Mugabe’s angry row with Msika over heroes
by Staff Reporter
18/09/2010 00:00:00
THE Late Vice President Joseph Msika reportedly accused President Robert Mugabe of developing cold feet and deserting the liberation war “when things really got tough” as the two fiercely rowed over the hero status of James Chikerema. The claim was made by Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru – who is widely believed to be Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba - in the Saturday issue of state-run newspaper.
Manheru claims he attended an exclusive meeting that discussed the possibility of granting Chikerema - who died in 2006 - national hero status with Mugabe making it clear he was against burying his late cousin at the National Heroes Acre. Manheru writes that Msika vehemently disagreed with Mugabe.
“But President Mugabe would have none of it and the temperature in the room rose; rose steadily to begin with, before rapidly leaping to furnace degrees. The two men squared up, shouting, with each moment of the altercation taking them higher, to a worse, hoarser domain,” Manheru stated.
Msika then reminded Mugabe that he and other “intellectuals” had once deserted the struggle when things got tough leaving the former vice president and other “uneducated ignoramuses” to bear the burden.
“President, do you recall that all you intellectuals deserted the struggle when things really got tough - Nkomo included- and it was only me, Nyandoro, Chikerema, Nyagumbo and Tekere who bore the burden of the whole struggle?
“Mese makatiza muchizviti maintellectuals - vanaStanlake Samkange, vana Enoch Dumbutshena - and you would call us…, to mean ignoramuses, uneducated people driven more by brawn than by brains. You distanced yourselves and people like Chikerema stood firm. You intellectuals!” Msika is said to have charged.
However Mugabe refused to back down angrily retorting that Chiekerema - who launched PF Zapu with Dr Joshua Nkomo and briefly led the party in exile while Nkomo was in detention – had betrayed his comrades when he joined up with Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Ian Smith as part of the Internal Settlement.
Mugabe is said to have hit back: “Precisely Joseph, the more reason Chikerema did not have to betray that same revolution towards which he had made such enormous sacrifices. Did he have to join hands with Ian Smith? Throwing bombs at us – in Mozambique, in Zambia – and celebrating about it? And becoming unrepentant about it right up to the end?
The President is said to have told Msika he would bury his cousin back in their home village at Zvimba.
“You know very well, Joseph, that we all agreed in the Party to the principle of ‘consistency and persistence’ as so key to our definition of national hero. You want Chikerema to sleep alongside macomrades avakabhomba? Tigoti tiri kuitei? Dambaza is my cousin and I will go to bury him kwaZvimba. Not kuHeroes Acre. Apo kwete!,” he declared.
Mugabe told the meeting that only those “who sacrificed for the independence of this country, without faltering” would be buried at the national shrine insisting this position would not change as long as veterans of the struggle lived.
Msika eventually relented but remained “unconvinced still simmering at this effrontery of a longtime comrade”, Manheru wrote.
The debate over national heroes recently flared following the death of MDC-M Vice President Gibson Sibanda with his party supported by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai insisting he deserved to be honoured with the status.
But President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party only offered Sibanda a state-assisted funeral at his Filabusi rural home.
Labels: JAMES CHIKEREMA, JOSEPH MSIKA, ROBERT MUGABE
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MDC-T not serious about heroes
EDITOR — MDC-T’s concept of hero cannot go unchallenged.
If Learnmore Jongwe falls into their category of this country’s heroes, then God really help Zimbabwe. That Learnmore Jongwe, who repeatedly stabbed his wife Rutendo Muusha to death, is likened to heroes of this country and that his name features when we are not only burying true heroes and commemorating is an affront to common decency?
Let MDC-T be reminded that although we have men and women who were consistently with the struggle and have been buried not only at the National Heroes’ Acre and at provincial heroes’ acres scattered around the country, it does not mean that there were no sellouts in Zanla and Zipra.
The infamous Nyathi who sold out big time and caused the death of thousands at Chimoio was a top-level guerrilla, but the bottom line is that he still sold out. Therefore, it does not mean that just because he was a guerrilla before selling out he should have been accorded hero status.
This was the same with Jongwe. He was an intelligent young man who probably had a bright political future ahead of him. He also had a high-level position in the MDC despite his youthful age. However, the issue is that Jongwe cold-bloodedly MURDERED his wife, and later committed suicide. We remember that he was given what some in his party would ascribe to a "heroes" send-off.
You can argue Jongwe’s case until kingdom come, but this example is not only an insult to the Muusha family, but it is also a misnomer on the meaning and implications of heroism.
This type of thinking endorses the double standards prevalent in some MDC-T elements who did not make so much noise after it was established that the truck that hit the vehicle in which Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was travelling in, and which claimed the life of his wife was connected to both the Americans and the EU, and that it had US Embassy registration number plates.
Professor Jonathan Moyo asked 14 pertinent questions which still need to be answered. If those questions had anything to do with Zanu-PF, one does not need to be a genius to second-guess the mayhem that could have been caused.
MDC-T also said that there would be an independent inquiry, but the nation is still waiting for the results of that inquiry.
Both MDC formations have women’s wings, but their voices were conspicuous by their silence when the truck driver that killed the PM’s wife was given a paltry US$200 fine for culpable homicide. Does this amaze anyone also when the carnage on our roads continues unabated, if people kill and are fined $200?
Why also should the issue of hero status always come up each time liberation war heroes die, and each time we commemorate Heroes’ Day? Could there ever be a correlation between the likes of Jongwe and the late Vice President Joseph Msika?
Zimbabwe still writhes under economic sanctions, and we want to be forced to call the people who invited these sanctions on us, heroes? Mama mia!
Sibongile Kwanai.
Harare.
Labels: JOSEPH MSIKA, MDC
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Young Zimbabweans losing intellectual wars, late VP Msika
TZG/TSM reporters
Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:37:00 +0000
THE late VP Joseph Msika who died last week said Zimbabwean youths were losing "intellectual wars" as they are not taking advantage of the new media and the opportunities that it offers.
In a film documentary that has not yet been aired, the late VP Msika urged the youths “not to let us down”. VP Msika said after realising that the intellectual war in the field of information was being lost, “the old guard” came back to “fight the media battle for you.”
Asked whether he thought the younger generation was ready to fight and defend their country, VP Msika said: “The youngsters of today are letting the country down. The old guard fought the colonialists physically and won Independence, after which we invested a lot in educating the nation, but that education has gone to waste.
“In times of a different kind of war, war fought intellectually in the information fields the youngsters have failed to articulate the Zimbabwe story. Once again the old guard had to come back to fight this media battle for you.”
He added: “ History belongs to those who write it. For example the history of Zimbabwe starts with the coming of the British negating more than 300 years of African interaction with the Europeans in the form of the Portuguese and also the Arabs.
“Moreso the public’s understanding of what has been happening in the country over the past decade is very much distorted if not very thin. I have heard quite a number of young people arguing that these veterans want to take us to the past. How misguided?”
He emphasised that historical events are not only important but stand as the building blocks to the modern world.
“In Zimbabwe our history is young and shouldn’t be a problem to understand even to the young. But in the context of what has been happening politically since 1999 there have been various attempts to revise the history of this young country. And that danger still exists. That’s why it is important to track down all the living veterans and document our history.
“The struggle in Zimbabwe was and is not about a hatred of other races but the destruction of institutions of segregation and supremacy. You should trace the history of colonialism and inequality in Africa. Africa should write its own history”.
Asked what it was like living in Rhodesia, he said: “The whiteman regarded the black man as sub-human and themselves a super human beings hence their introduction of oppressive and dehumanising legislation in the whole of Africa including Rhodesia.
“We were forced to live as rural people under the so-called Land Apportionment Act which demarcated our land into Tribal Trust Lands and that land was designated as European land.
“Under this racially divisive piece of legislation, black people were relegated to those areas with very poor soils and relatively low rainfall. Blacks living in the areas with fertile arable land were forcibly removed and taken to barren areas whilst this rich land with plenty of water was left exclusively to the white people.
“This policy allowed the few whites in the country’s population to occupy vast tracts of fertile land at the expense of blacks who were confined to reserves where they were forced to eke out a living from the barest of resources and were therefore barely able to sustain themselves.
“Another piece of vicious legislation, the Land Husbandry Act allowed the blacks in the so-called reserves to keep a limited number of cattle under the process of forced de-stocking. Cattle that were at the time regarded by blacks as a form of wealth were taken away from our forefathers using this piece of repressive legislation.
“Compensation was not paid to the black farmer. And where an attempt to do so was done the colonialists determined the price. The African wealth was being destroyed and poverty being introduced, by force.
“The empowered farmer of today would be glad to know that the cattle and other animals they saw and admired on former white farmers were stolen from their forefathers.
“In urban areas, mines and European farms, blacks were allowed to live there as a form of temporary cheap labour only providing labour to their white “master”. They were not allowed to live with their families, and set foot on what were designated as white areas.
“In places like Harare and Bulawayo, blacks were not allowed to walk on pavements and were served from the specially created “windows” when making purchases from certain shops.
“Recreation areas like parks, sports grounds, libraries, swimming pools, racing courses and entertainment halls/theatres had sign posts at their entrances indicating that dogs and blacks were not allowed, for example, Cecil Square now Africa Unity Square in Harare. Policemen meted out harsh and inhuman treatment to those deemed as offender under the repressive Law and Order Maintenance Act.”
VP Msika said Government schools were exclusively reserved for whites while blacks went to the few missionary schools.
“In over 50 years of colonial rule in Southern Rhodesia, Goromonzi was the only secondary school built for blacks. Blacks were also forced to go through a curriculum, which prepared them to work as policemen, teachers and nurses or servile servants of white settlers on completing their education.
“This approach to education was meant for the black person to be exposed to Christian values of forgiveness and non-violence.
“And also to instil an inferiority complex, all the characters of superior disposition in the Bible were foreign (white) to the local people. This was to destroy the black man’s culture and self belief,” said VP Msika.
On his first meeting with President Mugabe, the late VP Musika gave a historical perspective, “I recall meeting President Mugabe for the first time in 1959 when he visited us (the detainees) at Marandellas prison. President Mugabe’s visit was announced to us by a Superintendent Parch.
“I did not know Mugabe but was surprised when he greeted me by name and introduced himself as Mugabe from Zvimba TTLs (Tribal Trust Lands).
“Cde Mugabe informed me that he had attended some of our meetings in Bulawayo accompanied by Tennyson Hlabangana and Cde Rubatika when he was still teaching at Hope Fountain. The President indicated to me that he was at that time teaching in Ghana and that “Mutinhimira wezvamurikuita wanzwikwa”.
“Cde Mugabe’s resolve to join the struggle was very apparent and he has resolutely maintained his dedication to fight for our independence and freedom up to date,” said Cde Musika.
He said they were in jail because “our crime was the simple fact that we had started agitating for equal rights rights as a prelude to universal suffrage and access to our heritage, the land”.
On what type of freedom they were fighting for he said: “The total emancipation we sought was premised on social and economic justice, and resource ownership.
“Social and economic justice can only be realised by empowering all Zimbabweans so that they own the resources (land) and partake in its development”.
Minister of Information and Publicity Webster Shamu added that many young people who trained as journalists in Zimbabwe had opted to work for organisations that spread falsehoods and half-truths about Zimbabwe.
He said that each and every Zimbabwean had the opportunity to go to school and contribute positively to their country, but some of these professionals had opted to engage in the "war against Zimbabwe" by opting to work for pirate radio stations and websites that reported falsehoods about Zimbabwe.
"We urge all our young people to look in the mirror and take a proper audit. They should ask themselves the relevant question: 'Am I contributing to the success or failure of my own country," said Shamu.
A University of Zimbabwe political science professor who refused to be named said the Government had no capacity to absorb all graduates from that and other institutions and offer them jobs; "but that is no reason to work for organisations that condemn your own government and country."
"I wonder how some of these people sleep at night knowing that they are lying to themselves, their families, friends and their country," he added.
Labels: COLONIALISM, EDUCATION, JOSEPH MSIKA
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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.
Labels: CAIN GINILITSHE MATHEMA, JOSEPH MSIKA, LIBERATION, SANCTIONS, TRIBALISM, ZDERA
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Msika talked and lived the truth
Posted By Jonathan Moyo on
7 Aug, 2009 at 4:51 pm
AS ZIMBABWEANS nurse their profound grief on the passing away of Vice-President Joseph Wilfred Msika and ponder over the significance of his lifetime of struggle ahead of his befitting burial at the National Heroes Acre on Monday, the abiding wisdom that death cancels everything but truth must be reverberating in the hearts and minds of those who worked with or knew him as the contagious embodiment of the truth in politics.
The late Vice President Msika was so irrepressibly committed to the truth as an expression of intergenerational leadership that he personified it. He talked and lived the truth with all the associated consequences. There is nobody who worked with or under him, no matter how old or young, who did not experience or suffer the impact of Vice President Msika’s quest for truth.
It is for this reason that, as a man of the truth, he was without doubt the conscience of the nation. He was a leader of immense stature and a very ordinary person at one and the same time. He connected with such ordinary pursuits as boxing and football in ways that are yet to be told.
One fact that stands out as towering as his stature in the history of the nationalist movement, something rather typical of leaders who are truth-driven, is that Vice President Msika never exaggerated his capacity.
He was always humble, ever ready and willing to learn even from people much younger and less experienced than himself. But even so, he was nevertheless very impatient and even ruthless with the “mafikizolos”, the textbook politicians - sometimes called the “young Turks” - who thought or behaved towards him like they knew everything when the contrary was self-evidently true.
The chief error of the “mafikizolos”, which Vice President Msika never tired to point out, was that they naively took the mere formal fact of holding senior positions either in the Zanu PF hierarchy or the Cabinet to mean that they were “leaders”!
Vice President Msika could not stomach that impudence. He used to be routinely vicious against it and would not mince his words when denouncing the evil. This is because to him, being a youth was not a licence to willy-nilly say or do anything and there was always more to leadership than just having high sounding formal educational credentials or holding a formal position.
And in the same vein, and for the same reasons, Vice President Msika was never one to take kindly to people who claimed entitlement by dint of having done this or that during the liberation struggle. To him, the virtue of one’s past or future or stature was always a consequence of one’s present deed.
Equally compelling was Msika’s nationalism. Many have been called nationalists but their record is a mixed tale of tribalism. Not Msika; he was not a lip-service nationalist who takes on a national character when there is a crowd before him.
As a man of the truth, he was one leader who was truly above tribalism. He was at home with real everyday people on the ground anywhere in Matabeleland, in terms of both deeds and language, as he was anywhere in Mashonaland. In this regard, he was in a class all by himself as a paragon of profound nationalism troubled by the otherwise deep-seated scourge of tribalism in our country.
Against this backdrop, Vice President Msika had an infectious management style which saw leadership less as a position and more as a disposition.
This perhaps explains why, as is readily clear even from a cursory review of his leadership role in the history of the nationalist movement, Vice President Msika did not seek high positions for their own sake even when opportunities came begging.
It is as remarkable as it is instructive to note that he was one of the leading nationalist voices that invited the late Vice President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo to be the founding leader of the African National Congress in 1957. Since then and up to his passing away on Wednesday, Vice President Msika’s loyalty to Nkomo remained unstinting.
Of course, the loyalty was not to the person of Nkomo but to the ideals and values of the liberation struggle first to politically free Zimbabwe from colonialism and later to economically empower Zimbabweans by ensuring that they have full control of their God-given natural resources.
It is no exaggeration to say that the whole of Vice President Msika’s adult life was about this struggle. He did not have any other life. He was not invited into that life by anyone. He just found himself naturally at the centre of the struggle and in the end the struggle made him while he made the struggle and in the process Msika made Zimbabwe.
Whatever freedoms some Zimbabweans might claim they do not have today, a claim which must be academic by definition, the fact is that they are able to make the claim as a result of the lifetime sacrifice that Vice President Msika made. He gave up everything for the sake of a free Zimbabwe.
The people who know this only too well are members of his family. But there is no reason the rest of us cannot see it because it’s a reality that speaks for itself and which young Zimbabweans, especially, can ignore at their own existential peril from an identity point of view.
In the same way that young and future Americans cannot recall the history of the making of their country without reference to the likes of Thomas Jefferson, it will not be possible for anyone to tell a complete history of the making of a politically and economically independent Zimbabwe, with empowered citizens, without acknowledging the lifetime contribution made by Vice President Msika.
Those among us who sometimes suffer from the foolish temptation that the history of our country starts in 2000 have all the reasons to use the sad passing away of Vice President Msika to revisit and understand the real and troubled history of our beloved country.
While it can indeed be told from many perspectives based on the contributions of many illustrious sons and daughters of the revolution, some departed and others still with us, the perspective of the late Vice President Msika is arguably the most compelling.
As President Robert Mugabe has said, people like Msika do not die: they live on indelibly anchored in our everlasting memories.
Jonathan Moyo is independent MP for Tsholotsho North
Last 5 posts by Jonathan Moyo
Labels: JONATHAN MOYO, JOSEPH MSIKA, ZANU-PF
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Zuma: Msika death 'painful loss'
by Chris Bathembu
05/08/2009 00:00:00
SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma has extended condolences to the government and people of Zimbabwe following the death of one of the country's Vice Presidents, Joseph Msika.
Msika died on Tuesday at the age of 86 after losing his battle with a series of strokes suffered in recent years.
"Msika's passing is indeed a painful loss not only to the Zimbabwean people but to the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and the continent," President Zuma said in a statement.
He said Msika's death came at a critical time in the history of Zimbabwe when challenges facing that country need experienced leaders like him.
"On behalf of the Government of South Africa and on my own behalf I wish to extend my heartfelt condolences to the people of Zimbabwe, particularly to the family and close relatives of Vice President Msika."
As part of the power-sharing agreement, President Robert Mugabe will be tasked with naming Msika's replacement from his Zanu PF party.
Zanu PF national chairman John Nkomo is favourite to succeed him. - BuaNews
Labels: JACOB ZUMA, JOSEPH MSIKA
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Vice President Msika feared dead
Ralph Mutema
Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:11:00 +0000
VICE PRESIDENT Joseph Msika is believed to have died at age 85 after a battle with illness, South African public radio reported Tuesday. No official statement has been released by the government of Zimbabwe and efforts to reach the foreign office or the Zimbabwean embassy in the UK to get confirmation were fruitless.
South African radio, however, said that VP Msika died Tuesday in a hospital in Zimbabwe. According to the report the vice president was admitted to hospital in South Africa in June after falling ill at a summit of eastern and southern African leaders.
Reports in Zimbabwe at the time said he had suffered a stroke. He had had poor health since 2005.
Msika had been state vice-president since 1999.
Mrs Joice Mujuru, wife of former army general Solomon Mujuru, is the other vice-president.
Both vice presidents Msika and Mujuru maintained their positions after President Robert Mugabe formed an inclusive Government with the two formations of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) in February.
Under the terms of the power-sharing agreement, President Mugabe gets to name two vice-presidents from his Zanu PF party. Party chairman John Nkomo is deemed a strong candidate to replace VP Msika.
Labels: JOSEPH MSIKA, VICE PRESIDENCY
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Obituary: Joseph Wilfred Msika
by Robert Cary and Diana Mitchell
04/08/2009 00:00:00
Joseph Msika was born on December 6, 1923, in the Chiweshe Reserve, Mazoe District.
His father, a Shangaan, was a polygamist whose first wife bore him several daughters. Joseph was the first son born to the second wife, a Zezuru woman who, like her husband, was a staunch member of the Anglican Church. Msika remained a practising Christian up to his death on Tuesday, August 4.
Msika once said his father was well off in terms of cattle – as a small boy, he herded more than 100 at a time. It was only the most progressive farmer who, in the 1930s, understood the importance of using the disc plough and cultivator, and his father adopted these innovations.
He supplemented his income with a wagon transport business between Mazoe and Salisbury (now Harare). For the price of six eggs, Msika was admitted as a day scholar to the nearby Howard Institute, a Salvation Army mission school.
In 1937, he became a boarder and remained there until he passed Standard VI. It was his wish to become a teacher but his father sent him to Mt Selinda (run by the American Board Mission) to train as a carpenter. He made a success of his training and while at Mt Selinda, passed his Junior Certificate by correspondence.
Joseph, as the oldest son, was obliged to help with the payment of school fees for the younger members of the family and for this reason he took up part time work with a transport firm in Bulawayo during the holidays.
In 1951, his employer persuaded him to take up a full-time job as a cabinet maker. He remained with the firm until 1953 when he was offered a better job with a new clothing firm from Johannesburg. When the firm got into financial difficulties, the owners arranged for Joseph to be transferred to Bulawayo. Here, he worked as a supervisor and then as a “leading hand”.
Finally, he became the equivalent of a personnel officer, dealing with problems arising between management and staff. This led to an interest in trade unionism and shortly afterwards, he became president of the Textile and Allied Workers’ Union.
The path from trade unionism to politics was a straightforward one and it was not long before he joined the old African National Congress, becoming chairman of the Bulawayo branch. On September 12, 1957, the ANC merged with the African National Youth League (ANYL) in Salisbury to form a new ANC and Joseph Msika was appointed National Treasurer.
Msika was heavily involved in the negotiations that gave rise to this new grouping. Six men – James Chikerema, the late Paul Mushonga and George Nyandoro from Mashonaland, and three from Matabeleland Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, Francis Ndawali and Msika himself – agreed not to contest the leadership but to support the man who would come forward and take up the risky task of spearheading a demand for majority rule, hitherto never even considered in the country.
Aidan Mwamuka, Stanlake Samkange, Enoch Dumbutshena and Joshua Nkomo were each invited to lead the African National Congress. Mwamuka, Dumbutshena and Samkange declined but Nkomo stated that, if it was the wish of the nation that he should come forward and lead, he would do so.
“Since then,” Msika once said, “he did just that. The intellectuals – Ndabaningi Sithole, Robert Mugabe and others – came after Nkomo in their decision to identify with the objective of majority rule and the struggle to achieve it.”
In 1961, Msika was involved in the organisation of a successful strike. This led to his dismissal from employment and he decided to set up his own business – a grocery and fish and chip shop.
He was first arrested and detained in February 1959. He was sent to Khami Maximum Security Prison where he met nationalists from Nyasaland (Malawi) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). His reaction to a prison sentence was one of shock. His background had not prepared him for this experience but he gave profound thought to his condition and soon adjusted to his new situation.
He reflected that the struggle in the early stages of nationalism had been one to obtain justice and equal rights for Africans in a series of individual battles. However, with independence coming rapidly to other African countries, the realisation that the real battle was for the political control of the country through a demand for “one man-one vote” became to grow among nationalist leaders in Rhodesia.
“The spirit of nationalism, long dormant since the rebellions of the previous century, was resuscitated – people have an inherent right to decide how they should be governed, and to choose their own government,” Msika said.
Determined to face his sentence as “an innocent man: I had not committed any crime; my conscience was clear; I had been imprisoned for my political views” – he retained his self-respect and was able to face the realities of prison with a calm mind.
From Khami, he was transferred to Selukwe and then to Marandellas. After his release from Marandellas, he was elected Councillor for the National Democratic Party (NDP). Later, when ZAPU was formed, he became Secretary for Youth Affairs.
When the split in the movement came in July 1963, Msika was in Dar-es-Salaam with other members of the ZAPU executive. When the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, Moton Malianga, Robert Mugabe and Leopold Takawira proposed a resolution deposing Nkomo from the leadership, Msika walked out of the meeting.
In the People’s Caretaker Council (PCC), which was formed shortly afterwards and which he considers to be synonymous with ZAPU, he was elected to the post of Secretary for External Affairs.
In 1964, Msika was arrested in Josiah Chinamano’s house and sent to Gonakudzingwa for a period of one year. Together with Chinamano and his wife, Ruth and Joshua Nkomo, he “opened up Gonakudzingwa”. After his release in 1965, he enjoyed only two weeks of freedom in Salisbury before being re-arrested. He returned to Gonakudzingwa and in 1967 was sent with Joshua Nkomo and Lazarus Nkala to the remote Camp, where they spent the next three years with only wild game and each other for company.
These stringent conditions were lifted in 1970 and they were then permitted to receive regular visits from their wives and younger children. In May 1974, they were transferred to Buffalo Range where they remained until their release in December. Immediately following his release, Msika accompanied Joshua Nkomo to Lusaka for talks on unity and détente.
Under the Lusaka Declaration of December 1974, Msika was chosen as one of the four men to represent ZAPU on the Central Committee of the ANC. In August 1975, he attended the Victoria Falls talks as a member of the ANC negotiating team.
When the split occurred shortly afterwards, his loyalty to Nkomo was never in doubt. He was convinced that the decision to call a special congress on 27 and 28 September was strictly in accordance with the constitution of the organisation. At the Congress, he was elected Secretary General under the presidency of Nkomo. It was announced on 10 December that he had been appointed a member of the ANC delegation to the constitutional conference convened for 15 December.
Following the breakdown of the Smith-Nkomo talks in March 1976, the ANC decided to publish its own story of what occurred. In early July, Msika went to London to release the publication and to answer questions at a press conference.
He told reporters that the ANC “might consider whether there was anything to be gained by once more sitting down with Ian Smith”.
“But,” he was reported as saying, “it would not be negotiation – the time for that is long past. It would be to discuss only the mechanics of an immediate transfer of power to the majority”.
Msika was, however, at pains to point out that the ANC was not “fighting the white man”. “We are,” he said, “fighting a racist system”.
It was announced on 13 October that Joseph Msika would be a member of the ANC (Nkomo) delegation to the Geneva Conference.
Msika expressed the greatest admiration for the way in which his wife, Maria, whom he married in 1946, raised their family of six children and looked after his business during his time in detention.
Msika attended the Lancaster House talks in 1979 which led to Zimbabwe’s Independence in 1980. After independence, he served in various ministerial portfolios – starting with the Natural Resources portfolio he got in a shaky coalition government soon after the first elections.
A new crackdown on ZAPU supporters by government troops forced Nkomo to quit Mugabe’s government in 1983 and he fled to England. After thousands were killed in the crackdown, Mugabe and Nkomo signed the unity pact in 1987, Nkomo immediately becoming Vice President.
Msika’s successor is likely to come from the former ZAPU leadership. Zanu PF national chairman John Nkomo is favourite.
(Most of the above work is an extract from Robert Cary and Diana Mitchell's book: African Nationalist Leaders in Rhodesia - Who's Who)
Labels: COLONIALISM, JOSEPH MSIKA, LIBERATION, ZIMBABWE
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Mugabe: VP Msika 'unwell'
by Lebo Nkatazo
25/06/2009 00:00:00
VICE President Joseph Msika is ill, President Robert Mugabe said on Wednesday. Confirmation of Msika’s failing health followed weeks of intense speculation about the 86-year-old veteran nationalist’s health.
A newspaper reported last week that Msika had undergone an operation after suffering a stroke early this month. Speaking to Zanu PF’s central committee on Wednesday, Mugabe said Msika was “unwell”, without going into details of his deputy’s ailment.
Msika has told President Robert Mugabe he wants to step down but had been asked to stay on, the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper reported in May.
And last Thursday, the Financial Gazette reported that Msika had been hospitalised at Harare’s St Anne’s Hospital twice within a fortnight to correct “complications” arising from an operation he had in South Africa.
“Doctors said he may not be able to resume duties any time soon,” the newspaper reported.
Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba said: "I cannot comment on a family issue. That's a family issue."
Msika became Vice President in 1999 following the death of liberation war icon, Joshua Nkomo.
Labels: JOSEPH MSIKA, MUGABE
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Msika breaks silence about PF Zapu
Sunday News/Zim Guardian
Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:17:00 +0000
VICE-PRESIDENT Joseph Msika has distanced himself from claims by sections of the media that he was leading the revival of PF Zapu together with former Zipra supremo Dumiso Dabengwa.
Msika said that he was insulted by the invitation to address a Zipra meeting at White City Stadium on December 1, which was meant to revive PF Zapu.
He said the invitation was meant to trap him to make a statement and soon after the attendees to the meeting would declare a pullout from the 1987 Unity Accord signed by Zanu PF and PF Zapu.
Msika said resigned provincial chairperson, Mr Mcleod Tshawe, had something to do with the plan to “trap” him.
“They wanted to trap me at White City. Tshawe was part of the breakaway. I had requested that the meeting be taken to this hall (Davies Hall). He did not listen when I said I don’t want to address them at White City. He was part of the deadwood – part of the non-participators in the Unity Accord.
“They are ex-combatants, yes, but they never participated in unity. They wanted me to go to White City Stadium so that after that they make a statement that they have pulled out of the Unity Accord led by Msika,” the Vice-President said.
Msika also spoke about Dabengwa’s claims that he was never part of Zanu PF and that he has always been “PF Zapu in Zanu PF”.
“Dabengwa amazes me when he says he never agreed with the Unity Accord. He was the Minister of Home Affairs in this same Government. Those who want to follow Dabengwa must follow him,” he said.
Msika said the reason to join Zanu PF in a unity deal was taken by all PF-Zapu structures.
“Zapu sat down as an organisation, the Zapu executive council, and central committee called the Zapu Congress, which included the whole country.
“They were put there by the congress and you cannot remove people from there,” he said.
Cde Msika said efforts to revive PF Zapu were based on ignorance of what the party stood for.
“You don’t just get the name PF Zapu. We were pierced by thorns, healed each other and trudged on. We stayed in prisons. I stayed in prison for 20 years although I was not a cattle thief. That is what Zapu means,” he said.
Msika, who in his slogan emphasised that, “phambili nge Zanu le Zapu,” narrated the history of the liberation struggle and noted how PF Zapu always been united with Zanu PF as the Patriotic Front PF.
“Zapu is not a joke or a party to play with. It is the child of the African National Congress, a big organisation that included all Zimbabweans. Whoever was not in Zapu at that time was a sell out. I always meet some of the people and they have positions and influence now. They are the people who are disturbing us. I am challenging you to get into the structures and work with the leadership.
“Zapu is not a Bulawayo party. It is not a Ndebele party, it is not a Shona party, it is not a Kalanga party, and it is not a Venda party. It belongs to the whole nation. (Late Vice President Joshua) Nkomo was elected by the whole nation. Jason (Moyo), Lazarus Nkala, Chambati, Musarurwa, were those Mandebeles?” he said.
He said Zanu PF is the only authentic liberation movement that came out of the merger of Zanu PF and PF-Zapu.
“Nkomo has told me that I think by the pulse of my heart. He said it was true that Zanu PF broke away from us PF-Zapu and we all know how we felt about it then but we had to give it to them because they had fought hard. We must be able to see beyond our nose,” he said.
He said of all the leaders in Joshua Nkomo’s ANC, he was the only one left and therefore felt he had a responsibility to protect unity among revolutionaries.
“I thank God and the ancestors because they have a reason to keep me and because of that, I will not look aside as the party is prostituted. There is no prostitution in the party; the party has a policy and a document that it follows.
“If you admire the past revolutionaries then you must be more revolutionary than Joshua Nkomo. Most of you are counter revolutionaries, sellouts, surrogates and renegades. These are bad names,” he said.
Msika saluted President Mugabe’s resoluteness in the revolution.
“Between me and Mugabe I must tell you that he visited me at Marondera prison from Ghana and told me that he will commit himself to the struggle like I had done so far. He told me to be strong and he has joined us up to today,” he said.
The Vice president said there was need for political education within the party.
“After restructuring there is need for political education. You have to teach people how to be committed. There is a lot of literature on that. Party members need to learn to put the nation and the party before self interests,” he said.
He said he was aware of allegations that there were people who were going around vote buying ahead of the Provincial Committee elections.
“We have been destroyed by money. I understand there are some people paying rent for others,” he said.
He challenged members in Bulawayo to stop being rude and pretend as if the revolution does not belong to them too, but claim their role in the politics of Zimbabwe.
“We are not apologetic about the revolution. It does not belong to the people in Harare. You are a factor, you are not asking from anyone to participate in this. The revolution started at Stanley Square (at Makokoba) and that is not debatable. It is a historic fact that cannot be disputed. People in Bulawayo should stand up and be counted. Ask for your share of the cake,” he said.
Sunday News/Zim Guardian
Labels: JOSEPH MSIKA, ZAPU
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