Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) Gamu Nhengu: when is it OK to lie?

Gamu Nhengu: when is it OK to lie?
by Msekiwa Makwanya
10/10/2010 00:00:00

THE curse of Zimbabwe is that while her children, particularly those who find themselves in the diaspora by fate or design like Gamu Nhengu, see President Robert Mugabe each time their country is mentioned, others see diamonds and wealth that geology has bequeathed our land.

As Mines Minister Obert Mpofu disclosed that preliminary studies by the government have pointed to the existence of large deposits of diamonds in three more provinces, 18-year-old Gamu Nhengu shamelessly told a British tabloid newspaper that “... a firing squad is waiting for us there and they're putting me in front of it."
Really, and for what? Singing on X Factor?

Gamu just recently was rejected by the judges in the ITV talent show, X Factor. It has since emerged her mum, Nokuthula Ngazana, lost an application to extend her work permit because of a claim from public finances which her visa did now allow. Because Gamu and her two brothers were listed as dependants on their mother's visa, they have been order to leave trhe UK along with their mum.

This is a young girl who was born in Zimbabwe in 1992 and left for Scotland in 2005 at the age of 13. Her mum secured a work permit to work as a nurse.

I can think of a dozen activities that could get you into trouble with "the Mugabe regime", but working as a nurse and singing on X Factor are certainly not those.

It appears that someone advising Gamu might have encouraged her to raise the stakes by entering the political arena to enhance the grounds for a possible asylum claim as an option. The problem for Gamu is that she must sell a convincing account of why Mugabe wants to put her before a "firing squad", if ever he has such an outfit?

It may be that Gamu is desperate, given her personal circumstances. She has been settled in the United Kingdom for all these years and now finds herself having to return to Zimbabwe without an ideal starting point. Naturally, anyone in that position would be distressed, and it is possible to come up with any story to prevent forced return.

But her response to her circumstances shows Gamu as one without the X Factor. Her story does not wash. She lacks the X Factor in lying. Mugabe and X Factor have absolutely no connection.

To be fair, I do not think that Gamu is lying deliberately; she is just taking the advice she has been given by a lawyer whose knowledge of Zimbabwe is probably nothing more than what occasionally comes up on BBC. She is just an 18-year-old girl, and naive.

It may have become fashionable to bad-mouth Zimbabwe, particularly in the British media, because that fits into the prism of how they see Zimbabwe. The British public will most probably swallow Gamu's "firing squad" lie hook line and sinker.

The problem with Gamu’s story is that it throws the integrity of the asylum system into question. The same British public who are expected to sympathise with her would not like their tax to pay for someone who is clearly manufacturing a story. Not in these difficult times of historic cuts in public services.

Even if the Home Office Secretary was to intervene, she would be faced with the dilemma of sending a wrong signal to asylum seekers -- that it is okay to lie.

The Zimbabwean community in the UK was generally dismayed with the way Gamu was treated on X Factor and many genuinely felt that the UK Border Agency could have handled her mother's matter differently.

But Gamu’s weekend comments force all Zimbabweans to take a position as to whether they associate themselves with tarring the image of the country so publicly, and to such a worldwide audience.

Labels: GAMU NHENGU, INTERNATIONAL MEDIA, PROPAGANDA

posted by MrK @ 12:58 AM