Pupurai Togarepi Calls For Law To Ban Celebrating Rhodesia
ZANU PF chief whip and Gutu South MP, Pupurai Togarepi, has called for legislation to make it illegal to celebrate Rhodesia, drawing a parallel to laws in Israel and Germany that prohibit the celebration of the Holocaust.
The Holocaust, which saw the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime during World War II, is considered one of history’s most horrific genocides.
While primarily targeting Jews, it also victimized Romani people, the intellectually disabled, political dissidents, and homosexuals.
Togarepi, in a post on X, stated that romanticizing Rhodesia is akin to celebrating Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution” in Israel, where the genocide of millions of Jews is regarded as an atrocity. He wrote:
We will propose tough legislation to deal with nostalgic Rhodies: black, white, or pink. The last vestiges of colonialism must be destroyed with the soonest. You can’t celebrate the holocaust in Germany or Israel, so it shall be, no celebration of colonialism in Zimbabwe…
Rhodesia was built on exploitation and exclusion. The economy was for a few whites while Zimbabwe is for the majority.
Responding to Togarepi, Brian Mari said the black government killed more black people than Rhodesians under Ian Smith. He wrote:
Iwe @TogarepiPupurai enda undisungirire pawakandisunungura. Ndaiva nane ndiri ipapa. (You, Pupurai Togarepi, go and get me tied at the place where you set me free from. I was better off there.)
I fear mnangagwa than Smith. Gukurahundi killed more blacks than Smith.
CIOs are scary than sellous scouts.
All our life savings were eroded 3 times after your so called independence.
Togarepi’s remarks come in the wake of a heated debate on X, where Zimbabweans have been comparing life under the current ZANU PF-led government to that of the Ian Smith regime, which governed Rhodesia until its collapse in 1980.
The debate has sparked divided opinions, with some arguing that the Smith administration, despite its white supremacist policies, was more efficient and less corrupt than the current government.
Critics of the current regime point to the deterioration of infrastructure and the ongoing economic struggles, which they claim mirror some of the failures seen under colonial rule.
On the other side, there are those who strongly oppose any romanticization of Rhodesia, highlighting the injustices and racial discrimination that characterized the regime.
Togarepi’s call for legislation against celebrating Rhodesia comes as part of a broader effort to reject any nostalgia for the colonial era and to protect the legacy of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.
His comments probably reflect ZANU PF’s stance on confronting what they view as efforts to undermine the achievements of independence.
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