Beware of the opportunist!

Let us differ on how we see the contents of the glass not who should drink from it. Whether it’s half-full or half-empty, it’s our glass and we are entitled to everything inside it.

 

Caesar Zvayi 

“Dear Optimist and Pessimist, while you were busy arguing whether the glass was half-full or half-empty, I drank it! Yours Opportunist!” 

I do not know who came up with this telling quotation but one thing I know is, it is pregnant with meaning and worth learning from. 

It reminds me of another axiom I heard from the then independent candidate for Harare South constituency, Margaret Dongo in the run-up to the Harare South by-election that pitted her against Zanu-PF’s Vivian Mwashita and one Joseph Cohen another independent in 1995, the axiom of the three dogs.
Dongo, who had been expelled from Zanu-PF for standing as an independent after a dispute with the way primaries were held, said when two dogs fight for a bone, it’s the third dog that wins the fight. She was counselling on the possibility of splitting the vote with Cohen and handing victory to Mwashita.
For all that Dongo's proverbial third dog would need to do is creep over and slink away with the bone as the
other two canines tear each other to pieces.
So what is my point?

 My point to the three main political parties in Gov-ernment today is, please argue
over whether the glass is half full or half empty but never argue over who owns the glass or its con-tents.
No party should be used as a decoy so that Mr Opportunist can come in to drink from our glass once
our attention is diverted.
As we mark 32 years of independence today let us introspect what we have done for our country to abet
the cause of the gallant sons and daughters of this land who paid the ultimate sacrifice to give us freedom.
April 18, did not just spring from the calendar but is a culmination of the sacrifices made by the heroes and
heroines of this land from the time the Pioneer Column raised the Union Jack at Fort Salisbury on September 12, 1890 till the attainment of independence on April 18, 1980.
Nine decades of struggle that some among us had no stomach for, though today we feign courage while
stroking tummies distended by the erstwhile coloniser’s filthy lucre.
It is fortuitous that we celebrate 32 years of Independence at a time forces opposed to our total emancipation have ranged against us for daring to go beyond the façade of flag independence. Sadly, they have found succour in some who are willing to be used to lend black faces to patently racist, neo-colonial subversion. 
Be that as it may, that should not distract us from the agenda at hand. We should today beat our chests that as
a nation we chose to take the bull by the horns. We dropped the short-end of the stick the erstwhile coloniser had given us at the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference in 1979.
And over the past 32 years we have systematically worked to transform our coun-try into a truly independent unitary State. Indepen-dence does not only mean flying our flag over our terri-tory, neither does it mean having black faces in Gov-ernment, independence means non-dependence on anyone but ourselves
for our own destiny. As Bob Mar-ley told us on April 18, 1980 “every man has a right to decide his own destiny. . . and in this judgment there is no partiality”.
And when we look at the path travelled over the past 32 years, there is every reason to celebrate the achievements scored, gains that are unparalleled by any nation that attained political independence in our generation, or even those that have been free much longer.
The gains in the social services sector are phenomenal, infrastructure development, housing, you name it.
Yes, some of these gains took a hard-knock from the past decade of sanctions but the fact that we did not
become a failed state testifies to the strong foundation laid since independence. The only blight on an otherwise impeccable record was an economy dominated by foreign-owned compa-nies, and this is what we are painstakingly changing through the land reform programme and indigenisa-tion and economic empowerment programmes.
Indeed, the fact that despite a sustained 10-year assault, our country has not gone under is testimony to the strength of the foundation laid since 1980.
Yes, there are those who point gleefully at the prevailing economic hardships as a sign of failure, I disagree
with them strongly. What our nation is experiencing are the pangs of transformation, and only a fool can deny that sanctions account for the economic malaise of the past decade. Our economy has not collapsed, but
that which we called our economy when it was in fact a white economy collapsed, and in its place an indige-
nous Zimbabwean economy is emerging on the back of a genuine land-owning, wealth-creating middle class.
That transformation cannot occur overnight, neither can it be cosy, as it is a duel with dark forces whose very
existence hinges on continued exploitation of our resources, with us as chattel slaves.
These are the forces, along with their black minions, that we should all tell today, never again! Never again
will we allow them to reverse the gains we have made, amid so much opposition.
However, for that transformation to be achieved expeditiously, we must all pull in the same direction.
This is the last phase of our struggle, and history tells us that the myopia of those who opted to abet the enemy — either as Rhodesian Front members or Selous Scouts or outright sellouts — prolonged the liberation struggle.
Today they have been resurrected to mouth meaningless neo-liberal platitudes in a bid to divert us from the path of economic independence. They will tell you investment is more important than owning the means of production, jobs more important than owning the farm, factory or mine and food more important than farming. By their language you shall know them.
This is why we need, this day, to dedicate ourselves to the ideals of the struggle, close ranks to defeat the machinations of those seeking to torpedo and reverse our independence. The sanctions imposed by the West
are not for our benefit, but they are meant to benefit their kith and kin, who we dispossessed of resources that are rightfully ours.
Thus whether we are Zanu-PF, MDC-Tsvangirai or MDC, let us differ only on the modalities of governing our nation, not who should govern it. Let us differ on how we see the contents of the glass not who should drink from it. Whether it’s half-full or half-empty, it’s our glass and we are entitled to everything inside it.

Declare April Zim history month

Caesar Zvayi

PRESIDENT Mugabe IN February 1899, British novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled “The White Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands” in which he urged the US to take up the “burden” of empire, as had Britain and other European nations when colonising Africa. Theodore Roosevelt, later to become president, described it as “rather poor poetry, but good sense from the expansion point of view.” However, not everyone, particularly in the developing world, was as impressed as Roosevelt. African-Americans, among many others, rapped the notion of the “white man’s burden.” And one of the prominent responses to Kipling’s poem was “The Black Man’s Burden,” written by African-American clergyman and editor Hubert Johnson and published in April that same year. Hubert Johnson argued that the mistreatment of brown people in the Philippines was an extension of the mistreatment of African-Americans at home. There was nothing noble in imperialism. The bottom line is the black man has a burden of ensuring that his history, which has over the years been misconstrued as being synonymous with the history of the white man’s arrival in Africa, is corrected and captured for posterity. It is a history of not being seen nor heard; a history of being manipulated and subjugated. The onus is on us Africans to correct the historical distortions. I flew this kite before in 2006, and I raise it again this year in the hope that someone in the high offices takes note and does something about it. In spite of having a rich history of stolid, defiant resistance to all forms of colonial or neo-colonial domination, we Zimbabweans are notoriously modest. We do not seem to celebrate this history except waiting for days or events. Why don’t we, for instance, have even a Zimbabwe history month to mark the milestones that helped define us as the nation we are today? I have said it before and I will say it again. If ever there is a month that deserves to be called Zimbabwe history month, it is April, a month littered with numerous milestones stretching from the First, Second to the Third Chimurenga wars. One hundred and fourteen years ago, on April 27 1898, the architects of the First Chimurenga War, Mbuya Chahwe, the medium of the Nehanda spirit, and Sekuru Gumboreshumba, the medium of the Kaguvi spirit also known as Murenga, were hanged by the settler regime for daring to challenge colonial dispossession. It is from the Kaguvi spirit, that was alternatively known as Murenga, meaning “war spirit”, that the name Chimurenga was derived. Mbuya Nehanda along with Zindoga, Hwata and Gutsa wrongly stood accused of murdering a brutal white native commissioner, one Henry Hawkins Pollard of the British South Africa Company who lived near Mazowe and terrorised people in that district. Rhodesian legal documents classified Mbuya Nehanda modestly as a Mashona woman residing at Chitawa’s Kraal in the Mazowe District; Zindoga as a native kitchen boy residing at Nehanda’s Kraal; and Hwata and Gutsa as native hunters residing at Hwata Kraal. The four along with Sekuru Kaguvi were arraigned in the High Court of Matabeleland that sat in Salisbury on February 20 1898 and were subsequently convicted on March 2 1898 in a case entered as “The (British) Queen against Nehanda”. They were sentenced to death by hanging. The execution was authorised by the (British) High Commissioner for South Africa, one Alfred Milner, and endorsed by the (British) Imperial Secretary on March 28 1898. The presiding judge was Judge Watermayer, with Herbert Hayton Castens Esquire, as “the acting Public Prosecutor Sovereign within the British South Africa Company territories, who prosecutes for and on behalf of her majesty”. The warrant for Mbuya Nehanda’s death commanded that she be executed within the wall of the gaol of Salisbury between the hours of 6 and 10 in the afternoon. A Roman Catholic priest, one Fr Richertz, was assigned to convert Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi, Hwata and Zindoga. It is said the hapless Catholic priest failed to make headway with Mbuya Nehanda but managed to convert Sekuru Gumboreshumba, whom he baptised as Dismas, the ‘‘good’’ thief. Gutsa, Hwata and Zindoga were also converted and similarly hanged. According to Fr Richertz’s account, Mbuya Nehanda “ . . . called for her people and wanted to go back to her own country Mazoe and die there . . . When I saw that nothing could be done with her, the time of the execution having arrived, I left Nehanda and went to Kaguvi who received me in good dispositions. Whilst I was conversing with him, Nehanda was taken to the scaffold. Her cries and resistance, when she was taken up the ladder, the screaming and yelling disturbed my conversation with Kaguvi very much, till the noisy opening of the trap door upon which she stood, followed by the heavy thud of her body as it fell, made an end to the interruption”, he wrote. Fr Richertz, however, conveniently forgot to mention the other words Mbuya Chahwe said to him, that “Mapfupa angu achamuka (my bones will surely rise)”. Fr Richertz may have considered it heresy, especially from a woman who had refused to be converted to “Christianity”, but he did not know that the settler regime had just killed the mediums of the Nehanda and Kaguvi spirits but the spirits proper remained to influence the war effort. Sixty-eight years later, Mbuya Nehanda’s prophesy came true when seven of her bones rose up in style on April 28  1966 to fire the first shots of the Second Chimurenga war. They struck just five months after Smith announced his Universal Declaration of Independence (UDI) and 20 months after the Rhodesian regime banned the nationalist movements Zapu and Zanu in August 1964. AMBUYA Nehanda It is not clear whether it was by design or providence that the seven cadres intended to hit on the exact date Nehanda was executed but were somehow delayed by logistical problems and did so a day later. The seven cadres — Simon Chingosha Nyandoro, Godwin Manyerenyere, Christopher Chatambudza, Arthur Maramba, Chubby Savanhu, Godfrey Dube and David Guzuzu — who entered the country from Zambia struck near Manyame River in Chinhoyi. Their aim was to destroy power pylons to cut off electricity coming from Kariba Dam and plunge the country into darkness. This was supposed to be the signal for other groups that were strategically placed in towns like Mutare, Rusape, Chegutu and Mvuma that the war against the Smith regime had begun. Lack of proper equipment and explosives saw the cadres fail to bring down the pylons near Lions Den, the Rhodesians got wind of the operation and descended on the people who were harbouring them. But the gallant fighters, who had retreated to Golden Kopje, dared the Rhodesians to come out and fight, and the cowardly Rhodies came complete with helicopter gunships and all sorts of weapons to face seven men armed only with AK-47 assault rifles. The seven commandos gave as much as they took as the battle lasted from about 9am to around 4pm. Eyewitness accounts say several helicopters and scores of Rhodesian soldiers were gunned down and littered the battle scene when the seven cadres were finally wiped out. It is important to note that they were only overcome because they had inferior weapons and ran out of ammunition, while the enemy was armed to the teeth and had the advantage of going back to base to replenish both ammunition and manpower. The bodies of the seven cadres were never seen again after the Rhodesians took them. The nationalist leaders learnt a lot from the battle of Chinhoyi and future incursions inflicted heavy losses on the Rhodesian regime that was finally brought to its false knees in 1979. In the intervening period, another milestone again occurred, on April 4 1975, when Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe, who had just been released from an 11-year incarceration by the Smith regime, crossed into Mozambique in the company of Cde Edgar Tekere. The following is the verbatim account of the crossing that President Mugabe gave during an interview with Power FM ahead of his 82nd birthday in 2006. “It was on Saturday morning and we decided to leave in the afternoon of that day. Old Tangwena, late now, Chief (Rekayi) Tangwena at whose home we had slept was instructed by his wife to lead us. Mai Tangwena vaisvikirwa, vakati zvanzi izvo iwe Tangwena pachako tungamirira vana ava. So he accompanied us. There we were, we had two young men carrying our bags and I think there were five of us and we decided to cross the border. “There was this big boundary road they called Bhinya. It was also so called after the name of the person who was chief native commissioner . . . I will think of it. We had to cross the broad road, not tarred, but just a dirt road, gravel, not tarred because it was meant to facilitate the vigilance that the Rhodesians kept on the people. “So we crossed that, after looking at both sides of the road, we moved on and at night we had to cross rivers. There was a small river that we crossed and upon putting our shoes back, I could not distinguish the right from the left. Ndakaita sambuya vangu vaimbouya kuchurch vakapfeka matennis vachiti yekurudyi yoenda uku (laughs indicating his left foot). Ndakatozoona zuva ratobuda kuti that was the disaster that had attended my feet. “You know the Tangwenas had been fighting for Gaerezi Ranch. It was that resistance, vaivingwa from time to time vachipfurwa. Ndiro chaidzo dzaiboorwa nemabullets kuti vabve, their children were all taken away to a school somewhere, but they resisted. We got to a village where two headmen vekwaTangwena decided to get away from this problem and settled on the Mozambican side, and two headmen had remained. So they were four. “We were drenched, very wet and we needed fire, so early in the morning fire was lit for us outside. I noticed that my shoes had done harm to my toes and we were not prepared to continue. So we remained there for quite some time. Kwakanga kusina masoja eFrelimo akawanda, so we had to relay our presence to them, and from that place word was sent ahead that we were there and we then got to a base that was close to Tete, this place was called Vam-Vam. “We were at Vam-Vam for quite some time that’s where we met vana Mao and others who had been recruited in Highfield. From there we were taken along a road in the direction of a town yaimbonzi Villa Guveya, now Katandika. It was while we were at Vam-Vam that Mozambique celebrated its independence. We stayed at Katandika for a month or two. From Katandika we were taken to Chimoio, and there we met many more and now we were moving with other comrades that we had met along the way. “That is where we met vanaChamu (Oppah Muchinguri) vachiri vadiki and many others. We had some students from university, vana (Zororo) Duri, vana (Christopher) Mutsvangwa vana Gula Ndebele, vana (John) Mayowe, who had left university, we met them there. “There were about 5 000 to 6 000 of us kuChimoio. It was a little outside the town, and then the governor decided that some of our cadres who had been trained who were in Tete should be informed about our presence. There were about three ladies and mukuru wavo akavatora ndiMai (Joice) Mujuru, and there were about four or five male cadres. So they came and saw us and came back, and we asked them to take control because they were trained cadres. “So that was the journey, and all the while we were with Chief Tangwena, right up to the end taive naChief Tangwena, and when we came back, we came back with him also. He was quite a gallant cadre, very strong,” President Mugabe said. The President was to gallantly lead the war effort from Mozambique for the next five years. He participated in all the peace initiatives up to the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference of September 10 to December 15 1979 that paved way for the first democratic elections in March 1980. It was a month later, again in April, that the new Zimbabwe was born on April 18. This was the month that the Union Jack was pulled down and the Zimbabwean flag, as we know it, rose majestically in its place at midnight on April 18 as the heir to the British throne Prince Charles and Governor Lord Soames saluted the new nation and its people. This was the day that defined us as a people as the then Prime Minister-elect, Cde Mugabe, laid out the policy of reconciliation in his maiden address, much to the amazement of terrified Rhodies who thought they would be made to account for their war crimes. That is April, a month that traces a century of resistance, from Nehanda to Mugabe.

Quisling politics and myth of the White Man’s Burden

Outsiders, Westerners to be specific, are not stakeholders in our politics. They do not have a “burden’’ to “civilise’’ us in the virtues of neo-liberal democracy.

Caesar Zvayi

When I was six, my mother bought me a cup that was emblazoned with the Zimbabwean Flag on one side. It was a white cup from Kango. I didn’t allow anyone to drink from that cup. There was hell to pay for anyone who dared put his/her lips — no matter how shapely — on its precious rim. And being the last born in a family of six, I always got my way after each tantrum. I, however, forgot to pack my cup when I transferred to start my Grade Five in the city, at Kurai Primary School in Kambuzuma to be specific. The excitement of the bus ride to the city and the prospect of all that the bright lights of the city promised made me forget my precious cup. I never saw it again as I later heard that its disappearance had coincided with the visit of an aunt whose fingers were reputed to be as long as her skinny limbs. I believe we should all approach our National Flag, Coat of Arms, National Anthem, finite and infinite resources, in fact everything to do with our beautiful country with the same possessive jealousy. This is my point of departure with some people perspiring for national leadership who approach matters of State with the lackadaisical attitude of the Tragedy of the Commons. That dilemma, captured in an article titled “The Tragedy of the Commons” that was first published in the journal Science in 1968, arising from the situation in which several individuals, acting independently and rationally but in their own self-interest, ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in anyone’s long-term interest for this to happen. It appears to MDC-T leader — Morgan Tsvangirai — our country is such a commons, he seems to mistake it for a medieval pasture where all are free to graze. The MDC-T leader was quoted in the Western and local media as telling his Western handlers to “insist on the necessary reforms to create a conducive environment for free and fair elections.’’ A euphemism for illegal regime change. News flash, Mr Prime Minister; the only acceptable regime change will be one effected by Zimbabweans. “My call to the world is, ‘You must insist on the necessary reforms to create a conducive environment for free and fair elections and a lasting solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe.’ Zimbabwe can’t afford isolation and continued vilification by the world. Above all we don’t want to be treated like a pariah state. We need the international community to ensure that the will of the people is respected.” Tsvangirai, who was in London to address an African business summit, said on Monday. Quite surprising sentiments from a man who signed the so-called GPA that, in Article IX that deals with external interference, abhors foreign meddling in our domestic affairs. All three parties to the inclusive Government concurred in section 9.2 (a) that ‘‘the responsibility of effecting change of Government in Zimbabwe vests exclusively on and is the sole prerogative of the people of Zimbabwe through peaceful, democratic and constitutional means.’’ And in subsection (c) that ‘‘no outsiders have a right to call or campaign for regime change in Zimbabwe’’. So where does Tsvangirai see Westerners fitting in, in this scheme of things? For a man who claims the GPA is his Bible, Tsvangirai seemed blissfully ignorant that he was speaking ultra vires provisions of the same GPA he claims to uphold and defend. A GPA that was signed and implemented with the express objective of “fostering an environment of socio-economic and political stability in readiness for fresh elections.’’   A responsibility Tsvangirai seeks to outsource to outsiders as if they have a stake in our politics. Which African country has ever been invited to “ensure that the will of the people is respected’’ in any Western plebiscite? Why does Tsvangirai seek to perpetuate the myth of the so-called White Man’s Burden? It is high time the MDC-T leader realised that even though he is a willing cat’s paw for Western interests, quisling politics should start and end at Harvest House, they have no place in the wider nation. Outsiders have no role to play in our domestic affairs let alone elections even if they sponsor, illegally at that, one or more of the contestants. If he dreams of ever presiding over this country as Head of State and Government, the MDC-T leader must uphold the sanctity of our independence and sovereignty. Not surprisingly, Tsvangirai took the opportunity to swipe at the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme that has already hit the grassroots through community share ownership schemes. It does not pay, politically, to slam such pro-people policies in favour of jobs. Any sane or knowledgeable person knows that to develop to the levels attained by Western countries that grew on the back of exploiting the developing world, African countries and others in the developing world need genuine, wealth-creating middle classes, and these only come from owning the means of production. This is where Zanu-PF got it right through the land reform program and the indigenisation and economic empowerment policies. While one invites polite applause by slamming these policies in western capitals, among the progressive, such utterances invite ridicule. The jobs the MDC-T harps about create “middle income earners” or comprador bourgeoisies who front multinational corporations not the middle class we envisage and which is emerging in Zimbabwe. A real middle class does not draw salaries, it pays them. It does not create wealth for other nations but its own motherland. And this will not come from a “jobs policy” but from indigenisation and economic empowerment. A progressive leader would also have taken the platform like the one Tsvangirai was given in London to slam the ruinous economic sanctions that, in fact militate against the attainment of an environment conducive for the holding of free and fair elections. London offered Tsvangirai a perfect opportunity to call for the lifting of sanctions in light of the impending re-engagement talks set for Brussels. But that would have been expecting too much from a man whose brain seems to become foggy, the moment he sets foot on the foggy Isles where his biggest gaffes have always manifested. ‘‘Zimbabwe can’t afford isolation and continued vilification by the world. Above all we don’t want to be treated like a pariah state. “We need the international community to ensure that the will of the people is respected,” Tsvangirai quipped without a sense of irony. Of course, I am under no illusion that by “international community’’ Tsvangirai will be visualising the Anglo-Saxon alliance. How can the outside world take us seriously when you take every opportunity to badmouth your homeland Mr Tsvangirai? And you harp about security forces not being amenable to your kind of politics, how can they be amenable when everytime you open your mouth, you vindicate their assertion that you pose a security threat. Our country is not a commons, we own it and we alone have the right to decide its destiny. If you have grievances Mr Tsvangirai, or if there are loopholes you see in guaranteeing an environment conducive to the holding of free and fair elections, that is why you are in government. Fix the problems along with the other principals. You have your partners in the GPA, internal mechanisms like Jomic, guarantors in Sadc and the African Union to call upon if you have issues. Outsiders, Westerners to be specific, are not stakeholders in our politics. They do not have a “burden’’ to “civilise’’ us in the virtues of neo-liberal democracy. We had to fight protracted wars just to win the right to vote. Wars you had no stomach for. And to take the food from the mouths of their kith and kin to feed our impoverished people, we have to brace for gruelling fights even against our own brothers if they are willing to be used against their own. Do not give a black face to neo-colonial designs.