Zimbabwe legislator calls for laws to protect people from political vampires

HON.TOGAREPI: Thank you Hon. Speaker.  I move this motion aware that in 1980 when we attained independence, there were issues that the people of Zimbabwe demanded and wanted to enjoy as equal citizens of Zimbabwe.  There was the land issue and also there was the one-man-one-vote.  At independence, we won the one-man-one-vote and every Zimbabwean, despite colour, was given the right to vote.  So, every Zimbabwean has the freedom to participate in the political activities of this country freely but not in a way to disadvantage or destroy the unity of our people.

Mr. Speaker Sir, we have seen in the politics of this country new opposition parties.  From independence, we had opposition parties but at the advent of the 2000 period, we saw many political parties largely sponsored by the West coming on the political scene with different political agendas, that of destabilisation, fights and violence.  That culture of politics has been staying with us for a long time.  We also realised over the years from that period that hate politics has come through the same sponsorship of the enemies of Zimbabwe.  We then realised that some also go to the extent of manufacturing lies, misrepresenting events in Zimbabwe, destroying the image of the country through unfounded allegations.  That has destroyed the cohesion within our society.

Mr. Speaker Sir, this situation has persuaded me to say we need to deal with those who want to disturb the democracy that we have.  Those who want to see us as Zimbabweans fighting our own country, disturbing the development of our country must be dealt with through various laws of this land.  In my view, if somebody wants to fight his country, subject his people to sanctions for example and lies about happenings in our country to the extent that one would misrepresent facts that will then see Zimbabwe being seen as an unsafe country – it is time that we have laws that will deal with such people.

Mr. Speaker, it is my proposal in this motion that such people must not be allowed to hold office.  If somebody lies about this country, lies about the politics of our country and it is discovered and verified that this person was doing it for politics, that person must be denied a right to participate in the politics of this country.  We need some laws in the country for people who claim to be politicians because politicians must be people who would want to see this country moving forward.  Politics and development go hand-in-hand, but if you are a political leader who would then want to lie about your country, go about blacklisting your country, the leadership and the people by asking for sanctions, you are not a good person for this country.  You cannot come back and say you want to run that country in a political office like Government being a councillor or Member of Parliament whilst you were saying things that destroyed the image of your country.  We have such people who would go to other countries, look for enemies to come to Zimbabwe, and telling donors not to donate anything to this country.  We have political parties who claim that without them, there is no politics in Zimbabwe.

We have political parties who, if they lose elections, they will say elections were rigged.  They will only accept elections where they have won.  Such people are not good politicians, if I am a politician and I go for elections and lose, I should be civil enough to accept defeat so that when I come tomorrow and win, the same person who I once lost to must also accept that somebody has won.  We have a culture that is being developed in this country where some people always oppose and create situations.  If there are international events like CHOGM in Rwanda, that is when you start hearing stories, people manufacturing stories that will see Zimbabwe being labeled for things that we may not have done, even when there are only investigations.  They do not listen to that, they take legal issues into politics, criminal issues into politics.  We have characters who paddle lies and they claim to be political leaders.

Madam Speaker, it is my strong view that those people who are politicians today, who are leaders of political parties, who are religious leaders; you also see some people who claim to be Pastors are Reverends getting into politics to tarnish the image of the country.  When we have characters like that, they should be laws and one of those laws is the Patriotic Act.  People who can go around the world demonising their country then come back to enjoy the same benefits from a country they are trying to destroy must face the music.  They will remain citizens of this country but they cannot hold political offices after the people of Zimbabwe have suffered.

People have gone around telling donors not to support the health sector of this country and the consequence now is that people are dying in hospitals because of lack of medication because of somebody who has gone around saying do not support the Government of Zimbabwe.  Such characters when they come back to say they want to lead this country, are not good for us because these are missionaries and we cannot allow them to do this.

Laws must be put in place to defend the people of Zimbabwe from political vampires, those who believe that when they are in politics, everyone else must suffer if they are not voted into office.  We have characters that live all their political life dealing with people or trading people’s pain.  People are suffering and once people suffer, they are okay with that, they start building that in order for them to receive money from donors.  We are going for an election and the horses have already bolted, the whole game has started and we need just to stop this through enacting of laws.

We need to come up with laws that will defend the people of Zimbabwe so that politics is not used to make people suffer.  So, it is my view Mr. Speaker, that a law must be enacted that will defend the people of Zimbabwe, a law that will ensure that when we are dealing with politics, it is a level playing ground, nobody uses the pain of the people of Zimbabwe and nobody must make us suffer for him to get into political office.  The issue that I am raising is, it is time that we are an orderly society where the politics of lies and the issue of people going around the world lying about their country must come to an end and people who lie about their country must pay for it.

Madam Speaker, it is my view that as Parliament, as the Government of Zimbabwe, it is time that we deal with such political malcontents. We need to deal with them and the law must come to protect the people of Zimbabwe against those political missionaries. I thank you Madam Speaker.

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