Moss Ntla recently wrote about Zimbabwe and how those who led the revolution will now kill for the revolution, unable to see that the revolution no longer needs them. Robert Mugabe has "an incurable need to be needed by the revolution."

I met Moss last week at the IUM conference in Pretoria. He's also worked closely with Change Agents and is the head of TEASA (The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa). His take on Zimbabwe is hard-hitting and should be read by anyone who considers himself part of any revolution (including those in the emerging church who only understand their mission as moving away from church as they know it) who at some point have to answer the question, "Now that the revolution is over, how do we understand our role?"

On killing for the revolution - Moss Ntla

His Excellency President Robert Mugabe looks at a mirror, and sees one who alone is entrusted by history to give not only definition to the Zimbabwean revolution, but to be its God ordained defender. Without him the dream of the revolution will collapse and disappear from history. Twenty years shy of a hundred, he has given his entire life to the dream. He cannot permit something as fickle as a popular election to rob him of his dream. He will kill for the revolution. Thousands of Zimbabwean who died in Matabeleland in the 80s are ample evidence of this, not to mention those who continue to disappear today. He is unable to see when the revolution no longer needs him, since he has all but forgotten what justice looks like. He has an incurable need to be needed by the revolution.

This is a tragedy of those who see themselves not as servants of the people and the revolution, but as masters. They loose all sense of proportion about their importance in the history and project of liberation. Corrupted by the lust for power, they quickly cross the line between their revolutionary calling to serve the people, and their need to serve themselves.  They see themselves as masters of the revolution, and when they say they will kill for the revolution, its no joke. They will actually kill you, as though this is part of their badge of revolutionary honour. They have lost the humility to serve, and to have any sense of regard for the people they serve. Their reference point is what is ultimately good for the people. The reference point is themselves. What is bad to the `revolutionary leader’ is automatically bad for the people. Whether that is elections in Zimbabwe or Scorpions at home. The overriding consideration is the comfort and self interest of the `revolutionary’ leader.

The problem of course does not lie only with those who like to kill for the revolution. It lies with all of us for allowing a culture to evolve where the revolutionary leader feels so entitled to rule that he or she presumes they will rule till Christ comes back. `Our people’, as we have come to be called in revolutionary language, will remain permanently thankful for the liberation struggle role played by the revolutionary leader, that we will be sure to deliver our vote at every election, because, after all, there is no one else with credentials strong enough to be trusted with the defence of the revolution.  Without the revolutionary leader, the gains of the revolution will be reversed and the dream will die. So we have given a blank cheque to our revolutionary leader. He can pass rubbish legislation, steal our money from the public purse, avoid accountability, kill `for the revolution’ and still we will deliver our vote to him. Until Christ comes. 

Strange too how God is invoked in service of this notion of the revolution. There is a hegemonic tendency among such revolutionary leaders to tread even where angels fear to go, presuming to shape God after their own image. It is an ancient ruse by ruling elites to co-opt even God in service of their empires, pretending that their reign has divine legitimating. A dangerous misrepresentation of One of whom an ancient Hebrew  prophet Jeremiah wrote:  “Let him who boasts boast in this: that he understands Me, that I am the Lord , exercising kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight” says the Lord.

It will not be long till the word revolution becomes a swear word that carries a bad smell for millions of people betrayed by revolutionary leaders. We can only pray that it will not be the beginning of popular cynicism about the possibility of a better world, where justice flows like a river and righteousness like a mighty stream.

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