ASSESSING THE FEASIBILITY OF DIVIDING ZIMBABWE

 

AUTONOMY FOR NORTH ZIMBABWE

1. Treason never prospers, for when it does, no one dares to call it treason.

2. I have no propensity for preserving the status quo. 

The era of the strongman in Zimbabwean politics is coming to an end, with the passing of  Robert Mugabe which surely will be in the next decade, I do not ever again see there being another person who can elicit such genuine feelings of love and loyalty from his supporters and unbridled hate from those who oppose him.

The death of  Mugabe will present a window of opportunity for the most intuitive of Zimbabweans to shape the new order of politics in our country. It is very comforting to think that once  Mugabe departs, the  MDC will assume power, sanctions will be lifted, trade will resume and everyone will be wealthy and happy. Yes, comforting and naive. I have very serious objections to automatic acquiescence to the MDC, the least of them being their reactionary approach to politics. For academic purposes we have to discount Morgan Tsvangirayi and Arthur Mutambara's organisations as possible saviours of the nation because in my view they have already displayed a particularly dangerous form of narrow mindedness, lack of direction, inclination to petty squabbling and desperation in their personal conduct over the course of their rather timid opposition to President Mugabe. All these idiotic traits are very insidious and personally, I do not ever want to find myself saying the unthinkable that "Mugabe was better" to Tsvangirayi as we are now saying to Mugabe that "Smith was better", even in mockery such a thing was unthinkable given Smith's evil system of rule over blacks.

Professed altruism and egalitarianism of the oppressed does not necessarily translate into a society of justice and equality once they takeover power. In fact they might find themselves using the same tools of repression they were fighting against to consolidate their own power because there are scientific laws that govern almost every aspect of human life and in any case, mugoni wepwere ndeasinayo (easier said than done).As for the potential candidates within Zanu PF, all of them  have proven to be incompetents whose only political attributes have been following blindly behind President Mugabe. They are all very inconsequential and contemptible. The only guarantee is that when our window of opportunity opens these people will be too busy squabbling amongst themselves to interfere with our process. 

I am of the mindset that central governance has failed spectacularly in Zimbabwe therefore we have to divide the country into autonomous regions which handle their own affairs without the need for central government machinery. Of course I would never dream of saying the MDC or successors of Mugabe within Zanu PF should not ascend to power, indeed they should but not to rule over the whole country , just the region where their policies of greed, pettiness and unaccountability are welcome.

I see the best way forward being a coalition of the likeminded running the affairs of the country and the most effective way for that coalition to achieve their goals and aspirations is if they carve out a place of their own to practice their ideas. 

There are many factors that support the feasibility of the first region I have identified as a pilot and model for other Zimbabweans to see and emulate. Make no mistake the process is going to be tedious, under current conditions it might take up 20 years but if civil war breaks out as is likely at the end of  Mugabe's rule then we could takeover this region within six months. If my calculation is right if war breaks out this region will be totally neglected  because it has no mineral wealth at all, no diamonds ,no gold, no platinum, no nickel, no copper and no coal even . I can speak with authority because I have lived there for half of my life, walked barefoot virtually every cattle trail, every foot path and every gravel road there is. If civil war breaks out the lazy idiots that will instigate will rush to secure the diamond mines and towns because they believe in established infrastucture and easy gain. Not a single drop of blood of these lazy people will be shed in North Zimbabwe because the only resource that is there is fertile agricultural soil. My family has owned land there in a subsistence capacity for over 30 years and in the first 20 years the soils were so receptive we did not need fertilisers to get a bumper harvest. In conditions of civil strife it will be easy to claim this territory, we wont even have to garrison the region but I want to outline a plan outside that extremity . 

The existence of two natural barriers forces the case for autonomy for North Zimbabwe. To the south of the region is the unbroken natural barrier in the form of the Mavuradonha mountain range which stretches from Mozambique to Zambia and to the north is the river of the gods. Nature has made this area secluded and so potentially self-sustaining. All we have to do is take advantage of this. Of course I am not pinning our drive for autonomy on seclusion alone because that will be whimsical and symptomatic of what’s largely the fault with current government, they make decisions that affect the nation in visceral mode. If we localize governance the capacity for misrule will diminish. I am clear minded about this whole thing, central governance has failed so its now time to partition the country along lines of similar mindset. In this case our pilot will be North Zimbabwe and the mindset will be that of honesty, accountability and goodwill.

 The first steps before full declaration of autonomy if our drive begins in peacetime will have to be very subtle and tentative physical self-sustenance. Our populace will have to be able to see before we present to them the greater agenda of breaking away, that we are hard working men of will, who have chosen to apply our knowledge and skills for the betterment of our fellow man, without inclination towards manipulation or personal aggrandizement,  based on the exploitation of the populace such has been the norm with current politicians. Way before the tokens that identify nationhood such as flags, national ids and a cabinet we will work to put in place the infrastructure necessary for self-sustenance. The first step will be the construction of grain silos, at least three will be constructed across the region under the guise of private entrepreneurship. 

 This construction phase will include other facilities such as libraries, sports  and basic industrial complexes. The second step and actually the trump on which the success of the whole project will depend on is the taming of the river of the gods in the form of a major pipeline and a secondary network which will make around the year farming possible. If we can turn the whole region into a huge successful farming operation, I can assure you this will be better than any number of gold mines put together especially in this agrarian economy. The potential for recreational use of the Zambezi River’s water drawn inland is there but that’s a secondary issue.

 I have no doubt about the success of the farming drive because the living example is Tilcor Farm which is now called ARDA Estate and heavily underused and mismanaged by the half wits in power. Tilcor Farm’s irrigation water came from Musengezi River, a seasonal tributary of the Zambezi River. As a school child I worked on this operation picking cotton and spacing bean crops for my school’s financial upkeep. I know first hand the success this farm enjoyed and the reasons and stages of decline the farm entered. Taming the river of the gods which is supported by our proximity and the flatness of the terrain will allow people to grow on their individual farms the normal crops for subsistence as well as excess for commercial purposes. The excess will be sold to the silos in the region as part of our drive to build a grain reserve for North Zimbabwe . 

Between April and November  the irrigation water will then come into force for farmers to grow crops with a cycle under seven months from germination to harvesting. This with time should be vegetables such as tomatoes, beetroots and peas given the demand for organically grown vegetables in the markets with hard currencies families will be able to afford the privileges of modernity so far denied to them by the ruling urban elite. Prosperity of the region which is our main goal will take time but once we start this project they will be no faltering regardless of predictable hardships, natural or otherwise. Complex aspects such as the judiciary ,the penal system, healthcare and education are not easy to set up. My current thinking is that primary healthcare and education can be set up with meager funding by just improving slightly the facilities that currently exist in the region. Its matter of changing the relaxed attitudes that are prevalent with the staff in the areas, and making more tools available that they need to do their jobs. For all other aspects it makes sense for us to rely on the established machinery of Zimbabwe at least for the first ten years. I mean, it makes perfect sense that we let the sadists in Harare maintain the penal system because they have perfected this system largely out of necessity, all we would to for people from our region is supply legal aid to ensure they get a fair trial. 

 There is therefore every need to maintain subtlety in the early stages if breakaway is done in peacetime, so that we can still draw on the apparatus that is still functional in the central government. Many things will be uncertain but the one thing we can guarantee is that they will be no canoe capitalists in North Zimbabwe. Complex problems will arise surely, for instance we will need a banking system and we cannot rely on the one in Zimbabwe, because we will be defeating our whole purpose, if we allow any fruits of our drive in any form to benefit the country we are breaking away from. I believe with time because we are creating a country for people who are honest ,  hardworking and harbour goodwill but who have thus far been disenfranchised by the greed and sadism prevalent in the central government, these people of goodwill will gravitate towards North Zimbabwe and their talents will solve problems that arise in their area of expertise. I believe that they are financial experts,architects, agricultural experts, doctors and nurses who love their country but are unable to practice their expertise owing to the conditions created by the ruling elite who have lost all sense of humanity. 

North Zimbabwe will draw on such expertise. In fact let me take this opportunity to say the furthest planet in our solar is at least 5 900 million kilometres  away and the furthest detectable object in the known universe is around 16 000 million light years away, its too big a place for us not to have a place of our own hence I have identified the place for all well meaning, hard working, honest and good willed Zimbabweans. It’s the area that lies between the Mavuradonha Mountains and the Zambezi River, I have provisionally called it North Zimbabwe and this is our place in the universe  and no one will be able to wrestle it from us.