COMMENT - The MDC is embracing tribalism. Please keep talking. Not only do they have the (Ndebele) Mthakazi separatists and Rhodesian era landowners in their ranks, not only are the harking back to a pre-independence, pre-landreform economy, but their newly expressed anti-Zezuru (anti-Shona - one can only hope with 80% of the population being Shona) stance is going to clinch the deal for the average Zimbabwean voter. Also read here:
Biti launches tribal attacks against Zezurus by Staff reporter, Bulawayo 24.
Biti under fire for tribal slur
Monday, 20 August 2012 00:00
Herald Reporter
MDC-T secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti has come under fire for making tribal slurs against the Zezuru community with a call that the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee should intervene and reprimand him. Mr Biti, who is also Finance Minister in the inclusive Government, made the tribal diatribe during a press conference two weeks ago when he announced his party’s endorsement of the draft Constitution produced by the Copac management committee.
In his address,
Mr Biti launched a tribal attack against Zezurus, saying the draft Constitution was meant to curtail their supposed dominance in the country’s body politic.
“We are de-Zezurunising the State, let me put it clear, there is too much Zvimbanisation of this State, the first is that under this constitution all citizens are equal whether citizens by birth, by descent or by registration,” said Mr Biti.
Mr Biti, however, tried to retract his statement later realising the backlash that would come saying “I just used it as colour, don’t confuse it with substance.”
But Zvimba Development Association chairperson, Mr Charles Nyachowe did not take this lightly. He said Mr Biti’s remarks had caused a lot of anxiety among many Zimbabweans.
Such utterances, he said, had the effect of inciting tribal clashes.
“We are surprised by the silence of Jomic, we feel the organ should take decisive action against the threat made by Mr Biti,” said Mr Nyachowe, who is also a former Harare councillor.
He said world history was littered with cases where thousands of lives had been lost due to clashes triggered by “such reckless tribal statements”.
He gave examples of Rwanda where Tutsis and Hutus clashed leading to genocide, and Hitler’s anti-Semitism in Germany which led to the Holocaust in which millions of Jews were killed in gas chambers and concentration camps.
Mr Nyachowe said it would be ridiculous for Mr Biti to go and campaign in Mashonaland provinces where mostly Zezuru people reside when he had shown resentment against them.
“We want to know whether he said this in his capacity as Government Minister or as a party functionary. If he was representing the Government, he should be disciplined, if he was putting on a party hat, then we do not expect him to go and campaign in those areas,” said Mr Nyachowe.
He said the remarks were not consistent with a national leader that Mr Biti purports to be.
“That is counterproductive. We are quite worried about the threats that he is making,” he said.
Seke Development Association chairperson Mr Alex Chakanetsa described the tribal attack as “unprovoked and unwarranted”.
“The current constitution does not make any reference to Zezuru or any tribe. Why making it now when making reference to the draft Constitution?” asked Mr Chakanetsa.
“Are these constitutional material? To say this constitution is now good because we have addressed the issue of Zezurus, does it make any sense?”
Mr Chakanetsa said there have been long standing harmony among tribes in Zimbabwe so much that what Mr Biti was raising was misguided.
“There is even intermarriage among various tribes and even races,” he said.
University of Zimbabwe International Relations Department lecturer, Dr Charity Manyeruke, condemned the utterances saying it was surprising coming from a Government minister.
“A constitution should be a unifying point and our leaders should be unifying agents. We have many tribes in Zimbabwe and the constitution is a symbol that we are one nation,” said Dr Manyeruke.
Another analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she was disturbed by Mr Biti’s comments as she described them as “reprehensible”.
“It’s quite disgusting coming from not only a lawyer but a leader of a political party. He is trying to divide people along ethnic lines,” she said.
Political analyst Cde Christopher Mutsvangwa said Zimbabwe was one of the most united countries in Africa, making Mr Biti’s remarks misguided.
“It’s out of place. His statements have no place in Zimbabwe’s body politic,” he said.
Cde Mutsvangwa said what Mr Biti said was a reflection of lawyers trained at a time when whites were at the helm of the University of Zimbabwe’s Law Faculty.
Zanu-PF Women’s League chairperson Cde Oppah Muchinguri castigated Mr Biti saying Zimbabwe had gone to war to a fight bad system that practiced vices such as tribalism.
“We went to war to fight whites who condoned systems such as tribalism and racialism. I am a leader for women and I do not look at one’s tribe whether Manyika, Karanga or Zezuru, this is what every leader should do,” said Cde Muchinguri.
The MDC formations have since endorsed the draft Constitution while Zanu-PF has proposed some amendments that would be tabled before Principals.
Labels: JOMIC, MDC TRIBALISM, TENDAI BITI
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COMMENT - " PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says it is "unacceptable" that perpetrators of the 1980’s Gukurahundi atrocities and subsequent human rights violations continue to walk free " - now that would be much more convincing, if it wasn't for the fact that the MDC not only wants the white perpetrators of atrocities against the Zimbabwean people to walk free, but they want to give them cabinet positions - Roy Bennett (Selous Scouts), David Coltart (BSAP), and more. This is the basic hypocrisy of this phoney party - they want interest in human rights abuses to start in 1985, but not look at all to the period of 1965-1980. There is no statute of limitations that says that 1985 is 'recent', but 1980 is the 'distant past'. So let's have it all out.
Tsvangirai demands Gukurahundi justice
12/12/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says it is "unacceptable" that perpetrators of the 1980’s Gukurahundi atrocities and subsequent human rights violations continue to walk free while their victims cry out for justice. The MDC-T leader was speaking at an event to mark the United Nations Human Rights Day in Harare on Monday.
Tsvangirai said the Human Rights Commission established last year as part of a raft GPA reforms could not act against those responsible for alleged mass killings in the Matebeleland and Midlands regions in the 80’s.
Rights groups say over 20,000 civilians, mainly supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s then chief rival Dr Joshua Nkomo, were killed and thousands more driven away from their homes after the Zanu PF leader deployed a crack army unit to deal with what was described as a dissident menace in the two regions.
Tsvangirai said a clause inserted in the Human Rights Bill, preventing the Commission from dealing with abuses committed prior to 2009, was “absurd and unacceptable”.
“This means that as a country, we are taking an ill-informed decision to ignore heinous crimes against the people of this country, starting with the crimes committed by the colonial regime,” the MDC-T leader said.
“This means we are saying the perpetrators of the State-sanctioned violence known as Gukurahundi in the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces in the early 1980s must go scot free.
“(It) means we must pretend that Operation Murambatsvina never happened and that all those who killed, maimed and raped innocent citizens in acts of political violence must escape justice.”
Tsvangirai said the Commission a partisan and compromised body.
“Being a politically negotiated creature whose commissioners were appointed in a partisan manner even though Parliament was involved, the Commission remains largely compromised and it must earn the people’s confidence by serving the people in an impartial and honest manner,” he said.
However, the MDC-T leader and his party endorsed the Commission despite the inherent weaknesses he now highlights.
Tsvangirai has increasingly brought up the explosive Gukurahundi issue as parties step-up campaigns for key elections expected early next year.
His MDC-T party has traditionally done well in the Matebeleland regions, riding on popular anger against Mugabe and Zanu PF over the issue.
Tsvangirai told a recent rally in Plumtree that efforts to promote so-called national healing would come to naught unless the Gukurahundi issue was resolved.
“Silence is not a solution. We have to confront this,” he said.
“If we don’t confront it, it will continue to be a burden to this nation. Any idea of national healing would be fruitless.”
Labels: GUKURAHUNDI, MDC TRIBALISM, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI
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Ndebele penetrates Mashonaland Central
30/10/2011 00:00:00
by Edwin Mwase I Sunday Mail
“Sikhona, linjani bantwana?” we answered. “Thina siyaphila,” they replied, before sitting down.
One could have been forgiven for thinking that we were in the heart of Matabeleland, but this is Mashonaland Central where Ndebele has been introduced as part of the school curriculum. Pupils at Umvukwesi are breaking the language barriers to unify Zimbabwe.
The idea of introducing national languages across the board was first mooted by education officials in Mashonaland Central before being put on the debate table by the Education Ministry.
Umvukwesi Primary School has set the ball rolling as a pilot project.
“We found it rational to introduce it as a communicable language first in 2001. The emphasis was placed on the national spectrum in that communication would be made easier,” said the headmaster of Umvukwesi, Andrew Taruvinga.
“We thought that the language might be of use, in case the children might find themselves in Ndebele-speaking regions, thus they will be able to apply the basics of the language,” he added.
Taruvinga said the whole school, which comprises more than 450 pupils, was now able to read and write isiNdebele.
To test his assertion, the headmaster took us to a Grade One class where two pupils picked at random showed their new language skill.
“Igama lami nguRopafadzo Mukwati, ngivela emaphandleni eShamva (My name is Ropafadzo Mukwati, I come from Shamva),” said a seven-year-old.
“Namhla kuyatshisa, engxenye izulu lingana (Today it is hot, maybe it will rain),” added another seven-year-old boy who wanted to show his proficiency in the language.
Taruvinga is proud of the legacy his school is creating.
He said: “Impressed by the enthusiasm displayed by the kids, the Ndebele community in the surrounding areas have come en masse to help in the setting and moderation of the subject.
“The problem was that supervisors from the district and the province are Shona speakers who were hitting a brick wall in as far as supervision of the subject is concerned viz-a-vis the curricula and the syllabi.”
Taruvinga said they had now set their target on grasping the concept before the first class can sit the Grade Seven national examinations in the not-too-distant future.
Taruvinga said the other major obstacle they were facing was the shortage of Ndebele teaching resources.
“The whole school of more than 12 classes is being catered for by only two teachers who are finding it hard to cope with the increasing demands of the subject,” he said.
Taruvinga added that the children are showing a lot of excitement and enthusiasm about the subject.
“It’s amazing that you find the pupils using the Ndebele language everywhere, whether it’s on the playing fields or in the school corridors. They are now just proud of the language,” he said.
Nancy Mudiwa, the District Education Officer for the Mvurwi area, concurred with the headmaster on the need to augment the available resources.
“Emphasis should be put on widening the obtaining resource base like increasing Ndebele teaching staff and buying more textbooks before the subject can be transformed from being communicable to examinable,” she said.
Mudiwa said more schools in the region were now clamouring for the subject after witnessing the successful Umvukwesi Primary School pilot project.
“Issues pertaining to the sound administration of the subject must first be addressed before the subject can be offered to other schools,” she said.
Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Raymond Majongwe said the idea was a brilliant move which must be applauded by all.
“I would want to believe that pupils must be able to converse in all the recognised languages in this country so that we may become one,” he said.
“We should not become foreign in our land and I would want to pray for a situation where Tonga is taught in Manicaland, Kalanga in Masvingo and Venda in Mashonaland,” said Majongwe.
Walter Vengesai, a linguistics expert formerly with the Midlands State University, said students from Mashonaland Central should be applauded for piloting the Ndebele project as language plays a significant role in unifying a nation.
He said: “Language is a major vehicle for fomenting conflicts or uniting people all over the world. A considerable number of tribal and genocidal conflicts have been caused by differences mainly in language, so the universality of language plays a significant role in uniting people.
“Language difference has been used by merchants of tribalism as a means of identifying the perceived enemy, so the future generation has actually shamed those who harboured fuelling tribal conflicts in future as it will be difficult to identify enemies or foes through the use of language.”
Labels: MDC TRIBALISM, NDEBELE, TRIBALISM
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REASON WAFAWAROVA: The politics of singular identity
Thursday, 06 October 2011 00:00
Reason Wafawarova
In his book "Liberty in the Age of Terror" AC Grayling argues that generally, the fewer identities people acknowledge themselves as having, the less free they are. He gives as a classical example the issue of religious identity, arguing that the more individuals identify with their religion, and submit themselves to the way of life, relationships and routines it prescribes, the less individual, free and open they are.
An individual wearing some form of religious attire presents an overriding singular identity to those that see him, sometimes demanding to be treated by others chiefly if not exclusively in terms of it. It is like the revered career politician wearing the know it all look that demands from all others to be treated chiefly as an untouchable Chef, to borrow from the Communist lingo.
We can forget the questionable fact that such people try to dictate to others how those others ought to treat them, focusing on the more disturbing reality that these people lay claim to a manufactured value that they expect others to automatically accord them.
The treatment we give to others must of course start on the basis of mutual respect, as invited by common humanity. Thereafter we base our treatment of others as determined by the worth of those others as human individuals, meaning they ought to earn our respect.
It is important for political activists in Zimbabwe to know that the identity of Zimbabwean individuals is far wider than buying a membership card to a political party.
Beyond this symbolic act of belonging to a political organisation an individual can be a mother, a father, a professional, a sports person, a writer, a good friend, a daughter, a son - variously rolled into one. Such an individual has interests, experience and insights so valuable to others in so many ways.
It is this diversity of identities that make it easier to fulfil human potential, something denied by imprisonment in a single overriding identity, regardless of whether this imprisonment is imposed or chosen.
Intolerance, extremism, fascism, racism, political violence and religious fanaticism are all a result of the politics of singular identity. For Zimbabweans the Zanu-PF and MDC labels are so monolithic and narrow that they sometimes even override the collective identity of Zimbabweanhood, making so many people fail to see the value of diversity as they seek to fanatically defend entrenched political positions even to the point of absolute irrationality.
We will die for Zanu-PF or we will die for the MDC such would fanatically quip, if they are not saying they will kill for their parties. This writer resides in the West and is confronted daily by monolithic critics who accuse him of failure to behave like a Westerner, or at least to appreciate the goodness of Western life by not criticising imperialism, itself seen as the strength behind Western economies.
For criticising Western policies, this writer is often accused of living by limited self-chosen identities - preferring to partake of the West's wealth but failing to accept its imperial vision of what makes for the good that the West is seen to be. The logic says one is a hypocrite if they attack imperialism while earning imperialistic dollars. In a way the logic sounds perfectly reasonable, that is before one realises that it makes perfect sense to fight imperialism from where it originates.
This writer believes multiculturalism and respect for individual liberties must include the room for divergent views even on what the West views as its core values, even its critical interests.
The West cannot deny that its values and culture has immensely contributed to present day discontent in the world, through which humanity has been divided within itself, mainly through chosen differences of ideology, religion, politics, and economic self-interests; not that these are wholly separate aspects.
Race and ethnicity do play a part too, regardless that they are no matters of choice. Each time race and ethnicity become a source of division between people the schism is exacerbated by political and sometimes religious differences. We have politicians in Zimbabwe who cover up for their lack of political clout by waving the ethnicity card to try and ramp up emotions among unsuspecting people who for many reasons may be living under the singular identity of belonging to a particular tribe or even totem. Before the European colonial settlers came to Zimbabwe, the Nguni ethnic group settled in parts of Zimbabwe through conquest in many of the cases.
There are some descendants of those who were victims of the Nguni conquest wars who today want to masquerade as the custodians of all Shona memory when they want to play the politics of entitlement or retribution. Equally there are those of Nguni descent who today want to hold the whole country to ransom by ever claiming that the numerically superior Shonas are marginalising them, and that the mid-eighties government-rebel conflict was a collective Shona onslaught on the Ndebele people. It appears that the saddest parts of this conflict are always remembered better at political rallies than they are remembered in the hearts of those who were directly affected by the dreadful events of the conflict.
The truth of the matter is that the Shona and Ndebele are not two contrasting values at all; neither are they two separate identities. Two languages yes, but beyond that there is irreversible mixture and even oneness.
That is precisely why the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo was called Father Zimbabwe. He was not a singular identity person but a true nationalist. Those seeking to pursue separatism in the name of ethnicity are simply victims of the politics of singular identity and they live under the imprisonment of a single overriding identity.
The biggest problem of debates of this nature is that they engage only those who can read and think, and are unlikely to penetrate to the constituencies of ignorance and anger where their lessons are badly needed.
The political goons engaging continually in political violence from across the political divide are most unlikely to read this piece, and if they tried, they are unlikely to comprehend it anyway.
The same goes for the emotive ethnic fanatics masquerading as custodians of ethnic cultures they hardly know anything about. Sadly a significant chunk of our politicians hails from the community of ignorance and anger, and we elected them to be nothing but ignorant and angry in Parliament. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen noted that there is far more wrong with the simplistic division into two identities, adding that describing others, or thinking of oneself in terms of "a choiceless singularity of human identity" is the mistake and the danger which not only diminishes individuals, but fuels the flames of conflict between them. The point is very clear here. A person is not one thing, a Shona or a Ndebele only, a Zimbabwean or a South African only - but many things: a parent, a teacher, a woman, a man, a Christian, a Muslim, a member of a political party, a husband, a wife, and thus a multiple and overlapping complex being whom the politics of singular identity can reduce to a mere political party member, a Christian, or squashing many people to the narrow identity of being a Ndebele or a Shona, even limiting some to mere totem identity.
The tendency to overlook the many identities a human being has in favour of a single identity is the favourite strategy of power politicians. In the West the power politician tries hard to limit the identity of the Westerner to that civilised and envied individual, always targeted by terror-possessed barbarians from the Arab world or some other so chosen a place.
In Africa, the African is limited by the power politician to the identity of the traditionally exploited and oppressed, always threatened by monsters from powerful foreign countries, never really capable of asserting himself, let alone sustaining or developing himself.
But do we not have the identity of victors too as Africans? Did we not collapse colonial empires all by our own determination and resolve? Are we not capable of defending ourselves and asserting ourselves in this global world?
The tendency to overlook many identities is animating more and more dangerous divisions as attitudes harden between feuding parties. This is precisely why Zimbabwe has a polarised political set up. Reason Wafawarova cannot walk the streets of Harare with Nelson Chamisa his homeboy without risking the questioning of the politician's sincerity by the supporters of his political party, or the questioning of Wafawarova's patriotism by those who identify with him on the side of Zimbabwe's revolutionary history.
But surely there is a lot more to Wafawarova the writer and to Chamisa the politician. This is not an attack on the movements whose followers adopt the identity that the movements offer. Rather this is an expansion of that sense of belonging, a removal of the imprisonment brought about by the politics of singular identity.
When this writer happened to sit next to Minister Jameson Timba on one of the July 2010 nights at a club frequented by Zimbabwean journalists, he cherished so much the idea of such close proximity to a man coming from the corridors of power.
Professor Lovemore Madhuku and Minister Patrick Chinamasa were presenting their papers on the Constitution making process that night.
This writer's joy was short lived as the Minister suddenly burst into harsh whispers of abrasive insults, telling this writer how much he hated this writer's column in The Herald, how much he hated the writer of that column and his person, how much he hated President Mugabe for "hiring fools like you," and so on and so on, including threats of the "coming day of justice at The Hague".
This writer could see that the Honourable Minister was holding a beer and was also chain smoking, but it was now confusing to tell if the man was acting under the influence of alcohol or that of plain insanity.
The unhappy truth is that the actors most responsible for insisting on singular identities in Zimbabwe are the politicians, and it is sad that the politics they peddle are the main cause of polarity, intolerance and political violence. In our many and diverse identities we are freer people, happier people, and we will realise our potential a lot more. Zimbabweans should not and cannot be reduced to monolithic blocs of mere political party supporters at the disposal of power-mongering politicians. Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!
* Reason Wafawarova is a political writer based in Australia.
Labels: MDC TRIBALISM, REASON WAFAWAROVA
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Tribal ‘warfare’ erupts in MDC-T
Posted by By Our reporter at 2 October, at 16 : 18 PM
AN acrimonious tribal war has erupted within the MDC-T following party leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s decision to replace the late Public Service Minister Professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro with Kuwadzana House of Assembly member Lucia Matibenga, it has been established.
Senior party officials in Matabeleland have expressed reservations over the decision, saying the Cabinet post should have been allotted to a candidate in the region. Their preferred successor is Hwange Central legislator Brian Tshuma.
The situation is said to have left Tsvangirai caught between a rock and a hard place as he seeks to gain support in different regions, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and the party’s women’s assembly.
Sources in the MDC-T standing committee — which is the party’s highest decision-making body — said the Prime Minister recommended to President Mugabe Matibenga as the successor to Prof Mukonoweshuro, who died of lung cancer in August.
It is understood the Office of the President rejected a letter penned by Tsvangirai, saying the Prime Minister’s Office has not followed the correct procedure.
The sources said top MDC-T officials in Matabeleland were complaining their leader “does not take them seriously” when senior appointments are made.
They said leaders in the region were backing Tshuma to become the next Public Service minister, arguing that Matabeleland’s allotment of Cabinet posts was reduced in last year’s MDC-T reshuffle.
Nkulumane House of Assembly member Thamsanqa Mahlangu was dropped from the position of Deputy Minister of Youth, Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment.
He was replaced by his Masvingo Central counterpart, Tongai Matutu.
Fidelis Mhashu and Engineer Elias Mudzuri were also dropped.
The remaining MDC-T Cabinet members from Matabeleland are Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe, Public Works Minister Joel Gabuza, Water Resources and Infrastructural Development Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo and State Enterprises and Parastatals Minister Gorden Moyo.
“The party is being held to ransom by a few individuals.
“Matibenga was touted for the Masvingo governorship which never came,” said a source.
“Today, she is being allocated yet another position. After all, she is a Harare MP and there are too many ministers from that province.
“When Mahlangu was dropped, he was replaced by an MP from Masvingo — Tongai Matutu — and this was wrong.
“However, this can be corrected through replacing Prof Mukonoweshuro, who was from Masvingo province, with someone from our region.”
The source added that Matabeleland party members would be forced to defect to Professor Welshman Ncube’s formation if their concerns were not addressed.
A Bulawayo legislator said: “This tribalism must stop or the party will be finished.”
The lobby for Ms Matibenga is reportedly being spearheaded by the ZCTU.
In October 2007, she was unceremoniously replaced by Home Affairs co-Minister Theresa Makone as women’s assembly boss.
This did not go down well with the ZCTU which views Matibenga, who is its fifth vice-president, as their deployment into the party.
The Prime Minister reportedly promised to correct this “anomaly” by ensuring she got a Government position.
Senior ZCTU officials are said to have cornered him again on the sidelines of its congress in August this year and asked him to honour his promise.
A women’s assembly faction aligned to Matibenga has also pushed Tsvangirai to accord her an influential position.
Contacted for comment, Matibenga said: “I can confirm that I might be the replacement for Prof Mukonoweshuro.
“In fact, I can disclose to you that I had a meeting with the Prime Minister and he briefed me about my deployment to that post,” she said.
“I have been in this struggle for too long and I think it’s now time I take up a top post like any other person who deserves it.” – TSM/TZG
Labels: MDC TRIBALISM, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI
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Zimbabwe's forgotten minorities
11/08/2011 00:00:00
by Rejoice Ngwenya
OPPONENTS of liberal democracy and purveyors of ethnic hatred have of late accused hitherto unknown firebrand educationist Dominic Muntanga of attempting to nurture the mentality of rebellion.
He has reignited the long-held debate of politics of minority exclusion in Zimbabwe. Across the border, Jacob Zuma is quoted by the Mail&Guardian to have advised the traditional affairs department to process a National Traditional Affairs Bill providing for “the recognition of Khoisan communities, leaders and councils”.
Muntanga hails from what narrow socio-political minds term the “minority” tribe of Tonga people, nestled in the humid jungles of the Zambezi Valley in Northern Zimbabwe.
He recently publicly roasted President Robert Mugabe for presiding over the political demise of his late father and perpetuating the culture of neglect of the Tonga people. The debate of “minority groups” comes at the ideal time when we Zimbabweans are weighing options for a new constitutional order that promotes and protects the interests of previously “neglected ethnic, tribal and behavioural groups” (NETBGs).
Mugabe and Zanu PF have a long history of misconceptions about NETBGs, mainly founded on their suspicions of political competition by the late Joshua Nkomo’s PF Zapu party.
In my world, the best constitution is one that protects and promotes NETBGs, because whenever it does not, human conflict is inevitable. NETBGs have always something to offer. The United States has a President derived from one such group.
Zimbabwe’s leading workers, entrepreneurs and innovators are from NETBGs.
There are no official records, but at one time, farming and mining — the leading contributors to Zimbabwe’s GDP — were hosting the largest chunk of NETBG employees.
It is then the fear of socio-political domination that made Zanu PF annihilate organised commercial farming, rendering millions of workers and dependants homeless.
Engineering companies, mines and retails shops attract the attention of NETBGs. Here I mean Greeks, Jews, Indians, Mixed Race Africans and Europeans.
Of late, Zanu PF corporate occupation hitman Saviour Kasukuwere has trailed his guns of plunder towards them.
He claims some NETBGs are reluctant to “share” their wealth with “indigenous Zimbabweans”.
South Africa’s world-renowned liberal constitution recognises gays and lesbians as “official” NETBGs, much to the chagrin of conservative Zimbabweans.
These include Zanu PF and Christian fundamentalists who want to play God.
I am a progressive Christian who knows that politics and pulpits are patronised by alcoholics, adulterers, marital cheats, money launderers and gamblers.
That’s fine with me because the Jewish prophet and founder of the Christian faith invited “sinners” into his church (“Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden” etc).
He also accepted his political role as the King of the Jews (who probably were oppressed by the Romans then).
What then this means — at least to me — selective application of constitutional recognition of NETBGs — especially by so-called Christians — is a travesty of (constitutional) justice.
The phobia against NETBGs in Zimbabwe has no historical justification. Khoisan, like our own “local” Bushmen, were hounded out of Zimbabwe by industrialisation.
Not all “whites and Indians” were part of the much-hated Pioneer Column that “took our land”. It is not all of us Ndebeles (Zulus, Vendas, Tongas, Suthus, Shanganis) who “raided Karangas and Zezurus to plunder their cattle and women” as portrayed by Zanu PF “historians” Aeneas Chigwedere and Vimbai Chivaura.
In fact, NETBGs have contributed to Zimbabwe’s immense socio-cultural diversity, if not political emancipation. Liberal Europeans like Garfield Todd — though part of the Rhodesian Empire — constantly promoted recognition of black political rights.
Africans of Mixed Race (unfairly referred to as “coloureds”, whatever that means since every human being has a skin colour) were critical components of Zanla and Zipra’s chains of military command.
And so South Africa’s progressive — actually liberal — recognition of NETBGs must be hailed as another giant step towards African constitutional revolution which Zimbabwe — particularly Zanu PF and MDC-T — should learn from.
I “smuggle” Morgan Tsvangirai’s political party here because he has of late been quoted as accusing Welshman Ncube of heading a regional (another euphemism for Ndebele) party.
Considering that Roy Bennett is the chief finance officer of MDC-T, that party’s attitude towards NETBGs must change before Tsvangirai presents his presidential credentials in 2012.
Rejoice Ngwenya is a social commentator. This article was originally published in NewsDay
Labels: MDC TRIBALISM, SAN PEOPLE
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COMMENT - The MDC is covering up their tribalism ahead of the 2011 elections.
United Zimbabwe stands a better chance
08/08/2011 00:00:00
by Lovemore Fuyane
NATION-BUILDING in Zimbabwe against a background of obvious ethnic diversity and the current reverberations about secession has become a generational challenge.
But whereas some -- driven to the edges of despair by an uneven share of the national cake -- would like to carve up the country based on ethnic lines, I am in the constituency that supports big country configurations. Indeed, this is the way that most of the world is going.
The world’s most successful and biggest economies exist in large countries or large blocs in various permutations and all with different levels of autonomy within them. What is key, however, in each of these successful large countries is the existence of the basic building blocks of self determination for the various ethnic groups.
The European Union was created out of the necessity of Europe to be more competitive against the United States of America, itself a virtual continent. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was at one stage one of the world’s top two super powers. India and China are in fact virtual continents.
At a recent conference, a logistics expert on India described a scenario where you could send a truck from the south of India all the way up to the north and he would go through various boarder regions, complete different sets of paperwork and not be able to speak any of the languages along the way. China too couldn’t be more diverse, from the state of Guangzhou all the way to Mongolia, the country is really a combination of multiple territories and sub ethnicities.
The big country effect gives you both economies of scale on the production and supply side as well as the availability of bigger markets. In China’s case, the world is finding it almost impossible to compete with their cost advantage owing to sheer size. Just 1% market share in virtually any sector in China makes you a multimillion dollar enterprise. Big countries or blocs are also able to enjoy much more favourable trade terms.
Much as one would like to congratulate the newly created state of South Sudan, the reality of it is that in order for their oilfields to yield value and achieve true autonomy for them, they will eventually have to spend billions on building an alternative route to the export market presumably through a friendly neighbouring state. Currently, their only outlet is via an already established pipeline through their now hostile neighbour Sudan (North). Quite obviously, given the nature of the relations between them, this arrangement is unlikely to last. These are the realities of the small country effect, it adds cost.
This brings me to Zimbabwe. A united Zimbabwe, if correctly led politically and economically, presents huge opportunities. However, the foundations upon which we have tried to create this united country are problematic. We have tried to create a forced homogenous society and this breeds resentment and ethnic tension which could potentially lead to breaking-up much like the USSR and Sudan did, and subsequently the loss of big country advantages.
At the very least, continued tensions are counter-productive. Indeed this is one of the biggest mistakes the architects of post-independence Zimbabwe have made over the last 31 years. This is the exact same challenge Nigeria faces.
What then is an artificially homogenous society? In my view, this is a society that seeks to equate individuals but to such an extent that you almost deny the existence of unique ethnic groupings. In such societies, you extrapolate the equality of the rights of individuals to virtually all facets of life including the opportunity to access state resources at the expense of groups, these are societies governed by the Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest.
The statistical implication here is obvious: those with the numerical advantage are already one up at the starting blocks and this is where Zimbabwe is headed.
How many people know that we have such ethnic groups as the Bocha (to which the late Cde Moven Mahachi belonged), Shangaan (late Vice President Cde Msika), Nambya (the distinguished late Justice Sansole), ChiShangwe and TjiKalanga to which the late nationalist Dr Joshua Nkomo, Honourable Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo and Deputy Prime Minister Khupe belong? Who has ever heard of the words Lilima, Tavara, Hungwe, TshiVenda or Tonga? I bet very few of the present generation of Zimbabweans have.
I recently met a well educated young man who thought he was Tonga and by virtue of his surname I actually corrected him and told him he was in fact probably Nambya. He didn’t even know this himself.
The kind of Zimbabwe we have set about building over the last 31 years has all but endangered these once proud groupings. We have falsely believed that the less we emphasise on the existence of these groups, the more united we would be and yet ironically this is exactly what breeds resentment and disharmony. We simply are not either Shona or Ndebele, Zimbabwe is a natural rainbow nation.
Why does such ethnic discontent begin in Matabeleland? Well apart from the obvious tensions that have their roots in the 1980s ZAPU/ZANU contests and the subsequent marginalisation of the region, it is home to quite possibly the most ethnically diverse population with no less than 15 ethnic groups. Yes there are Sothos in Zimbabwe too and the current type of homogenous state we are building will impact on a region such as Matabeleland more than most.
Contrary to the commonly-held belief that the majority of the people in Matabeleland are descendants of Ngunis, it simply has the largest number of minority groups. For whatever reason, it’s Zimbabwe’s melting pot.
Self determination is defined as a fundamental human right, expressed in Art. 1 of the United Nations Charter, and in Art.1 of each of the two main international human rights instruments: the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Both covenants state that: “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
Put simply, this is a right of a people rather than states or mere individuals. The opposite of this equates to the dictionary definition of “genocide” and the reader is free to look this up for themselves lest I be accused of being alarmist. Indeed genocide goes beyond how we’ve come to understand it in terms of the physical impact of military conflict on the innocent.
Quite the opposite to Zimbabwe has happened in neighboring South Africa which attained majority rule in 1994 or 14 years after us. That country’s leaders very quickly acknowledged the multiplicity of ethnicities in their country and duly defined it as a rainbow nation and subsequent to that declared what then appeared as an insane number of 14 official languages.
Further to that, they also promulgated various pieces of legislation aimed at ensuring that there is economic empowerment of all ethnic groups taking into account local demographics. To date, the government owned broadcaster runs radio stations covering virtually all the country’s indigenous languages.
Democratic South African has yielded Zulu capitalists, Xhosa capitalists, and Venda capitalists, curricula in all these languages is available through the schooling system and not all policemen greet you in Zulu simply because the current president is Zulu.
Zimbabwe’s leadership needs to wake up to the need to return to the drawing board and begin to incorporate concrete actions aimed at promoting the multi ethnic nature of Zimbabwean society.
We need to reopen ethnic language radio stations, and not flood Binga Hospital with Ndebele and Shona-speaking nurses and doctors. Where possible, locals must not always be greeted in Shona at roadblocks in Gwanda. We need to expand the number of languages taught in schools and institute policies of affirmative action and economic empowerment, taking into account local demographics. We must get to a situation where Hwange Colliery has at least one Nambya member of the executive team, it is after all located in the land of Chief Hwange and Chief Nekatambe. These are the things that bring about true unity and cohesion.
Labels: MDC, MDC TRIBALISM, SECESSION
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MDC-T violence during Sadc summit in SA
Posted by By Our reporter at 12 June, at 04 : 43 AM
THE MDC-T’s culture of violence took centre stage here yesterday morning ahead of the extraordinary Sadc Summit on Zimbabwe and Madagascar that began last night, severely embarrassing the MDC-T leadership. Summit deliberations were adjourned at around 10pm last night with only Madagascar having been discussed. Zimbabwe will be discussed after the Tripartite Comesa-EAC-Sadc summit today.
Yesterday’s demonstration, which was meant to get Sadc leaders to press President Mugabe to postpone elections likely to be held later this year or early next year on account of alleged State-sanctioned violence, backfired spectacularly when the accusers turned villains.
The protest march, organised by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition under the banner of the Zimbabwe Civil Society Initiative, degenerated into chaos just a stone’s throw from the Sandton Convention Centre when the leaders of the disparate opposition groups disagreed on both the content and purpose of the demonstration culminating in fistfights that forced police here to move in to disperse them.
The demonstration, that lasted no more than 20 minutes, brought together the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, MDC-T activists, the flag-burning Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF), and Zapu.
Fights soon broke out between MDC-T activists and the civil society activists with MLF members tearing and burning of MDC-T T-shirts and flags.
A report by Bulawayo24 website read: “When the program director resumed by calling upon the leaders of the Civic society to address the demonstrators, MLF broke out with a song accusing the Zimbabwe Crisis Coalition of tribalism as out of 11 people called up front only one was Ndebele speaking. Anger expressed by MLF was out of the ordinary and seemed like it will turn into unbearable violence.”
“MLF Youth chairperson Dumie Ngwenya said ‘the Zimbabwe Crisis Coalition is arousing the warrior within us and if they continue like this we will unleash something they will never be able to handle’,” added the report.
Running battles ensued that forced the police to intervene.
In an interview soon after the abortive demo, Dhewa Mavhinga of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition tried to play down the chaotic scenes, saying their march had been affected by “violence exported (sic) from Zimbabwe”.
“I want to set the record straight that as Zimbabwe Civil Society Groups we had a successful march to push forward our message. After the march we had a short rally before two drunken youths came to disrupt proceedings. About a thousand people attended the march . . . The police intervened to stop the skirmishes.’”
The scores of demonstrators had alighted from four buses close to the Convention Centre.
Mavhinga said they had completed their protests but could not explain why demonstrations intended to put a message across to Sadc leaders had “ended” before the leaders even convened the summit.
“Our objective was to get a message to the leaders of Sadc. There were people there (at the demonstration) to receive our message plus we are talking to you guys in the media,” he quipped.
However, a member of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition who travelled from Harare said there was no love lost in the NGO ranks.
However, two white girls —Samantha Evans and Charlotte Stevenson who said they were from a Scottish NGO and had flown into South Africa for the protests — said the demonstrations broke down after fights erupted among the demonstrators.
“People just began fighting and the police broke up the demonstration, we are going to compile a report to forward to our bosses back home,” said Samantha who, like her colleague Charlotte, was holding a banner inscribed: “President Zuma is right to INSIST on free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.”
Early last week MDC-T activists viciously assaulted two senior Zanu-PF Johannesburg district officials at a Press conference organised by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.
Zanu-PF Johannesburg district chairperson Ndabezinhle Nyoni and political commissar Abednego Nyoni were beaten up by MDC-T activists at Devonshire Hotel.
A report was filed at Hillbrow Police Station while the pair is receiving medical attention after sustaining varying degrees of injuries.
Like other Zimbabweans living in Johannesburg, the Zanu-PF officials had attended the Press conference on political developments at home.
The theme of the conference was “Sadc: Set Out Clear, Time-Bound and Enforceable Zimbabwe Elections Roadmap” and meant to tell the world that conditions were not conducive for the holding of elections.
On realising the presence of Ndabezinhle and Abednego, the rowdy MDC-T activists became unsettled, as any false claims they would make on Zimbabwe would not go unchallenged.
They then pounced on the pair and chucked them out of the Press conference.
This was not the first time that MDC-T activists in Johannesburg had attacked Zanu-PF officials and supporters.#
Last month, scores of Zanu-PF supporters sustained serious injuries after MDC-T activists assaulted them during an anti-sanctions march here.
Again the matter was reported to the police but no arrests have been made as yet. There is a culture of violence within the MDC-T, whose youths declared an open season against their Zanu-PF counterparts.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition was demanding the deferment of elections when Zanu-PF and MDC negotiators have already agreed on a road-map.
The Secretary for Sadc Affairs, Advocate Eureka Ndhlovu, noted that the intra-party violence confirms the statement by the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) which apportions blame to political parties for the sporadic and isolated acts of violence in Zimbabwe.
The Herald/TZG
Labels: CRISIS IN ZIMBABWE COALITION, MDC TRIBALISM, MDC VIOLENCE, POLITICAL VIOLENCE, SADC
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Myth about development of Matabeleland
Sunday, 15 May 2011 00:00 Opinion
By Cain Mathema
A myth has been created by many people in Matabeleland, by Western diplomats and their governments, by political parties (many of which are not Zimbabwean really even if they may be led by Zimbabweans and their membership is made up of mostly black Zimbabweans, these parties include MDC-T, MDC, MDC 99, Zapu-Dabengwa and Zapu-Madlela-Siwela) and by the so-called non-governmental organisations like Bulawayo Agenda.
They are not NGOs because they are created and funded by Western governments, they are departments in government ministries of the United States, Britain, France and other Western governments and Western imperialist billionaires like George Soros. This is why these NGOs have so much money to throw all over the place on individual leaders, employees and silly conferences. Where do they get the money from? Can they please tell us that? No black person in Zimbabwe has enough money to create and fund the activities of the Bulawayo Agenda and WOZA, and they have never told us where they get their funds from and who formed them.
These organisations have nothing to do with black citizens of Zimbabwe, and Bulawayo in particular, owning and controlling the economy of this country and Bulawayo. These so-called NGOs, funded by white supremacists, are led by black pikininis who are given large fat salaries.
The myth we are talking about here is that His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Head of Government and Commander-In-Chief of the Defence Forces, Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe, has neglected development in Matabeleland (that is Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South and Bulawayo).
This myth has been going on especially since the late 1990s. The myth never existed before then. The late 1990s saw a lot of landmark developments and events taking place in the country and outside, e.g.
(a) The passing on of our beloved Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo (Father Zimbabwe, non-tribalist from the beginning to the end, Chibwechitedza), this made some people, especially our detractors, say his passing on left a vacuum in the leadership of the Ndebele people and that Ndebeles had no leader any more. But Joshua Nkomo, as we all know, was never a “Ndebele leader”. He was the leader of Zimbabwe, at one time with our President Robert Mugabe as his Secretary for Publicity and Information.
(b) The end of the first 10 years of the Lancaster House Constitutional Agreements, part of which said that land redistribution in Zimbabwe would be carried out using the “willing-seller willing-buyer” principle during the first 10 years of independence.
(c) The passing of land legislation that clearly showed the way forward (the way that pleased King Mzilikazi, King Lobengula, Somhlolo Mathema, Mhabahaba Mkhwananzi, Maqhekeni Sithole, Mbiko Masuku, Mkhithika Thebe, Mashayamombe, Gutu, Mapondera, Whinya, Dombodzvuku, Mukombwe, Dliso Mathema, Queen Lozikeyi, Mkwati Ncube, Mbuya Nehanda, Kaguvi, Negondo, Mtshane Khumalo and Mncumbatha Khumalo) on the issue at the expiry of the first 10 years of independent Zimbabwe.
(d) The coming to power in Britain of Tony Blair and his New Labour Party; his country colonised us, turned us into colonial slaves, murdered our people, raped our mothers and sisters, and plundered our resources and worked with the Christian missionaries like Charles Helm and John Moffat (son of Robert Moffat and brother-in-law to David Livingstone) of the London Missionary Society (LMS), Fr Prestage of the Roman Catholic Church, Bishop Knight-Bruce of the Anglican Church and Shimmin of the Wesleyan Methodist Church to bludgeon us blacks psychologically in order for us to forget ourselves and our past when we were independent politically and economically since time immemorial; Blair’s party went out of its way to show that it was an imperialist agent party par excellence not only in Zimbabwe but all over the world, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan where its troops slaughtered citizens en masse and executed Saddam Hussein on false charges, and Blair says he feels good about it even after acknowledging that Saddam Hussein was executed on false charges, he even says at one time he considered invading Zimbabwe to remove President Mugabe and Zanu-PF from power, again for nothing but to make sure that Zimbabwe remains a British neo-colony with the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai being choir boys and girls in charge of the country on behalf of British capital; but, thanks to Sadc, Blair failed in his murderous schemes on Zimbabwe; and
(e) The formation of the sell-out MDC party by the Westminster Foundation in London, a fund jointly run by the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democratic Party, which is financed jointly by the British intelligence services and the companies of the British ruling class, companies that include Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered and 400 other British companies still operating in Zimbabwe, companies that support the illegal sanctions, companies that colonised us under the leadership of the British South Africa Company of Cecil John Rhodes.
Before the 1990s, President Mugabe used to be received as a statesman everywhere in Western Europe and in the USA, he even was awarded all sorts of doctorates by all sorts of universities in these countries. In hindsight, one is but forced to say that the West was trying to pamper Cde Mugabe, they were hoping to spoil Cde Mugabe so that he forgot the ultimate goal of the liberation struggle — that is, to achieve both economic and political independence. When the West realised that the man still continued with the liberation agenda, it began to demonise him, it began to make a rogue out of him and a hater of Ndebeles. But President Mugabe refused to be pampered; he refused to forget what King Mzilikazi, King Lobengula, Chief Negomo, Chief Mashayamombe, Chief Gutu, Chief Mutasa, Chief Mapondera, Chief Sigombe Mathema and Chief Rekayi Tangwena stood for —- genuine independence for the country, nothing more, nothing less.
In addition to demonising the President, the West also imposed the murderous illegal sanctions and Zidera co-authored with the MDC boys and girls and these have led to Mpilo Hospital being a ghost of what it used to be, even Bulawayo’s factories have become ghost factories. That is their democracy — “we will kill you and starve you until you see the light of regime change!”. In other words, the change that the MDC parties stand for is to go back to the days when blacks were slaves of the British and their white settlers in the country, the days when the British and the white settlers created tribalism as a tool for divide-in-order-to-rule.
When they invaded the country, they said they had done so in order to “liberate the Shonas from the Matabele; and today they are saying they are on a crusade to “liberate” the Ndebeles from the Shonas! Hence the anti-Shona sentiments by the NGOs and political parties in what is referred to as Matabeleland, a creation of Rhodes and Jameson and the whole British ruling class for the purpose of divide-in-order-to-rule. If President Robert Mugabe were part of this scheme, he would not be accused of suppressing development in Matabeleland, an accusation they never labelled him with until they saw that the man would never veer off Joshua Nkomo’s path, the path of the Mambos.
But what is a myth anyway?
According to the basic thesaurus, a myth is a fable, legend, saga, fairy tale, fairy story, allegory, parable, falsehood, fiction, illusion, invention, fabrication and an untruth. And the Macmillan English Dictionary For Advanced Learners (International Student Edition), says a myth is something that people wrongly believe to be true. A myth can also be understood as a simple way of describing what is happening in the world, that is, in natural and social phenomena. A simple way of describing natural and social phenomena is an uninformed, unresearched way of explaining the world — it is like saying the sun rotates around earth, or so and so was struck by lightning because so and so bewitched him/her, or because the gods wanted it so. Eventually, however, such a way of explaining the world, especially to the unlearned and less travelled, becomes the truth, a truth that is nothing but falsehoods, manipulation and exaggerations, a truth which is no truth at all.
To say that President Robert Mugabe has not given enough attention to and enough resources for the development of Matabeleland can be best described as a myth, that is, falsehoods that obviously (because they are falsehoods) have no evidence but sweeping statements of people who have gone mad with trying to keep Zimbabwe a neo-colony. The hysterical accusations levelled against President Mugabe have no statistics, no data, no comparative information whatsoever. They are just sweeping, hallucinatory misinformation statements that are meant to hoodwink people who may not have enough experience of what has happened in other parts of the country, they are hallucinatory statements based on Jameson’s map of dividing the country along the Munyati River into Matabeleland and Mashonaland, a boundary resoundingly rejected by King Lobengula because such a boundary never existed even before Mzilikazi ever came to this country in 1839.
I am writing here as a Nguni, as a Mkhwananzi, as Jama, as iNqama, iBhukudwane whose great-great-grandfather was Somhlolo Mathema , the commander of the Inqama Regiment (Inqam’elophondo) all the way from Zululand with commander Mzilikazi Khumalo (before he was installed as king) assisted by Mncumbatha Khumalo, Mbungwana Matshazi, Mhabahaba Mkhwananzi, Mkhithika Thebe and Maqhekeni Sithole, among others, to found one of the greatest nations in the world, the Ndebele nation, Umthwakazi (“the huge bushman” because by 1860 most of the Ndebele, 60% percent of them, were non-Nguni and non-Suthu people by descent, they were mainly Shona people). We the Ngunis of Mzilikazi, built a nation by bringing together several tribes, the biggest segment of which was Shona — the Moyos, Nkomos, Tshumas, Mpofus, Gumbos, Sibandas, etc.
We could not build such a nation if we were tribalists, if we went about telling people that they were inferior. Because of this, I cannot be a tribalist, I remain a true Nguni of Mzilikazi, a nation builder by bringing all our people together regardless of tribal descent. And our boundaries went beyond Mazowe, up to Mutare, up to the Kalahari Desert — the Munyati River boundary was drawn by Rhodes and Jameson. I therefore say: SHAME ON THOSE WHO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS FROM RHODES AND JAMESON!
The Shonas before us, the Kalangas before us, the Tongas before us, the Suthus before us, the Vendas before us and the San people before us believed in and practised non-tribalism and they owned and ruled the country from the Kalahari Desert up to the Indian Ocean, a multi-ethnic country. Any genuine Nguni therefore cannot be a tribalist, cannot be influenced by Rhodes’ ideology of divide-and-rule. Any genuine Nguni can only do things according to Mzilikazi, Lobengula, Ngungunyana of Gaza, nation builders and rejecters and fighters of colonialism, Pan Africanists through and through; and this goes for Dumbudzvuku the founder of the Rozvi Empire and all the Mwenemutapas before and contemporary to him.
In this discourse we will look at examples of what has happened in terms of development in the last 30 years (since 1980) in Tsholotsho (which is in Matabeleland North), that is, development in five broad subject areas — education, health, transport and roads, water and irrigation and electricity supply. We will also have a word or two on development in Bulawayo. This will be done to show what a myth it is for anyone to say that President Robert Mugabe has neglected Matabeleland. We believe in evidence, if you cannot prove what you say or preach about, please shut up because we are really tired of superstitions, because superstitions are beliefs in and practices about unproven things that are creations of the human mind after it has failed to understand and prove why these things happen the way they do.
Historical Background
The first African Reserves (pieces of land that the British colonisers created for Africans displaced by force from their traditional settlement land to go and live so that white settlers and companies could occupy the best land in the country) in Zimbabwe were the Gwayi Reserve (today’s Tsholotsho District or Communal Lands) and the Shangani Reserve (today’s Lupane District or Communal Lands, and Nkayi District or Communal Lands).
African Reserves were created all over the country in order to remove the black people from the best arable land. Obviously, therefore, the best lands happened to have had the best rainfall patterns as well and the best grazing lands. The first two reserves were created in 1894. In Mashonaland the reserves were not created until 1898, yet in that part of the country Rhodes and his hordes of white invaders and settlers started removing blacks from their best traditional lands soon after the British flag was raised in Harare in September 1890; and the first blacks to be killed for resisting colonial occupation were in Mashonaland.
The first to be killed included Chief Negomo in Murehwa. His headquarters were raided in 1892 by British South Africa Company (BSAC) roops early in the morning resulting in his death and the death of 21 of his people including one of his sons. Both the Gwayi and Shangani reserves were areas of Kalahari sands, infested with tsetse flies, mosquitoes, malaria and poor rainfall patterns, and the two of them were full of dark teak and mukwa forests (amagusu amnyama) teaming with wild animals like lions, elephants, giraffes, buffaloes and kudus. The reserves had very few people living there.
In other words, these reserves were not good for people, animal husbandry and cropping activities. Indeed, that is why they were selected — to make the blacks less and less independent economically, blacks were turned into colonial slaves, they were forced to sell their labour power at least for three months a year through laws like the hut tax laws and through being openly kidnapped by the BSAC and its white settlers and turned into slaves.
The reserves were a source of cheap labour for white farmers, government departments, white mines and white local authorities. The reserves did not have good roads, they did not have enough water, the people did not own the land, they had no title to anything, they could be kicked out of the reserves anytime, once minerals were discovered there.
Blacks in the reserves were not allowed to have access to loans, the numbers of their cattle were limited by law, there was no electricity in the reserves, schools were built by churches (whose real role was to educate the blacks so that they became tame colonial slaves who despised themselves, hated themselves, their past, their religion and their cultures); that is why Rhodes gave all the church denominations large tracks of land, land that used to be occupied by blacks before colonialism and white racism, and large sums of money annually or monthly in order to psychologically bludgeon the black people and blacks had no right to vote, they were not even allowed to walk on pavements, only whites were allowed by law. Life in Tsholotsho (as in all the African Reserves) was nothing but a horrible grind. The colonial government gave enough assistance in Tsholotsho to enable blacks to breed more colonial slaves.
l. To be continued
Labels: LAND REFORM, MDC TRIBALISM, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Secession not ZAPU policy: Dabengwa
by Staff Reporter
04/05/2011 00:00:00
ZAPU leader Dumiso Dabengwa says his party does not support secessionist calls by some Matabeleland pressure groups, notably the Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF).
Growing sentiment that the three Matabeleland provinces are sidelined from national development programmes has fed resentment of central government in the region, leading to calls for a separate state. But Dabengwa, whose party is a significant force in the region and has devolution of power as its central policy, says the issue calls for “meaningful dialogue”.
“ZAPU is the founder and authentic liberation movement of the whole of Zimbabwe, and has no intention of reducing itself to a tribal or separatist movement,” Dabengwa said in a statement on Wednesday.
“ZAPU liberated and wants to rule all of Zimbabwe, and not part of it.”
Dabengwa says his party would cut the current 10 provinces by half into Mashonaland, Masvingo, Midlands, Manicaland and Matabeleland “to be led by an elected provincial mini-government”.
He added: “There would be provincial or regional houses of assembly with relevant legislative powers. However, there will still be a national house of assembly to legislate national laws. There will still be central government led by a president, similar to what happens in South Africa.
“Regional premiers and their governments will have the mandate to initiate and implement development policies and programmes in their areas and to run social services such as health and education.
“Central government will remain in charge of national issues such as the army, police, national security, monetary and fiscal policies, revenue services, among other key matters of the state. Zimbabwe will still have one national flag, one national anthem, one president, one currency, and no borders between regions.
“There will be a fair and proportional distribution of national income to all the five provinces, as opposed to the current secretive and discriminative distribution of national wealth to favour one region at the expense of four others.”
Dabengwa said devolution, which featured prominently during public consultations on a new constitution last year, would “remove all bottlenecks and red tape created by the current Harare-based centralist governance system”.
“People become masters of their own destiny by controlling and owning their natural resources. Devolution empowers the people to be self-determining,” he added.
The ZAPU leader said he was forced to speak out after being approached by “several journalists wanting to know our position on the MLF or the cessation of Matabeleland”.
“It is clear to us that the journalists seem to believe that ZAPU is behind, or at least sympathetic to the issue of sessation of Matabeleland. This is both false and unfair … Clearly, devolution is not cessation and we do not understand why anyone would want to link our party to the MLF or cession,” he added.
But despite disagreements with the Mthwakazi Liberation Front, whose leaders have been charged with treason, Dabengwa insists that silencing them is not a solution. Instead, Dabengwa wants a national debate on the issues that have led them to take extremist positions.
“Even if we do not agree with the MLF or any other political formation for that matter on any issue, our party will defend their right to hold their views without fear. ZAPU is convinced the people of Matabeleland and some parts of the Midlands have genuine grievances against the current governance system that has disadvantaged them,” Dabengwa said.
“We call for meaningful dialogue on the issue to address the problem and maintain national cohesion. Arresting and detaining leaders of the MLF or anyone who talks about Gukurahundi and the marginalisation of Matabeleland will only worsen the problem.”
Labels: DUMISO DABENGWA, MDC, MDC TRIBALISM, SECESSION, ZAPU
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MDC-T chairman demands tribal balancing
28/04/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
MDC-T national chairman Lovemore Moyo has called on the party to make a deliberate effort at tribal balancing on the eve of a key congress. Moyo said the party must ensure minority tribes got more “substantive” posts as opposed to deputising to a Shona majority.
The MDC-T’s three-day congress opens in Bulawayo on Thursday with party leader Morgan Tsvangirai the only senior official assured of keeping his position.
Moyo said tribal exclusion in political representation at the top of political movements started with Zanu PF, admitting that some MDC-T officials had got indoctrinated in that culture and genuinely had no understanding of the aspirations of minorities.
He told the Voice of America’s Studio 7: “What I can say is that this is something that we must be patient about in the way we approach it. Let’s not forget the history. From independence, Zanu PF’s rule has been marked by the marginalisation of the Ndebele tribe.
“When we started the MDC, some among us were previously in Zanu PF and these are people who have not felt the pain that Ndebeles felt during Gukurahundi.
“It’s time that the people we work with understand the importance of respecting all tribes, making all tribes feel as part of Zimbabwe and part of MDC. We are fixing it, it’s not easy, but we must face it.”
Moyo’s candid comments lifted a lid on growing concerns in the Matabeleland regions that political actors from there are being crowded out of key structures in the party.
He added: “The only substantive post, one a Ndebele doesn't deputise, is the national chairman’s post which I am seeking to retain on Saturday.
“I have heard that there is someone [Lucia Matibenga] who has put his name forward to contest me and they are not from Matabeleland. That’s what people are pointing at, that a certain group is trying to grab everything not realising that other tribes should also be represented, and feel part.
“We will work hard as Matabeleland provinces to ensure we get a few positions which are substantive.”
Meanwhile, Moyo said the congress must pass a resolution on dealing with members fingered in violent campaigning in the primary elections. Voting in Bulawayo province had to be postponed twice after supporters of Matson Hlalo and Gorden Moyo, who eventually prevailed in the chairman's contest, clashed.
“The message of the standing committee and president [Tsvangirai] is very clear and unambiguous. No-one will be spared when it comes to the issue of dealing with indiscipline and violence,” Moyo said.
“In the meantime, we have assigned our security people to document, in all the provinces, the people who have been involved in violent activities. We know them in some instances, we know their sponsors in some instances. It will be easy to identify these individuals and deal with them.
“We must get a congress resolution as to what will happen to these individuals. There would be no sacred cows. We would be able to confront every incident with due diligence to make sure we put a stop to violence.”
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga is the guest of honour at the congress which will give Morgan Tsvangirai a third term which will stretch his leadership of the party to 17 years when it expires.
Labels: MDC TRIBALISM
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Matabeleland separatists burn flag
by Thabo Kunene I Radio Netherlands
21/04/2011 00:00:00
MORE than 500 Zimbabwean exiles in South Africa marched for an independent Zimbabwean state on Wednesday. The protest was organised by the Matabeleland-based secessionist organisation, Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF). In the past few months, the MLF’s increasingly popular campaign has led to the arrest of three of the movement's senior leaders.
Separatists from Matabeleland province say the people of the region have suffered from marginalisation and discrimination under Zimbabwe’s unitary system since the 1980’s. They demand an independent state which they want to name Mthwakazi.
President Robert Mugabe has said Zimbabwe will never be divided into two ethnic based states. The arrested MLF leaders Paul Siwela, John Gazi and Charles Thomas are currently facing charges of treason. They could face the death sentence if convicted.
During the march, protesters sang struggle songs which brought business to a standstill along Johannesburg's Sauer and Bree Streets.
“Our march was very successful and attracted many Zimbabweans living in South Africa,” said MLF spokesman, Sabelo Mavikinduku Ngwenya, a lawyer by profession.
Although the police closely monitored the march, protesters managed to burn a Zimbabwean flag, which they said was a symbol of oppression and discrimination against ethnic groups in Matabeleland province.
This act was received with mixed feelings. Some Zimbabweans, even those from Matabeleland, said while they supported the group’s campaign for a free Matabeleland, they opposed the burning of the flag.
“The burning of the flag by the secessionists could increase repression against our people by Mugabe’s government. The same people who burnt the flag are still using Zimbabwe government passports - why did they not burn their passports too?” said Dumisani Moyo, a Zimbabwean living in Johannesburg.
But Professor Sabelo Gatsheni Ndlovu, a political analyst and a history lecturer at Johannesburg’s Wits University, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that the burning of the Zimbabwean flag was a clear signal by the secessionists that they don’t want to be part of Zimbabwe anymore.
“The burning of the flag has symbolic significance. It means they are indicating their separation from that country. The flag is not just a piece of cloth. It represents the spirit of the country and identity. It’s a statement by the protesters.”
The organisers of the march also sent a delegation to the Zimbabwe Embassy in Pretoria to deliver the group's document outlining how the state of Mthwakazi would be created and which districts in Zimbabwe would be part of that country.
Ambassador Phelekezela Mphoko, who also comes from Matabeleland, has openly opposed the campaign of secession. He was not available for comment. One official at the embassy said they did not receive any document from MLF.
Labels: MDC TRIBALISM, SECESSION
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COMMENT - To use the word genocide for what happened in the 1980s is hyperbole, and political spin. Also, it matters why things happened. The apartheid government tried to create a Zimbabwean RENAMO, to destabilize the country through murder and bombings. To do this, they recruited 100 members of ZAPU, called SUPER ZAPU, through Operation Drama. The government's actions were in reaction to that kind of sabotage. It was not a genocide, it was not a tribal beatdown of the Matabele/Ndebele. (Source:
Report On The 1980s Disturbances In Matabeleland & Midlands, Chapter 3 "The Dissident Problem", by Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, March 1997)
Minister arrested over Gukurahundi memorial
by Staff Reporter
15/04/2011 00:00:00
NATIONAL Healing and Reconciliation Minister Moses Mzila-Ndlovu and a Catholic priest were arrested on Friday for attending a memorial service for victims of the 1980s Matabeleland genocide in Lupane.
Ndlovu and Father Marko Mabutho Mnkandla, who presided over Wednesday’s ceremony, are charged with “undermining police authority”, according to MDC secretary general and Regional Integration Minister, Priscilla Misihairabwi.
“Lawyers are trying to gain access to them but we understand that they are accused of addressing an unsanctioned public meeting,” Misihairabwi said from Harare.
Rights groups say over 20,000 people died in a crackdown in Matabeleland and the Midlands by government troops. Official reports on the massacres have never been published and public discussion on the operation by President Robert Mugabe's loyalists remains suppressed.
On Tuesday, Mzila-Ndlovu was barred by police from addressing a public meeting convened by the Habakkuk Trust at Kezi business centre in Matabeleland South. Kezi was one of the districts worst hit by the killings.
Matabeleland South police spokesman Sergeant Thabani Mkhwananzi later explained the meeting was broken off because Zanu PF and the MDC-T, who also have ministers seconded to the National Healing Organ, had not been represented.
Habakkuk Trust’s Dumisani Nkomo said: “I told the police that the meeting was non-political and there was no reasoning behind banning a talk that is pro-peace.
“But it seems apparent now that the problem must be coming from someone who does not want to see peace prevailing in the country.”
Mzila-Ndlovu is the second minister to be arrested, after the MDC-T’s Elton Mangoma, since the formation of a power sharing government in February 2009.
Labels: GUKURAHUNDI, MDC TRIBALISM
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COMMENT - It is outrageous for any Zimbabwean not to respect the suffering of the people under the racist regime of Ian Smith. It also shows why the MDC is unfit for government of a country that is majority Shona.
Mthwakazi trio: nothing to lose but their chains
by Dinizulu Mbikokayise Macaphulana
29/03/2011 00:00:00
“We must die as Mthwakazians,” said Mthandazo Ndema Ngwenya, “so that we may live fully and freely again.”
This was about twenty years ago at the Large City Hall in Bulawayo when Ndema was addressing a gathering of troubled Mthwakazians of the Vukani Mahlabezulu grouping. It was a few days before the Ndebele poet and novelist met his tragic death in a suspicions car accident.
As l write today, Paul Siwela, John Gazi and Charles Thomas are enduring torture, insult and injury at the infamous Khami Prison where they are being held for distributing fliers that suggested that Mthwakazians should seek freedom from Zimbabwe.
The pain and humiliation that the three Mthwakazi Liberation Front cadres are enduring is part of the “death” and the dear price of freedom that Ndema prophesied will be paid by Mthwakazi. There will be pain, sweat, tears and blood before the victims and survivors of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Zimbabwe can “live fully and freely again”.
I write in this article to observe a few hard and old lessons that Mthwakazians and all those under the sun who love freedom can learn from the doings of Robert Mugabe’s genocidal regime in Zimbabwe. The refusal by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to represent the trio, the courage of the Abammeli lawyers, the pretences of those who claim to fight for freedom and justice in Zimbabwe are all sobering anecdotal lessons that must urgently jolt all of us into an awareness of the true condition of political orphanage and neglect that the endangered people of Mthwakazi are suffering in Zimbabwe.
I write also to observe that these many trials and tribulations of the brave Mthwakazians are just but many layers of bricks on the growing case against Mugabe and his genocidal Zanu PF government and their backers in the MDC-T and NGO sector in Zimbabwe. These pains of Mthwakazi are but the inevitable labour pains that herald the birth of a nationhood whose freedom and pride will catapult Mthwakazi to the exalted comity of the world’s brave nations.
For those among you dear readers who do not know, this is your time to understand. The mass graves and many human skeletons that Mugabe’s PR machine has been showing on TV of late, and trying to blame them on Ian Smith and the Rhodesians, are actually remains of Gukurahundi victims.
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Four truck loads of villagers were abducted from Ezinyangeni in Nkayi in December of 1984. There are also truck loads of peasants that were seized from Maphisa in Kezi and Mgodi Masili in Tsholotsho. It is known that all these Mthwakazi people who were never seen again by their loved ones are buried in various mass graves across Mashonaland and Manicaland.
To attempt to blame this evidence of manslaughter and genocide on Ian Smith and the Rhodesian regime is a ploy by Mugabe to temper with evidence of his crimes against humanity. Before Zanu PF tries to abuse skulls and skeletons for cheap propaganda purposes, Perence Shiri, alias Black Jesus, should tell the world where he buried the Mthwakazi villagers that he stole in 1984.
Mugabe and his goons can fool a few people here and there, but not all of humanity will buy into his desperate attempt to blame his own crimes on Smith and the Rhodesians.
The reason why Mugabe sent soldiers to react so violently to diamond panners in Chiadzwa in 2009 is not that the people were stealing diamonds but that some of them had began to stumble on some mass graves as they dug for the precious stones. There are several spots in Manicaland and Mashonaland where Gukurahundi victims lie buried in shallow mass-graves.
It is also known that some commercial farmers who were shot and killed during farm invasions in the year 2000 in Murehwa and Nyamandlovu were on farms with Gukurahundi mass graves. On all this land that has a wealth of evidence against him, Mugabe has settled his close and trusted army chefs and CIOs.
One of the telling lessons to be learnt from the case of the Mthwakazi trio is the conniving and conspiring nature of some civil society entities in Zimbabwe. The refusal by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to support the defence of the Mthwakazi trio is cinematic of how most civil society organisations in Zimbabwe who claim to fight for justice and freedom are actually in the dark business of conspiring with Mugabe and perpetuating genocidal discrimination against Mthwakazians who are deserving of support.
These NGOs cry about “human rights” and the “crisis in Zimbabwe”, raising millions of dollars from donors under the pretext of championing democracy, when in actuality they exist only to abuse donor monies and secretly perpetuate Mugabe’s political agendas.
The humanitarian, political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe has provided so many jobs and so much money for these pretenders that some of them do not even wish for a solution to the Zimbabwe problem. In their project proposals applying for donor funds they are so loud about Gukurahundi, but when the dollars come they invest the money in their pockets and in other projects in support of other agendas while the survivors and victims of Gukurahundi wait for freedom, patiently.
The brave and resolute stand of the Abammeli lawyers who delinked from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights in protest is a rich lesson for Mthwakazians and all fighters for freedom. Kucaca Phulu, Sindiso Mazibisa, Robert Ndllovu, Matshobana Ncube and advocate Lucas Nkomo have refused to endorse corruption and discrimination. It is the same spirit that was displayed by the late
Welshman Mabhena when he refused to be “buried with crooks and thieves.”
It is this spirit of rejecting nonsense and rejecting genocide and mass murder that guarantees the future for the brave and long suffering people of Mthwakazi. Wherever they are, the Mthwakazians must refuse Mugabeism and reject the demons of genocide in all their pretences and sophistications, in Zanu PF and in the corrupt and bogus NGOs that pretend to be fighting for human rights when their job is to protect Mugabe.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda came out strong on “Why Gaddafi must be stopped.” On the other hand Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni was at sixes and sevens on the issue, complaining about the negatives of international military intervention in Africa. I agree with Kagame that world military powers must intervene and be encouraged to intervene militarily in African States where dictators butcher their own people under the pretext of phony nationalism and imaginary sovereignty.
Kagame notes that “in the course of 100 days in 1994, a million Rwandans were killed by government-backed genocidaires and the world did nothing.”
It is the same with Mthwakazians who were slaughtered in their thousands and buried in shallow mass-graves all over Zimbabwe and the world looked aside. Now that the world has shown that it can intervene with force as in Libya, Mthwakazians must weigh their options and scream out their problems knowing that never again will Mugabe unleash the army against civilians in Matabeleland without risking Libyan consequences.
The reason why Mugabe is now blaming his mass graves on Smith and trying to temper with the evidence of genocide is that he knows that his victims and survivors are back to haunt him and that his trial is beckoning in the not so distant horizons. Mthwakazians should summon up the courage and the energy, the world is no longer deaf and blind to genocide Africa.
I am only reminded of Plato, the ancient Athenian Philosopher who quotes the poet Homer who says “when you please the gods by fighting for justice and freedom, the dark earth bears wheat and barley, the trees hang heavy with fruit, the sheep steadily give birth, and the sea waters yield many fish.” The people of Mthwakazi have nothing to lose but their chains as the Apostle Paul observed.
Now that Paul Siwela and others are paying the dear price, and now that Mthwakazians throughout the world are awakening and realising that it is them and only them who will be their own liberators, the struggle of Mthwakazi must continue unabated.
The many NGOs in Zimbabwe that talk about the “crisis” and “human rights” but are just appendages of Zanu PF and MDC-T must be known for who they really are.
Dinizulu Mbikokayise Macaphulana is a Zimbabwean student based in Lesotho. E-mail: dinizulumacaphulana@yahoo.com
Labels: IAN SMITH, MASSACRE, MDC, MDC TRIBALISM, RHODESIA
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MDC congress aftermath: implications for democracy
by Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga
14/01/2011 00:00:00
THE cat is out of the bag. The MDC congress held last weekend has delivered for the tribal supremacists and the anti-democrats the result they dreaded most and as expected, they have come out guns blazing.
The attack on the MDC following its congress raises three fundamental issues. It puts a spotlight on the unresolved ethnic issues, the one-party state ideology and the adherence to peaceful and democratic transference of power.
The Ethnic Debate: debate on issues of tribe is shunned in Zimbabwe and yet it dominates our local politics. The tribal sentiments expressed over the election of Welshman Ncube attest to this. It is revealing that there is now a growing consensus in the stables of Shona supremacist that the fact that a Ndebele is president of a political party means that the party is regional.
Interestingly, the fact that the MDC-T and Zanu PF have Shona leaders makes them national. Is the verdict, therefore, that a Ndebele cannot as a matter of fact be considered for President in Zimbabwe? And that therefore those of Ndebele descent have been disqualified from a national leadership contest?
One-Party State Ideology: the second issue that arises from the post-congress debate is the role and relevance of ‘third parties’ and the emerging reasoning that Zimbabwe is not a multi-party system but is, in reality, a contest to replace Zanu PF with another party.
The Zimbabwe democratisation political script has been fundamentally flawed in that it is a versus Mugabe script and not necessarily a creation of multi-party free world. We are focused on the removal of Mugabe and not on a creation of an alternative political system with alternative value systems.
We, as a nation, are bound in this romantic myth of a little girl who is waiting to be saved from a monster by a knight in shining armour and unfortunately it can only be one ‘knight’ in shining armour and not knight(s) in different shades. Anything that does not conform to that romantic image we hate and despise.
For a long time we have continued to romanticise the year 2000, where a united movement almost delivered the ultimate victory. We all secretly still yearn for that period even though the current reality demonstrates that the conditions and circumstances that prevailed in 2000 do not exist. We also, unlike what we publicly profess, have not embraced the concept of multi-partism, we sadly, in our actions, are in fact zealots of a one-party state ideology which seeks to remove Zanu PF replacing it with another party.
The year 2000 was not only miraculous but an aberration, never to be repeated. The coming together of all democratic forces to deliver a NO VOTE response to the referendum was magical. This came exactly after two decades of general disorientation and the trauma of the Gukurahundi.
In what we, in the born-again movement call a ‘vuselela’ (a revival/a rebirth), the NO VOTE campaign inspired a confidence in the Zimbabwean people that just perhaps, it was possible to dislodge Zanu PF. The nation was therefore divided into two camps, those for Zanu PF and those against. For some in the frontlines of that referendum, we know that the vote was simply an anti-Mugabe vote and less about the constitution.
The violence that followed that referendum shifted the power dynamics, to try and ignore the impact and the rupture that violence had on that unity is to live in cuckoo land. It is that denial of that shift that perpetuates the anger against parties that refuse to fit the 2000 mode.
Since the MDC split in 2005, an epitaph or obituary is written on the MDC. Opinion polls are conducted all to justify the issuance of burial orders. After the 2008 elections, we all were put into political dustbins, if not political museums. Ironically, the very same party today continues to dominate the Zimbabwean political discourse.
Is it not a paradox that a party so allegedly insignificant, a party so unlikely to impact on the future politics of Zimbabwe can dominate political debate? The only explanation for such behaviour is that the obsession is driven by our inability to understand a different script, a script that does not make Zimbabweans a choir with one song, but a script that says it is in our difference that we find our strength – celebrating our diversity.
It is tragic that a public service career one once admired and is a part of, is now dominated by a group of people who have no shame in giving blatantly false figures of congress delegates to mislead a nation. How it is possible for someone who attended that event to continue to perpetuate a falsehood of 1,000 delegates is not only sad but frightening.
Any journalist worth their salt only needs to check with the accommodation venues where delegates from outside Harare and Chitungwiza were accommodated. In fact, Harare Polytech alone had over 1,800 delegates, with Belvedere, HIT, YWCA, ZWB and Adelaide accommodating the rest. As is the norm in all political parties, delegates to congress are specified and determined by political parties. The MDC National Council resolved that congress would have a total of 5,200 delegates.
To seek to extrapolate the MDC’s nationwide support base to the number of delegates at congress is pure madness. The lie that delegates were not fed when we had three professional caterers is the limit of gutter journalism. No single delegate slept outside, no-one went hungry and there were no fights. In fact, all journalists were properly accredited and treated with the utmost respect, unlike other congresses we have observed.
Transfer of power: the third and final myth dismissed at the MDC congress was the notion that it is impossible in Africa, let alone in Zimbabwe, to experience a civilised, dignified and descent transfer of power. It is surprising that those who over the years have claimed to be true democrats now describe the change of leadership as a humiliating experience.
Instead of applauding Arthur Mutambara, he is now being portrayed at most as a victim, and at worst as a weakling. Is it our belief now that had there been a change of leadership from Mugabe to Tsvangirai in 2008, that act would have been humiliation for Mugabe? If so, why then are we against those that sought to protect Mugabe’s honour through beatings and the maiming of people?
If the election of Welshman Ncube is now being described as a boardroom coup or a demonstration of a power-hungry individual who has always harboured presidential ambitions, why then should we have a problem with those in Zanu PF who believe that any election that does not produce a leadership from those that held the gun in the liberation struggle is illegitimate or treasonous?
We should, therefore, now accept the notion that it is a crime to aspire or to participate in a leadership contest unless the incumbent have voluntarily relinquished power.
The political world is a moral terrain; you can’t demand from others what you can’t do in your personal sphere.
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga is the Secretary-General of the Movement for Democratic Change party led by Welshman Ncube
Labels: MDC, MDC TRIBALISM, WELSHMAN NCUBE
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Ndebele president: the secret fear
by Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga
09/12/2010 00:00:00
THE tragedy is that socialisation is not only limited to a particular sphere of one’s life. Whilst some of us have spent the better part of our life declaring and professing our ultra-feminism, we sadly remain stuck in a particular paradigm.
It is that paradigm that sustains injustice and abuse in every sphere of life, it is a paradigm premised on the principle that playing the martyr in the face of abuse will convict and stop the abuse. Which explains why the majority of us women are constantly taught, if not trained, to continue to be “nice” to give sex, to cook, to try and be respectful and to be patient in the face of blatant abuse - “Silence is Golden” we are told.
Today, in a small way, I seek to challenge that paradigm, not because I believe that changing that paradigm will necessarily stop the abuse but I do it merely to name and shame and to refuse to be a sitting duck. I will put up a fight and most likely in doing so invite more abuse but that is a risk I am willing to take.
This article has been provoked by the discussions I have been part of, in particular in the so called civil society, of which, ironically, I am a product. It is as result of the newspaper articles I have read, particularly those from the so called “progressive” groups, the very ones that some of us spent night vigils at police stations in solidarity with colleagues that we believed had been unfairly arrested.
I have been shocked and dismayed at how the same individuals who yesterday preached honesty and the sanctity of treating people with dignity are themselves using the newly found “democratic” spaces to do exactly what they complained and marched against. I have watched how some of us have become worse enemies that those who supposedly traumatised them.
In amazement, I have listened to the same people wax hysterical on the illegitimacy of our being at the negotiating table to the extent that they now claim that the coalition government would have been more acceptable if the negotiations had been two-way: between Zanu PF and MDC T.
Insignificant as they claim we are, they also in the same vein hold us responsible for all that was lost at the table. Oblivious to the six signatures on the Kariba Draft, a falsehood is now fact that this was a Welshman Ncube and Patrick Chinamasa document. As I struggled with this paradox, I had a Damascene revelation, which explained this hatred, towards us. The revelation is that this is nothing but disguised tribalism.
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The MDC is a thorn in the flesh of Shona supremacists because both in its form and content, it challenges the basic notion that the only group of people with the legitimate right to decide on the fate of Zimbabwe are Shona’s. In fact both Zanu PF and MDC-T in its choice of negotiators had made that clear. Of the four negotiators, all were Shona, for MDC T they made this clear by ensuring that whilst they originally had deployed a Ndebele, Lovemore Moyo, as a negotiator, mid-stream he was unceremoniously replaced by a Shona, which in fact meant that outside Welshman Ncube, the crafters of the Global Political Agreement both at principals’ level and at the negotiators’ level would all have been Shona.
The Principle of Collusion
History has proven that there is always collusion between an ethnic group in any African conflict with white external capital forces. That collusion is always not based on values or ideology, but is driven purely by the need to access and control resources.
Conflicts in Rwanda, DRC and Kenya are testimony to this collusion. In Zimbabwe, that collusion started in the pre-colonial era, in particular during the Lancaster House negotiations when white capital forces’ self-interest meant that between a Ndebele leader and a Shona, they stood to benefit more by a transition from Ian Smith to a Shona leader. This is explained by the support that Mugabe received in spite of earlier demonization -- a terrorist became the darling of the West.
It is that collusion which explains the silence of the same white capital forces during the Gukurahundi era. Is it not surprising that given the arrests of many political activists during that era, with some of them dying in prison, there wasn’t a single draft UN Security Council Resolution against the ZANU regime?
Is it not equally surprising that Morgan Tsvangirai’s arrests have earned him a confetti of awards and yet my Google search shows not a single award to Joshua Nkomo? It is, therefore, clear that whilst white capital now has issues with Mugabe, primarily over access to resources, they now seek to facilitate a transition that fits within the same framework where power can only be handed over to a Shona leader.
The white capital self-interest is not threatened by a transition from Mugabe to Tsvangirai or Simba Makoni or Emerson Mnangagwa or Joice Mujuru. It is only threatened by a leader who, by the very fact that he comes from a minority grouping, may not in their opinion have the capacity to give them that access.
It is this ethnic /white capital agenda that explains the viciousness with which Arthur Mutambara’s entry into Zimbabwe politics was received. For all his real and perceived crimes, his greatest crime is that he sold his soul to a supposedly dying Ndebele-driven party. For that, he will not be forgiven.
It is the same basis and reason that explains the abuse meted at Welshman Ncube. The lies and machinations that you see and can’t explain are from a majoritarian group that believes that only their tribe can hold a place of fame in the intellectual world. That a mere Ndebele has challenged the supremacy of the Shona tribe in the legal field is Welshman’s first problem. His second sin is that having been given the rare privilege, as a Ndebele, for the first time in the history of this country, to be Secretary-General of a “national” political party, he proceeded to be ungrateful and sought to bite the hand that fed him.
For many years, in the proverbial attitude of a battered wife, he had humiliated himself at all public fora declaring that he understood that a person born of a minority tribe could and should never aspire to be President. However, it is questioning Tsvangirai’s democratic credential s that earned him the full wrath of both the Shona supremacists and white capital.
White capital’s anger towards him was driven by the fact that he threatened their well-planned and orchestrated transition. One now understands why white capital, during the split, came out in full support of Tsvangirai in spite of him having violated the principles and values they claim to stand for. It is that collusion that explains the mega resources deployed in Matabeleland in the guise of forming Human Rights Organisations. ‘Welshman and his Ndebele grouping’ had to be obliterated (refer to WikiLeaks-Christopher Dell’s Comments on Welshman Ncube) and they almost were. Interestingly, no such resources were ever given to that region at the height of the Gukurahundi era.
The current dynamics in the party prior to its congress have attracted such massive interest. One wonders why a party supposedly hit by so many defections, and whose relevance, it is claimed, is a few of its leadership holding-by-stealth public office, can generate such interest.
The ruptures and factions in our party, it is also claimed, have apparently reached such proportions that they have become subjects for diplomatic briefs, opinions pieces and civic conversations and yet parties like Mavambo that have had major ruptures are hardly subjects for debate.
Dare I say that all this can only be explained as a deep-seated secret fear that perhaps, just perhaps, one could wakeup with a Ndebele president.
As I said at the beginning of the article, naming and shaming may not stop the abuse but at least now when dirt is thrown at that ethnic group or at those that are seen to represent it, We, born in Ndebele wombs, can stand up and say: WE SAW, WE HEARD and WE SPOKE.
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga is the Deputy Secretary General of the MDC
Labels: MDC TRIBALISM
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