(NEWZIMBABWE) Matebeleland: Flames of a crisis within a crisis

Matebeleland: Flames of a crisis within a crisis
by Thembani Dube
01/02/2010 00:00:00

OUR attention has been drawn to the Matebeleland crisis once again by various leading personalities, political parties and organisations inside and outside Zimbabwe.

The issues that have featured prominently in the media are issues of national healing in the context of the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980’s, the Matebeleland Zambezi Water Project and the glaring lack of fairness in the granting of scholarships for the students who come from this region.

I must say the attention to these issues have kept me intrigued. It is very important that these issues remain in the radar of media focus as Zimbabwe nears its defining moment in history and most importantly recognising the fact that the region is meant to be our paradise bequeathed to us by our great founding African fathers and mothers.

Our founding fathers and mothers fought and defended this region with every spear they ever made and every shield they could get against the marauding colonialists who rampaged throughout Africa, destroying Africa’s glorious Kingdoms and institutions of significance and the very fabric of our existence as Africans.

While the Matebeleland crisis has its original sources in colonial history, in this debate, I will pay particular attention to the crisis within a crisis in Matebeleland post 1980, highlighting its variant external and internal sources in today’s Zimbabwe and their symbiotic relationship that exist to keep the region under siege.

I will start by briefly paying attention to the external sources of the crisis in our beloved Matebeleland and then focus on the internal factors and how these have come to drag Matebeleland down the garden path of self destruction.

The last part will focus on how Matebeleland can rescue itself from such self destruction tendencies and rediscover its glory as a region of excellence and merit.

External factors
This might sound to some as an old record but it lays the foundation in understanding the flames of crisis in Matebeleland.

It is therefore glaringly obvious to any observer that the flames of crisis in Matebeleland that are affecting the region’s progress in a pervasive manner are to a greater extent externally induced. Their origins are in the corridors of power in Harare. It is no secret that those in power in Zimbabwe have always sought to annihilate the peoples’ of this region and wipe them out of the face of this earth in a program they dubbed Gukurahundi like what Hitler attempted to do with the Jewish people in German.

Let me digress a little. I recently read an article on national healing by an eminent personality from the region contending that the massacres of the peoples of the region were not tribally motivated. I was honestly shocked by this suggestion and I am not sure whether the good Dr Nyathi honestly and genuinely holds this view or he was merely posturing to induce controversy on this issue.

There is evidence pointing to the fact that while these massacres were politically motivated, they were clearly an act of ethnic cleansing. The majority members of the 5th Brigade were recruited from mainly the Shona ethnic group and the victims of this brigade were the Ndebele ethnic group. Even though PF Zapu had Shona supporters in its ranks these were spared this gruesome genocide on the tribal index of being Shona.

Therefore to suggest that the massacres were not tribally motivated is to be economic with the truth. The nature of facts is that facts are always stubborn and we can not manage to alter them in any shape or form.

The long and short of it is that people from this region are basically the Jews of Zimbabwe who have survived Zanu PF’s machinations to exterminate them as a people. After Zanu PF’s failed attempt to physically exterminate the peoples of this region, Zanu PF’s program turned into an economic, educational, developmental and cultural embargo with the intended aim of turning the region into a theatre of beggars so as to establish and sustain political control over this restive region while on a cultural front pushing the envelope of black internal colonialism.

Julius Nyerere, when condemning African dependence on aid, once said and I quote: ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’. This is the situation that Matebeleland has always found itself in since 1980. It has been methodically and systematically turned into a ‘piper’ region whose existence and progress has to depend on some bread crumps falling off the tables of those in the corridors of power in Harare.

I have always heard those who hold a different view to this contending that there is no crisis in Matebeleland and that this so called crisis is just but a figment of the wild imaginations of the people of this region. I totally respect their views as they are entitled to them but the facts on the ground in Zimbabwe tell us a different story. There is no denying the fact that the political system in existence in that God forsaken country is very hostile to the region and the aspirations of its people.

My intention today is not to dwell too much on the external factors inducing the crisis as they are well known and well documented. My take today is to focus on the internal crisis within the region that sustains and perpetuates the externally induced crisis to keep the region under siege. This is introspection on the internal issues of this region that have stagnated and strangled its growth and its potential to glow and be glorious once again.

I must say that this introspection on internal issues afflicting the region is very important for the men and women of the region and indeed those leading personalities of the region for progress to take root.
Internal factors

The embodiment of the internal flames of crisis within Matebeleland is that of leadership crisis and the willingness to dabble in the politics of appeasing the ruling political system in Zimbabwe by those engaged in politics as representatives of the people and by those who are leaders in shaping the opinions and ideas about the vision of this region.

They tend to develop cold feet when the situation demands that they articulate the issues of the region without fear or favour for the collective interest of the region. Individual responsibility to defend the collective interests of the region is thrown in the gutter for a veneer of acceptance within the hegemonic system of Zimbabwe.

Once Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo’s leadership was decapitated by Zanu PF with the support of the British through the Rhodesian forces in the 1980’s, and once uMdala succumbed to the military and political blow he was given by the combined forces of Zanu PF and the Rhodesian apparatus as evidenced by the so called 1987 unity accord, there emerged a leadership crisis in our region.

The unity accord was total surrender for Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu political outfit. This surrender, while saving lives by stopping the genocidal carnage brought with it a heavy long-term cost with regard to the collective interests of the region.
Joshua Nkomo and his political outfit were meant to be ‘national’ leaders first and then leaders of Matebeleland last while Mugabe and his political outfit were regional leaders first under the guise of being ‘national’ leaders.

The regional interests of Mugabe and the Zanu PF apparatus were to be defined as national and those from Matebeleland as regional and tribal. A Zanu PF revisionist definition of what was national was swung into gear and up to this day the so called ‘national’ issues of Zimbabwe are defined in this narrow, myopic and dangerous way.

The most shocking aspect of this whole saga in the context of Matebeleland leadership is that this became the accepted norm in exchange for positions of power and privilege. The great and ultimate principles of championing the collective interests of the people of the region were swept under the carpet and what then mattered most was the individual interest over and above the collective interests of the region.

Those great and ultimate principles collapsed in the conscience of our leaders and Zanu PF exploited this situation to its maximum benefit and used the politics of individualism in our region for its politics of patronage.
Zanu PF had now a collection of PF Zapu leaders under its wings whose main existence was to satisfy their individual interests rather than the collective interests of our region and whose existence in politics was to please Mugabe in order to protect their privilege and political power.

Mugabe and Zanu PF would then use the politics of patronage to further create a wedge between and among these Zapu leaders so as to keep them divided, at each others throats and never to get an opportunity to regroup for the region’s collective interests.

This was another political blow for the region which Mugabe has been using and exploiting to his political advantage to keep the region under his political control and surveillance.

The ascendency of John Landa Nkomo to the vice presidency in Zimbabwe is based on the patronage system rather than on the representation of the collective interests of the people of the region. He is basically a window dresser.

Morgan Tswangirai has made his party a carbon copy of Zanu PF in dealing with the leaders of the region from his party. If the truth can be told, Morgan’s party is a mirror image of Zanu PF in every shape and form. The leaders of the MDC-T in our region have fallen prey to the same fate that Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu outfit faced. They exist in MDC-T as individuals rather than a collective unit from the region whose interests should be to champion the interests of the region first rather than playing the politics of pleasing Morgan Tswangirai to curry favour with him and his politics of patronage that runs parallel to that of Zanu PF.

The much despised and vilified Jonathan Moyo calls this parallel patronage that Morgan is building a ‘parallel government’. The reality is that Morgan is not building a parallel government but a parallel patronage system to that of Zanu PF that is meant to help him conquer power at all costs.

The recent actions of one Siphepha Nkomo, an un-elected MDC-T minister whose appointment to cabinet in the current government is purely based on the patronage of Morgan Tswangirai, is one example of the kind of leaders that the region and the system has produced. They shamelessly use the issues of Matebeleland to sing for their own supper, make empty promises to obtain votes in Matebeleland only to disappear after being voted into power and to resurface again come election time.

The suggestion by Siphepha Nkomo that the MZWP should be national by the mere fact that he has now prefixed the word ‘National’ for the project’s name is remarkably insulting. Instead of Siphepha Nkomo fighting wars with Dabengwa and the likes of Welshman and Coltart, he should be closing ranks with these leaders and those from the community for the collective interest of the region to oversee the successful implementation of this project rather than dabbling in party politics over a crucial issue of concern in the region.

There is a need for the leaders of our region to find common ground on critical issues that affect the region whether one is MDC-T, MDC-M or the now revived PF Zapu. Failure to do so will always perpetuate the status quo and delay the commencement of the much needed development and progress in this region.

Linked to the crisis of leadership from our region is the engagement in the cancerous politics of appeasement by some in our region. They use this kind of appeasement politics to serve the hegemonic system that is in existence in Zimbabwe.

There is now a growing tendency for some leading personalities of the region to try and gloss over issues of the region in order to gain the veneer of acceptance as either ‘national’ leaders or ‘nationally’ accepted personalities.

The tendency means that our people shy away from calling a spade a spade and would invent and manufacture excuses for the crisis that afflicts the region in order to carry favour with a system that needs to be challenged for the collective good of the region.

This takes me down the memory lane of the early 1990’s when the great late Malunga, the then Mayor of The City of Kings, Malinga and the then governor of Matebeleland north, Mabhena rocked the system by challenging its discriminatory tendencies in the spheres of development and the enrolment of students in higher education that clearly disadvantaged those from the region.

This outcry was met with accusations of tribalism from our very own senior leaders of the region who were in bed with Zanu PF.

The result is that Malunga, Malinga and Mabhena lost the battle to these treacherous individuals and to the hegemonic system. Malunga got involved in a mysterious incident along Masiyephambili Drive road and died under mysterious circumstances. The actions of our senior leaders in Zanu PF at the time were a clear example of the politics of appeasement to curry favour with the system.

This cancerous politics seems to be emerging in the MDC-T formation under Morgan Tsvangirai and we are already seeing those willing to be used as tools for such a deadly and dastardly agenda for the region. We should stop them in their tracks.
The Solution

The solution is located in having a strong regional party led by a brave and dedicated figure that will not shy away from articulating the collective interests of the region. The politics of appeasement should be replaced by the collective politics of building alliances in the region for the collective interest of the region.

A case in point is the existence of the revived PF Zapu and the MDC-M. I have seen an article suggesting that these parties should merge and become a formidable force in the region. This will be good if it comes to fruition.

Such a development will however demand that the leaders in the two camps rise above individual interests and push the collective interests of the region at the forefront by building a strong and formidable regional political base through a merger.

It should not be a sin for the people of this region to articulate and work towards creating conditions for the implementation of progressive political programmes to serve the collective interests of the region through a powerful regional political party.

In the British union we have the Scottish Nationalist party articulating and indeed implementing progressive political programmes to serve the collective interests of the Scottish people without fearing that they will be called tribalists.

We should run roughshod over this attempt to keep the region under siege using Zanu PF’s old and tired tribal card. There are serious issues to be dealt with in the region of which the issue of justice for Gukurahundi victims, infrastructure development and the Matebeleland Zambezi Water Project are major ones.

These issues will demand common ground and common purpose among the inhabitants of this region for progress to take root. Only through such intervention will Matebeleland be able to rescue itself from self destruction tendencies and rediscover its glory as a region of excellence and merit.

Thembani Dube is a human rights and cultural activist as well as a poet. He is currently the Director of Programmes for MAGGEMM. He is writing in his personal capacity. He can be contacted on: thembani_mthembo *** yahoo.co.uk