COMMUNITIES POINT STATEMENT ON ZIMBABWE DEFENCE FORCES:
BY THE CHAIRMAN: JULIUS MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA

Communities Point is disturbed by the continuing intervention of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces in frontline, partisan politics in Zimbabwe. This position is reached in line with comments attributed to Lieutnant Colonel Malamo in The Herald on Saturday 10 July 2010: http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=21069&cat=1
While Communities Point does not support illegal sanctions not only against Zimbabwe but against any innocent country and would be the first to oppose them where they exist, the issue of their existence and non-existence in Zimbabwe has been the subject of political embroilment and the making of political capital. Since we are pursuing a completely different agenda, chief of which is not to attain partisan political capital, we will not be drawn into the debate of the existence or non-existence of sanctions in Zimbabwe which is a matter for partisan politics to resolve. However we are worried by the statement of Lieutnant Colonel Malamo, whose rank in the army ought to be the senior-most non-political commissioned rank. We expect Lieutnant Colonel Malamo to be able to display the attributes of a professional rank, he is not a one star general; neither is he a Major General, Lieutnant General or General Commander which are all political appointments. He is where he is on merit and the nation shivers when such pronouncements come from people like him.

While we share the same aspirations he has for Zimbabwe to be well defended by a potent, well-equipped and resourced army our departure point is our insistence that the Zimbabwean army be professional by following the country’s Defence Charter which prohibits the army from being partisan political. We stood with the Zimbabwe Defence Forces last year when they embarked on the path of reconnecting with the nation through asymmetric warfare. We offered to assist them as Communities Point has among its ranks people with knowledge of asymmetric warfare. The advantage of winning the hearts and minds of the nation is that the ZDF will have a base from which to recruit for their future campaigns and also a cover where need arises. An army that does not have the support of its own nationals will find it very difficult to win a war regardless of how well it is resourced. This is why the NAZI army lost the World War 2 and here at home, why a well-equipped, and better trained army during the Rhodesian-era lost to guerrilla forces that although with basic weaponry and basic military training managed to win the war because of the immense support it got from the masses. Saying the same things that politicians should be saying is not encouraging. We are against an army that will support MDC, ZANU PF, ZAPU, MKD or any other political party. The army is apolitical, it is for the nation.

Coming to the issue of “sanctions” and weapons Lt Colonel Malamo must be ashamed of himself for crying loud and in daylight to have their own weapons, medicines and other equipment come from another country. No modern army worth its salt should want its own equipment coming from other countries. It is not safe. Modern, high-tech armies are self-sufficient and Communities Point makes no apologies in castigating the political leadership of Zimbabwe for failing the army by fostering and hoisting a philosophy that made our own army hostage to the arms and ammunitions of other countries at our peril. At independence in 1980 we inherited a defence industry that was capable of ensuring this self-sufficiency and now we want other armies to equip us. Lt Colonel Malamo cannot guarantee the nation’s security against the armies of those countries that supply our country. Just like the partisan politicians, he is keen on seeing a country that sells its own security by entrusting the manufacture and sourcing of equipment to foreigners instead of deliberating on a policy that will see Zimbabwe being self-sufficient in key things such as our own medicines, arms and ammunition and the production of food without which Zimbabwe cannot be said to be truly sovereign.

We urge the Zimbabwe Defence Forces to avoid the temptation of belonging to a political party. The Zimbabwe Defence Forces are not ZANLA, ZIPRA, or Rhodesia Front. They are Zimbabwean in nature and character, formed out of a compromise that followed a bloody path that no-one wishes to follow. It is insensitive to ignore this by characterising the army as if it is the extension of ZANU PF. ZANU PF has its own intelligence; Chinyavada and its own youth wing who should be allowed to talk freely about their party and I think they too will be annoyed that the country’s standing army is now usurping that power and giving it to themselves.

www.communitiespoint.com or mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or Julius.mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 00447529705413