Newsday

Between the Lines Beniah Munengwa

11th June 2019

Title: White Man Walking

Author: John Eppel

Publisher: Mwanaka Media and Publishing (2018)

ISBN: 978-0-7974-9548-7

To be a person who lived on the other side of the fence always leaves one with a problem of binaries. One such man is John Eppel, a writer who finds himself in a category which fits many, the likes of David Coltart and Doris Lessing, who, however, find themselves belonging to neither side of the “racial” fence.

Just like Coltart, Eppel at one time found himself fighting on the side of the white man’s forces. Afterwards, we locate these two figures attempting to shed off those shackles of racist and imperialist terms to being the eye that explores and cautions both good and bad in either racial grouping.

In them, we find a quest of belonging and an attempt to fit in, into African humanity with every inch of their bone and not be seen as savages, as reverse racism now puts it.

The content of Eppel’s writing is that of a man who is in touch with the problems of either civilisation. He is a writer, who in an interview with Ambrose Musiyiwa, claimed to have
been strongly influenced by Charles Dickens’ focus on the marginalised people and he, himself, too has been marginalised, having had much of his manuscripts rejected by Zimbabwean
publishing houses.

One of the works that relate to his claim of being overtly African is his latest offering, White Man Walking. The name White Man Walking is, however, not new, having been used by American writer, Ward Brehm, for the book, White Man Walking: An American Businessman’s Spiritual Adventure in Africa.

In the new offering, Eppel explores the nuances of colonial and post-colonial existence in Zimbabwe. Some major recurring thematic concerns dealt with are the closeness to violence that
the government is, when dealing with anyone who seems to go against it.

One notable feature is that all stories were written while former President Robert Mugabe was still in power. The story, Democracy at Work and at Play, underscores the deep-rootedness
of Mugabeism, especially in rural communities. While the constitution-making process was supposed to be puritanical, the lack of accommodation of divergent thought and the underscored
vision of trying to convert the Constitution into another version of craft that extends Mugabe’s time in office takes charge.

Eppel, in an independent interview, highlighted: “My main concern in my prose is to ridicule greed, cruelty, self-righteousness and related vices like racism, sexism, jingoism, and
homophobia.”
With regard to his revelation, much of his stories pick up the strands that influence the way in which Zimbabwean governance and leadership unfolded.

He explains why he prefers to use satire in his writing saying: “I am under no illusion that my satires will make the slightest bit of difference, but nobody, not even those who are
ashamed of nothing, likes to be laughed at.”

Chiefly among Eppel’s subjects of satire is the greed associated with the politician or his wife. Symbolising it was the recurrent question, “Where’s my tub of Kentucky fries?”

In the short story, The Award Ceremony, instead of mourning the dead after a tragedy, the minister’s obese wife finds herself only caring about her Kentucky fries.

On a deeper look, the way the politician’s wife causes the suffering of innocent civilians and without feeling a sense of shame is synonymous with the bad girl tag associated with the
then First Lady, Grace Mugabe.

In the era of Mugabeism, the probability that anybody would be working for the Central Intelligence Organisation was very high. Such is the case of Mr Abednego Dolobenj, a school teacher in the story, Profile of a School Teacher.

The outstanding story for me is NGO Games, primarily because it explores the template formulae in which non-governmental organisations go through in their day-to- day running. Blended
with deep-set humour, Eppel portrays NGOs as organisations that thrive mainly on report writing and generation and less of any helpful initiatives.

This story falls under the same category as the author and poet’s thoughts, that “international organisations will not help a white artist, no matter how poor,” he is.

While the overall picture may portray Eppel’s satire as overtly pointed to the system heads, one cannot ignore that some of it is pointed at the general public, who foolishly assume
that they can unearth the roots of the system single-handedly. The end result, as shown in the stories, The Weight Loser and Sewage Pipe, where characters attempt to demonstrate against
the system and end up molested by people on the lower end of the system.

Eppel’s book stands as an independent project that is outstanding and refreshing on a different level, thanks to the meticulous input of the publisher. Thus in spite of a few errors, it
is a book that I can proudly add onto my library.

Zimeye

By Talent Gondo

10th June 2019

 Newly elected secretary general for the MDC led by Nelson Chamisa, Charlton Hwende has revealed that the party is crafting a robust conflict management strategy as a way of ensuring unity in the party.

In an interview with the Newsday, Hwende said:

If you fail to plan, then plan to fail. We need to do things differently. We’ve a five-year mandate and my immediate task is to kickstart the process of developing a five-year results-based strategic plan, a blue-print which will define our path to power towards 2023 or earlier as well as articulate the technical and administrative competencies required to achieve our strategic objectives.

Nestled in the five-year strategic plan are short-term milestones. These will include a rapid assessment of the party’s administrative performance in the last five years, focusing primarily on two questions: i) What is working and why?, and, ii) What is not working and why? Or what can we do differently?

This process will help us co-create a shared vision and plan of action for the technical arm of the party. We need to make strategic choices among competing priorities. And we can only do this if we’ve a strategy and plan in place. We are a learning movement.

We’ve a winning team, under the able leadership of a turn-around strategist, Advocate Chamisa. We’re part of the solution holders to the deep-seated, multi-faceted crisis facing our motherland. Our past performance in government is a public secret.

Our president was voted best minister for his work in the ICT ministry; Honourable Tendai Biti is without doubt the best-ever Finance minister to lead the Treasury; Senator David Coltart did exceptionally well in the Primary and Secondary Education portfolio; so did Professor Welshman Ncube in the Industry and Commerce ministry and Honourable Paurina Mpariwa as Labour minister.

We had a structural issue, which has its roots in the labour movement, our mother. The founding MDC constitution was heavily influenced by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions constitution, which has a very powerful office of secretary-general. This is a norm in most labour movements.

We’ve addressed this structural issue through constitutional amendments, which basically re-calibrated the balance of power to reflect the political reality, that the president is the head of our party. Conflicts are inevitable. In addition to the constitutional reforms, we are also working on developing a robust conflict management and resolution framework, a systemic tool to manage internal contradictions in the party.

The office of the SG is a complex technical and administrative construct with an institutional mandate to help the president and the leadership collective to effectively turn the party’s vision and mission into a path to a power programme of action. I’ll turn my relationship with the president and the leadership collective into a partnership to help the party continue to win elections and, more importantly, transform people’s lives. Our people are suffering and they need solutions.

The Standard

9th June 2019

By Blessing Mhlanga

FORMER Education minister David Coltart has painted a gloomy picture of the country’s education sector, saying lack of motivation among teachers will see schoolchildren paying a heavy price in future.

Coltart (DC), who was credited with turning around Zimbabwe’s education system after it took a heavy battering from the hyper-inflationary era of 2008, told our senior reporter Blessed Mhlanga (BM) in an exclusive interview that poor infrastructure had worsened the crisis.

He bemoaned the reversal of most of the policies that he introduced under former president Robert Mugabe.

Coltart, who was recently elected MDC’s treasurer-general, also spoke about the prospects of the party following its congress held last month where Nelson

Chamisa was elected to succeed founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Below are excerpts from the interview.

BM: As former Education minister, can you kindly tell us your view on the state of education in Zimbabwe right now?

DC: I am very distressed about the state of education. I think it’s in decline. We see the amount of anger among the teachers.

Teachers are the most important asset. If you don’t have teachers who are enthusiastic and committed, then you have serious problems in any education system.

We have a huge task to stabilise the education sector and I don’t have confidence in this government because I think they have their budgetary priorities all
wrong.

It needs a fundamental shift and change right at the core of government when it comes to the allocation of the budget.

You have to decide as a nation if education is going to be your number one priority.

It must be not just the theoretical budget, but the actual disbursement of monies.

To make that effective investment in education, you have to move resources from other areas, there is no way around it.

So I don’t see that happening with the present government.

I don’t see any change while they remain in power and for as long as that continues, I am afraid our education system is going to continue going down.

BM: What effect will this have on the nation?

DC: Well, it has a catastrophic effect because children are our future.

They are our most important resource and if you destroy the education sector or undermine it, you actually undermine an entire generation.

That means even if you get your other policies right, if you don’t have the accountants, the architects, the engineers, the doctors coming through your
system, you can have all the resources in the world, but you won’t be able to exploit them effectively.

That’s why education has to be a priority and it’s one of my anxieties.

BM: We have another four years in terms of the constitution with this government in power, what damage is being done to our education sector if there isn’t a
change? There are policies that you put in place as minister and some have been reversed. What are your thoughts on that?

DC: Well, its ultimately distressing. I am a grandfather now. So my own children have been educated, so it’s not only a personal concern to me or to my family,
but it’s a deep-rooted concern about the future of our nation and other people’s children at this juncture because I see unmotivated teachers.

I see the teaching materials are declining, you know they have introduced a new curriculum and they haven’t introduced text-books for that and that means this present generation of children being educated are getting a deficient education, so it needs urgent attention.

BM: Teachers have been calling for salary increments. Will this be a solution in this environment of high inflation?

DC: The problem about salary hikes is that in a hyperinflation environment you can put up a salary, but in real terms it makes no difference.

In fact, in real terms it’s a decline in teachers’ spending power.

There are core issues that go way beyond the education sector, which need to be addressed.

They deal with business confidence, they deal with, like I said just now, budgetary allocations and to get the right budgetary allocations, you have to take
pretty drastic actions like cutting the size of Cabinet.

You have to cut down on Cabinet perks.

You have to look at the amount of money that we spend in the security sector – the vast amount of money that we spend in the military and foreign trips and hiring planes and all these things – only by cutting those do you have resources necessary that you need to put into education.

Once you get those resources in there, then you can start working. But, and it’s a huge but, you have to get the whole economy functioning.

BM: Let’s look at the infrastructure in schools, we have seen children being forced to learn under trees, walk long distances to school. Is there a solution to this?

DC: I set in process a lot of plans that were not taken over by my successor; that is to establish the education transition fund, and the schools development fund, which if it had been kept going would have pretty much solved this.

I had an entire programme of academies that had only just started when I lost office and they haven’t been continued.

Unfortunately, a lot of our plans that we made in 2011, 2012 and 2013 have not been carried through and that is frustrating.

BM: Does this lack of infrastructure reflect in poor results, mostly in rural schools?

DC: We have an educational crisis right across. It’s not just rural schools. Obviously rural schools are more affected by the collapse, but we must not underestimate the national nature of this crisis.

BM: You are the MDC treasurer-general and if your party comes into government, what is your prescription to these problems.

DC: First of all, we have to deal with the macro problems of the economy, and our monetary and fiscal policy.

On the monetary policy, we have to abandon the bond note. We have to abandon the ability of the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to fuel inflation by issuing treasury bills and getting loans that are unsecured and mortgaging our children’s future by taking mines for current loans.

That has to change on your monetary policy.

We have to embrace either the rand or the US$ again, but it’s premature to think we can have a local currency, all that it’s going to do is fuel inflation.

We look at the fiscal policy – if you look at what Tendai Biti did as Finance minister, what he did is he said we eat what we kill and he instilled confidence in the banking sector and that in turn instilled confidence in foreign investment and domestic investment.

These are the macro issues you have to tackle. There are things I call philosophical issues.

We have to change our attitude, we cannot continue to arrest, harass our teachers and think that we are going to have a motivated teacher in the classroom.

We have to have a mature dialogue with the teaching profession. We did this in 2009, you know, when Biti and I sat down as ministers of finance and education.

We called in all the leaders of teacher trade unions and we showed them government books.

We said look we have no money to pay you, can we get you back into the classroom for US$100 per month and they came back because we had had that mature
discussion.

We didn’t try to dictate to them, we brought them in. None of us has a monopoly of intelligence in this county.

If we are to resolve our problems in this nation, we have to draw alongside professionals like teachers and say we have a collective problem here, how are we
going to resolve it and I don’t see that from this government.

This government sits from an ivory tower, issues directives and they tell people what to do and that’s not the way any efficient organisation works, never mind
the country.

BM: As the new treasurer-general of the MDC, what would you say is the future of the party?

DC: There are two things about the MDC and I have said this at all our party caucuses.

We have let down our membership in two fundamental ways in the past 20 years. Firstly, we allowed ourselves to be divided. I mean it’s ridiculous that someone
like Nelson Chamisa and I ended up in two separate entities because we have worked together for 20 years. We think the same way, the same with many of my other
colleagues in the MDC.

But the leadership was divided and that was a failure to our supporters and to the nation. It was a gift to Zanu-PF.

Secondly, we have not run this party as efficiently as it should be run and I have said this time and again, we can’t say to the electorate we can run
Zimbabwe well if we can’t run our own party well.

These are the challenges and for all that Zanu-PF has thrown at us, we can only blame ourselves for those two things – being divided and not running ourselves efficiently.

I think what you saw was the reestablishment of the party of the 11th of September 1999.

Those of us who were at Rufaro – and I was at Rufaro – I am now back with my colleagues and we are seeing the re-emergence of the founding principles of that
party.

We are dealing with the division issue and I hope we got a new leadership which is committed to run this party efficiently and then we take this party forward, united and efficiently.

BM: What entails efficiency in you view?

DC: Well, I mean fundamentally efficient. It’s like asking a businessman what constitutes efficiency. It actually starts in your home.

If the lawyers in my law practice don’t run their homes well, I am not convinced they can run the legal practice well.

So we have to start with our home and our home is the party. If our headquarters building is in shambles, if our party offices are derelict, if our staff members are not being paid, then we are not running our home correctly.

We have got to start there. So we have to start with the nuts and bolts of running the party, that’s the first step.

We have got to get our family in order. Once we have done that then we gradually expand and we go to the core, to our membership and ultimately we go to the nation.

Sunday Mail (ZANU PF propaganda)

By Ranga Mataire

9th June 2019

Last week’s instalment of Writing Back torched a storm from both Rhodies who once served in the notorious Selous Scouts unit and the usual ‘black’ liberals who were apocalyptic in their condemnation of the article referring to it as a “diversionary anecdote” or rather an antidote to the current challenges the country was facing.

Some shouted that Coltart was not a Selous Scout, but a BSAP officer. It is as if blacks must pick a favourite from the many inter-feeding tentacles of a single Rhodesian security beast.

Rhodies’ responses were rather amusing but predictably unrelenting, unapologetic, impenitent and even tried to add some detail to what they called their “pride contribution in the fight against terrorism and preservation of white privilege.”

Both reactions, from the Rhodies and pretentious “black liberals” reminded me that, far from having crossed the colonial Rubicon, our thinking, our perspectives, our memory and our vision have at a subconscious level been so damaged that we think that the past no longer matters to our current state of affairs.

One needs not go far to see how active Rhodies are in preserving their “history” in colonial Rhodesia. The social media is awash with numerous Rhodie websites which commemorates specific dates of “victory”.

As it happens, a South African journalist secretly added my name to one of these Rhodie social media groups as a way for me to gauge the thinking of present day Rhodies.

In no time, I was fished out. One member, Leon Dietrich, now a resident of South Africa, bitterly complained about my presence, screaming and frothing: “ADMIN…..PLEASE REMOVE THESE MEMBERS AS THEY ARE NOT LIKE MINDED AND DO NOT SYNC WITH OUR GROUP.”

But before being shown the exit, I was a victim of verbal lashing and was “re-schooled” about Rhodesian history.

One member had no kind words for the MDC Secretary for Finance, David Coltart, whom he described as a coward who had rushed to South Africa just before Zimbabwe’s independence to get an education as a way of “cleansing himself” of blame in the murder of the black populace.

While any sane person will find the discussions on Rhodie online platforms repulsive and repugnant, one surely has to respect how this group – defeated, isolated and scattered as it is – still strives to preserve and safeguard its history and memory.

Ironically, and in contrast, the same black liberals that cheer these same Rhodies and excuse their past are the ones that constantly peddle the line that the past no longer matters.

The same past that the Rhodies preserve, is the one that their black askaris tell us we should forget.

History indeed matters. History is crucial in making us understand the linkages between past and present and in turn have a better understanding of the condition of being human.

Penelope J. Corfield of the University of London places history at the centre of all human development saying the past “is essential for ‘rooting’ people.”

Indeed, people who are rootless live rootless lives, often causing a lot of damage to themselves and others in the process.

And our black hero Steve Biko also teaches us that people without a knowledge of history are like a car without an engine, they just cannot move. As a people once colonised, we need to re-affirm, re-assert and re-construct our well-being for future generations. Colonialism left mental scars on our faculties. This is why Thomas Sankara says: “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

I think we must never make a mistake of thinking that the New Dispensation is about the abrogation of history and memory. Far from it, the November 2017 transition was and is about reconnecting with the foundational ethos of the revolutionary ZANU-PF. It was and is about restoring the Legacy of the selfless sacrifice of thousands of black people who fought side by side with armed freedom fighters to dislodge colonial rule.

This is precisely the reason why President Emmerson Mnangagwa this week had to issue a warning that the mantra “Zimbabwe is Open for Business” does not mean that Zimbabwe is open for abuse.

Of course, Zimbabwe is conscious of a changing world; a connected world that entails engaging with everyone for the bilateral good. But that does not mean we engage blindfolded, unconscious of history and how that history informs the present and the future.

We seriously need to disabuse ourselves of the notion of being defined by artificial time-markers. In the words of Dr Tafataona Mahoso, “slavery, apartheid and colonialism are all characterised by splitting, which is why our discourse is presented as pre-colonial, pre-modern, post-colonial, pre-modern, post-colonial, post-modern and even post-racial, according to Barak Obama.”

We still have not transcended the Rubicon. Our struggle is far from over. We need to reflect on why Rhodesians are still fervently concerned about preserving their history and memory and yet as blacks we are told to put the past behind us. Rhodesian writers like Jim Parker and Peter Stiff continue to write narratives that glorify and extol Rhodesia.

It is not a case of self-appeasement, it is about maintaining and preserving their own memory. Memory makes one rooted. Memory is the fuel that propels a sense of pride and works as a springboard for inspirational reference for future generations.

President Mnangagwa is conscious of history and how it informs the present. The revolution he is leading is not a battle of fine catch-phrases, fiery speeches and populist rhetoric. The revolution he is leading in the Second Republic is not about sloganeering or coming up with code-words. The revolution he is leading is about the collective effort of all nationals in transforming reality and improving the concrete situation of the masses.

Newsday

Guest column Dumisani Nkomo

7th June 2019

THIS article seeks to explore the efficacy of elections as a tool of democratic governance in Zimbabwe since 1980.

It is by no means exhaustive, but in a brief and cursory manner looks at the merits and demerits of elections in their current form in Zimbabwe. I would like to argue that elections have been done ritually and religiously since 1980, but elections thus far have failed to deliver democratic governance since independence.

However, elections are the only way in which leaders and governments can be put in place. In the absence of other alternatives, they remain the only legitimate democratic avenue of collective political expression. My argument is that there have to be widespread electoral and political reforms before elections become a tool for effective governance and conflict transformation.

It is, however, unlikely that the incumbents will be amenable to any reforms that may erode or compromise their grip on power.

Brief history of elections in Zimbabwe

Since 1980, election results have been disputed, with the 1980 elections being held amid allegations of widespread voter intimidation and undue external influence on the electoral process.

It was alleged by PF Zapu that Zanu PF had embarked on nationwide terror campaigns in order to coerce voters into electing their party into power. It was further alleged that a large number of Zanla combatants had not gone into designated assembly points, but instead Zanu PF had deployed a large number of mujibhas and chimbwidos into the assembly points, while trained guerrillas continued to cause havoc in many rural areas.

The 1985 elections were held while the Gukurahundi massacres were underway and the main opposition, PF Zapu at that time, had its offices and operations curtailed. Most of their top leaders such as Sydney Malunga, Vote Moyo, Steve Vuma, Stephen Nkomo as well as Lookout Masuku and Dumiso Dabengwa, were in detention.

Central intelligence officials and the then newly-created notorious Police Internal Security Intelligence, the youth brigades and the Fifth Brigade had lists of PF Zapu officials in each district of Matabeleland/Midlands and went village by village wantonly killing and abducting PF Zapu officials, and the likes of Frasser Sibanda from Mpopoma, Bulawayo, were abducted never to be seen again.

Elections were still held and surprisingly, PF Zapu won all 15 seats in Matabeleland, but lost seats in the Midlands and Mashonaland West where Zanu PF had targeted its supporters. The elections then were not free and fair.

In 1990, after the 1987 Unity Accord, the main opposition was the Zimbabwe Unity Movement led by Edgar Tekere and his party was exposed to a lot of State vagaries and brutalities, with Patrick Kombayi, then a leading ZUM official, being shot by intelligence agents. In spite of a sterling performance, ZUM was soundly beaten and the system of first-past-the-post ensured that they had few seats in Parliament.

The 2000 parliamentary elections and 2002 presidential elections were some of the most violent and unfair elections in the history of the country with the advent of the Movement for Democratic Change. There was wide-scale intimidation, murder and abductions of opposition supporters and officials, with the likes of David Coltart’s election agent Patrick Nabanyama being abducted and scores killed in cold blood.

The State media was brazenly partisan, chiefs were whipped into line and land redistribution was done on partisan lines. Repressive and archaic laws such as the Public Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act were introduced. The then Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC disputed the elections and filed election petitions.

The same script happened in the 2008 elections, where Zanu PF and its candidate former President Robert Mugabe were beaten in the elections by the MDC. Election results were delayed and there was no outright winner according to the electoral management body.

The opposition complained bitterly and a run-off for the presidential elections was held. After thousands of opposition supporters were beaten and abducted, Tsvangirai pulled out of the race. A political and electoral impasse ensued and a Government of National Unity was formed after mediation by South Africa’s then President Thabo Mbeki.

In 2013, Zanu PF won both the parliamentary and presidential elections amid allegations of massive rigging, which, however, could not be proved. It was a scenario of everybody knowing that they had been pick-pocketed, but not being sure how the electoral pick-pocketing had been done.

Of course, there was also massive internal structural, strategic and political discord in the opposition that contributed to the loss, including splitting of votes between the opposition parties. This aside, the history of systematic and smart militarisation of electoral and political processes continued and has become embedded in our collective electoral DNA.

This is not helped by weak internal democracy within major opposition parties, where more often than not the most violent or corrupt end up winning as candidates as evidenced in the last elections, where the number of women candidates decreased due to increased intra-party violence .

The 2018 elections were predictably again disputed by the MDC Alliance, but it is pretty obvious that after a coup, the incumbents were not going to give away power on a silver platter. The new political establishment, jettisoned into power through a military coup needed the elections to be baptised and confirmed as legitimate, while the opposition saw it as a democratic opportunity to conquer power.

It was obvious that at any and every means, the new/old political-military establishment needed to win the elections and they made sure they did, because the consequences of losing after a military takeover were monumental .

Once again, for 2023, the script is the same. Party/State conflation rules the roost, traditional leaders continue to be partisan, food distribution is politicised, the composition of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission secretariat is questionable and State media is an extension of the ruling party.

The first-past-the-post system continues marginalising minority voices and so-called smaller parties with key geo-political interests and positions will continue to be sidelined. It is unlikely that the 2013 elections will deliver a different result. The script remains the same.

The actors can change, but unless the script is changed, the results will be the same and Zimbabweans will be crying foul once again. Elections in Zimbabwe are like, as one person described, “two lions and one sheep deciding what to have for supper “.

I am not saying elections are useless, but in the absence of far-reaching reforms such as:

• Independence of the electoral management body
• A clean voters roll and a transparent process of voter registration
• Punitive measures for partisan traditional leaders
• Depoliticisation of food distribution and inputs
• Demilitarisation of elections – especially involvement in the electoral management body secretariat
• Media reforms
• Respect for the Constitution and upholding of fundamental human rights
• Deharmonising local government elections from presidential elections so that local government elections focus on local issues, and quality meritocratic leadership
• Proportional representation in Parliament – it has its own disadvantages though, but the first-past-the-post system entrenches big man politics .

In the absence of these reforms, elections remain a mere political ritual carried out religiously to legitimise incumbents at the altar of political convenience.
Mayibuye.

AllAfrica.com

4th June 2019

By Elia Ntali

Zimbabwe’s President Mnangagwa has called for open debate on massacres in the 1980s that he allegedly masterminded. Many are unconvinced.

President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa was Minister for State Security at the time of the Gukurahundi massacres. Credit: DIRCO News Service/ Jacoline Schoonees.

In 1983, Nqobizitha Mhlaleri was ten years old when a bloody massacre in western Zimbabwe destroyed his community and left him an orphan.

“I was made to step on dead bodies including my parents’,” he says, now aged 46. “The soldiers were ruthless. They left a trail of disaster.”

Nobuhle Ndlovu, 68, recounts a similar tale of violence.

“I was pregnant then when six men arrived at our home enquiring of any suspicious men around the village,” she says. “They accused us of harbouring dissidents. I was told to lie face down… The next thing were gunshots and they left. When I went to check, I saw my husband in a pool of blood. He had been shot in the head.”

In Matabeleland and the Midlands, many people have similarly traumatic experiences from the 1980s when political tensions spilled into mass atrocities. Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 to much jubilation, but from the start, tensions simmered between two rival groups: Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which won the 1980 elections, and Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU).

In 1983, their antagonism erupted into violence when ZANU-led government decided to crack down on ZAPU supporters. The Fifth Brigade, a military unit trained by the North Korean army, swept through provinces in Matebeleland and the Midlands, where ZAPU support – much of which came from the minority Ndebele people – derived. The operation was codenamed Gukurahundi, which translates in Shona as “the rain that washes away the chaff”. From 1983 to 1987, security forces targeted thousands of Ndebele with torture, detention and summary execution. An estimated 20,000 people were killed.

The man widely alleged to have masterminded the massacres, Emmerson Mnangagwa, became Zimbabwe’s president in 2017.

A moment of madness?

This period of violence effectively ended in December 1987 when former President Mugabe and Nkomo signed the Unity Accord. As part of this, ZANU and ZAPU merged to become the ZANU-PF party. In the following months, an amnesty was announced for both security forces and dissidents who had committed violations.

The Gukurahundi massacres ended but the underlying issues and impact of the chaos remained unresolved and unaddressed. President Mugabe commissioned an NGO report and appointed the Chihambakwe Commission of Inquiry to investigate the violence. But the commission’s findings were never made public. Many Ndebele communities were left devastated and alone to cope with the trauma and loss, passing on the pain from generation to generation.

“The Gukurahundi issue is still unresolved 36 years after it occurred,” says David Coltart, Zimbabwe’s former minister for Education, Sport, Arts and Culture. “There are no memorials. There are still mass graves. There was never any compensation of victims.”

According to Coltart, the closest the government has come to apologising for the havoc it wrought was in 2000 when Mugabe referred to the massacres as “a moment of madness”. Beyond that, little has been done to atone for the widespread violence. Many Ndebele still suffer from the wounds of the Gukurahundi, which were made even harder to bear when Mugabe was removed from office and replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa in November 2017.

At the time of the Gukurahundi, Mnangagwa was the minister for state security and oversaw the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). He is widely believed to have played a central role in the massacres. He now not only occupies Zimbabwe’s top job, but has brought other key figures accused of leading the massacres with him.

“The First Brigade was then headed by Dominic Chinenge and the Fifth Brigade was headed by Perence Shiri,” says Coltart. “The CIO provided lists of ZAPU private operatives to the Fifth Brigade who deployed troops to villagers, whilst the First Brigade provided with logistical support.”

Dominic Chinenge (aka Constantino Chiwenga) is now Vice-President. Perence Shiri is Agriculture Minister.

“We need to talk about reparations, justice, and truth-telling”

Since coming to office, President Mnangagwa has made some efforts to address the grievances of the Ndebele community. In March 2019, for instance, he agreed to meet with representatives of the Matebeleleland Collective, a consortium of regional civil society organisations. For Jenny Williams, convener of the collective, the time was right to meet with the new government.

“Despite the pain still felt and shared by people of this region, we realistically told each other that it is time to engage the government of Zimbabwe,” she says.

That decision may have borne some fruit. In the weeks following the meeting, Mnangagwa appealed to Zimbabweans to talk freely about the massacres. “Let’s open a debate so as not to fear anything”, he said. The government also suggested plans to exhume and rebury victims, provide counselling and medical services, and issue documents to displaced survivors.

These moves have so far split opinion. Dr Dumisani Ngwenya, a member of the Matebeleleland Collective, is cautiously optimistic.

“It does seem as if there is a more of a movement now than previously… People are a little freer to talk about it in public,” he says. “Only time will tell whether this is a genuine move or not, but for now we have no reason to doubt the intention at least.”

Many others, however, are far less convinced. Political analyst Gift Ostallos Siziba, for instance, suggests that it is “folly” to believe progress is being made without more comprehensive redress.

“We need to talk about reparations, justice, and truth-telling,” he says. “These are fundamentals that need to be discussed.”

He stresses Mnangagwa’s alleged role in the Gukurahundi massacres and suggests the president is obscuring the reality of what happened.

“He is not going to open up. That’s why he was arresting those viewed as threats to the process of truth telling,” says Siziba, referring to the arrest of journalist Zenzele Ndebele after he called on the president to address what happened in the 1980s. “Mnangagwa is putting lipstick [on the issue], trying to cajole the international community [by] talking about something that he is a perpetrator of.”Close

Researcher Tjenesani Ntungakwa echoes some of these views and suggests that only an independent body can honestly adjudicate.

“Everyone who was involved in these atrocities does not want to come out clean,” he says. “There is a need to have an independent commission manned by the church. The first people to bring facts on the issue [of human rights abuses committed in the Gukurahundi massacres] was the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP).”

A collective healing

Across Matebeleleland and the Midlands, the impact of the violence in the 1980s continues to be felt. For survivors like Nqobizitha, the lack of redress has made it hard to move on.

“It continues to haunt me even in my sleep,” he says.

He and thousands of others are still awaiting acknowledgement from the government, an apology and meaningful compensation. It is hard to say whether the fact that Mnangagwa – the man many believe to have been the violence’s key architect – is now president helps their cause or not.

Either way, for many, the Gukurahundi massacres continue to loom over Zimbabwe 36 years after they began. On the one hand, these ongoing grievances feed into the minority Ndebele’s long-standing feelings of marginalisation. But on the other, some argue that the issue is about more than just one group; it strikes at the heart of the kind of nation Zimbabwe should be.

“You cannot say it should be a Matebeleland thing,” says researcher Mbuso Fuzwayo. “It is something where national resources were spent to carry out the exercise and we should approach it with the national outlook to say: ‘What form of Zimbabwe do we want?'”

Read the original of this report, including embedded links and illustrations, on the African Arguments site.Tagged:

Newsday

29th May 2019

BY BLESSED MHLANGA/ BRENNA MATENDERE

THE just-ended MDC congress was a logistical nightmare, with the party failing to meet set timelines and pushing voting into the dead of the night.

Already, knives are out for organising secretary Amos Chibaya, who stands accused of failing to co-ordinate processes and leaving the congress in shambles, only to be saved by determined delegates.

Congress failed to kick off on time on Friday, with the youth and women assemblies failing to receive reports from the outgoing leaders.

Election of the youth assembly leaders ran into the night, resulting in women elections being deferred to Sunday.

There were also concerns over the snail pace of the voting process, which saw some delegates giving up, thereby denying them the right to vote for their candidates of choice.

Chibaya, however, defended the processes and said everything was done above board.

“It is not true that the youths voting process was deliberately pushed into the night. According to the programme, Friday was for travel and voting. So although some youths were early birds and pitched up early in the morning, the voting could only begin after all had arrived. For example, youths from Shurugwi and Kwekwe understandably came early, but remember, we had others from far places like Kariba, Binga, Chiredzi and so on. So it was not a delay or deliberate move to push voting into the night,” he said.

He also attributed the postponement of the women assembly voting from Friday to Sunday to the “unforeseen lengthy deliberations in the thematic committees”.

“The congress was not only about voting. Soon after official opening, we broke into thematic committee groups, whose ideas were significant in shaping our resolutions and defining the path for change. So that process took long and had to see voting for women assembly being done the following day. Accusations against the organising department are baseless. We had adequate lighting at night and even when Zesa cut us off, Plan B was already there and night was like noon,” the Mkoba legislator said.

Chibaya was accused of setting up one polling station and failing to open polls early until party president Nelson Chamisa and Jacob Mafume had to intervene late in the afternoon.

Polls only opened at 11am, with Manicaland province taking to the ballot first until around 4pm.

Chamisa had to order the opening of more polling stations and purchase of ballot buckets when the few that had been made available were fast used up, further delaying the voting process.

Out of the 6 200 accredited delegates, close to 4 400 voted in the elections, while some could not because they did not carry their national identity cards with them.

Some delegates alleged that they were turned away and failed to cast their ballots despite having their names on the voters roll.

Mfundo Mlilo, the spokesperson of an independent election commission appointed by the MDC to run the congress polls, dismissed allegations of victimising voters, saying some delegates were denied the right to vote due to enhanced mechanisms of transparency.

“In order for one to vote, they had to have their name on the voters roll and have an ID to prove their identity. So if your name was in the roll, but you did not have an ID, you could not vote,” the civic rights activist said.

The voting process, although slow, was conducted in the full glare of external observers and journalists, while the counting and verification was done in the open with cameras allowed in every process.

A number of congress delegates were unhappy with the manner in which the party handled planning and logistics.

A senior official, who refused to be named, said the MDC was saved by a committed and dedicated team of supporters.

“This is the worst congress we have had in our existence. The organising secretary let us down. Transport was not co-ordinated. We failed to finish on time and accommodation for our delegates was the worst,” the senior member said.

In a wide-ranging interview, new treasurer-general David Coltart committed to change the manner in which the MDC would be run going forward.

He said his duty was to introduce efficiency to the party and ensure all its programmes were well-funded, while infrastructure was maintained.

Pindula News

28th May 2019

The newly elected MDC Treasurer General, David Coltart has called upon the citizenry to lower their expectations both nationally and in the party. He said that issues grounding Zimbabwe are deep-rooted hence would need a lot of determination. The former Education minister said that if Chamisa would become the president of Zimbabwe soon, he would not be able to turn fortunes around within a very limited space of time.

The Zimbabwe Mail

27th May 2019

Gweru, Harare – Zimbabwe’s main opposition has elected Nelson Chamisa as its next president and a new team of national executive in its first congress since the death of its revered founder, Morgan Tsvangirai.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) elected Chamisa unopposed, boosting a party plagued by infighting since Tsvangirai’s death and battered by an election defeat.

Tsvangirai appointed Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri as party co-vice presidents before succumbing to colon cancer in February 2018.

Chamisa, 41, then took the party helm, becoming its champion in the first presidential elections since the authoritarian Robert Mugabe was ousted.

He lost the historic ballot to incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa, an outcome that he says was rigged.

The biggest casualty at the MDC Alliance’s elective congress in Gweru, Zimbabwe, at the weekend is outgoing secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora.

Mwonzora was initially earmarked to challenge for the party’s leadership at the congress but failed to get nominations, leaving party leader Nelson Chamisa uncontested.

As such, he reverted to defend his position against a Chamisa ally, Charlton Hwende, and Fortune Daniel Molokele. Hwende emerged the winner with a resounding 2,099 votes to Mwonzora’s 721, while Molokele was third with 577.

The vice-presidency was a predictable affair, with Tendai Biti and Prof Welshman Ncube joined by Lynette Kore as the third pick.

David Coltart is the new treasurer-general and the chairman is Thabitha Khumalo, her deputy being Job Sikhala.

Morgan Tsvangirai’s daughter, Vimbai, was elected women’s assembly secretary-general in her absence.

Meanwhile, guest of honour Ugandan musician and leader of the People Power Movement political party, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, known by his stage name, Bobi Wine, performed a version of his Uganda … sleeping mama land at the congress on Sunday.

He substituted “Uganda” for “Zimbabwe” and bellowed, “… Chamisa we are the future, we are the change we badly need. We are the leaders of the future, and the future is today,” as the MDC Alliance’s delegation at the high table stood up to join the firebrand Ugandan MP.

Chamisa joined the performance, chanting, “Put your hands up if you love Chamisa, and put your hands up if you love the MDC”.

In his address, Bobi Wine said Zimbabwean and Ugandan opposition politicians are fighting the same cause against tyranny that has led to heartbreak.

“The story of many African countries has been a story of unfulfilled hopes and broken dreams… you are all familiar with our history. Our people have dreamt of a new day, only to go back into the darkest of the night. We gather here in Zimbabwe to witness the sad story of unfulfilled hopes,” he said.

Speaking at the congress, Chamisa said the party would push for early elections to solve the economic situation because, “five years is too long”.

In response, home affairs minister Cain Mathema said the government would not  hesitate to put down any uprising.

“Our law-enforcement agencies are under full orders to exercise their full, lawful authority and might to guarantee peace and calmness for and at all times. Such reckless threats made against any constitutional order in any part of the world require and invite a vigorous response,” he said.

The results coming from Ascot Stadium indicate that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change has produced the following leadership during its electoral process that happened throughout the night.

President: Nelson Chamisa

Vice Presidents: Tendai Biti
Welshman Ncube
Lennet Kairenyi Kore

Secretary General: Charlton Hwende

Treasurer General: David Coltart

Chairperson: Tabitha Khumalo

Deputy Chairperson: Job Sikhala

There has been an outcry from some losing candidates who are alleging vote rigging and stuffing of ballot papers.

One of the losing candidates Douglas Mwonzora on Sunday tried to question if the structures of 2014 were going to be allowed to vote according to a National Executive Committee resolution.

Analysts who commented on the results congratulated MDC and said the party had managed to put together a strong team.

Human Rights defender Dr Pedzisayi Ruhwanya said, “The best MDC leadership line up since formation in 1999. Well done Nelson Chamisa for running a credible congress that produced solid and credible leadership. You have shown the world how to run elections; no shenanigans, manipulation etc.

“Those who did not make it in the MDC Congress in Gweru like Dougie, Komichi, Molokela have not lost.

How the MDC leadership lead by Nelson Chamisa strategically deploys these people will show the strength of both the leadership and the party. Their contributions are required.”

After the blow of July’s election loss, Chamisa may have the political winds behind him as the new MDC chief.

Zimbabwe’s economy, which the 76-year-old Mnangagwa has vowed to revive, is once more an explosive issue, with shortages of fuel, a cash crunch and rising inflation.

But whether the youthful Chamisa can appeal to a broader audience as this crisis unfolds is unclear.

“His popularity cannot be disputed – he is popular broadly within the MDC,” Chitanga said.

“But I’m not sure he has worked on his other traits as a leader of such a huge movement to a point where he inspires confidence to different sections of society.”

About 10 000 delegates and guests attended the conference in the central city of Gweru.

Formed in 1999, following a conference of labour, church and civic society and students groups with trade unionist Tsvangirai as founding leader, the MDC is the largest opposition party the country has known since independence in 1980.

It is the only party to have posed a sizeable challenge to Zanu-PF’s grip on power, often in the face of violence.

In the 2008 elections, Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the first round of presidential elections but failed to garner enough votes to be declared winner.

He withdrew from the runoff, citing attacks on his supporters by Zanu-PF militants and state agents that left around 200 people dead and thousands of people displaced.

Despite its prominence, the party has a long history of division.

It first split over whether to contest in senate elections in 2006, again in 2013 in the aftermath of general elections and most recently in internecine feuding over Tsvangirai’s succession.

Earlier this month, the high court, petitioned by a party district official, declared that Chamisa’s appointment as party vice-president by Tsvangira had been illegal.

The MDC says the ruling is a Zanu-PF machination ahead of the congress, and has lodged an appeal.

Pindula News

27th May 2019

The counting of votes still going on at MDC congress in Gweru, but we are reliably informed Charlton Hwende will be the new secretary general. He polled 2,099 votes to 721 for Douglas Mwonzora.

Meanwhile, former Minister of Education, David Coltart has been elected MDC treasurer-general.

Elections were held late into the night on Sunday, with a power failure over Ascot Stadium being experienced forcing voting to be done using vehicle headlights.

• Hwende – 2099
• Mwonzora – 721
• Molokele – 577
• Spoilt – 13

The counting of votes is still ongoing, with winners for the posts of the three vice presidents and women assembly chair not yet declared.