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