(HERALD) Msika: Fearless founding nationalist

Msika: Fearless founding nationalist
By Cain Ginyilitshe Mathema

VICE PRESIDENT Joseph Wilfred Msika — a fearless founding nationalist affectionately known as Cde Bruno — has passed on. He is now with the ancestors of this beautiful motherland, Zimbabwe.

We will always sorely miss his physical presence among us as a father, as a nationalist, as a revolutionary, as a teacher, as a Pan-Africanist and as a brave true son of the soil. Go well, Mdala Msika. Go well, Mlambo omuhle, qhawe amaqhawe.

You have again joined uMdala Wethu, Father Zimbabwe Cde Joshua Nkomo, uMdala, Simon Mzenda and numerous other true sons and daughters of the soil of Zimbabwe from the first war against racist British settlers and colonisation in 1893-1894.

My condolences go to the Msika family, particularly uMama uMrs Msika, the party Zanu-PF and the nation as a whole.

I first heard of Cde Msika at Sipepa in 1960 when I joined a youth cell of the National Democratic Party led by Lewis Mkhwananzi. Our parents did not know about our cell and in that cell there were only five of us. I was doing my Standard Four then at the then Gwaai Methodist School at Sipepa.

We were taught that he was a tough, brave no-nonsense leader of the liberation struggle in the country, together with others like Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, Maurice Nyagumbo, Lazarus Nkala, James Chikerema, Daniel Madzimbamuto and, of course, Joshua Nkomo, their leader.

At the time we were taught by our leader that the struggle for the liberation of the country needed sacrifices, one should be ready for detention, imprisonment and death, like these leaders and our ancestors had been.

That training, at the tender age of 13, has always been with me, that is why I ended up joining Zipra with people like Cdes Solomon Mujuru, Livingstone Mashengele and Loshua Mpofu in April 1968.

However, in spite of the fact that I started hearing about Cde Msika in 1960, I did not have the privilege of meeting him in person until 1981 when I returned home after completing my academic studies in Nottingham, England.

Cde Msika was then a Cabinet minister and I was an administrative officer in the Ministry of Manpower Planning and Development.

What struck me right from the start about Cde Msika was that he was a humble but straight-talking person who wanted results.

He never beat about the bush and he told you straight in your face whether he agreed or disagreed with you. Because of that, I always knew what he stood for in terms of the revolution in this country. He was so open that he never hesitated to say his mind even to Cde Joshua Nkomo.

That is a characteristic that all revolutionaries possess and show among other revolutionaries.

And I am sure that is what made the revolution give Cde Msika the responsibilities that he was given in all the years of the struggle until he passed away.

The struggle in Zimbabwe is not yet over. The struggle to genuinely liberate ourselves economically is going forward. Our economy is still in the hands of those who colonised us yesterday.

Yes, the land is now ours and, for that, illegal sanctions have been imposed on us by the former colonial masters working hand in glove with local black political puppets.

Cde Msika never stopped educating us about the need for us to truly own and control the economy, first through the land revolution and then by us being masters in all the sectors of the economy.

He taught us that we must be owned and controlled by us, once the land has gone back to its rightful owners from the former colonial slaves of the British looters, plunderers, rapists and torturers of the black people.

Indeed, it is the British colonialists and their companies that must be tried by the International Criminal Court for their past crimes and the crimes they still commit today in Zimbabwe and in countries like Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.

These crimes include sanctions that have reduced Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo to a bush clinic with no medicine, hot water, proper mortuaries, adequate medical staff, accommodation, etc.

One can only guess the magnitude of the suffering and death the people of Bulawayo and surrounding areas are going through because Mpilo Central Hospital is no longer what it used to be before the illegal sanctions were imposed.

And Cde Msika passed on teaching us not to flinch against the British onslaught on us for indeed we are still in the trenches fighting for our genuine independence and democracy.

When Zanu-PF Masvingo Province had serious factional problems in the 1990s, Cde Joshua Nkomo was sent by the Politburo to go and resolve the problems. Cde Msika, as National Chairman of Zanu-PF, was part of the team.

I was also part of the team because at the time I was the Deputy Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet in Vice President Nkomo’s Office.

Wherever we were in Masvingo, Cde Msika never hesitated to lay the line of a strong and united party. He did not care who was who. Whether one was in the Politburo, Central Committee or Province, he clearly spelt out the party line and the need for discipline in all the party ranks and file.

Indeed, after that tour, Zanu-PF in Masvingo joined other provinces and became a one solid revolutionary province. Cde Msika made sure that all the party provinces worked according to the party’s constitution, rules and regulations, and protocols.

As we all know, Cde Msika was born in Chiweshe in Mashonaland Central, yet most of his political activities were based in Bulawayo — the heart of Matabeleland. Cde Msika, like a revolutionary that he was, was never a tribalist.

He hated tribalism and worked hard to fight it whenever and wherever it showed its head. He was a nationalist to the core and this I saw and experienced in all the years that I knew him and worked with him. He always told me that tribalism was an imperialist tool to keep black people on each other’s throats, to keep black people fighting each other so that the imperialists could continue exploiting us.

When at one time I said to him that I did not like such provincial names as Matabeleland, Mashonaland and Manicaland, he asked me: "Why?"

I said to him they were all Rhodesian names to keep black people divided on tribal lines.

I said the Shona people never had such names before colonialism; all they knew was a country they owned and ruled, a country, not Mashonaland or Manicaland or Tongaland. And I said when we the Ndebeles came with King Mzilikazi, we too were owning and ruling a country, not tribal trust lands.

He looked me straight in the eye and said: "You are correct. But how many of you understand it the way you do? Go to your comrades and preach the gospel, mfana Mathema."

Cde Msika, like his leaders, Cde R.G. Mugabe and Cde J.M.N. Nkomo, was a developer. He wanted to see development right across the country. That is why he became one of the founders of the Development Trust of Zimbabwe, the brainchild of the late Father Zimbabwe.

In fact, Vice President Msika was its patron at the time of his passing away. DTZ has projects all over the country, including Nuanetsi Ranch in Masvingo.

Again on DTZ issues, Honourable Vice President Msika never minced his words on results and good management as only these brought the required results for the people.

Cde Msika was very informal. He mingled with anyone anywhere. One should have seen him at his Mganwini Business Centre. It is when he mixed freely with everyone that he also advised people as individuals or as businesses. Some of the people he advised are the owners of Tshova Mubaiwa Transport Co-operative.

This co-operative was started when I was Deputy Secretary to Vice President Nkomo. The co-operative members have not forgotten the role played by Cde Msika not only in their coming into being, but in their continued existence.

That is why on August 6, 2009, their Bulawayo branch sent a condolence message to me which read: "We, as Tshova Mubaiwa Transport Co-operative, have learned the message of Honourable Vice President Msika’s passing away with regret. We are, therefore, mourning with the same with Vice President Msika’s family. We have lost the father who was always helping us, therefore, we are very very sorry. We think God will give us a replacement for Honourable V.P. Msika who will do the same as what Hon. J. Msika did for us."

In all the years I worked with VP Msika, I never witnessed any signs of grudges against anybody. You differed with him and he shouted at you (and I myself was shouted at many times) as he saw fit. Yet afterwards you still remained friends and officers of the party and Government.

He was never capable of hating anybody. That is why in the true Patriotic Front spirit, he too had pardoned the racist Rhodesians who had victimised him and his comrades for years. Cde Msika also did not find it difficult to shower praises and encouragement on anyone whom he thought deserved it.

But what else can one expect from a revolutionary who sacrificed much for this country, a revolutionary who was forcibly removed from his family and children by the white racists whom he pardoned? Because Cde Msika was a very open and honest leader, he did not find it difficult to take decisions on any issue, whether in his office or in the Central Committee, or anywhere else.

That is the attribute of a good commander. Right or wrong decisions have to be made.

Long live, Comrade Vice President Msika! Your teachings and exemplary works will live on forever not only in Zimbabwe, but in the rest of Africa and the world at large.