I have listened carefully to Comrade Christopher Mutsvangwa’s press conference, which I accessed on social media.
With all due respect to his long service to the Revolution, I must say what many comrades are thinking but are afraid to articulate: this was not the voice of a revolutionary speaking truth to power.
It was the voice of a courtier speaking power to truth.
Mutsvangwa now tells us there is “absolutely no conflict” in the Presidium between President Mnangagwa and Vice President Chiwenga.
He dismisses those raising legitimate concerns including those behind the current court challenge as “phantoms”, “products of social media”, or “terminally ill” like the late Comrade Blessed Geza.
This is not unity. This is enforced silence dressed up as discipline.
To characterise comrades who are using the courts, the party structures and lawful political channels as “phantoms” is to insult the very institutions of our Republic.
If the Presidium is truly united, why must unity be defended by mocking those who question? If there is no conflict, why must dissent be pathologised as illness or fantasy?
We fought a war so that Zimbabweans could speak, organise and contest power without fear.
We did not fight so that one man’s narrative, however loudly amplified by the party machinery, becomes the only permissible truth.
Comrade Mutsvangwa may choose to believe that social media power-seekers are irrelevant, but he cannot wish away the fact that thousands of genuine party members, war veterans, youths and ordinary citizens are watching, listening and drawing their own conclusions.
To those comrades who feel compelled to ridicule others in order to prove their loyalty: history will judge you.
The Revolution does not need sellouts on either side neither those who betray its ideals for personal gain, nor those who betray its truth for temporary favour.
The people of Zimbabwe are not phantoms.
Their concerns are not terminal. And their voices will not be silenced by press conferences.
Retired Lieutenant General Winston Sigauke Mapuranga.