera) whose lead sponsor was the late US Senator Jessie Helms who unashamedly distinguished himself as a rogue stalwart of the Rhodesian racist cause before and after this country's heroic independence in 1980.
It is not a coincidence that, within the Zidera scheme of things, the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe is supposed to have started in June 2000 when Zimbabweans embarked on the Third Chimurenga which also happened to be the time when Rhodies like Bennett thought they could form or join the MDC T and use it to stop the historic land reform programme with the support of the same Europeans and Americans who did not support Zimbabwe's liberation struggle in the first place.
But the record shows that the 2000 land reform programme was not stopped. No wonder there have been spirited efforts to shift the MDC T paradigm from stopping the programme to reversing it. Bennett is supposed to be the MDC T's point man for the reversal to benefit former white farmers with their roots in Rhodesia.
This is why the MDC T and its sponsors want him to be inside what they cynically call "the belly of the beast" as deputy minister of agriculture whom they believe has the Selous Scout ruthlessness and motive to derail and subvert the historic land reform programme from within the coalition government in the Rhodesian interest.
There is nothing racist about pointing this out or making the argument that, as a former member of the Rhodesian Selous Scouts, Bennett is not suitable to serve as a minister of any kind in any government in independent Zimbabwe.
Indeed, to expect Bennett to serve as a government minister in Zimbabwe today is as unacceptable as having somebody like the notorious apartheid killer Eugene de Kock serving as a government minister in President Jacob Zuma's ANC cabinet.
In the end, it is instructive that those who claim that such arguments are racist are also the same self-righteous elements who claim to be the champions of free speech and democracy as if they are unaware of their sickening double-standards. The time has come to expose these elements for the charlatans that they are.
Moyo is Zanu PF MP for Tsholotsho.
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being a former member of the selous scouts or rhodesia army is what all former white rhodesians of his age were. there was such a thing as call up.I remeber my black brother getting those papers. moyo conveniently forgetsclla up was not voluntary. also twnety years later people change. Moyo himself has hoped from one political philosophy to another. It appears to me moyo has nothing to write. he cannot hope to resucitate the war pains now when the more recent pain of the election violence gukurahundi and all have not but healed.Shut up jonathan moyo..
Dr. Moyo is right on target on this one!! Yes, Bennett was a member of the barbaric and murderous war crime group called the selous scourts. They murdered my uncle and many other black Zimbabweans who disappeared. It is not racists to visit this subject. It is an important part of Zimbabwean History.
To add insult to injury, non-of these murderous members of the Selous Scouts have been indicted by the ICC! The ICC is busy indicting only black violators, and of cause leaving out white barbaric racists murderous. Ho does one explain why they have never been calls to indict apartheid leaders who travel to Europe all the time. Justice has never really been served to those black Zimbabwean families whose family members were murdered by the Selous Scouts and the Rhodesian Army.
To me the ICC is just another useless body that is afraid for example to indict Former President Bush, for misleading the world about weapons of mass destruction and also for murdering 1.0 million Iraq people based on manufactured lies!!!
Phiri, why do you have so much hate ? If your answer is that have doubts white people can be as good as you, then encourage them ,dont spit on them. After all wasn't it the same reason reversed ,that your family fought and died for?
As it pertains to Phiri, it's obvious isn't it............
Phiri hopes for the best for Zimbabwe (he really does......), but his visionn is clouded by the murder of his uncle (and probably other family members) by "the scouts"........... AND, who could possibly blame him.....?
He doesn't hate Zimbabwe, and he is obviously pained by some of the things that ZANU-Poof does, but he is cathartic about "land-redistribution" and "indigenization" by his own horrible experience......... he had a family member killed by "the scouts".
We all are colored by our own experiences, Phiri's seem to be particularly horrific, as are the experiences of many Zimbabweans...........
Point being, there IS a way forward, and THAT is for ZANU-Poof to accept that they have held on to power for 30 years and their policies have failed Zimbabwe, NOT ZANU-Poof, but ALL of Zimbabwe.......... Whatever their intentions were at the time of "liberation", they have failed when you look at the current state of the nation.
It doesn't really matter whose fault it is that those policies have failed (if there are "sanctions, then ask why there are "sanctions" and what "policies" have led to such "sanctions"), they simply have........... Whether the problems of Zimbabwe have been caused by external or internal actions, it is clear that whatever ZANU-Poof/Mugabe has done has failed (whether it is their fault or not,, their policies have failed the people of Zimbabwe)......... It's time for a fresh breath in Zimbabwe. Let someone else give it a go..............
"Land-redistribution" is a FACT, and will NOT be erased even if ZANU-Poof ceased to exist, but in the future will be required to undergo a series of "adjustments" like the case South African farmers, or adhereing to the SADC Tribunal's ruling, to smooth out such a transition......... But no one wants to see a Zimbabwe that is not open, free, and has land for ALL Zimbabweans.........
If the "land" in question had been given to the "black" people who actually had previously worked the land, those people would have known something about farming and Zimbabwe would not have been in the situation it is today. The "black" people who previously worked on "white" farms were actually the most dispossessed of the land, NOT ZANU-Poof cadres! As I have often said, if Zimbabwe truly wanted to "re-distribute" the land, the FIRST people it should have gone to was the "black" people who actually worked the land and knew how to properly manage it - NOT the First Shopper or her children simply because they knew the "right" people to complain to.
Unlike many who accuse me of being a "rhoadie", it would have been better for ZANU-Poof to actually give the land that was "re-distributed" to their cadres to the people that had actually worked the land previously! They could thus work in partnership with their neighbors and former "white" employers to ensure the continued bounty of Zimbabwe's cropland and truly "re-distribute" the land to those who not only had spent their sweat and blood on the land, but those who actually knew what to do with it!
THAT would have been a proper "re-distribution" of land in ZImbabwe........
But ZANU-Poof had made too many promises to their cadres about "milk-&-honey" and that they would replace the "white" masters with "black" ones from their cadres................
"Land-redistribution" is only a minor point............. if ZANU-Poof had done it right, then NONE of this crisis would have occurred.
The problem for ZANU-Poof, as a marxist-leninist liberation organization, is that they really had NO PLAN for a post-colonial society, except to blame everything bad on "white" people......... A marxist-leninist organization ALWAYS needs an "enemy" to blame for the shortcomings in their own efforts...............
They won the war, yet failed the people in their liberation................ it's time for someone else to give it a try, ZANU-Poof has failed their promises to the people of ZImbabwe........
Sort of like "Totall Empowerment!" - Yes - THEY DID SAY THAT! - ZANU-Poof/Mugabe PROMISED ZIMBABWE TOTAL EMPOWERMENT in 2008.......... How "empowered" do you feel now.............?
You had your chance........ Flubbed it............. Next!
And guess what, there were many black zimbabweans in the Selous Scouts as well. Of all people knowing about the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, i would of thought you Phiri should be emulating the love and peace of Christ in your life towards others. So what if Roy was a Selous Scout, big hairy deal, if he has asked forgiveness from the Father in Heaven through Jesus, Why should anyone condemn him , if Robert Mugabe asked for Forgiveness for he has done , then good on him. Lets see the fruits of the spirit, Love , joy, health peace. Let God judge.
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