Saturday, 30 October 2010 00:00
Last week Zimbabwe was rocked by the scandalous details of an alleged affair between First Lady Grace Mugabe and the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono.
While the details of the sensational Sunday Times story reverberated on the Internet around the world, none of the Zimbabwean newspapers touched it.
The Sunday Times recently laun-ched a special Zimbabwean edition of the newspaper. While the details of the Gono/Mugabe affair would make more relevant reading in Harare than in Johannesburg and London, the majority of the population of Zimbabwe, those without access to the Internet remained largely ignorant of the alleged scandal.
That was until copies of the article were printed on office computers and circulated in Harare.
Reporter Jon Swain’s scandalous scoop has raised many an eyebrow, particularly within the Zimbabwe media many asking, “Is the story true?”
I will attempt to provide a logical response to that question.
I seek to address fundamental issues of professional and ethical journalism in the context of the strategies employed in the construction of Swain’s article.
A source close to both Gono and Grace told an online publication the story was “littered with falsehoods”.
“The story claims Cain Chademana was a senior police officer and a decorated veteran of Zimbabwe’s independence struggle,” she said. “That’s a decorated lie because Chademana died aged 36, and (was) therefore too young to have fought in any war. Again, he was never a police officer.”
The source said around the time Sabina Mugabe is supposed to have spoken to President Mugabe about his wife’s alleged infidelity she was in a coma and was, therefore, unable to speak.
Both Sabina Mugabe and Chademana, the only two witnesses who could testify in court to the veracity of the alleged facts, are dead and, therefore, not available to help their defence. The Sunday Times was cognisant of this.
Another give-away indication that there might be more to Swain’s story than meets the eye is the manner in which he handles his sources.
On one occasion Swain apparently conducted a group interview with several (CIO) officials.
Not only did Swain accomplish the rare feat of persuading CIO officials to be interviewed as a group, which is very unlikely; he also got them to articulate whole sentences, while speaking in unison, which, of course is impossible.
A Zimbabwean journalist who also cannot be named, said he had known Chademana personally from 1997 when he was security aide to the late Eddision Zvobgo.
“Chademana was probably 36-38 years at the time of his death,” he said.
“He was almost my age, and would never have gone to war. In fact, he went to school with my journalist colleagues, and finished his A-Levels here in 1992.”
The journalist said Chademana had been unwell for a long time.
suspect investigative journalism
Many journalists in Harare have openly marvelled at Swain’s apparent long-distance penchant for cultivating hordes of sources, even in the most unlikely places. Apparently he remarkably has several sources within the ranks of Zimbabwe’s much feared Central Intelligence Organisation also within the fortress that is the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and at Mugabe’s Gushungo Dairy Farm.
Normally only a journalist with suicidal tendencies would pester “the boys in dark glasses” with pointed questions about the alleged secret love life of the First Lady of Zimbabwe, before proceeding to her farm to do the same among the farm workers.
The security arrangements around the farm would be above average. It is unlikely a white journalist straight off a flight from London would be pampered with details of which bedroom the lady of the house uses when allegedly visiting with the governor of the Reserve Bank.
by geoffrey nyarota
This article first appeared in The Standard
Saturday 30 October 2010
Thursday 28 October 2010
RBZ restored to lender of last resort
Thursday, 28 October 2010 20:54
GOVERNMENT has restored the banker-of last-resort function of the debt-ridden Reserve Bank after injecting US$7 million to improve fluidity of banking operations.
A lender of last resort is an institution, usually a country’s central bank, which offers loans to banks or other eligible institutions that are experiencing financial difficulty or are considered highly risky or near collapse.
Zimbabwe has 25 operating banking institutions, comprising 15 commercial banks, five merchant banks, four building societies and one savings bank. The banking sector is now largely dominated by commercial banks following the migration of some merchant banks into commercial banking.
Finance minister Tendai Biti and central bank governor Gideon Gono yesterday reached an agreement in the capital that would result in the re-emergence of overnight lending, revival of the interbank market and ultimately improving confidence in the financial services sector.
The central bank was rendered redundant after government last year adopted the use of multiple currencies to stem unprecedented inflation. The central bank has an estimated US$1,5 billion debt incurred during the decade-long economic meltdown.
The decision by the Finance ministry to restore one of the core functions of the apex bank could be a response to numerous calls from International Monetary Fund and local banks which raised the red flag warning of an imminent exposure of banks in the absence of a lender of last resort.
Local banks are currently holding US$2 billion in deposits.
“As Ministry of Finance we are officially restoring the lender of last resort function of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,” Biti said. “To us this marks the completion of a task we set out to do at the bank.”
He added: “We are providing amounts to the tune of $7 million which is consistent with the mid-term fiscal statement. We have got the power and discretion of increasing these amounts depending on how the lender-of-last-resort operation is going to operate…If there is going to be demand I can assure you that we can increase that amount from $7 million.”
Before the restoration of the lender-of-last-resort function, the apex bank in July scrapped statutory reserves as a stop-gap measure to reduce bank vulnerabilities and systemic risks.
The restoration of the function to the central bank — save for printing local currency — is also expected to reduce lending rates currently as high as 30%. This measure could again be a reprieve for depositors on the other hand as it is expected to increase depositors’ interest rates.
Gono said he was “pleased” that treasury had surpassed the central bank expectations after the former initially pledged US$5 million to revive the apex bank operations.
He said the bank — which during the Zimbabwe dollar era faced criticism of misappropriating funds held in foreign currency accounts — had set up a committee tasked with an oversight role of the lender of last resort funds in line with good corporate governance principles.
The central bank chief said the agreement would “add a tonne of confidence where there was a tenth of confidence”.
He expected the monetary development to boost transactions carried through the country’s national payment system.
The Real Time Gross Settlement, according to Gono, has since resumption last year in April facilitated transactions worth US$14,5 billion while cheques and internet banking accounted for US$200 million apiece.
Bernard Mpofu
This article first appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent
GOVERNMENT has restored the banker-of last-resort function of the debt-ridden Reserve Bank after injecting US$7 million to improve fluidity of banking operations.
A lender of last resort is an institution, usually a country’s central bank, which offers loans to banks or other eligible institutions that are experiencing financial difficulty or are considered highly risky or near collapse.
Zimbabwe has 25 operating banking institutions, comprising 15 commercial banks, five merchant banks, four building societies and one savings bank. The banking sector is now largely dominated by commercial banks following the migration of some merchant banks into commercial banking.
Finance minister Tendai Biti and central bank governor Gideon Gono yesterday reached an agreement in the capital that would result in the re-emergence of overnight lending, revival of the interbank market and ultimately improving confidence in the financial services sector.
The central bank was rendered redundant after government last year adopted the use of multiple currencies to stem unprecedented inflation. The central bank has an estimated US$1,5 billion debt incurred during the decade-long economic meltdown.
The decision by the Finance ministry to restore one of the core functions of the apex bank could be a response to numerous calls from International Monetary Fund and local banks which raised the red flag warning of an imminent exposure of banks in the absence of a lender of last resort.
Local banks are currently holding US$2 billion in deposits.
“As Ministry of Finance we are officially restoring the lender of last resort function of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,” Biti said. “To us this marks the completion of a task we set out to do at the bank.”
He added: “We are providing amounts to the tune of $7 million which is consistent with the mid-term fiscal statement. We have got the power and discretion of increasing these amounts depending on how the lender-of-last-resort operation is going to operate…If there is going to be demand I can assure you that we can increase that amount from $7 million.”
Before the restoration of the lender-of-last-resort function, the apex bank in July scrapped statutory reserves as a stop-gap measure to reduce bank vulnerabilities and systemic risks.
The restoration of the function to the central bank — save for printing local currency — is also expected to reduce lending rates currently as high as 30%. This measure could again be a reprieve for depositors on the other hand as it is expected to increase depositors’ interest rates.
Gono said he was “pleased” that treasury had surpassed the central bank expectations after the former initially pledged US$5 million to revive the apex bank operations.
He said the bank — which during the Zimbabwe dollar era faced criticism of misappropriating funds held in foreign currency accounts — had set up a committee tasked with an oversight role of the lender of last resort funds in line with good corporate governance principles.
The central bank chief said the agreement would “add a tonne of confidence where there was a tenth of confidence”.
He expected the monetary development to boost transactions carried through the country’s national payment system.
The Real Time Gross Settlement, according to Gono, has since resumption last year in April facilitated transactions worth US$14,5 billion while cheques and internet banking accounted for US$200 million apiece.
Bernard Mpofu
This article first appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent
.South Africa woos investors towards huge solar plant
Joshua Howat Berger, 14:49, Thursday 28 October 2010
South Africa wooed investors Thursday towards what could become the world's largest solar project, built on the edge of the Kalahari Desert to provide an eighth of the country's electricity.
More than 400 investors and solar industry insiders from as far away as India, South Korea, Spain and the United States descended on the tiny town of Upington in South Africa's arid Northern Cape province for a conference aimed at laying the groundwork for a 5,000-Megawatt solar park.
Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said the park, whose estimated price tag is 150 billion rands (21.3 billion dollars, 15.4 billion euros), would be funded mainly by private developers that would finance and build individual projects and sell power to the national grid.
She called the park a "win-win" project that would move South Africa toward a green economy and help break its long-time dependence on coal -- currently about 90 percent of the country's energy mix -- while giving investors a share in one of the world's best locations for solar power.
"I know you are here to make money. We are also here to say we want you to generate power," Peters said.
"But we also want to be able to create jobs for our people," she added.
"We are here creating a win-win situation."
The area around Upington has some of the best conditions in the world for solar power, according to a pre-feasibility study by the non-profit Clinton Climate Initiative, a clean energy programme sponsored by former US president Bill Clinton's charitable foundation.
The arid Northern Cape, which sits at the edge of the Kalahari Desert, has some of the strongest sunshine in the world, relatively developed infrastructure and seemingly endless expanses of flat, empty land.
"When you drive around here with a solar developer's hat on, it's magic. It's flat, there's good grid lines," said Dick Berlijn, director of project development firm Subsolar.
"Both on the industrial side and also just on how it looks, it's an amazing area."
Peters said the government hopes the solar park will have a capacity of 5,000 Megawatts -- about the amount produced by the very biggest coal-fired power stations -- by 2020. The country currently generates almost 40,000 Megawatts nationally.
She said the project was part of government plans to create 300,000 "green economy" jobs by 2020 and make South Africa a global leader in solar energy.
"We want long and sustainable impact," Peters said.
"We are not creating a platform ... for our people to just be those who mix concrete and dig holes. We want them to contribute even at the technical levels."
Gideon Joubert, an engineer at South African firm Windmeul, said the solar park has the potential to create large numbers of jobs at local companies.
His firm, which specialises in steel construction, already has experience building frames for solar generation stations used by oil companies in places like Angola, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
"We will be able to manufacture the stuff in South Africa," Joubert told AFP. "We just have to get the right people here to get the (solar panels) from overseas so we can do the manufacturing here."
Peters said in time South Africa will produce solar panels locally, contributing to the larger vision of a green economy.
"We cannot say we reduce (emissions) by building the solar park and then at the same time, we keep on using even more jet fuel to be able to bring in panels, to bring in (reflector) mirrors,," she said.
"We need to manufacture those things here."
Buzz up! 0Print..Topics:Sector MoversAsia.
This article first appeared in YahooNews
South Africa wooed investors Thursday towards what could become the world's largest solar project, built on the edge of the Kalahari Desert to provide an eighth of the country's electricity.
More than 400 investors and solar industry insiders from as far away as India, South Korea, Spain and the United States descended on the tiny town of Upington in South Africa's arid Northern Cape province for a conference aimed at laying the groundwork for a 5,000-Megawatt solar park.
Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said the park, whose estimated price tag is 150 billion rands (21.3 billion dollars, 15.4 billion euros), would be funded mainly by private developers that would finance and build individual projects and sell power to the national grid.
She called the park a "win-win" project that would move South Africa toward a green economy and help break its long-time dependence on coal -- currently about 90 percent of the country's energy mix -- while giving investors a share in one of the world's best locations for solar power.
"I know you are here to make money. We are also here to say we want you to generate power," Peters said.
"But we also want to be able to create jobs for our people," she added.
"We are here creating a win-win situation."
The area around Upington has some of the best conditions in the world for solar power, according to a pre-feasibility study by the non-profit Clinton Climate Initiative, a clean energy programme sponsored by former US president Bill Clinton's charitable foundation.
The arid Northern Cape, which sits at the edge of the Kalahari Desert, has some of the strongest sunshine in the world, relatively developed infrastructure and seemingly endless expanses of flat, empty land.
"When you drive around here with a solar developer's hat on, it's magic. It's flat, there's good grid lines," said Dick Berlijn, director of project development firm Subsolar.
"Both on the industrial side and also just on how it looks, it's an amazing area."
Peters said the government hopes the solar park will have a capacity of 5,000 Megawatts -- about the amount produced by the very biggest coal-fired power stations -- by 2020. The country currently generates almost 40,000 Megawatts nationally.
She said the project was part of government plans to create 300,000 "green economy" jobs by 2020 and make South Africa a global leader in solar energy.
"We want long and sustainable impact," Peters said.
"We are not creating a platform ... for our people to just be those who mix concrete and dig holes. We want them to contribute even at the technical levels."
Gideon Joubert, an engineer at South African firm Windmeul, said the solar park has the potential to create large numbers of jobs at local companies.
His firm, which specialises in steel construction, already has experience building frames for solar generation stations used by oil companies in places like Angola, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
"We will be able to manufacture the stuff in South Africa," Joubert told AFP. "We just have to get the right people here to get the (solar panels) from overseas so we can do the manufacturing here."
Peters said in time South Africa will produce solar panels locally, contributing to the larger vision of a green economy.
"We cannot say we reduce (emissions) by building the solar park and then at the same time, we keep on using even more jet fuel to be able to bring in panels, to bring in (reflector) mirrors,," she said.
"We need to manufacture those things here."
Buzz up! 0Print..Topics:Sector MoversAsia.
This article first appeared in YahooNews
Wednesday 27 October 2010
STRANDED
Stranded. no more caution
Not knowing where to go
Oblivious of what to do
The earth upside down
The world upside down
Life unyielding
Death unyielding!
Stranded no more action
suddenly the lion stands still,
pondering the next move
All energy drained from his muscles
From a night of luckless hunt
All zeal strained from the misfortune
Of being chased away by a mightier competitor
All hope lost to shifting prey
So where is his next meal?
Stranded, no more option
Suddenly the manager sweeps the floor
No more job to do
This place is new and this culture is not his
Unfamiliar face after fairness in an unfamiliar land
Why is he not shaken by the intriguing face of his unwelcoming host?
The lion suddenly shifts his appetite to grass
As the antelope here is for the local tiger!
Stranded, little alternatives
All these resources must be harnessed
Yet all the fortunes have not been realised
By Julius Sai Mutyambizi from Preaching to Priests Anthology
* Publisher: Timeless Avatar Press (12 April 2007)
* ISBN-10: 0978156730
* ISBN-13: 978-0978156732
* Order from Amazon.co.uk
Not knowing where to go
Oblivious of what to do
The earth upside down
The world upside down
Life unyielding
Death unyielding!
Stranded no more action
suddenly the lion stands still,
pondering the next move
All energy drained from his muscles
From a night of luckless hunt
All zeal strained from the misfortune
Of being chased away by a mightier competitor
All hope lost to shifting prey
So where is his next meal?
Stranded, no more option
Suddenly the manager sweeps the floor
No more job to do
This place is new and this culture is not his
Unfamiliar face after fairness in an unfamiliar land
Why is he not shaken by the intriguing face of his unwelcoming host?
The lion suddenly shifts his appetite to grass
As the antelope here is for the local tiger!
Stranded, little alternatives
All these resources must be harnessed
Yet all the fortunes have not been realised
By Julius Sai Mutyambizi from Preaching to Priests Anthology
* Publisher: Timeless Avatar Press (12 April 2007)
* ISBN-10: 0978156730
* ISBN-13: 978-0978156732
* Order from Amazon.co.uk
Thursday 21 October 2010
Angry Tsvangirai vows to defy Mugabe
21/10/2010 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter-/*
Forget it ... Morgan Tsvangirai
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has vowed to defy President Robert Mugabe’s attempts to force his MDC-T party out of the coalition government by violating the Global Political Agreement (GPA).
Tsvangirai reacted angrily after Mugabe re-assigned some of the country’s ambassadors and re-appointed provincial governors without consulting his coalition partners.
The prime minister told party supporters that the move was part of attempts by Mugabe to frustrate the MDC-T out of the coalition government.
“Who doesn’t know that this unity Government is a shared compromise? Mugabe alone cannot constitute the GPA, he came begging me to form the transitional government with him,” Tsvangirai told a consultative meeting of the MDC-T in Harare’s Mabvuku suburb during the week.
The MDC leader insisted he was the legitimate winner of the last elections and vowed not walk away from government.
“If Mugabe thinks we can leave this transitional Government then he must forget, it.
“It is him who is supposed to leave it because the MDC won the elections; we don’t want to be diverted from our goal which is to respect the will of the people,” Tsvangirai said.
He also told his supporters that he is ready to take on Mugabe in new elections expected next year and insisted that there would not be any violence.
“I can assure you there will be no violence because we will use all our powers nationally, regionally and internationally to have a credible election. We are tired of people who want to intimidate people if they want violent elections why don’t they do it alone,”
“We need international observers, SADC must bring peace keeping force who will be monitoring the situation. Only a peaceful, credible and legitimate election will solve us from this ZANU PF mess.
What happened in 2008 must not be repeated,” Tsvangirai told his supporters.
The MDC-T has also claimed Harare police were barring its meetings in the capital as parties begin to campaign for the next elections.
In a statement, the party said police had invoked sections of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) to stop two meetings in Budiriro and Highfields which were supposed to be addressed by Tsvangirai.
“The MDC is appalled by the action shown by the police in using the draconian POSA to bar peaceful public gatherings.
"The party is equally disturbed by the attempts by Zanu PF to abuse the police in achieving political ends,” the statement read
This article first appeared in New Zimbabwe
by Staff Reporter-/*
Forget it ... Morgan Tsvangirai
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has vowed to defy President Robert Mugabe’s attempts to force his MDC-T party out of the coalition government by violating the Global Political Agreement (GPA).
Tsvangirai reacted angrily after Mugabe re-assigned some of the country’s ambassadors and re-appointed provincial governors without consulting his coalition partners.
The prime minister told party supporters that the move was part of attempts by Mugabe to frustrate the MDC-T out of the coalition government.
“Who doesn’t know that this unity Government is a shared compromise? Mugabe alone cannot constitute the GPA, he came begging me to form the transitional government with him,” Tsvangirai told a consultative meeting of the MDC-T in Harare’s Mabvuku suburb during the week.
The MDC leader insisted he was the legitimate winner of the last elections and vowed not walk away from government.
“If Mugabe thinks we can leave this transitional Government then he must forget, it.
“It is him who is supposed to leave it because the MDC won the elections; we don’t want to be diverted from our goal which is to respect the will of the people,” Tsvangirai said.
He also told his supporters that he is ready to take on Mugabe in new elections expected next year and insisted that there would not be any violence.
“I can assure you there will be no violence because we will use all our powers nationally, regionally and internationally to have a credible election. We are tired of people who want to intimidate people if they want violent elections why don’t they do it alone,”
“We need international observers, SADC must bring peace keeping force who will be monitoring the situation. Only a peaceful, credible and legitimate election will solve us from this ZANU PF mess.
What happened in 2008 must not be repeated,” Tsvangirai told his supporters.
The MDC-T has also claimed Harare police were barring its meetings in the capital as parties begin to campaign for the next elections.
In a statement, the party said police had invoked sections of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) to stop two meetings in Budiriro and Highfields which were supposed to be addressed by Tsvangirai.
“The MDC is appalled by the action shown by the police in using the draconian POSA to bar peaceful public gatherings.
"The party is equally disturbed by the attempts by Zanu PF to abuse the police in achieving political ends,” the statement read
This article first appeared in New Zimbabwe
Sunday 17 October 2010
Bombing survivor accuses MDC-T of abandoning violence victims
Sunday, 17 October 2010 13:33
A survivor of the infamous June 3 2008 militia attack on the MDC-T Jerera offices which claimed the lives of three activists has launched a stinging tirade on the party leaders for abandoning victims of political violence.
A visibly irritated Edison Gwenhure said MDC-T had forgotten him and wondered whether the leaders still remembered the grassroots activists who propelled them to power.
“From all the struggles I waged for the party, all I got was disability,” said Gwenhure, who suffered serious body and facial burns after a Zanu PF militia doused him with petrol.
He made his comments just a metre away from the makeshift office which was petrol-bombed by five men who came in uniform.
Gwenhure survived the attack but three of his colleagues lost their lives.
Asked what he thought about war veteran leader Jabulani Sibanda’s widely condemned activities in Zaka district, an area he once fiercely fought to defend, Gwenhure said he had lost interest in politics.
“Why should I be involved, what do I get from it. Look at me, look at my face I never received any compensation for the suffering I went through.”
“I fight and get these injuries. Look at the MP (Harrison Mudzuri), he enjoys driving around in a double cab. People like us who endured the brunt of the Zanu PF militia are now like scarecrows with no one bothering to help us.”
Gwenhure however said, like any other Zimbabwean who had a right to vote, he would go the polls and cast his vote for MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the councillor for the area Peter Imbayarwo whom he said stayed among the people.
“I have learnt my lesson,” said Gwenhure, “I am more careful this time. Even for you (this journalist), I won’t allow you to take my picture, you can use the one in your files.”
BY WALTER MARWIZI
This article first appeared in The Zimbabwe Standard
A survivor of the infamous June 3 2008 militia attack on the MDC-T Jerera offices which claimed the lives of three activists has launched a stinging tirade on the party leaders for abandoning victims of political violence.
A visibly irritated Edison Gwenhure said MDC-T had forgotten him and wondered whether the leaders still remembered the grassroots activists who propelled them to power.
“From all the struggles I waged for the party, all I got was disability,” said Gwenhure, who suffered serious body and facial burns after a Zanu PF militia doused him with petrol.
He made his comments just a metre away from the makeshift office which was petrol-bombed by five men who came in uniform.
Gwenhure survived the attack but three of his colleagues lost their lives.
Asked what he thought about war veteran leader Jabulani Sibanda’s widely condemned activities in Zaka district, an area he once fiercely fought to defend, Gwenhure said he had lost interest in politics.
“Why should I be involved, what do I get from it. Look at me, look at my face I never received any compensation for the suffering I went through.”
“I fight and get these injuries. Look at the MP (Harrison Mudzuri), he enjoys driving around in a double cab. People like us who endured the brunt of the Zanu PF militia are now like scarecrows with no one bothering to help us.”
Gwenhure however said, like any other Zimbabwean who had a right to vote, he would go the polls and cast his vote for MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the councillor for the area Peter Imbayarwo whom he said stayed among the people.
“I have learnt my lesson,” said Gwenhure, “I am more careful this time. Even for you (this journalist), I won’t allow you to take my picture, you can use the one in your files.”
BY WALTER MARWIZI
This article first appeared in The Zimbabwe Standard
Friday 15 October 2010
Heroes status loses its legitimacy
Heroes status loses its legitimacy
Thursday, 14 October 2010 20:46
THE national heroes status has lost legitimacy due to the Zanu PF nomenklatura making it their private preserve.
The question lingering on many minds is whether the National Heroes’ Acre is still a national asset or a Zanu PF shrine.
Mugabe’s recent outburst at the burial of the late Zanu PF national deputy commissar Ephraim Masawi that the national heroes acre was solely for Zanu PF members who participated in the liberation struggle has angered many Zimbabweans and those who fought in the liberation struggle.
For the first time ever, the family of national hero, the late former Matabeleland North governor, Welshman Mabhena, rejected Zanu PF’s honour to bury him at the national shrine preferring instead to lay him to rest at Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo.
Political analysts pointed out that the rejection by the Mabhena family shows that the honour, credibility and respect, which was once attached to the national hero’s status, is now gone.
Sapes Trust executive director Ibbo Mandaza said the Mabhena issue has exposed Mugabe’s reckless statement regarding the importance of the shrine. He said Mugabe should not equate the national heroes’ acre to a Zanu PF shrine.
“The mistake was made by Mugabe after saying the shrine was a Zanu PF place. It’s embarrassing because now they have egg on their face following Mabhena’s rejection to be buried at the acre,” he said.
Matabeleland Civic Society Consortium (MCSC) applauded the Mabhena family for resisting Zanu PF’s attempts to bury the former PF-Zapu secretary-general at the National Heroes Acre.
“A hero’s status is not conferred by a party but it’s supposed to be an individual earning and it doesn’t matter where someone is buried,” said MCSC spokesman Dumisani Nkomo. “Mugabe said it’s a Zanu PF shrine, so people should not be worried about that anymore. It has lost its meaning, credibility, and status because we have some people without proper credentials who were buried at the heroes’ acre.”
Nkomo said the heroes’ acre was maintained by tax-payers’ money, therefore Mugabe should be accountable to the masses instead of privatising the state property. The department of National Museums and Monuments manages the heroes’ acres around the country.
Other analysts said Mabhena did not decline to be a national hero but he declined to be chosen by Zanu PF which has turned the heroes’ acre into a burial place for Mugabe’s clique.
London-based lawyer Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa said: “He refused to share his final resting place with people whose own lifetime careers were defined by the extent to which they persecuted defenceless citizens and stole from them.”
“The status quo with regards to the conferring of hero status just reflects victor justice and the power of political hegemony in Zimbabwe which is not only wrong, unjust and unfair but is also dangerous as it creates a cyclic spiral of politically defined heroes and villains depending on the existing political hegemony at a given time.”
Mutyambizi-Dewa said Zanu PF has failed to live above politics when entrusted with issues of national importance and has caused widespread cynicism on national day celebrations.
He noted that most of the people currently in Zanu PF fail to be heroes because they cannot pass the consistency test.
“The problem in Zimbabwe has always been of a ruling party that failed to redefine itself as a governing party and this also explains why people opposed to them are not heroes. However there comes a time when people must disregard them and declare their own heroes with or without Zanu PF,” said Mutyambizi-Dewa.
Analysts said they believed the depiction of national heroes is lop-sided in favour of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, neglecting other pivotal players in the liberation struggle, who criticised the President.
There are a number of luminaries including former Zipra commander Lookout Masuku, Zanu founder Ndabaningi Sithole, and veteran nationalist James Chikerema who were denied the national hero’s status after crossing Mugabe.
But the mention of national heroes like Cain Nkala, Border Gezi and Sabina Mugabe, analysts say let-slip Mugabe’s intentional manipulation and distortion of the country’s history.
This week, Zanu PF blundered after declaring the wife of late national hero Air Chief Marshal Josiah Tungamirai, Pamela, a liberation war heroine. The party’s women’s league and Harare province led fierce criticism against Zanu PF, saying she deserved to be buried at the National Heroes Acre.
Trevor Maisiri, the executive director of a Harare based politics think-tank, African Reform Institute (AR), said Mugabe’s party was diverting from the principles of the liberation struggle in honouring national icons.
“Many (Zanu PF officials) are embroiled in activities for self economic empowerment even through unbecoming means. Some have lost the morality that the liberation struggle principles sought to promote. Others have lost the service to the people, yet others have lost their own foundational identity that motivated them to go out there and be liberators of the nation,” he said.
“Such disparities will cause many potential heroes-acre-destined comrades to turn down the accord. This will all be because the fundamentals of the liberation struggle have been lost and some of the people at the shrine may really not be reflective of the virginity of the original intention, motivation, principles, values and integrity of the liberation war.”
Maisiri criticised Zanu PF for claiming ownership of the history of Zimbabwe’s struggle when it is known that a group of people do not define the history of a nation. He said Mugabe and his allies have created notions that the liberation struggle has been privatised, excluding the rest of Zimbabweans.
Even political parties to the inclusive government, MDC-T and MDC-M have attacked Mugabe for monopolising the selection of national heroes when it is underpinned in the Global Political Agreement that the parties should consult. In protest, MDC-T and MDC-M boycotted the burial of Masawi last month but attended the burial of Mabhena at Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo on Saturday.
The MDC formations were angered by Mugabe’s refusal to confer the hero’s status on the late National Healing co-Minister Gibson Sibanda.
Other political parties say council should be given powers to build national heroes’ acres where icons will be buried without involving Zanu PF.
Zapu spokesman Methuseli Moyo, said it was embarrassing for Mugabe to declare Mabhena a national hero, when he fired him as governor in 2000.
Brian Chitemba
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written by SOBUZA GULA SHONA, October 15, 2010
The heroes acre is just now like any other cemetry Yangofanana neku No 6 , Luveve kana kuMbudzi Vakagona vana Mabhena vakaramba kuvigwa pamwe nembavha ,varoyi,nemab****a +0
This article first appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent
Thursday, 14 October 2010 20:46
THE national heroes status has lost legitimacy due to the Zanu PF nomenklatura making it their private preserve.
The question lingering on many minds is whether the National Heroes’ Acre is still a national asset or a Zanu PF shrine.
Mugabe’s recent outburst at the burial of the late Zanu PF national deputy commissar Ephraim Masawi that the national heroes acre was solely for Zanu PF members who participated in the liberation struggle has angered many Zimbabweans and those who fought in the liberation struggle.
For the first time ever, the family of national hero, the late former Matabeleland North governor, Welshman Mabhena, rejected Zanu PF’s honour to bury him at the national shrine preferring instead to lay him to rest at Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo.
Political analysts pointed out that the rejection by the Mabhena family shows that the honour, credibility and respect, which was once attached to the national hero’s status, is now gone.
Sapes Trust executive director Ibbo Mandaza said the Mabhena issue has exposed Mugabe’s reckless statement regarding the importance of the shrine. He said Mugabe should not equate the national heroes’ acre to a Zanu PF shrine.
“The mistake was made by Mugabe after saying the shrine was a Zanu PF place. It’s embarrassing because now they have egg on their face following Mabhena’s rejection to be buried at the acre,” he said.
Matabeleland Civic Society Consortium (MCSC) applauded the Mabhena family for resisting Zanu PF’s attempts to bury the former PF-Zapu secretary-general at the National Heroes Acre.
“A hero’s status is not conferred by a party but it’s supposed to be an individual earning and it doesn’t matter where someone is buried,” said MCSC spokesman Dumisani Nkomo. “Mugabe said it’s a Zanu PF shrine, so people should not be worried about that anymore. It has lost its meaning, credibility, and status because we have some people without proper credentials who were buried at the heroes’ acre.”
Nkomo said the heroes’ acre was maintained by tax-payers’ money, therefore Mugabe should be accountable to the masses instead of privatising the state property. The department of National Museums and Monuments manages the heroes’ acres around the country.
Other analysts said Mabhena did not decline to be a national hero but he declined to be chosen by Zanu PF which has turned the heroes’ acre into a burial place for Mugabe’s clique.
London-based lawyer Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa said: “He refused to share his final resting place with people whose own lifetime careers were defined by the extent to which they persecuted defenceless citizens and stole from them.”
“The status quo with regards to the conferring of hero status just reflects victor justice and the power of political hegemony in Zimbabwe which is not only wrong, unjust and unfair but is also dangerous as it creates a cyclic spiral of politically defined heroes and villains depending on the existing political hegemony at a given time.”
Mutyambizi-Dewa said Zanu PF has failed to live above politics when entrusted with issues of national importance and has caused widespread cynicism on national day celebrations.
He noted that most of the people currently in Zanu PF fail to be heroes because they cannot pass the consistency test.
“The problem in Zimbabwe has always been of a ruling party that failed to redefine itself as a governing party and this also explains why people opposed to them are not heroes. However there comes a time when people must disregard them and declare their own heroes with or without Zanu PF,” said Mutyambizi-Dewa.
Analysts said they believed the depiction of national heroes is lop-sided in favour of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, neglecting other pivotal players in the liberation struggle, who criticised the President.
There are a number of luminaries including former Zipra commander Lookout Masuku, Zanu founder Ndabaningi Sithole, and veteran nationalist James Chikerema who were denied the national hero’s status after crossing Mugabe.
But the mention of national heroes like Cain Nkala, Border Gezi and Sabina Mugabe, analysts say let-slip Mugabe’s intentional manipulation and distortion of the country’s history.
This week, Zanu PF blundered after declaring the wife of late national hero Air Chief Marshal Josiah Tungamirai, Pamela, a liberation war heroine. The party’s women’s league and Harare province led fierce criticism against Zanu PF, saying she deserved to be buried at the National Heroes Acre.
Trevor Maisiri, the executive director of a Harare based politics think-tank, African Reform Institute (AR), said Mugabe’s party was diverting from the principles of the liberation struggle in honouring national icons.
“Many (Zanu PF officials) are embroiled in activities for self economic empowerment even through unbecoming means. Some have lost the morality that the liberation struggle principles sought to promote. Others have lost the service to the people, yet others have lost their own foundational identity that motivated them to go out there and be liberators of the nation,” he said.
“Such disparities will cause many potential heroes-acre-destined comrades to turn down the accord. This will all be because the fundamentals of the liberation struggle have been lost and some of the people at the shrine may really not be reflective of the virginity of the original intention, motivation, principles, values and integrity of the liberation war.”
Maisiri criticised Zanu PF for claiming ownership of the history of Zimbabwe’s struggle when it is known that a group of people do not define the history of a nation. He said Mugabe and his allies have created notions that the liberation struggle has been privatised, excluding the rest of Zimbabweans.
Even political parties to the inclusive government, MDC-T and MDC-M have attacked Mugabe for monopolising the selection of national heroes when it is underpinned in the Global Political Agreement that the parties should consult. In protest, MDC-T and MDC-M boycotted the burial of Masawi last month but attended the burial of Mabhena at Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo on Saturday.
The MDC formations were angered by Mugabe’s refusal to confer the hero’s status on the late National Healing co-Minister Gibson Sibanda.
Other political parties say council should be given powers to build national heroes’ acres where icons will be buried without involving Zanu PF.
Zapu spokesman Methuseli Moyo, said it was embarrassing for Mugabe to declare Mabhena a national hero, when he fired him as governor in 2000.
Brian Chitemba
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written by SOBUZA GULA SHONA, October 15, 2010
The heroes acre is just now like any other cemetry Yangofanana neku No 6 , Luveve kana kuMbudzi Vakagona vana Mabhena vakaramba kuvigwa pamwe nembavha ,varoyi,nemab****a +0
This article first appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent
THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICS OF ZIMBABWE AND OPTIONS FOR THE FUTURE: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICS OF ZIMBABWE AND OPTIONS FOR THE FUTURE: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
There is a difference between democracy and the majoritarian principle. Democracy goes beyond winner take all elections and encompasses the rights of minorities among other issues such as rule of law and pertinent issues of national interest are set before the whole country in a referenda. In a majoritarian set up the winner takes all and minorities are crowded out. Democracy listens to and involves divergence
The problem we have in Zimbabwe is the absence of both majoritarian rule and democratic rule. There is neither at the moment, the majority is not in charge so there is no group that can be identified as the oppressive majority. At the same time the rights of minorities are not encompassed. The truth is the single largest ethnic group, Shona-speaking Zimbabweans are oppressed together with the second largest group, Ndebele-speaking Zimbabweans and so are Zimbabwe's minorities such white Zimbabweans, Kalangas, Vendas, Nambyas, Tongas, Chewas, Asian-Zimbabweans, mixed-race Zimbabweans and many others.
As a nation this is the reality that confronts us, we are where we are because we have refused to come to terms with some stubborn truths about our country. This has been so for generations. We have failed to understand that we are a multi-racial and multi-ethnic country that ought to exist as a unit; no race or tribe should ever exist in the shadows of another. Zimbabwe must be a composite unit not just a sum-total of its cultures. There has been a failure to heed this to our own detriment. In 1965, whilst his idea of declaring independence from the British through UDI was not really bad on the face it, it was meant to impose a Rhodesia where blacks and other races existed in the shadows of their white compatriots. This is why I personally welcomed the demise of Rhodesia, because they were advancing a dangerous policy of racism that could not be allowed in a modern society.
Post-1980 the Government of President Robert Mugabe has not done much to make every Zimbabwean enjoy being part of this beautiful country. They behave like an irresponsible opposition not the governing party. They deliberately promote reverse racism and encourage disunity among teh citizenry. It is important for the resumption of order in our country which will start by an unequivocal acknowledgement of diversity as we move towards the creation of a composite unit. Zimbabwe must move towards creating a happy Kalanga, Ndebele, Shona, Nambya, white Zimbabwean, Tsonga, Chewa, Asian Zimbabwean, Venda, Tonga, Nambya, mixed-race Zimbabwean etc as a move towards creating a Zimbabwe in which everyone feels confident to belong.
But such a composite unit will only be realised with the emergence of composite thinking and the birth of a truly composite organisation whose sole aim is to bestow to Zimbabwe a society that we can all be proud of. It will assume a character beyond the sum-total concept but will seek to build on the diversities a unique unit that is capable of defining itself as one country and culture but at the same time letting its constituent members retain their unique and individual characteristics. It will be an organisation that seeks to redefine and give confidence to even the most basic institution of society; the family. It will be the ultimate symbolism; taking Zimbabwe to another level; rebutting the inferiority presumption and restating the agenda of the country and continent as accolade-deserving not accolade-ululating.
Zimbabwe deserves to be high up there among the other nations but we have defined ourselves as a SADC country. Zimbabwe must be a world player, a serious world player. We already have standing monuments to point at: Lake Kariba and Great Zimbabwe, these monuments are a constant reminder of what we can do if we are working together as a nation. We conquered the world with both and we can still conquer the world today. It takes time but the foundations are laid now. I am tired of Afro-centric statistics, I am tired of being SADC's number 2 or Africa's number what...Zimbabwe was not created to be a player in a closet. It is a country in the world and it has to position itself to be a serious player in the whole world.
Contemporary political parties in Zimbabwe are not the best platform for delivering to Zimbabwe the virtual nation which will restore the pride that we had when we constructed Great Zimbabwe and when we gave the world the largest man-made lake in Lake Kariba. The concept of ultra-super Zimbabwe is beyond all of the contemporary political parties because it is beyond contemporary politics. It is beyond the humiliating finger-pointing that we currently witness almost daily since the formation of the GNU. It is beyond ZANU PF because the party has clearly run of ideas. They have been saying the same things since 1985.
They have surrendered their own fate and invested their own future in an old man who they cannot free and allow him the grace of being with his own family. Ironically that family includes his wife who is also called Grace. Investing one’s future in a person who looks more at the past is clearly a wrong strategy. No wonder why in every speech President Mugabe has not spared a minute in reminding Zimbabweans rightly about a bad past under Ian Smith but his often very interesting humour-filled speeches have not offered anything for the future. ZANU PF is a party of the past hey dwell on the past and use the past to scare away forward looking Zimbabweans. It is sad that 30 years after independence ZANU PF still talks of a ghost called Rhodesia; a country which no longer exists but thanks to ZANU PF there is a nationality called Rhodesian. A party that fears its own citizens and fails to come to terms with the fact that it is the government can only be entrusted with the future at our detriment.
The same is true of the Movement for Democratic Change. Their policies are not innovative in character but are reparative. MDC is very good at repairing damage. Their presence in the GNU has evidently done a lot in repairing the damage that ZANU PF had done. But MDC is not growth-oriented they are a current party, a party that fixes current damage. They too do not believe in an all conquering Zimbabwe. They are comfortable and therefore focus at being South Africa’s number two in SADC. They were happy with our literacy records in Africa. A strategy that looks at fixing damage is not sustainable because it retains the wear and tear which continues to haunt the country forever. It will manage to arrest decline and may succeed in taking Zimbabwe to where it was in the year 2000 but this is not what Zimbabwe should aim at. Certainly Zimbabwe was not in the same position as is now but it was not rich either. There must emerge an organisation that will confront the future with the aim of utilising all our resources so that we become a rich nation and join the world as an important player whose tag is not developing but developed country.
We all celebrated the resurgence of ZAPU, but as we have come to realise ZAPU is also a party of corrections not innovation. They have looked at what has gone wrong during the governance of ZANU PF and indeed the GNU and they seem to be keen on correcting that. This is not good strategy because it lacks innovation. The future belongs to the galvanization of all our phases, asking about our past beyond the GNU or ZANU PF’s advent to power and also looking beyond contemporary issues and approaching the future with innovation and facing the challenges with the belief that the seemingly unachievable can be achieved. So far ZAPU has not yet told Zimbabweans that it will be abandoning or maintaining the Marxist ideologies of its main liberation war sponsor the then Soviet Union.
The organisation that will deliver Zimbabwe will not be a reproaching organisation. It will look at the good and the bad of every given period and it will also look at other systems and countries and how they have succeeded. As it encourages its peoples not to live in the shadows of one another it will also encourage Zimbabwe not to live in the shadows of other countries or its past. Our colonial past cannot be allowed to stand in the way of our development anymore. We are not the only country to be colonised. The USA, India, Canada, Australia, China, New Zealand and indeed the UK are all former colonies. The Mwene Mutapa and the Rozvi were both major empires that subjected people as far afield as Tanzania and Angola to some form of colonisation with Zimbabwe as the centre of their power.
The dosage our current political parties are feeding us is very dangerous. They still talk of the west and bigger countries. They are collective agents of our re-colonisation. Day in day out they are subjecting our minds to the wrong picture of the west which is supernatural. According to them The West causes our disasters and the West is our salvation. This is what they have told us. Some of us who have had the chance to live in western nations know that this is untrue. Western countries are normal countries whose own citizens also eat, sleep and drink and do the same menial jobs that we do in own countries. Zimbabwe deserves to be a player in the world. The emergence of China, India and Brazil as world players is evidence that with the right policies developing countries can emerge to be developed and successful. Zimbabweans are fed up with political parties that frighten us and discourage us to tackle the future.
By its own mistakes ZANU PF has surrendered its political leadership of SADC to South Africa. A country that in its early years looked so much up to us is now the one now mediating on our warring parties despite the fact that its own democracy is supposed to be 16 years younger than ours. The diplomatic landscape has been altered forever and it is South Africa and other countries which include even Senegal that are forwarding their names for consideration into the Security Council. We are now viewed in the same light at countries that are at war and we no longer have the respect we deserve. Zimbabweans have been left pointing at the past when seeking glory because their contemporary world is an ugly beast they cannot look in the face. An organisation shall emerge that seeks to correct the perception of Zimbabwe as a pariah state and give not only meaning, but strength and respect to the country’s moral, political, social and economic fibre. Such is an organisation whose birth I keenly await and hopefully together with most of us, we will all feel free to belong and with it be geared to change our country forever!
Until then;
BE JUDGE
Julius Sai MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA is the Chairman of Communities Point, a Zimbabwean Pressure Group. He writes in his own capacity and he can be contacted on mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07401182271 or 07529705413
There is a difference between democracy and the majoritarian principle. Democracy goes beyond winner take all elections and encompasses the rights of minorities among other issues such as rule of law and pertinent issues of national interest are set before the whole country in a referenda. In a majoritarian set up the winner takes all and minorities are crowded out. Democracy listens to and involves divergence
The problem we have in Zimbabwe is the absence of both majoritarian rule and democratic rule. There is neither at the moment, the majority is not in charge so there is no group that can be identified as the oppressive majority. At the same time the rights of minorities are not encompassed. The truth is the single largest ethnic group, Shona-speaking Zimbabweans are oppressed together with the second largest group, Ndebele-speaking Zimbabweans and so are Zimbabwe's minorities such white Zimbabweans, Kalangas, Vendas, Nambyas, Tongas, Chewas, Asian-Zimbabweans, mixed-race Zimbabweans and many others.
As a nation this is the reality that confronts us, we are where we are because we have refused to come to terms with some stubborn truths about our country. This has been so for generations. We have failed to understand that we are a multi-racial and multi-ethnic country that ought to exist as a unit; no race or tribe should ever exist in the shadows of another. Zimbabwe must be a composite unit not just a sum-total of its cultures. There has been a failure to heed this to our own detriment. In 1965, whilst his idea of declaring independence from the British through UDI was not really bad on the face it, it was meant to impose a Rhodesia where blacks and other races existed in the shadows of their white compatriots. This is why I personally welcomed the demise of Rhodesia, because they were advancing a dangerous policy of racism that could not be allowed in a modern society.
Post-1980 the Government of President Robert Mugabe has not done much to make every Zimbabwean enjoy being part of this beautiful country. They behave like an irresponsible opposition not the governing party. They deliberately promote reverse racism and encourage disunity among teh citizenry. It is important for the resumption of order in our country which will start by an unequivocal acknowledgement of diversity as we move towards the creation of a composite unit. Zimbabwe must move towards creating a happy Kalanga, Ndebele, Shona, Nambya, white Zimbabwean, Tsonga, Chewa, Asian Zimbabwean, Venda, Tonga, Nambya, mixed-race Zimbabwean etc as a move towards creating a Zimbabwe in which everyone feels confident to belong.
But such a composite unit will only be realised with the emergence of composite thinking and the birth of a truly composite organisation whose sole aim is to bestow to Zimbabwe a society that we can all be proud of. It will assume a character beyond the sum-total concept but will seek to build on the diversities a unique unit that is capable of defining itself as one country and culture but at the same time letting its constituent members retain their unique and individual characteristics. It will be an organisation that seeks to redefine and give confidence to even the most basic institution of society; the family. It will be the ultimate symbolism; taking Zimbabwe to another level; rebutting the inferiority presumption and restating the agenda of the country and continent as accolade-deserving not accolade-ululating.
Zimbabwe deserves to be high up there among the other nations but we have defined ourselves as a SADC country. Zimbabwe must be a world player, a serious world player. We already have standing monuments to point at: Lake Kariba and Great Zimbabwe, these monuments are a constant reminder of what we can do if we are working together as a nation. We conquered the world with both and we can still conquer the world today. It takes time but the foundations are laid now. I am tired of Afro-centric statistics, I am tired of being SADC's number 2 or Africa's number what...Zimbabwe was not created to be a player in a closet. It is a country in the world and it has to position itself to be a serious player in the whole world.
Contemporary political parties in Zimbabwe are not the best platform for delivering to Zimbabwe the virtual nation which will restore the pride that we had when we constructed Great Zimbabwe and when we gave the world the largest man-made lake in Lake Kariba. The concept of ultra-super Zimbabwe is beyond all of the contemporary political parties because it is beyond contemporary politics. It is beyond the humiliating finger-pointing that we currently witness almost daily since the formation of the GNU. It is beyond ZANU PF because the party has clearly run of ideas. They have been saying the same things since 1985.
They have surrendered their own fate and invested their own future in an old man who they cannot free and allow him the grace of being with his own family. Ironically that family includes his wife who is also called Grace. Investing one’s future in a person who looks more at the past is clearly a wrong strategy. No wonder why in every speech President Mugabe has not spared a minute in reminding Zimbabweans rightly about a bad past under Ian Smith but his often very interesting humour-filled speeches have not offered anything for the future. ZANU PF is a party of the past hey dwell on the past and use the past to scare away forward looking Zimbabweans. It is sad that 30 years after independence ZANU PF still talks of a ghost called Rhodesia; a country which no longer exists but thanks to ZANU PF there is a nationality called Rhodesian. A party that fears its own citizens and fails to come to terms with the fact that it is the government can only be entrusted with the future at our detriment.
The same is true of the Movement for Democratic Change. Their policies are not innovative in character but are reparative. MDC is very good at repairing damage. Their presence in the GNU has evidently done a lot in repairing the damage that ZANU PF had done. But MDC is not growth-oriented they are a current party, a party that fixes current damage. They too do not believe in an all conquering Zimbabwe. They are comfortable and therefore focus at being South Africa’s number two in SADC. They were happy with our literacy records in Africa. A strategy that looks at fixing damage is not sustainable because it retains the wear and tear which continues to haunt the country forever. It will manage to arrest decline and may succeed in taking Zimbabwe to where it was in the year 2000 but this is not what Zimbabwe should aim at. Certainly Zimbabwe was not in the same position as is now but it was not rich either. There must emerge an organisation that will confront the future with the aim of utilising all our resources so that we become a rich nation and join the world as an important player whose tag is not developing but developed country.
We all celebrated the resurgence of ZAPU, but as we have come to realise ZAPU is also a party of corrections not innovation. They have looked at what has gone wrong during the governance of ZANU PF and indeed the GNU and they seem to be keen on correcting that. This is not good strategy because it lacks innovation. The future belongs to the galvanization of all our phases, asking about our past beyond the GNU or ZANU PF’s advent to power and also looking beyond contemporary issues and approaching the future with innovation and facing the challenges with the belief that the seemingly unachievable can be achieved. So far ZAPU has not yet told Zimbabweans that it will be abandoning or maintaining the Marxist ideologies of its main liberation war sponsor the then Soviet Union.
The organisation that will deliver Zimbabwe will not be a reproaching organisation. It will look at the good and the bad of every given period and it will also look at other systems and countries and how they have succeeded. As it encourages its peoples not to live in the shadows of one another it will also encourage Zimbabwe not to live in the shadows of other countries or its past. Our colonial past cannot be allowed to stand in the way of our development anymore. We are not the only country to be colonised. The USA, India, Canada, Australia, China, New Zealand and indeed the UK are all former colonies. The Mwene Mutapa and the Rozvi were both major empires that subjected people as far afield as Tanzania and Angola to some form of colonisation with Zimbabwe as the centre of their power.
The dosage our current political parties are feeding us is very dangerous. They still talk of the west and bigger countries. They are collective agents of our re-colonisation. Day in day out they are subjecting our minds to the wrong picture of the west which is supernatural. According to them The West causes our disasters and the West is our salvation. This is what they have told us. Some of us who have had the chance to live in western nations know that this is untrue. Western countries are normal countries whose own citizens also eat, sleep and drink and do the same menial jobs that we do in own countries. Zimbabwe deserves to be a player in the world. The emergence of China, India and Brazil as world players is evidence that with the right policies developing countries can emerge to be developed and successful. Zimbabweans are fed up with political parties that frighten us and discourage us to tackle the future.
By its own mistakes ZANU PF has surrendered its political leadership of SADC to South Africa. A country that in its early years looked so much up to us is now the one now mediating on our warring parties despite the fact that its own democracy is supposed to be 16 years younger than ours. The diplomatic landscape has been altered forever and it is South Africa and other countries which include even Senegal that are forwarding their names for consideration into the Security Council. We are now viewed in the same light at countries that are at war and we no longer have the respect we deserve. Zimbabweans have been left pointing at the past when seeking glory because their contemporary world is an ugly beast they cannot look in the face. An organisation shall emerge that seeks to correct the perception of Zimbabwe as a pariah state and give not only meaning, but strength and respect to the country’s moral, political, social and economic fibre. Such is an organisation whose birth I keenly await and hopefully together with most of us, we will all feel free to belong and with it be geared to change our country forever!
Until then;
BE JUDGE
Julius Sai MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA is the Chairman of Communities Point, a Zimbabwean Pressure Group. He writes in his own capacity and he can be contacted on mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07401182271 or 07529705413
Monday 11 October 2010
COMMUNITIES POINT PRESS STATEMENT 12/10/2010: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
COMMUNITIES POINT PRESS STATEMENT 12/10/2010: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
Communities Point expresses total disappointment with the failure to recognise the late Pamela Tungamirayi as a national hero. Such an illustrious daughter of the nation who sacrificed for the just and noble cause to liberate her country should get the recognition without questions. Not only does the failure to recognise her role in the liberation struggle display arrogance but it is a humiliation to former liberation fighters like her and a further dent on Zimbabwe’s march towards the recognition of women’s roles in the development of the country. ZANU PF is making two statements; that real heroes of the struggle, the combatants who were in the front but who refused to be used against the same father and mother who sheltered and hid them from enemy forces and against the same chimbwido and mujibha who cooked for them and served as their intelligence, do not matter and that women in general do not deserve recognition for their sacrifices.
Throughout its 30 year tenure, ZANU PF has used ex-combatants with scorn and humiliation. In 1980, ZANU PF refused ex-fighters to play any roles in the army arguing that they were not qualified despite the fact that they had brought independence to the country. In 1982 ZANU PF created “Gukurahundi” from young ex-combatants and ingrained their minds with a hate agenda and turned them into savages that would go on to commit genocide in Matabeleland. In the same year ZANU PF expelled most of the ex-ZIPRA combatants from the Zimbabwe National Army and accused them of being “dissidents” a term that actually meant they were small time armed robbers who ambushed rural buses and growth point general dealers for beer and money.
Humiliated, most them went to live as second class residents in apartheid South Africa. In the same year ZANU PF arrested ex-ZIPRA Supremos Dumiso Dabengwa and Lookout Masuku and stripped them of their military ranks. They were unlawfully kept in prison despite being acquitted by a Court of Law. Ironically their continued imprisonment was by using the same emergency laws that had been used by Ian Smith and which the liberation fighters had fought so hard to abolish.
Around the same year they gave ex-combatants pittances as demobilisation packages and abandoned them. For the next 25 years they were left struggling, scavenging for food on the streets of Harare and Bulawayo. Some of them reverted to being thieves and prostitutes as the political elite enjoyed themselves in the independence ex-combatants blood and sacrifices had brought. They abandoned Chimoyo, Mulungushi, Tembwe, Nyadzonya and the surviving victims of those massacres were relocated to a bushy area in Ruwa where they were abandoned and left to rot. They buried Chihombe Madala, not at Heroes Acre but somewhere in his village, and they never conferred him hero status to this day. They tortured Lookout Masuku and Dabengwa and refused to declare Lookout Masuku a national hero.
They went behind the back and used their positions to entice helpless ex-women cadres into having affairs with them and that included widowed wives of ex-combatants and even in adulterous relationship with the destitute wives of living ex-combatants. ZANU PF humiliated ex-combatants and reduced them to beggars who had to sing, kill or lie to be rewarded. They forced Dzinashe Machingura into exile, they barred Augustine Chihuri from joining the Zimbabwe National Army and he had to enter the police force through his own merit.
They barred Chenjerai Hunzvi from practising medicine, and for more than 3 years refused to give war veterans any form of help insisting that the US$300.00 they had been given in 1982 should have lasted them a lifetime. The war veterans as they were now called had to be supported by Zimbabweans and their leading supporters were ZimRights and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. So defined was the support that ZANU PF saw the possibility of a labour party that was backed by veterans of the liberation struggle. In budging to the war veterans demands ZANU PF took money from workers in order to divide workers and war veterans. ZANU PF again humiliated the war veterans because again they were being told that the party’s elite was better than them.
They did not say all ministers should go for at least a year without their perks, salaries etc in solidarity with the comrades they had abandoned. This is the policy of ZANU PF they treat war veterans such as Pamela Tungamirayi with scorn. They were left homeless and abandoned in Chitungwiza and it was my own father Leonard Mutyambizi and his uncle Councillor Chinamhora, who worked hard to make sure war veterans got houses in Zengeza 4, Zengeza 5 and later Units L and M in Chitungwiza something most of them remember and treasure to this day.
The humiliation of Pamela Tungamirayi is consistent with ZANU PF policy, which recognises only those “war veterans” who sell their souls to the whims of the elite. They are turned into savages that quickly abandon their principles leading them into being the pathetic tormentors of the same people who have stood by them all the time and whom they did much to liberate. Just look at the history of ministerial posts and one will be able to conclude how many were veterans of the liberation struggle? We again see the importance of taking the decision-making process on who is and who is not a hero from the ever-blundering ZANU PF politburo which is self serving, to a more pronounced, patriotic neutral body which will serve the interests of the country.
CHAIRMAN: Julius Sai MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA, 07529705413 or 07401182271 or mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk
Communities Point expresses total disappointment with the failure to recognise the late Pamela Tungamirayi as a national hero. Such an illustrious daughter of the nation who sacrificed for the just and noble cause to liberate her country should get the recognition without questions. Not only does the failure to recognise her role in the liberation struggle display arrogance but it is a humiliation to former liberation fighters like her and a further dent on Zimbabwe’s march towards the recognition of women’s roles in the development of the country. ZANU PF is making two statements; that real heroes of the struggle, the combatants who were in the front but who refused to be used against the same father and mother who sheltered and hid them from enemy forces and against the same chimbwido and mujibha who cooked for them and served as their intelligence, do not matter and that women in general do not deserve recognition for their sacrifices.
Throughout its 30 year tenure, ZANU PF has used ex-combatants with scorn and humiliation. In 1980, ZANU PF refused ex-fighters to play any roles in the army arguing that they were not qualified despite the fact that they had brought independence to the country. In 1982 ZANU PF created “Gukurahundi” from young ex-combatants and ingrained their minds with a hate agenda and turned them into savages that would go on to commit genocide in Matabeleland. In the same year ZANU PF expelled most of the ex-ZIPRA combatants from the Zimbabwe National Army and accused them of being “dissidents” a term that actually meant they were small time armed robbers who ambushed rural buses and growth point general dealers for beer and money.
Humiliated, most them went to live as second class residents in apartheid South Africa. In the same year ZANU PF arrested ex-ZIPRA Supremos Dumiso Dabengwa and Lookout Masuku and stripped them of their military ranks. They were unlawfully kept in prison despite being acquitted by a Court of Law. Ironically their continued imprisonment was by using the same emergency laws that had been used by Ian Smith and which the liberation fighters had fought so hard to abolish.
Around the same year they gave ex-combatants pittances as demobilisation packages and abandoned them. For the next 25 years they were left struggling, scavenging for food on the streets of Harare and Bulawayo. Some of them reverted to being thieves and prostitutes as the political elite enjoyed themselves in the independence ex-combatants blood and sacrifices had brought. They abandoned Chimoyo, Mulungushi, Tembwe, Nyadzonya and the surviving victims of those massacres were relocated to a bushy area in Ruwa where they were abandoned and left to rot. They buried Chihombe Madala, not at Heroes Acre but somewhere in his village, and they never conferred him hero status to this day. They tortured Lookout Masuku and Dabengwa and refused to declare Lookout Masuku a national hero.
They went behind the back and used their positions to entice helpless ex-women cadres into having affairs with them and that included widowed wives of ex-combatants and even in adulterous relationship with the destitute wives of living ex-combatants. ZANU PF humiliated ex-combatants and reduced them to beggars who had to sing, kill or lie to be rewarded. They forced Dzinashe Machingura into exile, they barred Augustine Chihuri from joining the Zimbabwe National Army and he had to enter the police force through his own merit.
They barred Chenjerai Hunzvi from practising medicine, and for more than 3 years refused to give war veterans any form of help insisting that the US$300.00 they had been given in 1982 should have lasted them a lifetime. The war veterans as they were now called had to be supported by Zimbabweans and their leading supporters were ZimRights and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. So defined was the support that ZANU PF saw the possibility of a labour party that was backed by veterans of the liberation struggle. In budging to the war veterans demands ZANU PF took money from workers in order to divide workers and war veterans. ZANU PF again humiliated the war veterans because again they were being told that the party’s elite was better than them.
They did not say all ministers should go for at least a year without their perks, salaries etc in solidarity with the comrades they had abandoned. This is the policy of ZANU PF they treat war veterans such as Pamela Tungamirayi with scorn. They were left homeless and abandoned in Chitungwiza and it was my own father Leonard Mutyambizi and his uncle Councillor Chinamhora, who worked hard to make sure war veterans got houses in Zengeza 4, Zengeza 5 and later Units L and M in Chitungwiza something most of them remember and treasure to this day.
The humiliation of Pamela Tungamirayi is consistent with ZANU PF policy, which recognises only those “war veterans” who sell their souls to the whims of the elite. They are turned into savages that quickly abandon their principles leading them into being the pathetic tormentors of the same people who have stood by them all the time and whom they did much to liberate. Just look at the history of ministerial posts and one will be able to conclude how many were veterans of the liberation struggle? We again see the importance of taking the decision-making process on who is and who is not a hero from the ever-blundering ZANU PF politburo which is self serving, to a more pronounced, patriotic neutral body which will serve the interests of the country.
CHAIRMAN: Julius Sai MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA, 07529705413 or 07401182271 or mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk
Thursday 7 October 2010
COMMUNITIES POINT STATEMENT ON WELSHMAN MABHENA’S HERO STATUS
COMMUNITIES POINT STATEMENT ON WELSHMAN MABHENA’S HERO STATUS
PRESS STATEMENT: 07 OCTOBER 2010
Communities Point would like to take this opportunity to welcome the news that the late nationalist, former Matabeleland North Governor and former ZAPU Secretary General Welshman Mabhena has been bestowed the befitting status of national hero.
Zimbabweans such as the late Welshman Mabhena who selflessly sacrificed many years of their own freedom, and had to be forced to be away from their families as they served long prison terms for the independence of their country are really unique in that they give they put other people first in pursuit of lasting change. They deserve the highest recognition and accolade that the country can give and the hero status is one such befitting recognition. However the sacrifices of nationalists and liberation combatants both departed and alive will be in vain if people are still dying, killed because they hold political views different from the ruling party and maimed, injured for daring to oppose in a country that is supposed to be free.
Every time that a death of such icons as the late Mabhena happens we are reminded once again of the dangers those who fought for the liberation of Zimbabwe had to go through. They were fighting a potent force, very skilled, well-equipped and manned mainly by their white compatriots who were unfortunately pursuing a racist agenda that was supposed to have been buried with the end of the Second World War. They were not fighting UDI but they were fighting racism, which is an evil that can never be tolerated in modern societies. They were fighting the closure of democracy, the silencing of the freedoms of assembly, worship, expression and speech. They were fighting for the rights to union action as labour and they were fighting for an access to education that was not fettered on the basis of their skin colour. They were fighting for the right to free movement, property rights, right to ownership of land again not based on skin colour. They fought prejudice of any form.
It is unfortunate that under ZANU PF the same prejudices do exist, making some people wonder why we even call ourselves independent. Communities Point still believes in our independence and still acknowledges the role played by nationalists and liberation combatants because there is nothing worse than the racist regime of Ian Smith. But what we do not understand is why ZANU PF behaved like an opposition party from the time they were in power and never at anytime tried to adopt to the fact that they were the ruling party, in charge of a multi-racial and multi-ethnic country that called for unity, equality, prosperity and an end to the tribal and racial prejudices that had existed under Ian Smith. We still hope that there will be an end to prejudice against any Zimbabwean black, white, Asian etc.
We are also worried that ZANU PF still has the sole mandate to choose who goes to Heroes Acre. We believe and maintain that Border Gezi, Elliot Manyika and Cain Nkala should never have been buried there. They turned against their own defenceless brothers and sisters and it seems they were rewarded for that. We also believe that icons such as Reverend Sithole, who started the armed struggle against the apartheid of Ian Douglas Smith, Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa who led Zimbabweans for NIMAR [No Independence before Majority Rule] and blocked the international recognition of apartheid Rhodesia and Chief Khayisa Ndiweni should all have been recognised as heroes. Yes all of them later went into the infamous Zimbabwe-Rhodesia which we think was a very wrong move especially because it failed to end the war and there were further massacres subsequent to that, it later proved that even the Patriotic Front would do the same by accepting 20 whites-only seats in 1980, an endorsement by the then PM Robert Mugabe of the supremacist agenda of Ian Smith.
Because of these discrepancies it is clear a new regime in determining heroes must be put in place. We suggest that there be a commission or collegiate of former leaders of ZANLA and ZIPRA, non-partisan and prominent historians, non-partisan and prominent writers such as Chenjerai Hove, non-partisan and prominent clerics, paramount chiefs of all the tribes in Zimbabwe and credible judges or retired judges to have the sole responsibility for conferring hero status.
CHAIRMAN: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07529705413
PRESS STATEMENT: 07 OCTOBER 2010
Communities Point would like to take this opportunity to welcome the news that the late nationalist, former Matabeleland North Governor and former ZAPU Secretary General Welshman Mabhena has been bestowed the befitting status of national hero.
Zimbabweans such as the late Welshman Mabhena who selflessly sacrificed many years of their own freedom, and had to be forced to be away from their families as they served long prison terms for the independence of their country are really unique in that they give they put other people first in pursuit of lasting change. They deserve the highest recognition and accolade that the country can give and the hero status is one such befitting recognition. However the sacrifices of nationalists and liberation combatants both departed and alive will be in vain if people are still dying, killed because they hold political views different from the ruling party and maimed, injured for daring to oppose in a country that is supposed to be free.
Every time that a death of such icons as the late Mabhena happens we are reminded once again of the dangers those who fought for the liberation of Zimbabwe had to go through. They were fighting a potent force, very skilled, well-equipped and manned mainly by their white compatriots who were unfortunately pursuing a racist agenda that was supposed to have been buried with the end of the Second World War. They were not fighting UDI but they were fighting racism, which is an evil that can never be tolerated in modern societies. They were fighting the closure of democracy, the silencing of the freedoms of assembly, worship, expression and speech. They were fighting for the rights to union action as labour and they were fighting for an access to education that was not fettered on the basis of their skin colour. They were fighting for the right to free movement, property rights, right to ownership of land again not based on skin colour. They fought prejudice of any form.
It is unfortunate that under ZANU PF the same prejudices do exist, making some people wonder why we even call ourselves independent. Communities Point still believes in our independence and still acknowledges the role played by nationalists and liberation combatants because there is nothing worse than the racist regime of Ian Smith. But what we do not understand is why ZANU PF behaved like an opposition party from the time they were in power and never at anytime tried to adopt to the fact that they were the ruling party, in charge of a multi-racial and multi-ethnic country that called for unity, equality, prosperity and an end to the tribal and racial prejudices that had existed under Ian Smith. We still hope that there will be an end to prejudice against any Zimbabwean black, white, Asian etc.
We are also worried that ZANU PF still has the sole mandate to choose who goes to Heroes Acre. We believe and maintain that Border Gezi, Elliot Manyika and Cain Nkala should never have been buried there. They turned against their own defenceless brothers and sisters and it seems they were rewarded for that. We also believe that icons such as Reverend Sithole, who started the armed struggle against the apartheid of Ian Douglas Smith, Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa who led Zimbabweans for NIMAR [No Independence before Majority Rule] and blocked the international recognition of apartheid Rhodesia and Chief Khayisa Ndiweni should all have been recognised as heroes. Yes all of them later went into the infamous Zimbabwe-Rhodesia which we think was a very wrong move especially because it failed to end the war and there were further massacres subsequent to that, it later proved that even the Patriotic Front would do the same by accepting 20 whites-only seats in 1980, an endorsement by the then PM Robert Mugabe of the supremacist agenda of Ian Smith.
Because of these discrepancies it is clear a new regime in determining heroes must be put in place. We suggest that there be a commission or collegiate of former leaders of ZANLA and ZIPRA, non-partisan and prominent historians, non-partisan and prominent writers such as Chenjerai Hove, non-partisan and prominent clerics, paramount chiefs of all the tribes in Zimbabwe and credible judges or retired judges to have the sole responsibility for conferring hero status.
CHAIRMAN: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07529705413
Tuesday 5 October 2010
HEROISM, MABHENA AND THE MYTH OF POTENT NDEBELE RAIDS
HEROISM, MABHENA AND THE MYTH OF POTENT NDEBELE RAIDS: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
I have listened to arguments and counterarguments of a tribal nature in many a forum particularly in the UK Diaspora. I have never known such lies of Ndebele-Shona disunity which one only experiences in the UK but my memory of activism back home is that those in Harare existed in more than harmony with their brothers and sisters in Matabeleland and the Midlands.
There was a young man called “Dinyo” [Promise Matunhira] who was the NCA youth leader at the time I left, he must have been from Manicaland but the way he led and drilled NCA youths at the time I left Zimbabwe in 2002 was something of a marvel. To me he was a true field marshal and his national meetings or gatherings were held in Matabeleland, Mashonaland and the Midlands as opposed to one region. There is a song that we Highlanders supporters sung “Highlander iteam yezwe lonke” it was also adopted by the NCA youth at that time and whenever it was being sung by a young activist known as Netsai from Matabeleland, Dinyo and others who were based in Harare would join to sing.
And I remember ZimRights in 1997, led by the then Chairman Nick Ndebele, the deputy leader was my cousin CD Moyo and there was a healthy mix of people from different tribes in its top hierarchy. I am a Moyo, Dewa, Sai, Vumabalanda.....to me this thing about tribes does not apply because as Rozvi I have relatives among the Samuriwo people in Marondera, Nyamweda, Chipai and Ndawana in Mhondoro, Tandi, Mavudzi and Chiduku in Manicaland, Bhasvi and Rozani in Wedza, Negomo and Shopo in Mashonaland Central, Madamombe, Mutendi, Chiminya in Masvingo, Sai, Gumunyu, Jiri, Njelele in Gokwe despite the fact that the Moyo are predominantly a Matabeleland and Midlands tribe. In terms of genes there is no difference between a Moyo in Tjolotjo or Hwange and a Moyo in Mashonaland East and even a Sai or Shai in Polokwane in South Africa. So to me although I treasure my Kalanga background and will at every opportunity try and remind my children as such, I am aware that belonging to a particular tribe has been rendered a bit irrelevant owing to the position contemporary Rozvis find themselves. My argument therefore is not motivated by tribal bias but anthropological observation and I believe it will be very credible.
MABHENA’S HEROISM
I am going to say the late Welshman Mabhena is a hero and if Heroes Acre was truly for heroes, his soul must be laid to rest there. As we have come to know the decision is by a political party and therefore it will be very partisan. Yes Mabhena spent most of his time after independence fighting for the people of Matabeleland, that’s very true. And this is why people have not forgiven him and they have called him a tribalist. But Mabhena never talked of Ndebele superiority all he said was that his region was marginalised and that his language was dying. No, people who have not experienced this will not understand where he was coming from.
So it Is very easy to say. People who were never stopped at a roadblock by gun wielding soldiers and asked to produce their ID even if they were only 9 years old cannot understand why.
MABHENA’S TRIBALISM
Had Mabhena said Ndebeles were superior to Shona then I would have been the first one to ask for his dishonour. All he did was to champion the cause of his people and his region after they had been betrayed by most of Zimbabwe who did not say anything during Gukurahundi. And what we have forgotten is that traditionally speaking Mabhena is among the leaders of the Khumalo clan to which Nkosi Mzilikazi belonged. He had the same obligation to speak for his people that Chief Rekayi Tangwena had and if Chief Tangwena was a hero for that then I do not see how Mabhena will become a tribalist for doing exactly the same.
If anyone asks me today why I am not happy about independent Zimbabwe I will always start by saying that I am not happy because Kalanga, the language of the Rozvi, is not a national language and it is not in the school curriculum. I do so knowing that I am a politician and like every other politician I have aspirations to lead my country one day but I will never forsake my own history because of political expediency. The construction of contemporary Zimbabwe has by default allowed the emergence of an underclass and an upper class and unfortunately these problems will not go away by defeatism. There is a reason why post-apartheid South Africa has been successful, its construction, unlike Zimbabwe, has never been based on the majoritarian principle which seeks to maintain a hegemony of the majority but South Africa has pursued a democratic principle which accommodates minority interests.
This is why every language is a language in South Africa and that includes Venda despite the fact that the entire population of Vendas is only 600thousand in a country more than 40million people. And unlike white Zimbabweans, white South Africans remain in their security personnel and by and large they feel they belong to South Africa and its not really very surprising in South Africa to hear a white South African speaking one of the languages spoken by his black compatriots.
The resistance that has faced the issue of autonomous regions in Zimbabwe has been fuelled mainly by the mistrust between Ndebele and Shona even though autonomy would extend to Manicaland, Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland regions. And one needs not go any further than public internet forums to get the answer. The unaddressed issue of Gukurahundi, the pre-colonial Ndebele “raids” into Mashonaland, the origins of the Ndebele and the total failure of the government of Zimbabwe to address this has created a society treading on thorny pricks of tension making Zimbabwe a script whose every turn is full of suspense.
SOUTH AFRICAN ORIGINS OF THE NDEBELE AND THEIR RAIDS
The South African origin of every Ndebele is a pure myth that was constructed mainly by the same Beach who claimed Great Zimbabwe was constructed by Phoenicians. His writings have been widely criticised as they sought to divide Zimbabweans. Everyone knows that more than 70% of the present day Ndebele is made up of people who were by the Khumalo in Zimbabwe. They are the Kalanga, Venda, Nyubi, Nambya, Tonga, Shona etc whose ancestors were found by the Khumalo in Zimbabwe. And Mzilikazi called them amaholangubo “those who earn clothes” because they wore clothes they earned through trade with the Portuguese. Pro-colonisation historians later used the word “hole” in a derogatory way in order to achieve and sore divisions by proferring colonialism as having been a necessary evil to stop the genocide, manipulation and denigration of the Shona by the Ndebele. This is the same reason why there has been an argument that Ndebeles raided Shonas for cattle, food and women. This is not supported by fact and could only be possible if Ndebele warriors were high-tech, highly mechanised armies who could drive at full speed to Mashonaland and return with their loot to Matabeleland. Even modern armies can never move with such speed.
It does not make sense for anyone to think that spear wielding warriors could travel all the way from Bulawayo to Harare at full speed and raid and return at the same speed to Bulawayo. And honestly the Shona would have been very pathetic to be defeated by such a clearly tired army. I have said Ndebele raids into further Shona territory could only be true if the Ndebele had satellites in Mashonaland. That way they could camp and rest and would have been able to invade with a potent force. Moreover it has been said that the Hwata people of Mazowe and Mashayamombe people of Mhondoro had guns and the Ndebele would not even attempt to attack them. Ndebele, Shona rivalry was a creation of propagandists at the time of colonisation and it is a myth because the two tribes cooperated with each other in 1896 and Chimurenga wars were fought both in Mashonaland and Matabeleland. Had there been such rift that cooperation would not have happened.
Coming to the issue of origins there seems to have been more than one tribe in Zimbabwe that came from South Africa. Historians have said the earliest Shona speaking group to come to Zimbabwe is the Dziva people which separated from the BaKwena/BaSotho people of South Africa. The Rozvi/Kalanga are linked to the BaLotzwi/BaLobedu of Polokwane and the Venda and everyone from the Mashayamombe people also claims that they came from Swaziland and so does some people from the Makoni Chieftaincy who say they came from South Africa.
MATABELELAND: ABDICATION OR DEVOLUTION
What I will never support is for anyone to say Matableleland will abdicate and that is where my point of departure with Welshman Mabhena is. This is because Matabeleland has never existed as a separate entity, it is Zimbabwe, it is where my own direct ancestor, KHOSI Netjasike who is the last king of the Rozvi/Kalanga was based, it is where another ancestor Changamire Dombo was based. The shrines that have always been the shrines of Zimbabweans at Mahwemanyolo, Njelele, Mahwematjena etc are all in Matabeleland. They were not Ndebele shrines, they were not Kalanga shrines, they were not Shona shrines but were national shrines.
Yes there is anger in Matabeleland and yes Zimbabwe demands devolution but my hero was very wrong in calling Matabeleland a country because it is not a separate entity. It is part of modern Zimbabwe as it has always been part of ancient Zimbabwe. To make matters worse those who have been calling for abdication are working in direct opposition to the aspirations of Mzilikazi. They are saying they will unite Matabeleland with the Zulu nation in South Africa. Now this is unacceptable, Mzilikazi cut ties with the Zulu, he chose to leave that kingdom and those who seek a return there are not working in cahoots with the aspirations of Mzilikazi.
Mzilikazi had every opportunity to appease Shaka had he wanted. He could have said look I found a beautiful country for you and now here it is, but no he became part of Zimbabwe and started building relations with the people already settled there. As for Welshman Mabhena I think the people of Zimbabwe will recognise him as their national hero with or without ZANU PF approval.
Contrary to what people think of him he was not the kind of man who jumped at any opportunity to “work with people from his own tribe, the Ndebele”. When the MDC split in 2005, given a choice of who to work with the faction of Welshman Ncube and the late VP Gibson Sibanda [Peace be Upon Him] who were both Ndebele or that of PM Morgan Tsvangirai and the late National Chairman Isaac Matongo [Peace be Upon Him] who were both Shona, he chose to work with the later as he argued they were more principled. He did not look at tribe but substance. He had his shortcomings but they were very minimal. He was not infallible. I personally like his character particularly his fight for his own people. I too am not ashamed to fight for my Rozvi/Kalanga roots. We have identities and it is important to realise that. Time must come for Zimbabweans to demand that their heroes such as Welshman Mabhena be buried with the honour they deserve at the national shrine. Lalani ngokhuthula okaMabhena!
Julius Sai MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA is the Chairman of Communities Point. He writes in his own capacity.
Contact: mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07529705413 or 07401182271
I have listened to arguments and counterarguments of a tribal nature in many a forum particularly in the UK Diaspora. I have never known such lies of Ndebele-Shona disunity which one only experiences in the UK but my memory of activism back home is that those in Harare existed in more than harmony with their brothers and sisters in Matabeleland and the Midlands.
There was a young man called “Dinyo” [Promise Matunhira] who was the NCA youth leader at the time I left, he must have been from Manicaland but the way he led and drilled NCA youths at the time I left Zimbabwe in 2002 was something of a marvel. To me he was a true field marshal and his national meetings or gatherings were held in Matabeleland, Mashonaland and the Midlands as opposed to one region. There is a song that we Highlanders supporters sung “Highlander iteam yezwe lonke” it was also adopted by the NCA youth at that time and whenever it was being sung by a young activist known as Netsai from Matabeleland, Dinyo and others who were based in Harare would join to sing.
And I remember ZimRights in 1997, led by the then Chairman Nick Ndebele, the deputy leader was my cousin CD Moyo and there was a healthy mix of people from different tribes in its top hierarchy. I am a Moyo, Dewa, Sai, Vumabalanda.....to me this thing about tribes does not apply because as Rozvi I have relatives among the Samuriwo people in Marondera, Nyamweda, Chipai and Ndawana in Mhondoro, Tandi, Mavudzi and Chiduku in Manicaland, Bhasvi and Rozani in Wedza, Negomo and Shopo in Mashonaland Central, Madamombe, Mutendi, Chiminya in Masvingo, Sai, Gumunyu, Jiri, Njelele in Gokwe despite the fact that the Moyo are predominantly a Matabeleland and Midlands tribe. In terms of genes there is no difference between a Moyo in Tjolotjo or Hwange and a Moyo in Mashonaland East and even a Sai or Shai in Polokwane in South Africa. So to me although I treasure my Kalanga background and will at every opportunity try and remind my children as such, I am aware that belonging to a particular tribe has been rendered a bit irrelevant owing to the position contemporary Rozvis find themselves. My argument therefore is not motivated by tribal bias but anthropological observation and I believe it will be very credible.
MABHENA’S HEROISM
I am going to say the late Welshman Mabhena is a hero and if Heroes Acre was truly for heroes, his soul must be laid to rest there. As we have come to know the decision is by a political party and therefore it will be very partisan. Yes Mabhena spent most of his time after independence fighting for the people of Matabeleland, that’s very true. And this is why people have not forgiven him and they have called him a tribalist. But Mabhena never talked of Ndebele superiority all he said was that his region was marginalised and that his language was dying. No, people who have not experienced this will not understand where he was coming from.
So it Is very easy to say. People who were never stopped at a roadblock by gun wielding soldiers and asked to produce their ID even if they were only 9 years old cannot understand why.
MABHENA’S TRIBALISM
Had Mabhena said Ndebeles were superior to Shona then I would have been the first one to ask for his dishonour. All he did was to champion the cause of his people and his region after they had been betrayed by most of Zimbabwe who did not say anything during Gukurahundi. And what we have forgotten is that traditionally speaking Mabhena is among the leaders of the Khumalo clan to which Nkosi Mzilikazi belonged. He had the same obligation to speak for his people that Chief Rekayi Tangwena had and if Chief Tangwena was a hero for that then I do not see how Mabhena will become a tribalist for doing exactly the same.
If anyone asks me today why I am not happy about independent Zimbabwe I will always start by saying that I am not happy because Kalanga, the language of the Rozvi, is not a national language and it is not in the school curriculum. I do so knowing that I am a politician and like every other politician I have aspirations to lead my country one day but I will never forsake my own history because of political expediency. The construction of contemporary Zimbabwe has by default allowed the emergence of an underclass and an upper class and unfortunately these problems will not go away by defeatism. There is a reason why post-apartheid South Africa has been successful, its construction, unlike Zimbabwe, has never been based on the majoritarian principle which seeks to maintain a hegemony of the majority but South Africa has pursued a democratic principle which accommodates minority interests.
This is why every language is a language in South Africa and that includes Venda despite the fact that the entire population of Vendas is only 600thousand in a country more than 40million people. And unlike white Zimbabweans, white South Africans remain in their security personnel and by and large they feel they belong to South Africa and its not really very surprising in South Africa to hear a white South African speaking one of the languages spoken by his black compatriots.
The resistance that has faced the issue of autonomous regions in Zimbabwe has been fuelled mainly by the mistrust between Ndebele and Shona even though autonomy would extend to Manicaland, Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland regions. And one needs not go any further than public internet forums to get the answer. The unaddressed issue of Gukurahundi, the pre-colonial Ndebele “raids” into Mashonaland, the origins of the Ndebele and the total failure of the government of Zimbabwe to address this has created a society treading on thorny pricks of tension making Zimbabwe a script whose every turn is full of suspense.
SOUTH AFRICAN ORIGINS OF THE NDEBELE AND THEIR RAIDS
The South African origin of every Ndebele is a pure myth that was constructed mainly by the same Beach who claimed Great Zimbabwe was constructed by Phoenicians. His writings have been widely criticised as they sought to divide Zimbabweans. Everyone knows that more than 70% of the present day Ndebele is made up of people who were by the Khumalo in Zimbabwe. They are the Kalanga, Venda, Nyubi, Nambya, Tonga, Shona etc whose ancestors were found by the Khumalo in Zimbabwe. And Mzilikazi called them amaholangubo “those who earn clothes” because they wore clothes they earned through trade with the Portuguese. Pro-colonisation historians later used the word “hole” in a derogatory way in order to achieve and sore divisions by proferring colonialism as having been a necessary evil to stop the genocide, manipulation and denigration of the Shona by the Ndebele. This is the same reason why there has been an argument that Ndebeles raided Shonas for cattle, food and women. This is not supported by fact and could only be possible if Ndebele warriors were high-tech, highly mechanised armies who could drive at full speed to Mashonaland and return with their loot to Matabeleland. Even modern armies can never move with such speed.
It does not make sense for anyone to think that spear wielding warriors could travel all the way from Bulawayo to Harare at full speed and raid and return at the same speed to Bulawayo. And honestly the Shona would have been very pathetic to be defeated by such a clearly tired army. I have said Ndebele raids into further Shona territory could only be true if the Ndebele had satellites in Mashonaland. That way they could camp and rest and would have been able to invade with a potent force. Moreover it has been said that the Hwata people of Mazowe and Mashayamombe people of Mhondoro had guns and the Ndebele would not even attempt to attack them. Ndebele, Shona rivalry was a creation of propagandists at the time of colonisation and it is a myth because the two tribes cooperated with each other in 1896 and Chimurenga wars were fought both in Mashonaland and Matabeleland. Had there been such rift that cooperation would not have happened.
Coming to the issue of origins there seems to have been more than one tribe in Zimbabwe that came from South Africa. Historians have said the earliest Shona speaking group to come to Zimbabwe is the Dziva people which separated from the BaKwena/BaSotho people of South Africa. The Rozvi/Kalanga are linked to the BaLotzwi/BaLobedu of Polokwane and the Venda and everyone from the Mashayamombe people also claims that they came from Swaziland and so does some people from the Makoni Chieftaincy who say they came from South Africa.
MATABELELAND: ABDICATION OR DEVOLUTION
What I will never support is for anyone to say Matableleland will abdicate and that is where my point of departure with Welshman Mabhena is. This is because Matabeleland has never existed as a separate entity, it is Zimbabwe, it is where my own direct ancestor, KHOSI Netjasike who is the last king of the Rozvi/Kalanga was based, it is where another ancestor Changamire Dombo was based. The shrines that have always been the shrines of Zimbabweans at Mahwemanyolo, Njelele, Mahwematjena etc are all in Matabeleland. They were not Ndebele shrines, they were not Kalanga shrines, they were not Shona shrines but were national shrines.
Yes there is anger in Matabeleland and yes Zimbabwe demands devolution but my hero was very wrong in calling Matabeleland a country because it is not a separate entity. It is part of modern Zimbabwe as it has always been part of ancient Zimbabwe. To make matters worse those who have been calling for abdication are working in direct opposition to the aspirations of Mzilikazi. They are saying they will unite Matabeleland with the Zulu nation in South Africa. Now this is unacceptable, Mzilikazi cut ties with the Zulu, he chose to leave that kingdom and those who seek a return there are not working in cahoots with the aspirations of Mzilikazi.
Mzilikazi had every opportunity to appease Shaka had he wanted. He could have said look I found a beautiful country for you and now here it is, but no he became part of Zimbabwe and started building relations with the people already settled there. As for Welshman Mabhena I think the people of Zimbabwe will recognise him as their national hero with or without ZANU PF approval.
Contrary to what people think of him he was not the kind of man who jumped at any opportunity to “work with people from his own tribe, the Ndebele”. When the MDC split in 2005, given a choice of who to work with the faction of Welshman Ncube and the late VP Gibson Sibanda [Peace be Upon Him] who were both Ndebele or that of PM Morgan Tsvangirai and the late National Chairman Isaac Matongo [Peace be Upon Him] who were both Shona, he chose to work with the later as he argued they were more principled. He did not look at tribe but substance. He had his shortcomings but they were very minimal. He was not infallible. I personally like his character particularly his fight for his own people. I too am not ashamed to fight for my Rozvi/Kalanga roots. We have identities and it is important to realise that. Time must come for Zimbabweans to demand that their heroes such as Welshman Mabhena be buried with the honour they deserve at the national shrine. Lalani ngokhuthula okaMabhena!
Julius Sai MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA is the Chairman of Communities Point. He writes in his own capacity.
Contact: mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07529705413 or 07401182271
Saturday 2 October 2010
SCENE 5: TWO FACES ONE WOMAN
SCENE 5: TWO FACES ONE WOMAN: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
[THIS SCENE IS SET AT A MEETING OF WAR VETERANS]
Nekuboka and his wife [extending their arms in greetings]
Comrade, how are you? How is your family, komu? How are progressing the work of the Party? How is the revolution? [They do that to everyone attending].
Acknowledgement [we are all well]
Nekuboka: [chanting]
Power to the people! Pamberi neChimurenga; Pamberi nekugova ivhu! Macomrades ngatifarireyi Chimurenga chitsva! [Power to the people, forward with the liberation struggle, forward with the land redistribution. Comrades let’s all celebrate the Third Chimurenga].
Mlambo [moving his beret sideways]
True that komu, that’s why you see some of us clad in these [he holds his denim pants]. We are already one foot in Comrades.
Nyamutaka [chanting]
Pasi nemabhunu, nevana vavo nevanovabikira! Pasi nezvimbwasungata zveMDC nevapambepfumi veBritain neAmerica. Pamberi nekugova minda! [Down with the imperialists and their supporters! Down with the MDC, Britain and the USA!”
Tichafa [emphasising a point by punching the air with a clenched fist]
Pamberi nestruggle! [Forward with the struggle]. Comrades let’s refrain from calling names. Our struggle was principled. It was in pursuit of an ethos of fairness, equality and non-discrimination. We didn’t fight to call others mabhunu. Our spirit has roots in the Freedom Charter. Our struggle will be in vain if it does not mature. Zimbabwe is a country for both blacks and whites. We owe it to Mwalimu, Kwame, Joshua Nkomo, Tongogara, Mangena, Senghor and a lot many others to do the right thing.
[He pauses, sips water and continues]
Like a plant the revolution has to mature.
When you grow plants you put seeds into the soil, they germinate and you prune and weed them. Our revolution is refusing to take shape, it has been affected by paranoia and this is retarding its progress. We have allowed hate and division to exist. We still have disparities. We still call whites mabhunu. We have not welcomed them yet to our family.
Mlambo
Comrade Magorira, all you have said is high sounding. But they caused themselves all the problems. They came to our country, they took our land by force, they chased our king away and no one knows where his grave is. They killed our prophets and prophetesses and defamed all the holy places. They raped our women and abandoned the bastardised children. They enslaved us and took our land and made us second class citizens in our own country. They...
Nyamutaka
In fact we were fourth class citizens....
Ndlovu
If we were citizens!
Nyamutaka [Continuing but gazing towards Ndlovu]
Thanks Comrade Ndlovu, if we were citizens. You see there is no change even today. They squeezed us in tiny pieces of land and they get all the money and with it the luxury; from the sweat of our people.
Mlambo
Thanks Comrades; we cannot apologise. We are the victims and cannot apologise to perpetrators. Think of Nyadzonia, Mkushi, Mgagao and Chimoyo. This land is ours, it grows on our soil and we toil on it. We are born on this land and our kith past, present and in the future will be buried here.
Nyamutaka
Yes this land is ours. We give the plants; the crops, bushes, trees, mountains, rivers, lakes and every land feature here names in our own languages. The animals that roam our forests are our culture; they give us our totems and praise lines. The beautiful, timid and heavy land features up mountains and near unwelcoming forests are the sacred areas which are our shrines and the cemeteries for our royals.
Tichafa: [staring at Mlambo and pursing his lips]
It’s very interesting Comrade Mlambo. By the way which Assembly Point where you? Which district did you operate in? Because I remember you were one of the few black members of the Selous Scouts from this area. Your evolution to be such a champion of the struggle who has all that knowledge about our birth-right is really amazing. What further amazes is how such an illusory son of the soil failed, in fact refused to join his colleagues.
Nekuboka
Because now you seem to remember the cause so vividly, Comrade Mlambo! During the liberation struggle I carried an AK47 and wore jeans. My bullets aimed at the enemy forces such as you; both blacks and whites. We were not taught to kill whites. Genocide was never part of the guerrilla curriculum. Yet you, the one who carried an LMG pointed the other way and now you are lecturing to us and inciting a hate agenda that never was. You are the people who destroy the struggle, Comrade.
Mlambo
That’s my history Comrades; even leadership has addressed it in reconciliation. I am now a custodian of the struggle.
Tichafa [Interjecting]
You see. You deserve reconciliation because you are black and you hang out with the right gang? Now that’s what I call hypocrisy, comrade!!
Nyamutaka [Throwing a clenched fist in the air]
Pamberi nekubatana. Pamberi nekubatana. [Forward with unity! Forward with unity!] Comrades we are one. We should not allow that...........
Mrs Mapembwe: [Standing up]
Correct Comrade Nyamutaka, correct. {Singing] Ahee shuwa, hehe tatukana here....Komuredhi tatukana here [others join in: hapana kutukana, pfungwa ndodzasiyana]
[The discussions continue after the singing]
Tichafa:
It’s all well Comrade; the good thing is that when we meet like this we have the chance to openly discuss. This is why I fought. It was to liberate the mind and conscience; for the freedom and happiness of all. Our enemy hated free speech and the character of our contemporary enemy today will be the one who hates free speech.
Mlambo
Comrade Tichafa, yes Comrade but these imperialists provoke my conscience. Maybe after serving them and later seeing the light I feel a lot angrier towards them. In any case I was the eyes of the revolution in the Selous Scouts. If you ask the senior command they will tell you it was me who leaked vital information, not to mention the daylight defection in 1977......
Tichafa
Comrade wasn’t your defection well after independence? I remember it was Comrade Jumanda Wiridzayi, who had just become a minister, who brought you to our attention and mentioned all what you are saying. But most of the boys at the camp felt it difficult to believe. It simply wasn’t compelling. They just let go because of the spirit of reconciliation. Comrade rumour actually says you had paid Comrade Wiridzayi and that he is also your relative
Mlambo [exclaiming]
Ha, comrade....do you believe that version from traitors?
Nyamutaka
Don’t worry Comrade Mlambo; I personally know what you talked about. Comrade Tichafa you are our senior, Comrade Mlambo came with the leaders. He was given to us by our leadership. They said he is a comrade and who are we to dispute that? I am a disciplined cadre and I obey them without thought.
[Ndlovu, Nekuboka and Mrs Mapembwe]
I too, Comrade Tichafa is drunk, Comrades. Comrade Mlambo is a true cadre, a son of the soil. Leadership says so and we too say so.
[Tichafa disapproves by throwing his arms in the air]
Mlambo
I don’t know Comrades; I thought we were all disciplined cadres and surely what are fighting over? Should we divide ourselves simply because we think these whole imperialists have rights, rights they denied us over and over again?
Nyamutaka
Pasi nemabhunu Macomrades?
[Down with the white imperialists]
[All but Tichafa].
Pasi naro nezvimbwasunguta zvaro! [Down with both him and the collaborators!]
Tichafa [Again shrugs].
They drink beer and then disappear in different directions.
THE EXCERPT ABOVE IS FROM "TWO FACES ONE WOMAN" A PLAY THAT I HAVE WRITTEN. THE BOOK RECEIVED VERY GOOD RAPPOITRE FROM PENGUIN BOOKS WHO UNFORTUNATELY DO NOT PUBLISH PLAYS
[THIS SCENE IS SET AT A MEETING OF WAR VETERANS]
Nekuboka and his wife [extending their arms in greetings]
Comrade, how are you? How is your family, komu? How are progressing the work of the Party? How is the revolution? [They do that to everyone attending].
Acknowledgement [we are all well]
Nekuboka: [chanting]
Power to the people! Pamberi neChimurenga; Pamberi nekugova ivhu! Macomrades ngatifarireyi Chimurenga chitsva! [Power to the people, forward with the liberation struggle, forward with the land redistribution. Comrades let’s all celebrate the Third Chimurenga].
Mlambo [moving his beret sideways]
True that komu, that’s why you see some of us clad in these [he holds his denim pants]. We are already one foot in Comrades.
Nyamutaka [chanting]
Pasi nemabhunu, nevana vavo nevanovabikira! Pasi nezvimbwasungata zveMDC nevapambepfumi veBritain neAmerica. Pamberi nekugova minda! [Down with the imperialists and their supporters! Down with the MDC, Britain and the USA!”
Tichafa [emphasising a point by punching the air with a clenched fist]
Pamberi nestruggle! [Forward with the struggle]. Comrades let’s refrain from calling names. Our struggle was principled. It was in pursuit of an ethos of fairness, equality and non-discrimination. We didn’t fight to call others mabhunu. Our spirit has roots in the Freedom Charter. Our struggle will be in vain if it does not mature. Zimbabwe is a country for both blacks and whites. We owe it to Mwalimu, Kwame, Joshua Nkomo, Tongogara, Mangena, Senghor and a lot many others to do the right thing.
[He pauses, sips water and continues]
Like a plant the revolution has to mature.
When you grow plants you put seeds into the soil, they germinate and you prune and weed them. Our revolution is refusing to take shape, it has been affected by paranoia and this is retarding its progress. We have allowed hate and division to exist. We still have disparities. We still call whites mabhunu. We have not welcomed them yet to our family.
Mlambo
Comrade Magorira, all you have said is high sounding. But they caused themselves all the problems. They came to our country, they took our land by force, they chased our king away and no one knows where his grave is. They killed our prophets and prophetesses and defamed all the holy places. They raped our women and abandoned the bastardised children. They enslaved us and took our land and made us second class citizens in our own country. They...
Nyamutaka
In fact we were fourth class citizens....
Ndlovu
If we were citizens!
Nyamutaka [Continuing but gazing towards Ndlovu]
Thanks Comrade Ndlovu, if we were citizens. You see there is no change even today. They squeezed us in tiny pieces of land and they get all the money and with it the luxury; from the sweat of our people.
Mlambo
Thanks Comrades; we cannot apologise. We are the victims and cannot apologise to perpetrators. Think of Nyadzonia, Mkushi, Mgagao and Chimoyo. This land is ours, it grows on our soil and we toil on it. We are born on this land and our kith past, present and in the future will be buried here.
Nyamutaka
Yes this land is ours. We give the plants; the crops, bushes, trees, mountains, rivers, lakes and every land feature here names in our own languages. The animals that roam our forests are our culture; they give us our totems and praise lines. The beautiful, timid and heavy land features up mountains and near unwelcoming forests are the sacred areas which are our shrines and the cemeteries for our royals.
Tichafa: [staring at Mlambo and pursing his lips]
It’s very interesting Comrade Mlambo. By the way which Assembly Point where you? Which district did you operate in? Because I remember you were one of the few black members of the Selous Scouts from this area. Your evolution to be such a champion of the struggle who has all that knowledge about our birth-right is really amazing. What further amazes is how such an illusory son of the soil failed, in fact refused to join his colleagues.
Nekuboka
Because now you seem to remember the cause so vividly, Comrade Mlambo! During the liberation struggle I carried an AK47 and wore jeans. My bullets aimed at the enemy forces such as you; both blacks and whites. We were not taught to kill whites. Genocide was never part of the guerrilla curriculum. Yet you, the one who carried an LMG pointed the other way and now you are lecturing to us and inciting a hate agenda that never was. You are the people who destroy the struggle, Comrade.
Mlambo
That’s my history Comrades; even leadership has addressed it in reconciliation. I am now a custodian of the struggle.
Tichafa [Interjecting]
You see. You deserve reconciliation because you are black and you hang out with the right gang? Now that’s what I call hypocrisy, comrade!!
Nyamutaka [Throwing a clenched fist in the air]
Pamberi nekubatana. Pamberi nekubatana. [Forward with unity! Forward with unity!] Comrades we are one. We should not allow that...........
Mrs Mapembwe: [Standing up]
Correct Comrade Nyamutaka, correct. {Singing] Ahee shuwa, hehe tatukana here....Komuredhi tatukana here [others join in: hapana kutukana, pfungwa ndodzasiyana]
[The discussions continue after the singing]
Tichafa:
It’s all well Comrade; the good thing is that when we meet like this we have the chance to openly discuss. This is why I fought. It was to liberate the mind and conscience; for the freedom and happiness of all. Our enemy hated free speech and the character of our contemporary enemy today will be the one who hates free speech.
Mlambo
Comrade Tichafa, yes Comrade but these imperialists provoke my conscience. Maybe after serving them and later seeing the light I feel a lot angrier towards them. In any case I was the eyes of the revolution in the Selous Scouts. If you ask the senior command they will tell you it was me who leaked vital information, not to mention the daylight defection in 1977......
Tichafa
Comrade wasn’t your defection well after independence? I remember it was Comrade Jumanda Wiridzayi, who had just become a minister, who brought you to our attention and mentioned all what you are saying. But most of the boys at the camp felt it difficult to believe. It simply wasn’t compelling. They just let go because of the spirit of reconciliation. Comrade rumour actually says you had paid Comrade Wiridzayi and that he is also your relative
Mlambo [exclaiming]
Ha, comrade....do you believe that version from traitors?
Nyamutaka
Don’t worry Comrade Mlambo; I personally know what you talked about. Comrade Tichafa you are our senior, Comrade Mlambo came with the leaders. He was given to us by our leadership. They said he is a comrade and who are we to dispute that? I am a disciplined cadre and I obey them without thought.
[Ndlovu, Nekuboka and Mrs Mapembwe]
I too, Comrade Tichafa is drunk, Comrades. Comrade Mlambo is a true cadre, a son of the soil. Leadership says so and we too say so.
[Tichafa disapproves by throwing his arms in the air]
Mlambo
I don’t know Comrades; I thought we were all disciplined cadres and surely what are fighting over? Should we divide ourselves simply because we think these whole imperialists have rights, rights they denied us over and over again?
Nyamutaka
Pasi nemabhunu Macomrades?
[Down with the white imperialists]
[All but Tichafa].
Pasi naro nezvimbwasunguta zvaro! [Down with both him and the collaborators!]
Tichafa [Again shrugs].
They drink beer and then disappear in different directions.
THE EXCERPT ABOVE IS FROM "TWO FACES ONE WOMAN" A PLAY THAT I HAVE WRITTEN. THE BOOK RECEIVED VERY GOOD RAPPOITRE FROM PENGUIN BOOKS WHO UNFORTUNATELY DO NOT PUBLISH PLAYS
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