By Cde Nhamo Taneta

When the Second Republic was established via “a coup that was not a coup,” the triumphant army generals, led by none other than Ruka Chivende, assured the nation that they were “only targeting criminals around the President.”

The jubilant citizenry, ecstatic at the prospect of Mugabe’s long reign coming to an end, failed to ask the important follow up question, which criminals exactly?

As it turns out, the real targets were privileges and access to the national cake not for us, the long suffering masses, but for Ruka and his comrades in arms.

True to form, the New Dispensation has proven to be a masterclass in recycling, except it’s not plastic or paper they’re reusing but the very corruption, nepotism, and greed that defined Mugabe’s 37-year grip on power.

The promised crackdown on “criminals around the President” turned out to be a theatrical performance.

Sure, a handful of G40 darlings like Ignatius Chombo and Priscilla Mupfumira were thrown under the bus for show, but in the end, no one served a jail sentence.

In fact, the New Dispensation not only pardoned many of Mugabe’s cronies but also went on to establish its own inner circle of “untouchables.”

If Mugabe’s land reform program was infamous for its “one man, one farm” policy, the Second Republic has refined it to “one ruling party official, all the farms.”

Forget the rhetoric about redistributing land to the people, the only beneficiaries now are the elites and their kin.

Enter Mafenyadira Mohadi!

Meet Mafenyadira Mohadi, son of the ever loyal Kembo Mohadi, who has followed in his father’s footsteps, not as a liberator, but as a land baron.

Mafenyadira recently staked his claim to Old Arnold Farm in Mazowe (also known as Manzou Farm), a property that even the fearsome Dr. Stop It herself failed to seize during her husband’s twilight years.

Armed with an offer letter and the might of the state behind him, Mafenyadira has begun evicting hundreds of peasant farmers who were beneficiaries of the original land reform program.

When Liberation Becomes Appropriation

But why stop at one farm? After all, the Mohadis already own vast tracts of land in Matabeleland South.

It seems that, for some, the liberation struggle was less about freeing the people and more about replacing white landowners with black ones, preferably those with the right political connections.

The timing couldn’t be better.

With the Second Republic proposing a new land policy that allows landholders to sell their plots, the stage is set for even more “strategic reallocations.”

Translation: land grabs by the well-connected at the expense of the peasants who risked it all to defend their piece of the pie.

In its brief but calamitous existence, the Second Republic has managed to outshine the First Republic in mismanagement and greed.

Under Mugabe, there was at least a pretense of “land for the people.”

Of course, under Chivende and company, land belongs to the highest bidder or the one with the most guns.

The Mohadis’ ambitions are a sobering reminder that the struggle never truly ends. The only question now is: “who’s next in line to be evicted?”