Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) Is Holland really for national healing?

Is Holland really for national healing?
Sixpence Manyengavana - Opinion
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:57:00 +0000

THE Global Political Agreement signed on 15 September 2008 brought with it the process of national healing as one of its offsprings and, as per agreement, there are three Ministers of State who have been tasked with setting up an organ for national healing, reconciliation and integration of the Zimbabwean society.

It is not a ministry but an independent body. The process is going to take a lot of effort not only from the political leadership who are guiding the process but even local leadership has to play a pivotal role.

MDC-T provided a sixty six year old grandmother, Sekai Holland, ZANU-PF chose Minister John Nkomo while MDC-M appointed Gibson Sibanda. The appointment of these three ministers is an indication that the leadership has been able to make some milestone when they came together to strike a common agenda and work together but there is lack of congruency in what is happening at the top with what is actually on the ground.

Probably Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, in appointing Sekai Holland who is the oldest of the MDC-T’s crop of youthful government ministers thought he was placing her where her presumed wisdom thought to have come with her age would probably bring together a nation deeply divided by Western interference in the political arena.

As a Minister of State in that ministry, Holland is charged with spearheading a campaign to promote reconciliation, national healing, non-violence and peace among all Zimbabweans.

Having gone to Sydney in Australia in 1961 where she finally met, fell in love and married Jim Holland an Australian engineer in 1964, it is assumed Holland could have a better understanding of different cultures considering that she had spent time in the Zanla guerilla camps in Mozambique in the 1970s.

After the war of liberation, Sekai and her family returned to Zimbabwe where her husband faced deportation under legislation inherited from the previous colonial government. It was through the considerations made by the Zanu PF government that was now in power that Sekai’s husband was allowed to stay in the country.

Sekai was instrumental in the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999 resulting in her being elected to the MDC national executive where she was appointed Secretary for International Affairs.

The birth of the inclusive Government in February 2009 saw her occupying her current ministerial post.

The question is: Is minister Holland capable of bringing about national healing and reconciliation?

Or maybe the question should be: Is she the right candidate for that portfolio? Media reports recently indicated that she insulted the Ndebele/Zulu people by calling King Mzilikazi a cattle rustler.

History tells us that the Ndebeles used to raid the Shona tribe and rob them of their cattle, their produce, beautiful women and strong young men. The Shona people have since long put that behind them and are geared for healing and reconciliation in this new political dispensation.

Now, here is a minister whose pitiful insensitivity defies logic­-the very purpose of her portfolio. Do the Ndebele people really deserve this rhetoric from Holland?

After the formation of the inclusive Government and the subsequent appointment of Holland and her two colleagues to oversee the national healing portfolio, a BBC correspondent, Mike Thompson, surreptitiously sneaked into Zimbabwe to secretly gather information on political developments following the “marriage” between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations.

During his escapade in the country, he met with Holland who told him that Zimbabwe could be heading for a new wave of violence that will be even worse than what happened in 2008.

Obviously she meant the violence would be from Zanu PF against MDC. She also told Thompson that she and other members of MDC-T including fellow ministers were receiving death-threat calls daily.

MDC-T must stop fanning hate speech and lies through the pirate radio stations and foreign correspondents aimed at prejudicing Zanu PF.

For national healing to take the right course, people must not concentrate on previous political violence, but on economic violence perpetrated against the people of Zimbabwe by Western imperialists that has impoverished them and destroyed their economy.

When Prime Minister Tsvangirai was wrapping up his tour of Europe and the United States on a fundraising mission for his party not for Government, Thompson interviewed him about Holland’s allegations.

To save face, the prime minister dismissed the allegations as paranoid, meaning Holland had a mental disorder that causes delusions of grandeur. It is worrisome to note that despite proving to be unfit for the position, Tsvangirai has not done anything to correct the situation.

Other schools of thought are of the opinion that after the Mzilikazi insult, Tsvangirai could have removed Holland or at least offer an acceptable apology to the Ndebeles. Even Holland herself has no apology for her utterances.

It is not only Holland who has exhibited irresponsible behaviour. Recently Giles Mutsekwa the MDC-T legislator for Dangamvura/Chikanga and co-minister of the Ministry of Home Affairs misinformed a gathering at the 10th MDC-T anniversary in Chipinge that Zanu PF was given 30 days to resolve outstanding issues by the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defense and Security (the Troika) in Maputo, Mozambique.

One character in the inclusive government who appears to be sitting on the fence, Arthur Mutambara, admitted when he addressed his supporters in Mutare early this month that the issue of private radio stations, the MDC-T’s parallel government and sanctions must also be considered as outstanding issues of the GPA that need to be resolved.

No one party was given an ultimatum by the Sadc Troika, but all parties to the GPA were told to iron out their differences and clear all outstanding issues including sanctions which MDC-T is preferring to call restrictive measures, MDC-T’s parallel government and pirate radio stations as mentioned by Mutambara.

The crisis that Zimbabwe went through should be a wake-up call for its people to remember that it is a Christian country, as such people should always remember God when they find themselves faced with problems rather than apportioning blame on political leaders.

In the Bible, God would on several occasions punish people with slavery and days in exile when they sinned and forgot the laws of Moses. Let us turn to God and ask for forgiveness because through his name everything is possible.

Labels: GLOBAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT, SEKAI HOLLAND

posted by MrK @ 4:24 PM