ZIM VIGIL’S MISGUIDED “VIGILANCE”: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA

On Sunday 18 April 2010 Zimbabweans will mark 30 years of independence. A day before, the Zimbabwe Vigil, will be protesting to mark the 30 years of independence: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/

The Vigil has lost its feet in emotion. It is easy to say “we are not independent because ZANU PF has not kept its promises and in fact went on to commit gross crimes against humanity”. I suffered both during the Ian Smith era and again during the ZANU PF era and I am so sure I have ruffled a lot of feathers within the MDC [a party to which I am a historical] to convince me that I will suffer again under their own tutelage. During the Smith era I happened to be born to the “wrong family” of liberation fighters. Both my parents were involved with the struggle for Zimbabwe’s independence and I witnessed the restriction, arrest and humiliation of my father and mother. On the streets my father’s name was sung together with that of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo: “Mutyambizi ibva kumhepo, une kasmero keumhondi! Mutyambizi stay away from the direction of the wind because you are a terrorist” because my father was a liberation fighter.
And even as ex-combatants moved into Assembly Points it was so clear that both ZIPRA and ZANLA guerrillas left some of their combatants out. Some of them ended up at our house with their rifles, guns and ammunition. Even at that age we were made to sing revolutionary songs and listen to Voice of Zimbabwe. Later in this phase of the struggle for democracy I found myself opposing the party that I had grown up breathing and eating and with that also came detention by people I had always known as my brothers and sisters. Hailing from Gokwe in the Midlands I must always say although I was still too young to have suffered personally, I recall the atrocities of Gukurahundi as they happened to people very close to me and in our neighbourhood. Yet I do not believe we can continue shunning independence whichever the political persuasion we identify with.
The Independence and Heroes’ days have a very significant character, the national character. They are not the days ZANU PF, ZAPU or MDC were formed. In the past we have allowed ZANU PF in particular to claim these special days by deciding to stay away. This is counter-productive because it feeds into ZANU PF’s line of propaganda: that forces opposed to the Party are opposed to the independence of Zimbabwe. The fixation with opposing everything ZANU PF does is not progressive at all because sometimes it represents tactical errors from which tactical withdrawal will be impossible. For whatever it is, Zimbabwe is an independent country. Some of the agents of that independence have indeed become our tormentors. They have maimed us, they have killed our relatives and friends, hey committed atrocities and they have stolen from us. But they were not alone. There are brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers who lost their lives at Nyadzonia, Tembwe, Mulungushi, Mkushi, Chimoio, Mboroma, Murogoro and in the bushes of Zimbabwe for the independence cause that every 18 April signifies. We cannot forget their sacrifice. There are a lot of war veterans still alive in Zimbabwe who survived dangerous situations for the independence of their country. That sacrifice cannot be in vain.
We can never forget that because of what has become of our country. We cannot forget Joshua Nkomo, Leopold Mukumwaidzi Tapfumaneyi Takawira, Lookout Masuku, Tar Silundika, Ziyaphapha Moyo, Joseph Culverwell, Guy-Clutton Brock and many others because of what has become of their former colleagues in the liberation of our country. The Vigil is advancing opportunism at the expense of activism. Choosing such a day to oppose Robert Mugabe when we are supposed to be united by the sacrifice of those departed comrades is the wrong turn to make. It speaks volumes of either immaturity or a different agenda or both. 18 April is not the 21st February which is President Mugabe’s birthday. On such a day the Vigil can do anything and it will be justified. 18 April is a different day. I do not think Rose and Dennis Benton, who identify themselves as British, will stop commemorating Remembrance Day and Armistice Day if they were Conservative simply because there is a Labour Government in power. I do not think it will be appropriate if the Stop the War Coalition were to mount their demonstrations on Remembrance Day and Armistice Day. There is sensitivity around those days. There should be sensitivity around our Independence and Heroes Days. If at all there is one thing we needed to do, the Independence and Heroes Days should be the two days people enter Zimbabwe House so that we commemorate together as one nation not members of particular political parties.
I fully subscribe to most of the ideals of the Zimbabwe Vigil and truly speaking I have been and will remain one its most erstwhile supporters. I am made to believe that I sit in the Vigil Committee which in fact is seldom consulted and when it is finally consulted it serves the purpose of simply endorsing pre-conceived agendas which are rushed to a table packed by willing diners to the cookies and cuisines from one or two individuals within the Zimbabwe Vigil power configurations. In fact Zimbabwe Vigil has actually fallen into the same pit that it criticises others of, there has been unwillingness to reconstitute the organisation so that the formation of structures is captured in a proper document such as a constitution.
The Vigil is supposed to be a coalition which includes other organisations such as Zimbabwe Association but there is no evidence that these are consulted in decision making which itself puts to question Zimbabwe Vigil’s mandate to call others to transparency. The organisation now formulates policies but this too is not formally guaranteed in the absence of its coalition partners making all the policies it has made onerous, unilateral and therefore unlawful. There are organisations that the Vigil calls sister organisations again there is nowhere to indicate that those sibling relationships were born out of a formal agreement and there is no written document to show who sanctioned such sibling relationships and the rules of engagement between the Vigil and such organisations. Power in the Vigil has now been dangerously left in the hands of Rose Benton and her husband and they have managed to rein in at their will few protégés who seem not to have a clue of why we have consistently opposed the ZANU PF regime and recently the emerging corruption, nepotism, lack of transparency and dictatorship in the Movement for Democratic Change.
The characteristics of the Vigil be it functional, personnel, structural and moral have on their own evolved to become an organisation but sadly all the years we have talked about transparency and democracy we actually wanted them to apply to others not us and now what we are seeing is a mutation that has brought about several mutagens within the Vigil against the advancement of democracy within the Vigil system. There seems to be a thinking that Canon Law applies to the other church and not our church which is a wrong assumption because the rule for transparency and democracy is universal. The fact that we have had the same people in the same positions and there has never been an election at the Vigil speaks volumes of the character of the philosophy and ethos the organisation aims at. The fact that they have persistently excluded its true coalition partners actually makes it more similar to the same ZANU PF they so much criticise because they are the ones who have always remorselessly excluded their coalition partners in the GPA. I have spoken about this within the Vigil itself but I was ignored and I have promised I will continue speaking about it and this is what I am doing. I am a firm believer in leadership renewal, I have made friends talking about it and I have made enemies talking about it. I know I will continue making friends and enemies because of my beliefs and I really do not worry much about that. Given a choice between excellence and mediocrity I will choose mediocrity over excellence if the later guarantees leadership renewal and democracy. I have always told people that even if Zimbabwe was as successful as the USA I would not vote President Robert Mugabe still because I do not believe any one person should hold political power for 30 years. I am aware of the excellence of a lot of people at the Vigil but they have been running the organisation for too long and they should make way for new leadership. There is no justification for people to hold positions they have held since 2002.
Julius MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA 07529705413 OR mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk