I sit here Mr. Speaker; I did not participate in the liberation struggle. I knew that there were certain people who were said to have participated in the liberation struggle. These are the people that did a, b, c, d yet on a day to day basis, that whole issue is being contested to an extent that some of us are now wondering whether the war of liberation actually did take place. Was there a Chimurenga that took place because every day you hear so and so did not go to war, so and so was a prostitute and so and so was busy sending people to the front. So, what happened to the liberation struggle? The whole basis of a foundation of what we have always known and understood to be a foundation of this country is being contested and has basically collapsed. You therefore cannot build a nation on the basis in which the foundation is being destroyed on a day to day basis.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): Hon. Members, less noise in the House.
HON. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: So, you cannot build a nation on the basis of a foundation that you are destroying on a day to day basis. Today I am not sure who is a proper war veteran. No one can tell me where a proper war veteran is because you are challenging every person that has been in the struggle – so and so was not at war. First, we were told Hon. Mnangagwa did not really run the group of five, then the next thing we were told that the former Vice President, Mai Mujuru was not in the struggle; she did not shoot down an aeroplane, Mr. Mutsvangwa was stealing women underwear. So, at the end of the day, who exactly participated in the war of liberation? I raise this because until and unless we go back to the fundamentals, we go back to a foundation of what this country is all about, you cannot achieve anything.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I say so and I say we now have a clear division, a divided war veterans, war veterans that cannot speak on the issues around where the history of this country comes from. Mr. Speaker, we are divided on the basis of gender. I have not been in this country and seen the level of abuse that I have seen women being subjected to until I came to this particular period of time.
I want to go back; you cannot have a person who was a Vice President of this country for more than twenty years and write in a State newspaper that the way that woman sits is a way that prostitute sits and you write in a proper newspaper. This is being written by somebody who was a civil servant or who is a civil servant. So, are you telling me that all those times that you used to go and brief the Acting President, you were busy looking between her legs and wondering why she is sitting in a particular manner? That is what we are now finding in this particular country. I am raising this issue because unless we deal with these fundamental issues, it does not matter what the President will come and speak because we have a country that is messed up, a country that has a distorted history.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to go to two things that I found problematic and thought they should naturally have been part of what we are going to deal with in this particular session. Mr. Speaker, there is the issue around devolution. Many times we have heard Members of Parliament here stand up and raise issues around devolution. Devolution is not just a principle. It is a way of life.
Continued next page
(619 VIEWS)
