Chaibva is wrong again: Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
The attack on Trudy Stevenson is an act of barbarism that no-one can really condone. And the MDC, as led by Morgan Tsvangirai, was quick in condemning it. But it seems as if the Professor Mutambara faction of the Party wants to gain political mileage out of it. Statements that followed the attack seem to have exonerated ZANU PF and ridiculously tried to make Tsvangirai the wicked person of Zimbabwean politics. In doing that the Mutambara faction is not alone, they have plenty admirers especially in ZANU PF, as represented by Nathan Shamuyarira their spokesperson. Interestingly the government mouthpiece reported on the same day and ironically on the same page that the case against Didymus Mutasa was being dropped, yet that involving Trudy Stevenson was being propped up. The Mutasa case was about ZANU PF intra-political violence which involved attempted murder and is no different from the Trudy Stevenson case but it is clear that the stake is higher to pursue Morgan Tsvangirai. One wonders why ZANU PF is too quick to implicate MDC and why some of us are complicit to that.
The attack on Trudy Stevenson was splashed in the Herald, Trudy herself gave a good account of how bad her attackers from the other side were, and that she has never seen such savagery in her entire life. Of course when in pain, one can say things that they would not want repeated! Not to condone violence, I personally being a very peaceful man who submitted fully to the life of Christianity, but there is a clear distortion in such statements. It is commonplace in Zimbabwe that the savagery that has been witnessed was from Ian Smith in the liberation struggle, the Robert Mugabe regime during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland and the Robert Mugabe regime against mainly MDC supporters and white farmers. These are the facts, documented in such reports as the Monthly Political Violence Monitoring Reports that are produced by the Zimbabwe Human rights Ngo Forum. The depth of that savagery is so deep and we have Zimbabweans such as Tonderai Machiridza, Stephen Olds etc lost their lives and others like Gabriel Shumba, Ian Kay, Job Sikhala etc were beaten and left for dead. This was savagery at its worst, sustained by the ZANU PF machinery…sustained shamelessly and anchored as a monoculture through institutions of violence such as the Youth Militia.
The attempt to demonise Morgan Tsvangirai by exonerating ZANU PF is as bad as hero-worshipping Ian Smith because I do not like Robert Mugabe. The MDC can not be demonised that way. Whoever beat Trudy was not sanctioned by Morgan Tsvangirai or whoever leader of the MDC. It follows also that it is not true that Tsvangirai and the MDC are very violent as both Nathan Shamuyarira and Gabriel Chaibva want us to believe. Contrary to that if there is any political party in Zimbabwe that is serious about addressing the issue of political violence, it is the Tsvangirai led MDC. This is seen in the tangible efforts that followed the attack on Trudy Stevenson. The Independent Commission of Inquiry that was set displays a seriousness that only those with ulterior motives won’t notice. The quoting of the word independent in some quarters seems to attach doubt to the effect of the inquiry; its purpose is being defeated even before its inception by people obviously longing to see the end of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC. Yet the same people have been crying for violence to be addressed. It seems as if the attack on Trudy was a blessing in disguise for the Mutambara-led MDC…..and they want that on and are clinging to it as if their whole lives belong to it. But some of it is coming from people like Chaibva who themselves lack credibility and were trained to maintain ZANU PF by using violence, when he was trained in the then People’s Militia. But what Chaibva forgot to tell the nation is that he was also involved in intra-MDC fighting when he was jostling for a position in MDC Harare Province in 2001. Maybe he is a recent convert to the peace brigade but of course everyone who knows about converts knows that they confess first before they become true converts. We haven’t heard Chaibva confessing. The same for Arthur Mutambara, himself during his University years, a master who taught our intellectuals how to urinate in fridges! We have nothing really to learn from people who lack credibility to talk, and the nation simply has to be spared the lectures from people whose histories too are well-embedded in the culture of violence that they want us to believe they loath.
Enter Gabriel Chaibva: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/senate211.14346.html on the proposed talks between MDC and ZANU PF seemed to want to indicate that Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC may have played a traitor. The man, of course doing his duty as the Pro-Senate spokesperson, seems to want to speak to the World and seems to have thought that he might have wrong footed Morgan Tsvangirai for what he says is talking to ZANU PF. In his article he also exonerates the Pro-Senate MDC for what he says were accusations that they were either a creation or an extension of ZANU PF. He seems to celebrate the exposure of Tsvangirai as indeed the real traitor, and further talks about the “Winter of Discontent” which he thinks might have been shelved.
What is so striking is the attempt to be the good guys of Zimbabwean politics, a card that was played before the planting season of Budiriro, which as we all know came and others who had truly been serious harvested fruits, and others we won’t mention to avoid unnecessary monotony harvested thorns. “Oh how did I become anheroxic?” said the food shy sister! The question of being traitors and going thousands of miles away from principles is there, stuck on the Mutambara faction that they it will only be changed with the fading of history. Zimbabweans will always remember how some of those they thought were MDC betrayed the struggle for the love of money. They, led by Welshman Ncube and Priscilla Misiharabwi-Mushonga, decided to endorse a constitutional amendment all civic groups in Zimbabwe had rejected by participating in Senatorial Elections. Zimbabweans remember how those they thought were part of them decided to deride the poor by participating in a scheme once more being advanced at the behest of their oppressors, to overburden the already overtaxed Zimbabwean taxpayer by creating a senate that is nothing but the “golden handshake” for Zimbabwe’s political mafia. The senate project came at a time when the electorate, which happens to have the largest stake in the political economy, was crying for houses destroyed during “Operation Murambatsvina” and hyperinflation. It is at that time that Welshman Ncube and company decided to distance themselves from the legitimate agenda of poor people, which at the time was to get redress for “Operation Murambatsvina”. It was around this time that they chose to legitimise ZANU PF by supporting the senate when that money should have been used to build houses for those affected by Murambatsvina. The senate is a project that even ZANU PF luminaries such as Shuvai Mahofa are castigating in broad day light. One wonders how far some of us have travelled from the truth, if they are so myopic not to see what others are beginning to see. Come, the Political Parties Financing Act. Faced with two MDCs after the split, and faced with two MDC congresses it was left to the discretion of ZANU PF and Mugabe to choose what to do. It was either that the two parties would be given Z$4bn each or else as it turned out to be, ZANU PF would reward the MDC they preferred and punish the MDC they hated. And so recent history has it that ZANU PF chose to give the Z$8bn to the MDC they preferred, those that were talking their language and opposing them innocently. This meant the Arthur Mutambara camp was baptised as another ZANU PF, even more preferred to this day to ZANU Ndonga which is ZANU PF’s namesake and to United People’s Party which was born from within ZANU PF itself. They then were taken closer to the hearts and minds of ZANU PF but on that day they also became bad-smell to the besieged masses of Zimbabwe. Bad-smell as shown by their rejection at the hands of the Budiriro folk. Their redundant and decadent ideology was rejected by the sound rejection of their Party’s principal promoter, the spokesperson Gabriel Chaibva…the rejection showed in the number they got 504; ironically the code name of a now redundant and decadent model of cars; Peugeot 504.
I wasn’t really surprised when I followed Chaibva’s argument. It was really not on principle, no. He was not saying MDC should not talk to ZANU PF, no. He was saying ZANU PF should talk to them because they have more representatives in the House of Assembly. What he could not see was that ZANU PF will not talk to another ZANU PF in order to end the crisis. They will engage the opposition and by aligning themselves to ZANU PF, by allowing themselves to be used as canon fodder early in the day and by being rejected by the grassroots the Mutambara faction is both bad-smell and damaged goods and ZANU PF will not have anything to do with them. ZANU PF and the international community would like to hear the other side as is the principle of natural justice and the true other side that has been resolute and unwavering in its opposition of ZANU PF is the Tsvangirai-led MDC and that is in the public gallery. It is therefore clear that all along Chaibva’s group has been positioning itself for talks and in the process they decided to call the bitter pill that is ZANU PF by the name sweet but of course that did not alter the test-buds of the electorate. Instead the electorate has become more and more interested in supporting the truth, supporting the truth with the vigour that it deserves. Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC have not warmed up to ZANU PF in anyway. They did not seek to “re-brand” the Party by harmonising their policies with those of ZANU PF as was done by Mutambara and company. What they have done is to proffer a platform by which ZANU PF will be engaged and that is being done on about eight pillars. What is being proffered is a good dispute settlement mechanism that is all inclusive and this is rare and an indication that at least in Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC he leads we seem to have a leader prepared to move further away from the culture of revolutionary aristocracy that has done our country great disfavour. The Mutambara faction of the MDC is full of people who have positioned themselves as the sympathetic few whom without them poor Zimbabweans would have no voice of agitation. If you listen to Arthur Mutambara speaking, his emphasis on gravitas and how by inference he thinks he meets that definition and the excludability that he thinks befits people such as Morgan Tsvangirai and Joyce Mujuru because they do not have the so-called gravitas, you can see how people who claim to be pro-democracy are not prepared to listen to the electorate but their whims. Like ZANU PF they are a closed club of self-important persons no wonder the likes of David Coltart were shocked when they were not called to mediate when they thought they have the gravitas to mediate and denial would be a sin.
It is therefore left to the Arthur Mutambara led MDC to start-searching for their soul. They are clearly exhausted with the struggle and people like Chaibva who want to contest in every constituency are the best case of such desperation. Defeated in the MDC primary elections in his traditional Harare South Constituency he did the embarrassing thing of going to contest in Budiriro in a clear sign that either the Mutambara faction has no ready takers or they are a closed club where only a chosen few will be preferred. This is why we have seen the same recycled people coming to “preach” their political gospel which at best is a rare blend of ZANU PF and 1960s Pan-Africanism. Having realised that they do not stand a chance with the Zimbabwean electorate they now want to see the demise of MDC and they have been trying by all means to sound the international community that MDC is not good business. They are no longer promoting their own philosophy because they know its bad-smell but as they go want to pull with them the entire MDC and of course the only hope Zimbabweans have. Because they are intellectuals they do not care what happens to the average Zimbabwean because they have never cared. They want their names only. One is reminded of the Biblical mothers who claimed the same child. One who was not the mother wanted it cut into two. The other who was the mother asked King Solomon to spare the child’s life and give it to the other woman if necessary. The wise King settled for the later. In our scenario the electorate is the wise king and they have chosen the ones who want to save the life of the people’s party. What’s left for Chaibva and company is to try and co-exist, if they do that history may not charge them harshly. But if they continue to try and destroy the only hope the people of Zimbabwe have, they may succeed in scaling it down but they will never succeed in destroying the Party. And people will never forgive them. This happened before and ironically the same people were involved in the futile attempt to destroy ZimRights. For years ZimRights had a bad name with the so-called international community. But people remained resolute and now the people’s human rights organisation still survives and has since been rewarded by regaining the respect from the ever inconsistent so-called international community!
JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA CAN BE CONTACTED ON 07984254830, 02077206614 mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or dhewah@hotmail.com
Monday, December 4, 2006
PUBLICATIONS
OF ASCENDENCE SYNDROME, DOOM’S DAY CULTS AND THE ARTHUR MUTAMBARA CAMP: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
Ever since he arrived on the Zimbabwean political scene Professor Arthur Mutambara raised hopes by first lighting political flames but no sooner had the flames started to burn, was he immediately extinguished. Coming at a time when the MDC was clearly in disarray, he seemed to provide the soberness that was then needed to bring Zimbabwe’s most serious opposition party back on track.
There was this Arthur Mutambara who was really high sounding, offering to proffer a political ideology that really made sense to a lot of people who are not post-searching but role-searching. By offering to work with Tsvangirai, fight for the unity not only of the warring MDC factions but also extending the catchment’s area even to the likes of Margaret Dongo, Daniel Shumba, Professor Heneri Dzinotyiweyi, Professor Jonathan Moyo and all the others who today are the outstanding voices against President Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF, he really made sense. Here was a man who really meant well, a force not attracted by positions but real need to emancipate his country men from the yoke that they are in. Professor Mutambara then offered to even step down from his seat to accommodate free and fair elections which he would respect. This coming from a man who did not have second thoughts about assuming the presidency of a party that he was very new to of course raised eyebrows but at that time there was reason to believe, for we all know what is meant by compromise leaders. To me Professor Mutambara then provided the perfect solution to the crisis that the MDC had found itself in, a crisis that seemed more to do with a leadership at that point in time seemed to be in denial.
Professor Mutambara made sense as the compromise that would help glue things together until such a time when differences were mended. Yet this had been tried in Zimbabwean politics before, and when that was tried it also ended in disaster. In 1971 Bishop Abel Muzorewa was chosen as the compromise leader of the Zimbabwe’s African National Council, which was the united voice of the banned nationalist movements, ZANU and ZAPU. The Bishop Muzorewa leadership was supposed to hold fort for jailed and exiled nationalists, Frontline States having agreed on him as a cleric who would be trusted with power. Yet the temptations of power would entrap the Bishop and although he had agreed to the leadership of the late Father Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo, in the 1977 negotiations that eventually led to the internal settlement with Ian Smith, on arrival at Harare International Airport (then Salisbury International Airport) the sheer volumes of people who thronged the airport to welcome him resonated in his ears so badly that at the end he cancelled all the scheduled meetings with Joshua Nkomo who was already waiting in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia). The ascendance syndrome which told him of the support that he thought he had made him assume a sense of leadership that in reality he did not have.
Immediately ANC became UANC and the praises on Nkomo that had been characterised by such songs as “Tsuro tsuro wapera basa naNkomo, tamba naMuzorewa, Tamba naChikerema, tamba naNkomo” immediately changed into vilification for the true father of the revolution Zimbabwe has ever had. We started to hear at Muzorewa’s instigation songs such as “Nkomo wairamba nemajerasi kuti titore nyika-Nkomo was jealousy, he didn’t want Muzorewa to lead”. Sensing danger Joshua left for Zambia and upon hearing this all Frontline States immediately resolved not to work with Muzorewa again. As a result the internal settlement that became known as Zimbabwe Rhodesia was still-born, shunned by the Frontline States, even Margaret Thatcher who had initially indicated support for it was isolated and withdrew her support. Had greed for power not entered Muzorewa’s mind, Mugabe might have been isolated and forced into the same arrangement and there would have been a better history for Zimbabwe’s most historical cleric. It is important to realise that the same ascendance syndrome also affected Robert Mugabe in 1980 at a time when he could have listened to common sense and let Joshua Nkomo who was more senior and with the capacity to unify the new Zimbabwe and hold it together, lead. It is shameful that even after the so-called Unity Accord President Mugabe still could not see the usefulness of letting the one who had real capacity lead and him to follow for the benefit of Zimbabwe.
Politicians forget one thing. That we are the same people who have been voting since the internal settlement of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. But the pattern in the politics of change as shown in Zimbabwe has been this idea of borrowed support. Before 1999 it was clear that people were borrowed from Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe,( forget what other people would like us to believe it is clear from the insistence on Unity that even Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF realised the potential that the old man, Josh, had). Failure to realise this creates a wrong impression that one may regret for the rest of their lives. Thus the support that Muzorewa borrowed when ZANU and ZAPU did not participate in the internal settlement reverted back to their roots and in 1980 the Patriotic Front had 77seats to Muzorewa’s 3. The same seems to be true with Arthur who seems to have been hoodwinked into believing that he has the numbers. When he entered Zimbabwean politics people greeted the rationality, the seeming maturity and the promising star that he seemed to be. Yet people were not saying run before he could walk, there was no special treatment. It was clear that the same incremental rise was expected of him, whether he was a high calibre professional or not!
Mind you most of the parties that failed in Zimbabwe before are parties that were fronted by very prominent people in Zimbabwean society, particularly high calibre professionals. Parties such as the Forum Party of Zimbabwe quickly come to mind. Interestingly political parties that seem to have made a meaningful contribution to Zimbabwe were fronted by people whom we can not say were very educated, such as Edgar Tekere’s Zimbabwe Unity Movement and Margaret Dongo’s Zimbabwe Union of Democrats and of course Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC. But it is clear that ascendancy syndrome caught up with Professor Mutambara. “Takapembedza ngozi tichiti mudzimu”. It is very clear to me that there could have been good intentions and well-meaning when Arthur Mutambara entered the political scene. But just like Bishop Muzorewa before him, he has easily been entrapped by the prophecy of seeing immediate reward which is the trademark of most members of his team. The divorce speech that we heard on Studio 7 from the Pro-Senate’s former Chairperson, Gift Chimanikire, is not something that can be easily discounted as the likes of Gabriel Chaibva and Priscilla Misihairabwi want us to do. If at all there are people not to be taken serious of it will be Priscilla and Gabriel for not only is Chimanikire a very senior politician who has a track-record dating back to successful mass-mobilisation at PTC, but also that both Priscilla and Gabriel have to their credit (discredit) left a trail of destruction and confusion wherever they have gone to. Everyone knows the cream that ZUD was, the promise of a party led by a woman who had it all within her means to be the first elected head of state in Africa, Margaret Dongo. Everyone knows how she took on ZANU PF single-handedly, and bravely, but for the arrival of Priscilla Misihairabwi whose entrance into ZUD spelt disaster and she only left when she was sure the party was in intensive care, bleeding to death. And this Gabriel Chaibva whose origins are with the same People’s Militia that is well-known for its atrocities in Matabeleland, is also known as the person who joined every opposition political party in Zimbabwe and caused a lot of confusion notably in ZUM and the Forum Party of Zimbabwe. He later bounced back as a desperate choice for MDC in the 2000 elections as the party did not have a willing candidate for Harare South. Not that MDC had not identified a candidate for Harare South from its own ranks, no! The reality is that people who had been identified had genuinely been in the struggle for democracy with Margaret Dongo and as genuine cadres they did not want to fight it out against one who had been so principled in the same struggle. It needed someone who either was not part of the struggle for democracy or a total opportunist who saw the possibility of making it to parliament, principles notwithstanding. And there was this Gabriel Chaibva who was not even a member of the MDC, to fill in that space. From then on we could see the endless struggle for power in MDC Harare Province as Gabu tried to position himself in the province, using the same violence that he now accuses others of having used. The Mutambara camp lacks the capacity to criticise others, not only morally but historically, legally, and politically as well. Morally because serve for a few people still remaining in the Mutambara camp, they are a bunch of opportunists who do not even care a thing about the poor people they purport to represent, historically because they are a creation of the same violence they accuse others of being-Mutambara at the UZ, all MDC MPs as there was no way the party could have defeated ZANU PF if it had turned its back to ZANU PF violence, legally and politically because it is Morgan Tsvangirai who has the support of the people, and in politics if you do not have the numbers you will have to fall by the wayside.
There is a clear Doom’s day element in the way that things are being run. But it is also premised on schoolchild tactics and obviously wishful thinking; that this Arthur Mutambara comes to South Africa, he sees the potential in his country to fill in the number one job, he tries to use his history as a student leader to experiment with the people’s feelings. This is all wishful, World Utopias, which of course was bound to fail, not least because the same society that produced the professors in Arthur Mutambara and Welshman Ncube has not been stagnant. It has matured intellectually and has produced not only two, but several professors some of them the Heneri Dzinotyiweyis, Jonathan Moyos, Norman Nyazemas and John Makumbes of this world. The same society can choose its leaders as they like using their own formulae, not professorial templates such the “toilet caretaker” mockery of Professor Ncube, or the “I am the only one capable” wild dream of Professor Mutambara!
When I read the speech that Arthur is said to have made to a few hundred people in Mount Pleasant, I realised that the young man was gone. He seems to me in all what he is doing to be saying that he is the sympathetic one who is taking it upon himself to liberate the suffering masses who without him, are not capable. Such bragging as “Vote for President Mutambara…ask Jonathan Moyo, Daniel Shumba and Morgan Tsvangirai who has the capacity to unseat Mugabe”, says who, Professor? Such self praises are unprecedented in the history of politics and even Idi Amin or Hitler never said that about themselves. That can not come from a fully baked revolutionary and a true Pan Africanist. Such mystification of a mortal man is frightening to say the least especially in the face of dictatorship and I am forced to salute people who are leaving the Pro Senate camp because if it’s the story that is being written there, it must surely be written on an Epitaph or as a graveside speech! It can not be the story to be associated with the living, even the undead! The story of self-praising belongs in the grave; we hoped it would go with ZANU PF. The issue of ascendance must always be incremental, no need for denying that at the moment it is Tsvangirai who has the numbers and Mutambara must admit that he made a mistake by not seizing the opportunity to play the better politics that he was suppose to play; put efforts for unity in MDC before he joined the agenda of any of the factions. Both factions at that time were clearly acting on emotion and also especially the Pro-Senate faction has people like Priscilla Misihairabwi who have histories of leaving a trail of confusion in would-be successful opposition parties that they join.
Politics is about numbers as these show the approval rating for politicians and the stubbornness that the pro-senate camp has greeted their clear rejection by the people of Zimbabwe is unfortunate and those who are leaving the camp are refusing to be associated with the hypocrisy and arrogance that this reflects. At the moment there is a very low approval rating to that camp and the insistence by Professor Ncube that even if they remain with only two people depicts the camp as self-important and not the servants of people that politicians should be. Modern politics listens, it is involving rather than excluding, and it involves people telling their leadership that the approach should be a bottom to top approach. By the way this is what democracy is all about. It is clear therefore that the Pro Senate Camp is driven by their egos and Zimbabweans are being sacrificed because leaders’ egos are telling them not to follow popular opinion. It is because of positions that MDC will not unite even in the face of an impetus towards a people’s revolution which demands that every political leader who is against the status quo be involved. The Zimbabwean opposition must resemble Mao Tse Tung who during the Second World War resolved to suspend his war with the Kuomintang in order that they created a common force against the Japanese. Ascendance syndrome for positions that are yet to come must immediately heal and all must back Morgan Tsvangirai as the Joshua Nkomo of this era, the person with the numbers and a natural leader currently able to unify the masses against Robert Mugabe.
“Dzila kunda mbeli”, sometimes to step down is to move forward!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa, Human Rights Activist based in the United Kingdom
Ever since he arrived on the Zimbabwean political scene Professor Arthur Mutambara raised hopes by first lighting political flames but no sooner had the flames started to burn, was he immediately extinguished. Coming at a time when the MDC was clearly in disarray, he seemed to provide the soberness that was then needed to bring Zimbabwe’s most serious opposition party back on track.
There was this Arthur Mutambara who was really high sounding, offering to proffer a political ideology that really made sense to a lot of people who are not post-searching but role-searching. By offering to work with Tsvangirai, fight for the unity not only of the warring MDC factions but also extending the catchment’s area even to the likes of Margaret Dongo, Daniel Shumba, Professor Heneri Dzinotyiweyi, Professor Jonathan Moyo and all the others who today are the outstanding voices against President Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF, he really made sense. Here was a man who really meant well, a force not attracted by positions but real need to emancipate his country men from the yoke that they are in. Professor Mutambara then offered to even step down from his seat to accommodate free and fair elections which he would respect. This coming from a man who did not have second thoughts about assuming the presidency of a party that he was very new to of course raised eyebrows but at that time there was reason to believe, for we all know what is meant by compromise leaders. To me Professor Mutambara then provided the perfect solution to the crisis that the MDC had found itself in, a crisis that seemed more to do with a leadership at that point in time seemed to be in denial.
Professor Mutambara made sense as the compromise that would help glue things together until such a time when differences were mended. Yet this had been tried in Zimbabwean politics before, and when that was tried it also ended in disaster. In 1971 Bishop Abel Muzorewa was chosen as the compromise leader of the Zimbabwe’s African National Council, which was the united voice of the banned nationalist movements, ZANU and ZAPU. The Bishop Muzorewa leadership was supposed to hold fort for jailed and exiled nationalists, Frontline States having agreed on him as a cleric who would be trusted with power. Yet the temptations of power would entrap the Bishop and although he had agreed to the leadership of the late Father Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo, in the 1977 negotiations that eventually led to the internal settlement with Ian Smith, on arrival at Harare International Airport (then Salisbury International Airport) the sheer volumes of people who thronged the airport to welcome him resonated in his ears so badly that at the end he cancelled all the scheduled meetings with Joshua Nkomo who was already waiting in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia). The ascendance syndrome which told him of the support that he thought he had made him assume a sense of leadership that in reality he did not have.
Immediately ANC became UANC and the praises on Nkomo that had been characterised by such songs as “Tsuro tsuro wapera basa naNkomo, tamba naMuzorewa, Tamba naChikerema, tamba naNkomo” immediately changed into vilification for the true father of the revolution Zimbabwe has ever had. We started to hear at Muzorewa’s instigation songs such as “Nkomo wairamba nemajerasi kuti titore nyika-Nkomo was jealousy, he didn’t want Muzorewa to lead”. Sensing danger Joshua left for Zambia and upon hearing this all Frontline States immediately resolved not to work with Muzorewa again. As a result the internal settlement that became known as Zimbabwe Rhodesia was still-born, shunned by the Frontline States, even Margaret Thatcher who had initially indicated support for it was isolated and withdrew her support. Had greed for power not entered Muzorewa’s mind, Mugabe might have been isolated and forced into the same arrangement and there would have been a better history for Zimbabwe’s most historical cleric. It is important to realise that the same ascendance syndrome also affected Robert Mugabe in 1980 at a time when he could have listened to common sense and let Joshua Nkomo who was more senior and with the capacity to unify the new Zimbabwe and hold it together, lead. It is shameful that even after the so-called Unity Accord President Mugabe still could not see the usefulness of letting the one who had real capacity lead and him to follow for the benefit of Zimbabwe.
Politicians forget one thing. That we are the same people who have been voting since the internal settlement of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. But the pattern in the politics of change as shown in Zimbabwe has been this idea of borrowed support. Before 1999 it was clear that people were borrowed from Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe,( forget what other people would like us to believe it is clear from the insistence on Unity that even Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF realised the potential that the old man, Josh, had). Failure to realise this creates a wrong impression that one may regret for the rest of their lives. Thus the support that Muzorewa borrowed when ZANU and ZAPU did not participate in the internal settlement reverted back to their roots and in 1980 the Patriotic Front had 77seats to Muzorewa’s 3. The same seems to be true with Arthur who seems to have been hoodwinked into believing that he has the numbers. When he entered Zimbabwean politics people greeted the rationality, the seeming maturity and the promising star that he seemed to be. Yet people were not saying run before he could walk, there was no special treatment. It was clear that the same incremental rise was expected of him, whether he was a high calibre professional or not!
Mind you most of the parties that failed in Zimbabwe before are parties that were fronted by very prominent people in Zimbabwean society, particularly high calibre professionals. Parties such as the Forum Party of Zimbabwe quickly come to mind. Interestingly political parties that seem to have made a meaningful contribution to Zimbabwe were fronted by people whom we can not say were very educated, such as Edgar Tekere’s Zimbabwe Unity Movement and Margaret Dongo’s Zimbabwe Union of Democrats and of course Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC. But it is clear that ascendancy syndrome caught up with Professor Mutambara. “Takapembedza ngozi tichiti mudzimu”. It is very clear to me that there could have been good intentions and well-meaning when Arthur Mutambara entered the political scene. But just like Bishop Muzorewa before him, he has easily been entrapped by the prophecy of seeing immediate reward which is the trademark of most members of his team. The divorce speech that we heard on Studio 7 from the Pro-Senate’s former Chairperson, Gift Chimanikire, is not something that can be easily discounted as the likes of Gabriel Chaibva and Priscilla Misihairabwi want us to do. If at all there are people not to be taken serious of it will be Priscilla and Gabriel for not only is Chimanikire a very senior politician who has a track-record dating back to successful mass-mobilisation at PTC, but also that both Priscilla and Gabriel have to their credit (discredit) left a trail of destruction and confusion wherever they have gone to. Everyone knows the cream that ZUD was, the promise of a party led by a woman who had it all within her means to be the first elected head of state in Africa, Margaret Dongo. Everyone knows how she took on ZANU PF single-handedly, and bravely, but for the arrival of Priscilla Misihairabwi whose entrance into ZUD spelt disaster and she only left when she was sure the party was in intensive care, bleeding to death. And this Gabriel Chaibva whose origins are with the same People’s Militia that is well-known for its atrocities in Matabeleland, is also known as the person who joined every opposition political party in Zimbabwe and caused a lot of confusion notably in ZUM and the Forum Party of Zimbabwe. He later bounced back as a desperate choice for MDC in the 2000 elections as the party did not have a willing candidate for Harare South. Not that MDC had not identified a candidate for Harare South from its own ranks, no! The reality is that people who had been identified had genuinely been in the struggle for democracy with Margaret Dongo and as genuine cadres they did not want to fight it out against one who had been so principled in the same struggle. It needed someone who either was not part of the struggle for democracy or a total opportunist who saw the possibility of making it to parliament, principles notwithstanding. And there was this Gabriel Chaibva who was not even a member of the MDC, to fill in that space. From then on we could see the endless struggle for power in MDC Harare Province as Gabu tried to position himself in the province, using the same violence that he now accuses others of having used. The Mutambara camp lacks the capacity to criticise others, not only morally but historically, legally, and politically as well. Morally because serve for a few people still remaining in the Mutambara camp, they are a bunch of opportunists who do not even care a thing about the poor people they purport to represent, historically because they are a creation of the same violence they accuse others of being-Mutambara at the UZ, all MDC MPs as there was no way the party could have defeated ZANU PF if it had turned its back to ZANU PF violence, legally and politically because it is Morgan Tsvangirai who has the support of the people, and in politics if you do not have the numbers you will have to fall by the wayside.
There is a clear Doom’s day element in the way that things are being run. But it is also premised on schoolchild tactics and obviously wishful thinking; that this Arthur Mutambara comes to South Africa, he sees the potential in his country to fill in the number one job, he tries to use his history as a student leader to experiment with the people’s feelings. This is all wishful, World Utopias, which of course was bound to fail, not least because the same society that produced the professors in Arthur Mutambara and Welshman Ncube has not been stagnant. It has matured intellectually and has produced not only two, but several professors some of them the Heneri Dzinotyiweyis, Jonathan Moyos, Norman Nyazemas and John Makumbes of this world. The same society can choose its leaders as they like using their own formulae, not professorial templates such the “toilet caretaker” mockery of Professor Ncube, or the “I am the only one capable” wild dream of Professor Mutambara!
When I read the speech that Arthur is said to have made to a few hundred people in Mount Pleasant, I realised that the young man was gone. He seems to me in all what he is doing to be saying that he is the sympathetic one who is taking it upon himself to liberate the suffering masses who without him, are not capable. Such bragging as “Vote for President Mutambara…ask Jonathan Moyo, Daniel Shumba and Morgan Tsvangirai who has the capacity to unseat Mugabe”, says who, Professor? Such self praises are unprecedented in the history of politics and even Idi Amin or Hitler never said that about themselves. That can not come from a fully baked revolutionary and a true Pan Africanist. Such mystification of a mortal man is frightening to say the least especially in the face of dictatorship and I am forced to salute people who are leaving the Pro Senate camp because if it’s the story that is being written there, it must surely be written on an Epitaph or as a graveside speech! It can not be the story to be associated with the living, even the undead! The story of self-praising belongs in the grave; we hoped it would go with ZANU PF. The issue of ascendance must always be incremental, no need for denying that at the moment it is Tsvangirai who has the numbers and Mutambara must admit that he made a mistake by not seizing the opportunity to play the better politics that he was suppose to play; put efforts for unity in MDC before he joined the agenda of any of the factions. Both factions at that time were clearly acting on emotion and also especially the Pro-Senate faction has people like Priscilla Misihairabwi who have histories of leaving a trail of confusion in would-be successful opposition parties that they join.
Politics is about numbers as these show the approval rating for politicians and the stubbornness that the pro-senate camp has greeted their clear rejection by the people of Zimbabwe is unfortunate and those who are leaving the camp are refusing to be associated with the hypocrisy and arrogance that this reflects. At the moment there is a very low approval rating to that camp and the insistence by Professor Ncube that even if they remain with only two people depicts the camp as self-important and not the servants of people that politicians should be. Modern politics listens, it is involving rather than excluding, and it involves people telling their leadership that the approach should be a bottom to top approach. By the way this is what democracy is all about. It is clear therefore that the Pro Senate Camp is driven by their egos and Zimbabweans are being sacrificed because leaders’ egos are telling them not to follow popular opinion. It is because of positions that MDC will not unite even in the face of an impetus towards a people’s revolution which demands that every political leader who is against the status quo be involved. The Zimbabwean opposition must resemble Mao Tse Tung who during the Second World War resolved to suspend his war with the Kuomintang in order that they created a common force against the Japanese. Ascendance syndrome for positions that are yet to come must immediately heal and all must back Morgan Tsvangirai as the Joshua Nkomo of this era, the person with the numbers and a natural leader currently able to unify the masses against Robert Mugabe.
“Dzila kunda mbeli”, sometimes to step down is to move forward!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa, Human Rights Activist based in the United Kingdom
PUBLICATIONS
Mugabe has scathed black pride
KWINJEH
• Matshazi: 'Kwinjeh ridiculed Africans'• Mugabe's celebratory rant as Zim turns 25• Zim gone 25 years backwards, says MDC• Grace Kwinjeh: Happy birthday to an unfinished revolution• No cheer as Zim turns 24• Independence war mass graves found• Mugabe calls on exiles to return
Grace Kwinjeh's Independence Day article 'Happy birthday to an unfinished revolution' has attracted several comments from our readers. Kuthula Matshazi accused her of distortion. But lawyer Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa disagrees
READING Kuthula Matshazi, I quickly realise that there are some more questions that we as Zimbabweans must honestly ask ourselves.
The first is whether or not Zimbabwe is liberated and the second is when a country begins to be perceived as liberated or worse still, independent. To arrive to an honest conclusion on such a debate we should begin to think beyond the colour of our skins and patronage that arises from skin colour. To me the opinions that Matshazi advances, with due respect, are part of the 1960s discourse where the move on the African Continent was to replace white oppressors with black oppressors. The basic meaning of freedom to me is the absence of oppression and this I believe is not subject to cultural or racial relativism. And oppression is oppression, it is bad whether its practised by whites on blacks, blacks on blacks, or otherwise. Oppression knows no skin colour.
The black government in Zimbabwe to me represents everything of the bad governance subset and it is clear that with such a government at the helm, Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans are not free. I know we will all say well but they are the guys who wedged the war of liberation to free us but to me liberation comes as package, its not about changing the name of the country to Zimbabwe but it goes much further than that.
Of course I didn't participate in the liberation struggle but I am the first son of a father and mother who participated fully in the liberation struggle. But it will require more than simple white or black defeatism to convince me that there are any clear gains derived from the liberation struggle. First the government of Robert Mugabe loses it on all fronts. Was it a revolution to showcase the black man as a champion of his own fate?
But if that's the case then the ploy is lost and I can tell the Africanist that Robert Mugabe is the real Uncle Tom. Why? Because he has proven everything that white supremacists have said about perceived black ineptitude. For starters here is a hypocrite who claims to have championed a war for the freedom of blacks. Late in the day he enacts laws that take away the purported freedom from them. I don't want to repeat POSA and AIPPA which we obviously have heard before. The accusation that the blackman is a failure is made more apparent by leaders such as Robert Mugabe who has managed to run down an economy that was once sound. It is sad for me as a blackman when I have to say yes our economy was good, with a diverse base and production capacities only second to South Africa in the whole continent of Africa, Egypt included. But it is more humiliating when I have to say oh yes but it was in the era of Ian Smith!
Matshazi your children will never understand you when you shall one day tell them that "oh Zimbabwe was once under a whiteman called Ian Smith and we the blacks had to overthrow him". And if then they will ask "but was there any food then, I mean did you have bread and butter, meat and mealie-meal", you will certainly be ashamed to say" Oh yes, in abundance!"
Matshazi, Grace is wrong when she says this revolution is unfinished, no she is very wrong, this revolution is lost! Black pride is scathed, our face is not disfigured but dismembered. Zimbabwe is historically at its lowest. Remember it was this Zimbabwe that built Great Zimbabwe under Mwene Mutapa, it was Zimbabwe that under Tombolaikona Tjimwango (Changamire Dombo) of the Rozvi became the first in Africa to defeat a European army - the Portuguese. It was also Zimbabwe under the Rozvi that first used the mulomo wa kumba fighting method (cow horn formation) later made famous by Tshaka of the Zulu. It was Mzilikazi, a Zimbabwean and founder of the Ndebele nation, who pioneered freedom from Tshaka. His son Lobengula became the first Zimbabwean to embark on shrewd nation-building. I can go on and mention how Zimbabweans both black and white have been conquering not only Africa but the world. But we are at our lowest under this government and all the outstanding things that we are known for have been eroded, overtaken by events.
"Black pride is scathed, our face is not disfigured but dismembered. Zimbabwe is historically at its lowest"
JULIUS DEWA
The country that gave birth to Zion Christian Church under Samuel Hosea Mutendi, Johane Masowe under Sixpence Gandanzara, the country that pioneered panel beating, the pioneers of exploration of the Moon under the Rozvi of Lupandamanhanga Hupenga (Gumbolevula), and at one time manufacturers of cloud seeding aircraft in Norton. Who doesn't know the heroics of white-Zimbabwean pilots during the Second World War.
How do we get independent when we do not have economic freedom? This is the question that the government in Zimbabwe today has always asked itself. To address this, they have embarked on a number of projects under the term affirmative action and indigenisation. These are always good words but with our government, the propensity for bad intentions is very high. If we had embarked on indigenisation, to the true meaning of it in letter and spirit, surely Willowvale Motor Industry wouldn't be bleeding, Matshazi. Oh, the government would be buying Mazdas, and the President would surely have been driving in Mazda. Why not, they are assembled in our country with more than 33% Zimbabwean content. They would have created more jobs for Zimbabwe through the savings on foreign currency as the first family would no longer need EUROs to finance the purchase of Mercedes Benz from Bavaria in Germany.
The President's suits would be designed by Zimbabwen tailors and so would the First Lady, who would not go to Italy to design her shoes instead of Conte Shoes, Bata or G&D that are Zimbabwean. But this doesn't happen, well because our country hasn't come yet, the revolution was lost to bourgeoisis who tell others to think Zimbabwean while they don't think Zimbabwean. Come on, we don't need the West or the East we need ourselves but we have to co-exist in a world that is globalising. The so-called champions of Zimbabwe's struggle are self-servicing hypocrites.
:Phillip Chiyangwa boasted the other day of buying an expensive shoe from Italy but he is the owner of a shoe manufacturing company in Zimbabwe that is closing shop because there is no business. Thats their mentality, they belong there, where we all want to come from. Of course, indigenous Zimbabweans are black and white Zimbabweans alike. This is the reality of our society, we are a multiracial society! This is the same as in South Africa and Namibia, but not the same as elsewhere in Africa. Comparative analyses that do no take account of clear exceptions will not be worth their meaning. Africa as Africa will have a problem if we try to close our world as if we belong to another planet. Africa is on earth and trying to come with philosophies that talk of continental relativism will take us nowhere. I dream of a Zimbabwe that is a serious competitor economically and a rival militarily to the superpowers of the world and such a Zimbabwe can only be built by Zimbabwean white and black hearts and minds together. I believe as a blackman the oppression of a whiteman by my fellow blackman affects me in the same way as the oppression of a blackman by a whiteman.
The third thing will be my assertion that it is possible for blacks to oppress blacks. This is where the problem of Zimbabwe is today. And this the disease Africa has, that blacks can not oppress blacks. That Europe is raising the same issues with Zimbabwe as what the Zimbabwean opposition is, remains very coincidental. What is happening in Zimbabwe is bad and it is in the public domain. In Kalanga we say "usinyile tsime". It doesn't matter whether it is the man next door who says the same as my child, if I mess with drinking water I deserve to be rebuked, left right and centre. But to say Mugabe is right because he has been criticised by the West is clearly myopic. True visionaries do not say such things in public.
Lastly, Matshazi must ask himself why Yoweri Museveni, who defeated the Amin and Obote dictatorships in his Uganda, is not considered a liberator in Africa. For the record Front for National Salvation, FRONASA and later on National Resistance Army, which Museveni led, was trained in the same Tanzanian barracks and by the same FRELIMO and North Korean instructors that trained Zanu PF's Zimbabwe National Liberation Army (Zanla). But why is Museveni not part of the so-called Liberation Grouping of ANC, FRELIMO, PAC, ZANU PF, SWAPO and MPLA? Because he represents the new thinking of Africans who oppose black oppression and can do anything to defeat it. It is a sin in Africa to fight the black aristocracy and this is why MDC in Zimbabwe, MMD in Zambia and Democratic Alliance in South Africa will forever be demonised.
Further I want to leave you what my hero Josiah Tongogara said: "I don't care which post I will get but what I want is for the black child and the white child to grow together freely in the new Zimbabwe."
This was the revolution Matshazi, and it was lost. Remember what he said of the 1980 elections: "I want us to contest the elections as the Patriotic Front led by Dr Joshua Nkomo" and what happened later? Of course Gukurahundi would have been avoided if the true revolutionary had been heeded and the true revolution won!Dewa is a Zimbabwean laywer currently studying for an LLM International Law at the University of East LondonJOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMSdebate@newzimbabwe.com
KWINJEH
• Matshazi: 'Kwinjeh ridiculed Africans'• Mugabe's celebratory rant as Zim turns 25• Zim gone 25 years backwards, says MDC• Grace Kwinjeh: Happy birthday to an unfinished revolution• No cheer as Zim turns 24• Independence war mass graves found• Mugabe calls on exiles to return
Grace Kwinjeh's Independence Day article 'Happy birthday to an unfinished revolution' has attracted several comments from our readers. Kuthula Matshazi accused her of distortion. But lawyer Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa disagrees
READING Kuthula Matshazi, I quickly realise that there are some more questions that we as Zimbabweans must honestly ask ourselves.
The first is whether or not Zimbabwe is liberated and the second is when a country begins to be perceived as liberated or worse still, independent. To arrive to an honest conclusion on such a debate we should begin to think beyond the colour of our skins and patronage that arises from skin colour. To me the opinions that Matshazi advances, with due respect, are part of the 1960s discourse where the move on the African Continent was to replace white oppressors with black oppressors. The basic meaning of freedom to me is the absence of oppression and this I believe is not subject to cultural or racial relativism. And oppression is oppression, it is bad whether its practised by whites on blacks, blacks on blacks, or otherwise. Oppression knows no skin colour.
The black government in Zimbabwe to me represents everything of the bad governance subset and it is clear that with such a government at the helm, Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans are not free. I know we will all say well but they are the guys who wedged the war of liberation to free us but to me liberation comes as package, its not about changing the name of the country to Zimbabwe but it goes much further than that.
Of course I didn't participate in the liberation struggle but I am the first son of a father and mother who participated fully in the liberation struggle. But it will require more than simple white or black defeatism to convince me that there are any clear gains derived from the liberation struggle. First the government of Robert Mugabe loses it on all fronts. Was it a revolution to showcase the black man as a champion of his own fate?
But if that's the case then the ploy is lost and I can tell the Africanist that Robert Mugabe is the real Uncle Tom. Why? Because he has proven everything that white supremacists have said about perceived black ineptitude. For starters here is a hypocrite who claims to have championed a war for the freedom of blacks. Late in the day he enacts laws that take away the purported freedom from them. I don't want to repeat POSA and AIPPA which we obviously have heard before. The accusation that the blackman is a failure is made more apparent by leaders such as Robert Mugabe who has managed to run down an economy that was once sound. It is sad for me as a blackman when I have to say yes our economy was good, with a diverse base and production capacities only second to South Africa in the whole continent of Africa, Egypt included. But it is more humiliating when I have to say oh yes but it was in the era of Ian Smith!
Matshazi your children will never understand you when you shall one day tell them that "oh Zimbabwe was once under a whiteman called Ian Smith and we the blacks had to overthrow him". And if then they will ask "but was there any food then, I mean did you have bread and butter, meat and mealie-meal", you will certainly be ashamed to say" Oh yes, in abundance!"
Matshazi, Grace is wrong when she says this revolution is unfinished, no she is very wrong, this revolution is lost! Black pride is scathed, our face is not disfigured but dismembered. Zimbabwe is historically at its lowest. Remember it was this Zimbabwe that built Great Zimbabwe under Mwene Mutapa, it was Zimbabwe that under Tombolaikona Tjimwango (Changamire Dombo) of the Rozvi became the first in Africa to defeat a European army - the Portuguese. It was also Zimbabwe under the Rozvi that first used the mulomo wa kumba fighting method (cow horn formation) later made famous by Tshaka of the Zulu. It was Mzilikazi, a Zimbabwean and founder of the Ndebele nation, who pioneered freedom from Tshaka. His son Lobengula became the first Zimbabwean to embark on shrewd nation-building. I can go on and mention how Zimbabweans both black and white have been conquering not only Africa but the world. But we are at our lowest under this government and all the outstanding things that we are known for have been eroded, overtaken by events.
"Black pride is scathed, our face is not disfigured but dismembered. Zimbabwe is historically at its lowest"
JULIUS DEWA
The country that gave birth to Zion Christian Church under Samuel Hosea Mutendi, Johane Masowe under Sixpence Gandanzara, the country that pioneered panel beating, the pioneers of exploration of the Moon under the Rozvi of Lupandamanhanga Hupenga (Gumbolevula), and at one time manufacturers of cloud seeding aircraft in Norton. Who doesn't know the heroics of white-Zimbabwean pilots during the Second World War.
How do we get independent when we do not have economic freedom? This is the question that the government in Zimbabwe today has always asked itself. To address this, they have embarked on a number of projects under the term affirmative action and indigenisation. These are always good words but with our government, the propensity for bad intentions is very high. If we had embarked on indigenisation, to the true meaning of it in letter and spirit, surely Willowvale Motor Industry wouldn't be bleeding, Matshazi. Oh, the government would be buying Mazdas, and the President would surely have been driving in Mazda. Why not, they are assembled in our country with more than 33% Zimbabwean content. They would have created more jobs for Zimbabwe through the savings on foreign currency as the first family would no longer need EUROs to finance the purchase of Mercedes Benz from Bavaria in Germany.
The President's suits would be designed by Zimbabwen tailors and so would the First Lady, who would not go to Italy to design her shoes instead of Conte Shoes, Bata or G&D that are Zimbabwean. But this doesn't happen, well because our country hasn't come yet, the revolution was lost to bourgeoisis who tell others to think Zimbabwean while they don't think Zimbabwean. Come on, we don't need the West or the East we need ourselves but we have to co-exist in a world that is globalising. The so-called champions of Zimbabwe's struggle are self-servicing hypocrites.
:Phillip Chiyangwa boasted the other day of buying an expensive shoe from Italy but he is the owner of a shoe manufacturing company in Zimbabwe that is closing shop because there is no business. Thats their mentality, they belong there, where we all want to come from. Of course, indigenous Zimbabweans are black and white Zimbabweans alike. This is the reality of our society, we are a multiracial society! This is the same as in South Africa and Namibia, but not the same as elsewhere in Africa. Comparative analyses that do no take account of clear exceptions will not be worth their meaning. Africa as Africa will have a problem if we try to close our world as if we belong to another planet. Africa is on earth and trying to come with philosophies that talk of continental relativism will take us nowhere. I dream of a Zimbabwe that is a serious competitor economically and a rival militarily to the superpowers of the world and such a Zimbabwe can only be built by Zimbabwean white and black hearts and minds together. I believe as a blackman the oppression of a whiteman by my fellow blackman affects me in the same way as the oppression of a blackman by a whiteman.
The third thing will be my assertion that it is possible for blacks to oppress blacks. This is where the problem of Zimbabwe is today. And this the disease Africa has, that blacks can not oppress blacks. That Europe is raising the same issues with Zimbabwe as what the Zimbabwean opposition is, remains very coincidental. What is happening in Zimbabwe is bad and it is in the public domain. In Kalanga we say "usinyile tsime". It doesn't matter whether it is the man next door who says the same as my child, if I mess with drinking water I deserve to be rebuked, left right and centre. But to say Mugabe is right because he has been criticised by the West is clearly myopic. True visionaries do not say such things in public.
Lastly, Matshazi must ask himself why Yoweri Museveni, who defeated the Amin and Obote dictatorships in his Uganda, is not considered a liberator in Africa. For the record Front for National Salvation, FRONASA and later on National Resistance Army, which Museveni led, was trained in the same Tanzanian barracks and by the same FRELIMO and North Korean instructors that trained Zanu PF's Zimbabwe National Liberation Army (Zanla). But why is Museveni not part of the so-called Liberation Grouping of ANC, FRELIMO, PAC, ZANU PF, SWAPO and MPLA? Because he represents the new thinking of Africans who oppose black oppression and can do anything to defeat it. It is a sin in Africa to fight the black aristocracy and this is why MDC in Zimbabwe, MMD in Zambia and Democratic Alliance in South Africa will forever be demonised.
Further I want to leave you what my hero Josiah Tongogara said: "I don't care which post I will get but what I want is for the black child and the white child to grow together freely in the new Zimbabwe."
This was the revolution Matshazi, and it was lost. Remember what he said of the 1980 elections: "I want us to contest the elections as the Patriotic Front led by Dr Joshua Nkomo" and what happened later? Of course Gukurahundi would have been avoided if the true revolutionary had been heeded and the true revolution won!Dewa is a Zimbabwean laywer currently studying for an LLM International Law at the University of East LondonJOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMSdebate@newzimbabwe.com
PUBLICATIONS
DOWN WITH TRIBALISM
Down with those who preach tribalism, those who are intent at seeing the perpetuation of the destruction of our beautiful country. Like you my brother you work for the same Robert Mugabe you want us to believe you so much hate. Matabeleland has never existed as a separate entity. It has always been part of Zimbabwe. The Rozvi Kingdom with its Kalanga language (to which I belong) found Matabeleland there; they called it Bukwa (Guruuswa in Shona) because of its ranches. The Khumalo found it there, after a lot of fighting they conquered the Rozvi and built the Ndebele Nation.
Mzilikazi tried total conquest but he was not successful, he found resistance in Tohwetjipi, or Sibumbamu, who was a Rozvi/Kalanga General. It was Lobengula, arguably the shrewdest politician and leader Zimbabwe has ever had (bayethe okaMthwakazi, May His Soul Rest in Peace) who finally brought peace to Matabeleland. Under him Rozvi Chiefs such as Sai, Bidi, Rozvi -related Ndiweni, Hwange etc returned their chiefdoms and influence and the Rozvi religion with its Njelele and other shrines became the official religion of Matabeleland. This meant that even Lobengula, the mighty King, would also follow Rozvi religion. But this was in exchange for loyalty and also tjiKalanga, Zimbabwe's official language for more than two centuries was replaced in Matabeleland with the Ndebele language, (I must say which is not pure Zulu). This is reality my brother. Nations are not built by confrontation.
The Ndebele is not a tribe but a nation. 70% of present day Ndebeles have their roots in Zimbabwe, which makes the argument advanced in Mashonaland that Ndebeles should go back to South Africa very silly, add that to Bantu migration patterns and you will laugh at our lack of knowledge. Remember this was the basis by which Robert Mugabe, Enos Nkala and others massacred people of Matabeleland thinking that they have to go, where? And the Matabeleland version of wanting a separate country has its basis in a wrong argument, that "imikhuba yethu 'aihambelane, we are so different from the Shona, substance, form and content!"
The only real difference between the people of Matabeleland and those in Mashonaland is in languages, and this was a colonial design that the half-backed revolutionaries who are running our country decided to maintain. But this should never be allowed to erode the common ground we share that makes us Zimbabweans. The fact is that it was a government that massacred people lets not exaggerate it into a Hutu and Tutsi scenario that has never existed in Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans have tended to unite for a common cause. For example the first Chimurenga was not only fought to drive colonialism away but it was also fought to bring back the Rozvi and Ndebele monarchs, hence the term "chiMurenga", "Murenga"/"Tobela" being God in Rozvi language, and the prophet behind all this was a Rozvi called Mkwati (the founder of Chimurenga, not heralded though) and he was saying the message from God was to have the resurrection of the two monarchs. In the First Chimurenga Ndebele impis came to Mashonaland and fought in that part of Zimbabwe with the help of impis from Chief Mashayamombe (where Kaguvi and Chaminuka came from) and Chief Hwata (where Nehanda came from) who had guns and knew how to use them. As a piece of history you may also want to know that all these people were opposed vigorously by a puppet of the BSAC, Chief Zvimba of Mashonaland West, to whom President Robert Mugabe is directly descended. Defeat came because of people like Chief Zvimba and Chimurenga part 2 came. Then the 1962 debacle came, Nkomo the unity leader, a unifying force in our struggle was ridiculed and accused the Morgan Tsvangirai fashion, and the rest is history. The only person who was accepted as the leader of the struggle did not become the leader of the country, not only that, he was ridiculed and chased away and now where are we? The same seems to be happening in MDC today, oh how we have this propensity to destroy ourselves.
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
Down with those who preach tribalism, those who are intent at seeing the perpetuation of the destruction of our beautiful country. Like you my brother you work for the same Robert Mugabe you want us to believe you so much hate. Matabeleland has never existed as a separate entity. It has always been part of Zimbabwe. The Rozvi Kingdom with its Kalanga language (to which I belong) found Matabeleland there; they called it Bukwa (Guruuswa in Shona) because of its ranches. The Khumalo found it there, after a lot of fighting they conquered the Rozvi and built the Ndebele Nation.
Mzilikazi tried total conquest but he was not successful, he found resistance in Tohwetjipi, or Sibumbamu, who was a Rozvi/Kalanga General. It was Lobengula, arguably the shrewdest politician and leader Zimbabwe has ever had (bayethe okaMthwakazi, May His Soul Rest in Peace) who finally brought peace to Matabeleland. Under him Rozvi Chiefs such as Sai, Bidi, Rozvi -related Ndiweni, Hwange etc returned their chiefdoms and influence and the Rozvi religion with its Njelele and other shrines became the official religion of Matabeleland. This meant that even Lobengula, the mighty King, would also follow Rozvi religion. But this was in exchange for loyalty and also tjiKalanga, Zimbabwe's official language for more than two centuries was replaced in Matabeleland with the Ndebele language, (I must say which is not pure Zulu). This is reality my brother. Nations are not built by confrontation.
The Ndebele is not a tribe but a nation. 70% of present day Ndebeles have their roots in Zimbabwe, which makes the argument advanced in Mashonaland that Ndebeles should go back to South Africa very silly, add that to Bantu migration patterns and you will laugh at our lack of knowledge. Remember this was the basis by which Robert Mugabe, Enos Nkala and others massacred people of Matabeleland thinking that they have to go, where? And the Matabeleland version of wanting a separate country has its basis in a wrong argument, that "imikhuba yethu 'aihambelane, we are so different from the Shona, substance, form and content!"
The only real difference between the people of Matabeleland and those in Mashonaland is in languages, and this was a colonial design that the half-backed revolutionaries who are running our country decided to maintain. But this should never be allowed to erode the common ground we share that makes us Zimbabweans. The fact is that it was a government that massacred people lets not exaggerate it into a Hutu and Tutsi scenario that has never existed in Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans have tended to unite for a common cause. For example the first Chimurenga was not only fought to drive colonialism away but it was also fought to bring back the Rozvi and Ndebele monarchs, hence the term "chiMurenga", "Murenga"/"Tobela" being God in Rozvi language, and the prophet behind all this was a Rozvi called Mkwati (the founder of Chimurenga, not heralded though) and he was saying the message from God was to have the resurrection of the two monarchs. In the First Chimurenga Ndebele impis came to Mashonaland and fought in that part of Zimbabwe with the help of impis from Chief Mashayamombe (where Kaguvi and Chaminuka came from) and Chief Hwata (where Nehanda came from) who had guns and knew how to use them. As a piece of history you may also want to know that all these people were opposed vigorously by a puppet of the BSAC, Chief Zvimba of Mashonaland West, to whom President Robert Mugabe is directly descended. Defeat came because of people like Chief Zvimba and Chimurenga part 2 came. Then the 1962 debacle came, Nkomo the unity leader, a unifying force in our struggle was ridiculed and accused the Morgan Tsvangirai fashion, and the rest is history. The only person who was accepted as the leader of the struggle did not become the leader of the country, not only that, he was ridiculed and chased away and now where are we? The same seems to be happening in MDC today, oh how we have this propensity to destroy ourselves.
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
PUBLICATIONS
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa: "Africa Day: Zimbabwe Condemnation"
The Zimbabwean human rights lawyer emailed this piece to us in honour of African Day, which is today and celebrates the establishment of the Organization for African Unity (now the African Union). He argues that it is time for African leaders to cut the victimology rhetoric and to oppose those who undermine democracy and economic freedom, regardless of race. As we commemorate Africa Day, we recall the sacrifices that the generation before us had to make in order that they ended the centuries of injustices against our kind in general and Africa in particular. Indeed it will be those who don’t know who will look at Africa Day with contempt, wherever we are as long as we are Africans. That Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, Johnston Kamau Ngengi (Jomo Kenyatta), Ahmed Ben Bella, Augustinho Neto, Eduardo Mondlane, Abdel Nasser, and many others then stood for this noble cause- to redeem the continent from centuries of manipulation and oppression by nationals of other continents; in particular Europe. The talk then was the total eradication of oppression on the continent, then oppression was represented by Europeans who believed in using their powers of political, economic and military hegemony to build empires and they indeed had competed fiercely for the conquest of other people.Slavery, another product of hegemony, still remains the worst crime against humanity.
That Man in his right senses brought about a superficial concept of racial superiority and chose to take another of his kind but who had different skin and hair features and used this as a precursor to forcibly remove him from his motherland and took away all that made him human and reduced him to a rank equal to that of animals, is still the worst example of human prejudicing done to him. It is with this in mind that one of the founding fathers of Africa, my namesake Julius Nyerere, made it clear that the emerging Africa would never allow discrimination in reverse. This statement could also be taken to mean that the Africa then to emerge would also not allow the concept of “reverse colonial mentality”. The travaux preparatoires “negotiating history” behind the African Charter is a testimony of this realisation, brought about by centuries of marginalisation and mental subjugation. Readers of international law will be with me when I point that of all the regional human rights instruments Africa is the only one that mentions People’s rights and the continental human rights guru is known as the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights. Also as far as I am concerned the most progressive refugee law in the world is to be found in Africa. Indeed 25 May is significant, the time we celebrate Africa and hope for more, and that South Africa, the continent’s military and economic superpower and an aspiring candidate for the UN Security Council on an African ticket does not recognise 25 May as a public holiday is the most embarrassing thing in our lifetime, especially coming from a country all on the continent suffered so much to be free.As a Zimbabwean, I am no different and am today built with the same aspirations for a great Africa that were the bedrock for the founding of the Organisation of African Unity, now African Union. I was not yet born then but I am as privy to the deliberations that led to this realisation of the Great African dream.
Then the real issues were apartheid in South Africa, UDI in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), fascism in Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe and Angola, and also the issue of the illegal annexation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa. The fact that today almost all but one country on the continent are free from control by a colonial power makes the achievement of the founding fathers immeasurable. Yet the maturity of Africa has also met with challenges and Africa will be doomed if we don’t realise this. Twenty–five years on Africa still begs from the West and the rest of the world and needless to say we are the laughing stock of mother Earth. It will be concubine defeatism to keep on pointing at the west for all our shortcomings. I am a proud African able to live with my challenges and will never be so paranoid as to say that the mistakes of yesteryear have brought to us perpetual suffering. Africa has to change its attitude and look at ourselves as the masters of our destinies. We are not the only one with a history of colonisation you see. After all the greatest country in the world today, United States of America, is a former colony not a former coloniser! Name them, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are all former colonies. Some of you will then say that but these are white countries and I will say well look at Singapore, Malaysia, India etc which are emerging as the future global economic leaders.Stereotyping our failures as being products of perpetual racism will take us nowhere and to me a believer in racial inferiority is as guilty of racism as a believer in racial supremacy. Do you believe it when I remind you that Haiti was a nation before Germany which was only formed after the Franco-Prussian War of 1871? Why has Haiti failed to make a mark as a stable member of the community of nations and why is Botswana, which only became independent in 1966 more successful?
It is because we have failed as Africa to criticise ourselves that we lag behind everyone. As a Zimbabwean the fact that my country is being run down under the nose of Africa makes me sick. Today Africa’s competence in the eyes of the Zimbabwean is under test. The net difference between Robert Mugabe and Ian Smith is zero, although they represent different racial groups in Zimbabwe. But to the Zimbabwean at least Europe did something when Ian Smith was the Prime Minister in the then Rhodesia, they imposed sanctions on his regime. And we had in Australia then, the fiercest critic of the regime, notwithstanding that Australia is part of what Robert Mugabe now calls the “White Commonwealth”. Today Zimbabweans are humiliated day in day out as their government has reduced them to beggars and destitutes. It is clear that Zimbabweans are being harassed left right and centre by their brothers on the continent who have decided to forgo principles and support a president who is so obsessed with the love for power that he is prepared to see the entire country perish. If Robert Mugabe is a hero and he is being sabotaged by the West why doesn’t he resign in protest than let his country suffer because of him? Why if he would have sacrificed his life for the people of Zimbabwe will he let the same people die now? There are only two explanations to that, that maybe the Robert Mugabe we have today is just an impostor and not the real Robert Mugabe who together with Josiah Tongogara and other fallen heroes fought for the liberation of Zimbabwe, or Robert Mugabe is not really a hero, he has no principles and tried by all means to remain hidden from bullets so that he would seize the opportunity to rule Zimbabwe forever. For surely no principled liberator will enjoy the suffering of his people the way they do in Zimbabwe.The question that still remains is what is Africa doing for Zimbabwe? Why if we are serious about what we say, do we really want one person to detect the destinies of 14 million? Robert Mugabe has messed Zimbabwe, this is in the public domain and that he remains clinging to power explains how unembarrassable he has become. Some of the white farmers that Robert Mugabe begrudged are his former henchmen who decided to exercise their rights as Zimbabweans to associate with a political party of their choice. And looking at the history of Zimbabwean politics we can see that even among the black folk most of Mugabe’s former supporters have deserted and he has filled his ranks with political opportunists who were with Muzorewa’s United African National Council at independence in 1980.
This is why Chitungwiza, built entirely by Mugabe’s ZANU PF, has gone to MDC and Mudzi, Mutoko and Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe all former UANC strongholds, have supposedly gone to ZANU PF. It deduces into that Mugabe is now supported by a grassroots that doesn’t share with him the liberation philosophy. One wonders why Africa is so keen of protecting a person who is clearly in contempt of the principle against reverse discrimination. Worse still, Robert Mugabe continues to humiliate blacks on the international stage by his mismanagement of an economy that in 1996 was threatening to outgrow the Nigerian economy, but Zimbabwe only has 14 million people compared to Nigeria’s 100 million plus. It was with hope that in 1980 the late Julius Nyerere, then Tanzania’s President, told Mugabe “you have inherited a cake, don’t spoil it!” But the cake has been spoilt now and fingers are now being pointed at others. Most of the people now being blamed are former supporters of the struggle for Zimbabwe such as the entire anti-apartheid movement of the 1970s which included Jack Straw, Tony Blair, Peter Hain, etc.Lastly I believe if we are serious as Africa and if we want to keep attaching meaning to Africa day, we have to start by protecting its founding philosophy. Freedom from external oppression was part of the realities of the 1960-70s and partly the 1980s. But today’s realities are the oppression of blacks by blacks, and this has to be heeded.
That Sani Abacha and Idi Amini were black, and that Rwanda and Somalia happened in Africa’s eyes should provide the lessons for the future on the continent. Zimbabwe as Zimbabwe should have learnt. We were among the last countries to be independent and we saw how black on black oppression was destroying Africa. We saw it in Banda’s Malawi, Obote’s Uganda, and a lot more and Robert Mugabe should have known that if you really wanted to rule forever, you should retire whilst people still want you. This is why the late Julius Nyerere was the kingmaker in Tanzania’s politics until he died and this is why Nelson Mandela is the kingmaker in South Africa to this day, two terms after his retirement. That Mugabe has managed to destroy the economy and cry very loud later should be punished by an Africa that is principled and that doesn’t apply the law only on little Togo and not the bossy Zimbabwe. Come on, we don’t want another war in Zimbabwe but it doesn’t mean we are not capable. We have been looking at the relevance of Africa and the possibilities available and it is with regret that as far as Zimbabwe we remain a remote part of African pride. To us, Africa’s capability to call a spade a spade remains elusive. We are witnesses to a shameless cushioning of clear oppression and it is very sad that one of Africa’s promising countries is being left to die by its brothers and sisters. The AU and all the countries on the continent shall forever be guilt of complicity if the deteriorative trend in Zimbabwe continues. The consequences of oppression remain war, as the oppressed decide to turn the tables on the oppressor. We wouldn’t have wanted that in Zimbabwe but the irresponsible government there continues to push people to their limit and Africa should never be surprised if the Men and Women of Zimbabwe decide to show that they are fathers, mothers, daughters and sons determined to fight black oppression by whatever means necessary!
Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa: "Africa Day: Zimbabwe Condemnation"
The Zimbabwean human rights lawyer emailed this piece to us in honour of African Day, which is today and celebrates the establishment of the Organization for African Unity (now the African Union). He argues that it is time for African leaders to cut the victimology rhetoric and to oppose those who undermine democracy and economic freedom, regardless of race. As we commemorate Africa Day, we recall the sacrifices that the generation before us had to make in order that they ended the centuries of injustices against our kind in general and Africa in particular. Indeed it will be those who don’t know who will look at Africa Day with contempt, wherever we are as long as we are Africans. That Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, Johnston Kamau Ngengi (Jomo Kenyatta), Ahmed Ben Bella, Augustinho Neto, Eduardo Mondlane, Abdel Nasser, and many others then stood for this noble cause- to redeem the continent from centuries of manipulation and oppression by nationals of other continents; in particular Europe. The talk then was the total eradication of oppression on the continent, then oppression was represented by Europeans who believed in using their powers of political, economic and military hegemony to build empires and they indeed had competed fiercely for the conquest of other people.Slavery, another product of hegemony, still remains the worst crime against humanity.
That Man in his right senses brought about a superficial concept of racial superiority and chose to take another of his kind but who had different skin and hair features and used this as a precursor to forcibly remove him from his motherland and took away all that made him human and reduced him to a rank equal to that of animals, is still the worst example of human prejudicing done to him. It is with this in mind that one of the founding fathers of Africa, my namesake Julius Nyerere, made it clear that the emerging Africa would never allow discrimination in reverse. This statement could also be taken to mean that the Africa then to emerge would also not allow the concept of “reverse colonial mentality”. The travaux preparatoires “negotiating history” behind the African Charter is a testimony of this realisation, brought about by centuries of marginalisation and mental subjugation. Readers of international law will be with me when I point that of all the regional human rights instruments Africa is the only one that mentions People’s rights and the continental human rights guru is known as the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights. Also as far as I am concerned the most progressive refugee law in the world is to be found in Africa. Indeed 25 May is significant, the time we celebrate Africa and hope for more, and that South Africa, the continent’s military and economic superpower and an aspiring candidate for the UN Security Council on an African ticket does not recognise 25 May as a public holiday is the most embarrassing thing in our lifetime, especially coming from a country all on the continent suffered so much to be free.As a Zimbabwean, I am no different and am today built with the same aspirations for a great Africa that were the bedrock for the founding of the Organisation of African Unity, now African Union. I was not yet born then but I am as privy to the deliberations that led to this realisation of the Great African dream.
Then the real issues were apartheid in South Africa, UDI in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), fascism in Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe and Angola, and also the issue of the illegal annexation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa. The fact that today almost all but one country on the continent are free from control by a colonial power makes the achievement of the founding fathers immeasurable. Yet the maturity of Africa has also met with challenges and Africa will be doomed if we don’t realise this. Twenty–five years on Africa still begs from the West and the rest of the world and needless to say we are the laughing stock of mother Earth. It will be concubine defeatism to keep on pointing at the west for all our shortcomings. I am a proud African able to live with my challenges and will never be so paranoid as to say that the mistakes of yesteryear have brought to us perpetual suffering. Africa has to change its attitude and look at ourselves as the masters of our destinies. We are not the only one with a history of colonisation you see. After all the greatest country in the world today, United States of America, is a former colony not a former coloniser! Name them, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are all former colonies. Some of you will then say that but these are white countries and I will say well look at Singapore, Malaysia, India etc which are emerging as the future global economic leaders.Stereotyping our failures as being products of perpetual racism will take us nowhere and to me a believer in racial inferiority is as guilty of racism as a believer in racial supremacy. Do you believe it when I remind you that Haiti was a nation before Germany which was only formed after the Franco-Prussian War of 1871? Why has Haiti failed to make a mark as a stable member of the community of nations and why is Botswana, which only became independent in 1966 more successful?
It is because we have failed as Africa to criticise ourselves that we lag behind everyone. As a Zimbabwean the fact that my country is being run down under the nose of Africa makes me sick. Today Africa’s competence in the eyes of the Zimbabwean is under test. The net difference between Robert Mugabe and Ian Smith is zero, although they represent different racial groups in Zimbabwe. But to the Zimbabwean at least Europe did something when Ian Smith was the Prime Minister in the then Rhodesia, they imposed sanctions on his regime. And we had in Australia then, the fiercest critic of the regime, notwithstanding that Australia is part of what Robert Mugabe now calls the “White Commonwealth”. Today Zimbabweans are humiliated day in day out as their government has reduced them to beggars and destitutes. It is clear that Zimbabweans are being harassed left right and centre by their brothers on the continent who have decided to forgo principles and support a president who is so obsessed with the love for power that he is prepared to see the entire country perish. If Robert Mugabe is a hero and he is being sabotaged by the West why doesn’t he resign in protest than let his country suffer because of him? Why if he would have sacrificed his life for the people of Zimbabwe will he let the same people die now? There are only two explanations to that, that maybe the Robert Mugabe we have today is just an impostor and not the real Robert Mugabe who together with Josiah Tongogara and other fallen heroes fought for the liberation of Zimbabwe, or Robert Mugabe is not really a hero, he has no principles and tried by all means to remain hidden from bullets so that he would seize the opportunity to rule Zimbabwe forever. For surely no principled liberator will enjoy the suffering of his people the way they do in Zimbabwe.The question that still remains is what is Africa doing for Zimbabwe? Why if we are serious about what we say, do we really want one person to detect the destinies of 14 million? Robert Mugabe has messed Zimbabwe, this is in the public domain and that he remains clinging to power explains how unembarrassable he has become. Some of the white farmers that Robert Mugabe begrudged are his former henchmen who decided to exercise their rights as Zimbabweans to associate with a political party of their choice. And looking at the history of Zimbabwean politics we can see that even among the black folk most of Mugabe’s former supporters have deserted and he has filled his ranks with political opportunists who were with Muzorewa’s United African National Council at independence in 1980.
This is why Chitungwiza, built entirely by Mugabe’s ZANU PF, has gone to MDC and Mudzi, Mutoko and Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe all former UANC strongholds, have supposedly gone to ZANU PF. It deduces into that Mugabe is now supported by a grassroots that doesn’t share with him the liberation philosophy. One wonders why Africa is so keen of protecting a person who is clearly in contempt of the principle against reverse discrimination. Worse still, Robert Mugabe continues to humiliate blacks on the international stage by his mismanagement of an economy that in 1996 was threatening to outgrow the Nigerian economy, but Zimbabwe only has 14 million people compared to Nigeria’s 100 million plus. It was with hope that in 1980 the late Julius Nyerere, then Tanzania’s President, told Mugabe “you have inherited a cake, don’t spoil it!” But the cake has been spoilt now and fingers are now being pointed at others. Most of the people now being blamed are former supporters of the struggle for Zimbabwe such as the entire anti-apartheid movement of the 1970s which included Jack Straw, Tony Blair, Peter Hain, etc.Lastly I believe if we are serious as Africa and if we want to keep attaching meaning to Africa day, we have to start by protecting its founding philosophy. Freedom from external oppression was part of the realities of the 1960-70s and partly the 1980s. But today’s realities are the oppression of blacks by blacks, and this has to be heeded.
That Sani Abacha and Idi Amini were black, and that Rwanda and Somalia happened in Africa’s eyes should provide the lessons for the future on the continent. Zimbabwe as Zimbabwe should have learnt. We were among the last countries to be independent and we saw how black on black oppression was destroying Africa. We saw it in Banda’s Malawi, Obote’s Uganda, and a lot more and Robert Mugabe should have known that if you really wanted to rule forever, you should retire whilst people still want you. This is why the late Julius Nyerere was the kingmaker in Tanzania’s politics until he died and this is why Nelson Mandela is the kingmaker in South Africa to this day, two terms after his retirement. That Mugabe has managed to destroy the economy and cry very loud later should be punished by an Africa that is principled and that doesn’t apply the law only on little Togo and not the bossy Zimbabwe. Come on, we don’t want another war in Zimbabwe but it doesn’t mean we are not capable. We have been looking at the relevance of Africa and the possibilities available and it is with regret that as far as Zimbabwe we remain a remote part of African pride. To us, Africa’s capability to call a spade a spade remains elusive. We are witnesses to a shameless cushioning of clear oppression and it is very sad that one of Africa’s promising countries is being left to die by its brothers and sisters. The AU and all the countries on the continent shall forever be guilt of complicity if the deteriorative trend in Zimbabwe continues. The consequences of oppression remain war, as the oppressed decide to turn the tables on the oppressor. We wouldn’t have wanted that in Zimbabwe but the irresponsible government there continues to push people to their limit and Africa should never be surprised if the Men and Women of Zimbabwe decide to show that they are fathers, mothers, daughters and sons determined to fight black oppression by whatever means necessary!
Poetry Corner
Black and White
Black and white has the right to be
Black and white can live together
There’s more hope than despair
It just depends on what you prefer
But black or white have an obligation to exist
Some blacks believe they must be white
Others are proud to be what they are
It has much ado with your moral values
And it depends on your sanity
Black or white have the right to be
Some people believe blacks are inferior
Others do not think that way
It depends on what you prefer
But black or white have the right to be.
Some whites believe they are superior
Some whites believe blacks are equal
It depends on what you prefer
Black or white have the right to be!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
Black and white has the right to be
Black and white can live together
There’s more hope than despair
It just depends on what you prefer
But black or white have an obligation to exist
Some blacks believe they must be white
Others are proud to be what they are
It has much ado with your moral values
And it depends on your sanity
Black or white have the right to be
Some people believe blacks are inferior
Others do not think that way
It depends on what you prefer
But black or white have the right to be.
Some whites believe they are superior
Some whites believe blacks are equal
It depends on what you prefer
Black or white have the right to be!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
Poetry Corner
Protest of a Marginalised Prince
I am mightier than my frame,
An object of self fame
I am double my height,
Twice heavier than my weight
I am sharper than my quotient,
And double the resistance of my strength.
My anger is danger, smaller by the judgement of a naked eye
But I am the configuration of the true reality
I am a priori, shrunk to match the expectations of my detractors.
I live my dreams fully; my spirit is my true source of inspiration
The unfailing push and pull factor
Strings of expectation tethered INTO
Bondages of orientation.
I am what I am, Me and I,
The alpha and zeta of my being,
I am mightier than strength,
I am belief and dream
Hope and paroxysm!
Women crave after me,
I who has God given blessings to plough and reap
And crush the harvest into dough
Flowers blooming as I eat the flour
I who sees the climate come and the weather change
And knows that when grass begins to wither
Cows won’t wean their calves.
My arms have muscles, the biceps and triceps that everyone may have
Yet mine are special, made to the last and final capability!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
I am mightier than my frame,
An object of self fame
I am double my height,
Twice heavier than my weight
I am sharper than my quotient,
And double the resistance of my strength.
My anger is danger, smaller by the judgement of a naked eye
But I am the configuration of the true reality
I am a priori, shrunk to match the expectations of my detractors.
I live my dreams fully; my spirit is my true source of inspiration
The unfailing push and pull factor
Strings of expectation tethered INTO
Bondages of orientation.
I am what I am, Me and I,
The alpha and zeta of my being,
I am mightier than strength,
I am belief and dream
Hope and paroxysm!
Women crave after me,
I who has God given blessings to plough and reap
And crush the harvest into dough
Flowers blooming as I eat the flour
I who sees the climate come and the weather change
And knows that when grass begins to wither
Cows won’t wean their calves.
My arms have muscles, the biceps and triceps that everyone may have
Yet mine are special, made to the last and final capability!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
Poetry Corner
Blank Choice
I make the choice, me
Between two systems
One that expelled me
And the other which refuses to accept me
It is like two oesophagi
One is swallowing you
The other spits you
And which of the two is your favourite?
This is like when a baby rates
Its preference
Of a mother who untimely weans it
And a father who won’t comfort it!
Asylum makes one persona non grata
In the country of refuge where exile
Makes me an enemy in my own country of origin.
The public sees you as troublesome, lazy, benefits hunter
Sleep early, wake up late type
Sow nothing, reap loads
Their eyes distaste my effigy
Those irises fail them lenses, so the sclera dissolves the retina
And the conjunctiva fails the optic nerve
Benefits hunter, shameless alien
Liar after the riches of Europe!
Employers see me as a shame
My certificates are forged, my previous experience is faked
As long I am not a cleaner
These jobs are a prototype
Not open to the newcomer
These jobs are British…equal opportunities is British and not alien!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
I make the choice, me
Between two systems
One that expelled me
And the other which refuses to accept me
It is like two oesophagi
One is swallowing you
The other spits you
And which of the two is your favourite?
This is like when a baby rates
Its preference
Of a mother who untimely weans it
And a father who won’t comfort it!
Asylum makes one persona non grata
In the country of refuge where exile
Makes me an enemy in my own country of origin.
The public sees you as troublesome, lazy, benefits hunter
Sleep early, wake up late type
Sow nothing, reap loads
Their eyes distaste my effigy
Those irises fail them lenses, so the sclera dissolves the retina
And the conjunctiva fails the optic nerve
Benefits hunter, shameless alien
Liar after the riches of Europe!
Employers see me as a shame
My certificates are forged, my previous experience is faked
As long I am not a cleaner
These jobs are a prototype
Not open to the newcomer
These jobs are British…equal opportunities is British and not alien!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
Poetry Corner
Excuses of a Coward
When a coward shudders
He blames it on the weather
Even when it is hot
He says it is cold
And when he cries
He blames it on his eyes
And his lachrymal glands
Which he says
Malfunction.
Not only does a coward exhibit being myopic
He is often awkward
As he tries to beautify
The openly ugly!
Cowards hide behind gentlemen
As they try to reason
With the unreasonable
And make beasts
Beauties!
They hide behind ladies
When they stand to apologise
To rapists and murderers
For they fear the consequences.
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
When a coward shudders
He blames it on the weather
Even when it is hot
He says it is cold
And when he cries
He blames it on his eyes
And his lachrymal glands
Which he says
Malfunction.
Not only does a coward exhibit being myopic
He is often awkward
As he tries to beautify
The openly ugly!
Cowards hide behind gentlemen
As they try to reason
With the unreasonable
And make beasts
Beauties!
They hide behind ladies
When they stand to apologise
To rapists and murderers
For they fear the consequences.
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
Poetry Corner
Reaction
You shall change
A complete change
A revolution of the soul
Tethering every human fibres
A birth that knows no metamorphosis
You shall change.
You shall phase out your current stance and change
Poked you shall sneeze
Choked you shall cough
Tossed your hair shall rise
Overworked you shall sweat
Pinched you shall hiss.
Your shall harden your soft stance
And radicalise your compromising heart
Mocked you shall rebuff
Kicked you shall dodge
Punched you shall block
Licked you shall bite!
You shall riddle your Spirit
And you shall become a thrill
Debated you shall not talk but fight
Discriminated racially you shall excommunicate perpetrators
Oppressed within the work force you shall demand a reduction in profits and an increment on your salary
Retrenched without benefits you shall loot and sell their assets
Arrogant leaders you shall force out of office.
You shall be neophilic
Overtaxed you shall demand reduction in the salaries of the ministers
Swindled you shall freeze the foreign assets and accounts
Robbed of your tender you shall vandalise
Managed by the numbskull who is the leader’s namesake you will not accord him authority
Infuriated by the country’s security men you shall give them their job description
You shall remind them why they went to war and their philosophies.
You shall react
And refuse to be ruled
And diffuse to be led
You shall not leave liars playing with your precious authority
You shall demand to know mysterious deaths and disappearances
You shall not listen to lectures on the war when there is open mismanagement
You shall not return slogans when your freedom fighters are not given hero status
You shall not leave a party organ manipulating the history of your society.
Never again shall you allow iron rule in your country
Dictators are not natural but are man made
By our patience that they mistaken for leniency
Never again shall we tremble under internal fear
Of the secret police
We will from now on stand up
And shout out our minds
Reminding the leaders
That we did not go to war
To promote one family
If they fail to give us a berth
We can not give them a rebirth!
JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
You shall change
A complete change
A revolution of the soul
Tethering every human fibres
A birth that knows no metamorphosis
You shall change.
You shall phase out your current stance and change
Poked you shall sneeze
Choked you shall cough
Tossed your hair shall rise
Overworked you shall sweat
Pinched you shall hiss.
Your shall harden your soft stance
And radicalise your compromising heart
Mocked you shall rebuff
Kicked you shall dodge
Punched you shall block
Licked you shall bite!
You shall riddle your Spirit
And you shall become a thrill
Debated you shall not talk but fight
Discriminated racially you shall excommunicate perpetrators
Oppressed within the work force you shall demand a reduction in profits and an increment on your salary
Retrenched without benefits you shall loot and sell their assets
Arrogant leaders you shall force out of office.
You shall be neophilic
Overtaxed you shall demand reduction in the salaries of the ministers
Swindled you shall freeze the foreign assets and accounts
Robbed of your tender you shall vandalise
Managed by the numbskull who is the leader’s namesake you will not accord him authority
Infuriated by the country’s security men you shall give them their job description
You shall remind them why they went to war and their philosophies.
You shall react
And refuse to be ruled
And diffuse to be led
You shall not leave liars playing with your precious authority
You shall demand to know mysterious deaths and disappearances
You shall not listen to lectures on the war when there is open mismanagement
You shall not return slogans when your freedom fighters are not given hero status
You shall not leave a party organ manipulating the history of your society.
Never again shall you allow iron rule in your country
Dictators are not natural but are man made
By our patience that they mistaken for leniency
Never again shall we tremble under internal fear
Of the secret police
We will from now on stand up
And shout out our minds
Reminding the leaders
That we did not go to war
To promote one family
If they fail to give us a berth
We can not give them a rebirth!
JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
Poetry Corner
Reality
This is Zimbabwe
Condemned, trapped between an uncompromising world
Which focuses her with eyes patient?
Patient to the notorious Ian Smith complex
Judged by a “superior world” full of racial intones
And a leadership coercive, subjugated
Greedy for power…thirsting for richness
This is it, for Africans
Swindled and victimised by aliens
Swindled and victims by their own leaders
When is Kingdom coming?
Is God like them?
As the only promise of happiness is in Paradise
Paradise in the Koran, Paradise in the Bible
When is Kingdom coming?
Is God like them?
This is Africa
Led by occults, fought by occults
The difference between hell and hell
Is in the closeness of the fire!
Leaders who show their teeth to their own people, their true masters
Window-dressers who think their roots
When Europe looks at them with reddened eyes
When the alimentary canals of the “Superworld” rejects them
When shall Kingdom come?
Shall Hell and Paradise be on Earth?
Is Africa Hell, and the West Paradise?
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
This is Zimbabwe
Condemned, trapped between an uncompromising world
Which focuses her with eyes patient?
Patient to the notorious Ian Smith complex
Judged by a “superior world” full of racial intones
And a leadership coercive, subjugated
Greedy for power…thirsting for richness
This is it, for Africans
Swindled and victimised by aliens
Swindled and victims by their own leaders
When is Kingdom coming?
Is God like them?
As the only promise of happiness is in Paradise
Paradise in the Koran, Paradise in the Bible
When is Kingdom coming?
Is God like them?
This is Africa
Led by occults, fought by occults
The difference between hell and hell
Is in the closeness of the fire!
Leaders who show their teeth to their own people, their true masters
Window-dressers who think their roots
When Europe looks at them with reddened eyes
When the alimentary canals of the “Superworld” rejects them
When shall Kingdom come?
Shall Hell and Paradise be on Earth?
Is Africa Hell, and the West Paradise?
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
Poetry Corner
Realisation
Sometimes reality pains
A playboy suddenly
Seeing his wrinkled face in the mirror
And his heart sinking when he remembers
Those mirror images are not transpositions
But they are,
Reflections of reality in rotated form!
It pains an actor in theatre
Poor in reality
Seamless garbs mended numberless times
Nameless outfits disgustful and annoying
Worthless character who shudders at the sight of anyone
Oh how big he is as a dramatis persona
But as true dawn comes
Rays flushing and beaming
So does he remember?
His true self.
The lawyer who never won a legal argument
His clients came, they signed and failed
His litigation was inadequate and his advocacy
Insufficient
The accountant whose practice never started
Balance sheets failing, his reputation ailing
Ratios not analysing, auditors chasing
The journalist who never became an editor
Stories were always torn down to shreds of news and tucked
In the no readership middle of pages
Downsized to worthless narrations
The onus is with those who will conduct his autopsy
To come up with the proper epitaph!
It takes the consoler’s compassion
To weigh the tears
Of a failed politician
Dreams took him years
Fantasies took him generations
Fiestas, siestas and sleeps
Bravados, bragging, lies and swearing
Never to become a president
Oh not even a minister
Speeches delivered, heard and forgotten
It takes the consoler’s compassion, to weigh his tears!
Sometimes realisation burns
Wet grass rained and watered, and parches the throats
Of fish in flowing oceans and rivers
And when it’s the sorrowful face
Of a Prince who never became a King
Not even a group leader in his class
Would be subjects pelted him with stones and eggs
It takes the empathy of the praise singer
To write his obituary!
It takes the connoisseur’s taste buds
To bury the Cook who never became a Chef
His cuisines were rejected at the tables
Waiters and waitresses returned in shame
Heads lowered down, their focussing lenses almost drying
From blurring embarrassment
Their irises breaking to pieces
This cook
Whose ingredients were doubted and menus rejected
It takes the connoisseur’s taste buds
To bury the unfortunate Cook
Who never became a Chef!
Realisation weans a calf and culls its mother
Realisation removes a sheaf and uproots the stem
Cruel and uncompromising
Painful and humiliating!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
Sometimes reality pains
A playboy suddenly
Seeing his wrinkled face in the mirror
And his heart sinking when he remembers
Those mirror images are not transpositions
But they are,
Reflections of reality in rotated form!
It pains an actor in theatre
Poor in reality
Seamless garbs mended numberless times
Nameless outfits disgustful and annoying
Worthless character who shudders at the sight of anyone
Oh how big he is as a dramatis persona
But as true dawn comes
Rays flushing and beaming
So does he remember?
His true self.
The lawyer who never won a legal argument
His clients came, they signed and failed
His litigation was inadequate and his advocacy
Insufficient
The accountant whose practice never started
Balance sheets failing, his reputation ailing
Ratios not analysing, auditors chasing
The journalist who never became an editor
Stories were always torn down to shreds of news and tucked
In the no readership middle of pages
Downsized to worthless narrations
The onus is with those who will conduct his autopsy
To come up with the proper epitaph!
It takes the consoler’s compassion
To weigh the tears
Of a failed politician
Dreams took him years
Fantasies took him generations
Fiestas, siestas and sleeps
Bravados, bragging, lies and swearing
Never to become a president
Oh not even a minister
Speeches delivered, heard and forgotten
It takes the consoler’s compassion, to weigh his tears!
Sometimes realisation burns
Wet grass rained and watered, and parches the throats
Of fish in flowing oceans and rivers
And when it’s the sorrowful face
Of a Prince who never became a King
Not even a group leader in his class
Would be subjects pelted him with stones and eggs
It takes the empathy of the praise singer
To write his obituary!
It takes the connoisseur’s taste buds
To bury the Cook who never became a Chef
His cuisines were rejected at the tables
Waiters and waitresses returned in shame
Heads lowered down, their focussing lenses almost drying
From blurring embarrassment
Their irises breaking to pieces
This cook
Whose ingredients were doubted and menus rejected
It takes the connoisseur’s taste buds
To bury the unfortunate Cook
Who never became a Chef!
Realisation weans a calf and culls its mother
Realisation removes a sheaf and uproots the stem
Cruel and uncompromising
Painful and humiliating!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
Poetry Corner
Tjisingalile Hatjina Mishodzi
Tjisingalile tjirula mishodzi, that which does not cry does not have the tears
Tjine mulomo tjolebeleka
Tjine zebe tjohwa
Tjine zhiso tjobona
That with a mouth should talk
That with ears should hear
That with eyes should see
Tjisingalile tjirula mishodzi, that which does not cry does not have tears!
Of a liberty supposed but not bestowed
Of freedom presumed but not given
Of oppression sustained and celebrated
Tjisingalilie tjirula mishodzi, that which does not cry does not have the tears!
Of workers without jobs
Energies there but abused
Fields there but unworked
The harvest bare and unbefitting
Tjisingalile tjirula mishodzi, that which does not cry, does not have the tears!
Tjisingalile tjirula mishodzi, that which does not cry does not have the tears
Tjine mulomo tjolebeleka
Tjine zebe tjohwa
Tjine zhiso tjobona
That with a mouth should talk
That with ears should hear
That with eyes should see
Tjisingalile tjirula mishodzi, that which does not cry does not have tears!
Of a liberty supposed but not bestowed
Of freedom presumed but not given
Of oppression sustained and celebrated
Tjisingalilie tjirula mishodzi, that which does not cry does not have the tears!
Of workers without jobs
Energies there but abused
Fields there but unworked
The harvest bare and unbefitting
Tjisingalile tjirula mishodzi, that which does not cry, does not have the tears!
Army Must Pull Out of Rural Matabeleland
ARMY MUST IMMEDIATELY PULL OUT OF RURAL MATABELELAND
By Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
LONDON - Once again the government of Robert Mugabe has deployed its army into rural Matabeleland.
In scenes reminiscent of the start of the Gukurahundi campaign against the people of Matabeleland, members of the military (and propped by their handlers such as Sydney Sekeramayi), are in Matabeleland at the excuse of sovereignty.
It is disturbing that one of the same ministers who were in charge of the “security” portfolio during the genocide in Matabeleland and the Midlands is seeing it very normal that the army is present in the same Tsholotsho area where the bloodiest campaign of the Gukurahundi era was held.
The Army is accused of firing at night to intimidate villagers. It must be recorded that the memories of that barbaric campaign are still fresh in the minds of Ndebele people although the entire world has decided to sweep it under the carpet. Some of the people now left at the mercy of the army are victims of the previous campaign whose call for at least an apology have been ridiculed by the legitimating of the Genocide by one of ZANU PF’s senior leaders and spokesperson, Nathan Shamuyarira.
Statements by Shamuyarira were followed by total silence from other senior figures from Mashonaland such as Robert Mugabe, Joice Mujuru, Didymus Mutasa etc making it clear that when Nathan Shamuyarira spoke he was indeed echoing their concerns.
When the Gukurahundi campaign started, it was under the disguise of helping commercial farmers and protecting the sovereignty of the country. The current campaign is under the guise of “Operation Maguta”, an operation no person in Matabeleland invited from the government. Senior political figures from Matabeleland such as Paul Themba Nyathi have been arrested under trumped-up charges.
The crime of Paul Themba Nyathi, a war veteran and veteran human rights activist (one of the three founders of ZimRights), has been to tell members of the Zimbabwe National Army that they should refrain from beating their fathers and brothers and from raping their mothers and sisters, both legitimate words from a person who gave a lot for the freedom of his country. In the past people from the largely marginalised provinces of Matabeleland have complained peacefully by voting the Opposition.
Their genuine concerns have been that they do not have water to survive, they have complained against the marginalisation of their languages as the government has deliberately destroyed languages such as Ndebele, Kalanga and Tonga by making sure they are not introduced in school curricula in Matabeleland and in the Ndebele speaking parts of the Midlands (the majority). People in Matabeleland have seen their culture eroded and another culture replacing it, they have been humiliated by being shown that they are indeed second-class citizens in their own country.
What is happening in Matabeleland now is a symptom of what has become of Zimbabwe. On 13 September this year (2006) labour leaders were rounded up, viciously beaten, taken to police custody and tormented for more than 48 hours.
They had their clothes taken off and were made to appear inhuman by all standards. This was the reaction of the government to their organising of peaceful protests against rising costs of living and unfair wages, again both legitimate concerns of a labour leadership in a country that we all suffered much to free. On the occasion again their torment was ridiculed as self-inflicted harm by Didymus Mutasa, the Minister for State Security. Yesterday the same minister gave a statement that such or even worse action will be taken against future protesters.
The MDC UK and Ireland wishes to deplore in the loudest of terms this kind of attitude. As Zimbabweans we will no longer stand aside as our Ndebele and Kalanga brothers and sisters are butchered and genocides are committed under our noses. We resolve to join in the fight against repression in Matabeleland and walk the walk if need be. The era when people in Mashonaland, Masvingo and Manicaland regarded what happens in Matabeleland as an Ndebele thing is over, as Zimbabweans we are back to the spirit of the First and Second Chimurenga when the principle was common nationhood.
In the same light we would like to warn the government and its thugs that our leaders are untouchable. Our mothers and sisters are untouchable. Our fathers and brothers are untouchable. We will not allow their continued humiliation and persecution. In urging the Government of Zimbabwe not to continue turning our army into a band murderers and demand that the army be pulled away from the peace-loving people of rural Matabeleland, we want to remind them that Zimbabweans are capable of far worse things than they (the government) would have imagined. We are capable of exploring unseen heights to free ourselves. Yet we remain committed to our responsibilities as a people to give peace a chance, to let the souls of our fallen heroes rest in peace!
Our silence must never be seen as cowardice but just being responsible. Zimbabweans are not cowards, we are the same people who in 1684, led by Tombolaikona Tjimwango (Changamire Dombo) drove Portuguese imperialists away from our country, we are the same people who, led by Mzilikazi, challenged and fought against oppression from Shaka, we are the same people who led by Lobengula, fought against the British in the Anglo-Ndebele War, and led by Mbuya Nehanda and Mkwati fought in the First Chimurenga.
We were led by Joshua Nkomo, Ndabaningi Sithole, Josiah Tongogara, Hebert Chitepo and others to fight for our independence. Recently Zimbabwean soldiers took part in campaigns in Mozambique, Somalia and the DRC. We are the same people, we have the same blood. Robert Mugabe and his cronies do not hire people from other countries to be our soldiers, police and CIO. We are more than capable of doing far worse things than Didymus Mutasa could have imagined in his sleep. If he thinks we are lying “Ngaambozviedza awone chete!”
JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA IS THE SECRETARY FOR MDC UK AND IRELAND
Contacts: 02077206614, 07984254830 and mdcsecretary@yahoo.co.uk
By Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa
LONDON - Once again the government of Robert Mugabe has deployed its army into rural Matabeleland.
In scenes reminiscent of the start of the Gukurahundi campaign against the people of Matabeleland, members of the military (and propped by their handlers such as Sydney Sekeramayi), are in Matabeleland at the excuse of sovereignty.
It is disturbing that one of the same ministers who were in charge of the “security” portfolio during the genocide in Matabeleland and the Midlands is seeing it very normal that the army is present in the same Tsholotsho area where the bloodiest campaign of the Gukurahundi era was held.
The Army is accused of firing at night to intimidate villagers. It must be recorded that the memories of that barbaric campaign are still fresh in the minds of Ndebele people although the entire world has decided to sweep it under the carpet. Some of the people now left at the mercy of the army are victims of the previous campaign whose call for at least an apology have been ridiculed by the legitimating of the Genocide by one of ZANU PF’s senior leaders and spokesperson, Nathan Shamuyarira.
Statements by Shamuyarira were followed by total silence from other senior figures from Mashonaland such as Robert Mugabe, Joice Mujuru, Didymus Mutasa etc making it clear that when Nathan Shamuyarira spoke he was indeed echoing their concerns.
When the Gukurahundi campaign started, it was under the disguise of helping commercial farmers and protecting the sovereignty of the country. The current campaign is under the guise of “Operation Maguta”, an operation no person in Matabeleland invited from the government. Senior political figures from Matabeleland such as Paul Themba Nyathi have been arrested under trumped-up charges.
The crime of Paul Themba Nyathi, a war veteran and veteran human rights activist (one of the three founders of ZimRights), has been to tell members of the Zimbabwe National Army that they should refrain from beating their fathers and brothers and from raping their mothers and sisters, both legitimate words from a person who gave a lot for the freedom of his country. In the past people from the largely marginalised provinces of Matabeleland have complained peacefully by voting the Opposition.
Their genuine concerns have been that they do not have water to survive, they have complained against the marginalisation of their languages as the government has deliberately destroyed languages such as Ndebele, Kalanga and Tonga by making sure they are not introduced in school curricula in Matabeleland and in the Ndebele speaking parts of the Midlands (the majority). People in Matabeleland have seen their culture eroded and another culture replacing it, they have been humiliated by being shown that they are indeed second-class citizens in their own country.
What is happening in Matabeleland now is a symptom of what has become of Zimbabwe. On 13 September this year (2006) labour leaders were rounded up, viciously beaten, taken to police custody and tormented for more than 48 hours.
They had their clothes taken off and were made to appear inhuman by all standards. This was the reaction of the government to their organising of peaceful protests against rising costs of living and unfair wages, again both legitimate concerns of a labour leadership in a country that we all suffered much to free. On the occasion again their torment was ridiculed as self-inflicted harm by Didymus Mutasa, the Minister for State Security. Yesterday the same minister gave a statement that such or even worse action will be taken against future protesters.
The MDC UK and Ireland wishes to deplore in the loudest of terms this kind of attitude. As Zimbabweans we will no longer stand aside as our Ndebele and Kalanga brothers and sisters are butchered and genocides are committed under our noses. We resolve to join in the fight against repression in Matabeleland and walk the walk if need be. The era when people in Mashonaland, Masvingo and Manicaland regarded what happens in Matabeleland as an Ndebele thing is over, as Zimbabweans we are back to the spirit of the First and Second Chimurenga when the principle was common nationhood.
In the same light we would like to warn the government and its thugs that our leaders are untouchable. Our mothers and sisters are untouchable. Our fathers and brothers are untouchable. We will not allow their continued humiliation and persecution. In urging the Government of Zimbabwe not to continue turning our army into a band murderers and demand that the army be pulled away from the peace-loving people of rural Matabeleland, we want to remind them that Zimbabweans are capable of far worse things than they (the government) would have imagined. We are capable of exploring unseen heights to free ourselves. Yet we remain committed to our responsibilities as a people to give peace a chance, to let the souls of our fallen heroes rest in peace!
Our silence must never be seen as cowardice but just being responsible. Zimbabweans are not cowards, we are the same people who in 1684, led by Tombolaikona Tjimwango (Changamire Dombo) drove Portuguese imperialists away from our country, we are the same people who, led by Mzilikazi, challenged and fought against oppression from Shaka, we are the same people who led by Lobengula, fought against the British in the Anglo-Ndebele War, and led by Mbuya Nehanda and Mkwati fought in the First Chimurenga.
We were led by Joshua Nkomo, Ndabaningi Sithole, Josiah Tongogara, Hebert Chitepo and others to fight for our independence. Recently Zimbabwean soldiers took part in campaigns in Mozambique, Somalia and the DRC. We are the same people, we have the same blood. Robert Mugabe and his cronies do not hire people from other countries to be our soldiers, police and CIO. We are more than capable of doing far worse things than Didymus Mutasa could have imagined in his sleep. If he thinks we are lying “Ngaambozviedza awone chete!”
JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA IS THE SECRETARY FOR MDC UK AND IRELAND
Contacts: 02077206614, 07984254830 and mdcsecretary@yahoo.co.uk
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