By Benjamin Paradza
The passing of Cde George Rutanhire prompts us to reflect
on where we came from and where we are going to. Somewhere in the Game of
Thrones, it is mentioned that it is not the business of the lion to concern
itself with opinions of the sheep. Cde George, as we affectionately knew him,
was, during my time, the lion and one of the most respected commanders and
members of the General Staff. Even the late General Vitalis Zvinavashe (alias
Fox Corner / Sheba Gava) who succeeded Solomon Mujuru and preceded Constantino
Chiwenga as defence forces commander, saluted Cde George.
In the ZANLA command structure, the General Staff was
immediately below the High Command, after which were the Detachment Commanders
(commonly known as the D level) and then the various junior ranks. The real
operational commanders were in the General Staff and the D level. Cde George
was the most senior of the General Staff. As Director of the Commissariat, he
reported to and saluted only members of the High Command who, with some notable
exceptions, were not always among us. So, in an army of over 30 000, he saluted
not more than 30 men in the Central Committee and the High Command. That is how
high-ranking Cde George was.
What was striking about Cde George was his humility,
awareness and acceptance of his personal limitations. Cognisant of his
shortcomings, he surrounded himself with Comrades like me who had more formal
education than he did to help him effectively execute his tasks as Director. At
his command, we wrote and prepared the commissariat lectures used for training
of comrades. I was deployed to Manicaland to conduct research into the
situation there and report back. Through such research projects, Cde George was
able to brief the High Command on how the struggle had progressed.
Cde George and his wife Cde Susan were in the thick of it
all and fortunately survived the war. He used to talk about how he and a
handful of other combatants outwitted the Rhodesian forces in 1972 when they
abducted a group of students from St Alberts Mission in Mount Darwin. He was
one of those who ignited the war in the north-eastern Tete Province, together
with Comrades Wilfred Mhanda, Webster Gwauya and others, when the likes of
Robert Mugabe and all these guys who falsely claim to have fought in the war
were either languishing in prison or were too young to prosecute the struggle.
Saviour Kasukuwere is one of those who literally must have been in nappies
then.
In recent times, apart from his ill-conceived and
unnecessary dig at Mai Mujuru, with which I respectfully disagreed, we had heard nothing about Cde George. It was as if he was attacking Joice
Mujuru in an attempt to attract the attention of ZANU PF after they had neglected
him for years. When bad guys take over, they sideline the good ones.
Rutanhire was one of the good and genuine war veterans who
was overwhelmingly neglected by vultures and opportunists who never fought the
battles that he did. To his widow, Cde Susan, I express my sincere condolences.
You and Cde George are not at all party to what they have done to our country.
May your goodness, Cde George, and your soul rest in eternal peace knowing you
played your part without seeking personal gain. I certainly would be there in
person to pay you my last respects, if only I was not exiled by the same people
that we sacrificed our lives for who have turned out to be nothing but thugs
and thieves. When good men die, the evil will rejoice.
You genuinely earned your status as a national hero and you
do not need the approbation of charlatans who, by conferring that title on you,
seek to bask in your reflected glory.
Justice Benjamin Paradza Exiled Judge of the High Court of
Zimbabwe and President of ZUNDE
www.zunde.org; [email protected], @zundezim
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