But when Malema espouses and expresses the collective condition of these people the courts brand it “hate speech” fearing words could trigger genocide against those that perceivably deprive.
One commentator has pointed out that the white-dominated South African courts seem oblivious of the “hate economy” from which blacks are being excluded.
By Tichaona Zindoga
When South Africa's African National Congress Youth League leader Julius Malema averred that liberation struggle songs cannot contain “love” words, during his “hate speech” trial recently, it certainly meant that there could be more than one kind of love, and hate, in South Africa.
In fact, love can mean hate; and hate, love depending on which side one stands.
“All depends on the context,” says one editorial.
It is little doubt that Malema loves his country, people and the struggle that officially ended apartheid in 1994.
The goals of the liberation struggle in South Africa have not been achieved with many pointers saying clearly that the Rainbow Nation ideal is but elusive.
Malema has shown to love and identify with the majority blacks in a country in which they are the poorest, most illiterate, unhealthiest, the shortest-living, among other ill indexes.
His love for his people and country is what is generally called patriotism.
These people identify with the struggle which they know is yet to come to fruition.
They also identify with Malema.
But when Malema espouses and expresses the collective condition of these people the courts brand it “hate speech” fearing words could trigger genocide against those that perceivably deprive.
One commentator has pointed out that the white-dominated South African courts seem oblivious of the “hate economy” from which blacks are being excluded.
This is because, he insinuated, because the victims of this “hate economy” are blacks.
This week Congress of SA Trade Union's president Sdumo Dlamini was reported to have defied the ban on the liberation struggle song "shoot the boer".
He said the ban “meant nothing to those who had sacrificed their lives for the country's liberation.”
Addressing Cosatu’s second provincial shop stewards council meeting, Dlamini urged the workers to ignore the "clueless judge" and continue singing the banned song at their gatherings.
It follows that Judge Colin Lamont can only be “clueless” as to the ends of the country’s liberation struggle, according to Dlamini.
In this vein, having given the opponents of the struggle song more than what they expected, as Malema said, Lamont be construed as hating the black people’s struggle in South Africa.
An op-ed piece on the Independent Online headlined “All depends on the context” highlights that the “hate” judgement by Lamont is tricky.
“To many it is not the discriminatory, harmful song Lamont found it to be,” said the editorial.
“They view it as South African history, part of the narrative of the Struggle.
“They reject the judge’s view that there was no justification for singing it.
“The finding has had the perverse effect of popularising Dubul’ iBhunu.
“It is being sung now by people who carefully avoided becoming part of Malema’s choir, and have done so in recent days to assert their right to their past. They argue that it is metaphorical, ‘Boer’ meaning government, not Afrikaners as people.”
“Debate has now turned to the prospect of Umkhonto we Sizwe veterans singing Hambe Kahle Umkhonto at Nelson Mandela’s funeral one day, where they voice their determination to “kill these boers”.
Yet, to demonstrate the thin line threatens the exercise of love – whatever side one might be – there could be substance in what Lamont said.
The piece concluded with this: “…words are powerful weapons. All genocides, he argues on, start as simple exhortations. Agree or not, it is food for thought.”
This means that it must be admitted that the context could very well be a factor.
But what are the implications on the ongoing struggle over the struggle songs?
The ANC was appalled by the banning of “dubul ibhunu”.
It said the judgement is “an attempt to rewrite the South African history which is not desirable and unsustainable.”
“This ruling flies against the need to accept our past and to preserve our heritage as an organization and as a people,” it said.
There are “higher ideals” in Lamont’s judgement, argues Henrietta Klaasing Groblersdal in The Citizen.
One of these was “that members of society are enjoined to embrace all citizens as their brothers.”
Said Groblersdal: “Hence the Equality Act allows no justification on the basis of fairness for historic practices which are hurtful to the target group but loved by the other group. Such practices may not continue to be practised when it comes to hate speech.”
“Does the Youth League’s arrogance in singing the same song immediately after the court adjourned show that they did not bother to listen to the finer points?
“Or maybe they are not at all interested in the high ideals mentioned by Lamont?”
This is a view that is perhaps recognizing that Lamont invoked the notion of “Ubuntu”, as one blogger, Pierre de Vos points out, which Chief Justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng has apparently been championing.
The protection of dignity and adherence to the values of ubuntu requires a radical limitation on the right to freedom of expression, says de Vos.
For his part, de Vos notes an important implication of Lamont’s judgement.
“Judge Lamont divided South Africa into the majority and a minority and suggested that minorities (defined as white South Africans or as white Afrikaners) are therefore in particular need of protection from words that could be construed as having the intention to be hurtful to that minority,” he said.
“This means that religious and sexual minorities, say, might be entitled to special protection in terms of this Act and that a court should take note of the sensibilities of such groups when they judge whether a reasonable homosexual or a reasonable Muslim would have viewed a specific communication as having the intention to be hurtful to them as Muslims or as homosexuals.
“Almost any cartoon that depicts the prophet Mohammed, say, might therefore constitute hate speech. Statements by a pastor that homosexuals are perverts that will burn in hell would also, most probably, constitute hate speech if this line of reasoning is followed.
“I am also fearful that if I were to call devout Christians ‘bigots’ because of their views on homosexuality, I might be found to have had the intention (judged by these religious fundamentalists) to be hurtful to them and hence that I am guilty of hate speech.”
He accused he judgement of “rather essentialistic and simplistic division of South Africans into different race groups” which could be problematic.
But there is another grave implication; that of a history ignored.
De Vos notes that the Equality Act – passed by the democratic Parliament – does not allow a court to take into account historical practices.
That the Equality Court ignored the historical case of Malema implies that the history of subjugation – and south Africans have suffered about 300 years of it – is well water under the bridge.
And with such might go efforts towards real equality in South Africa, economically, socially and politically.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Bilateral hatreds and quarrels or ulterior motives must not be allowed to creep into considerations of matters pertaining to international peace and security, or to the principle of Responsibility to Protect.
The Herald
By Morris Mkwate
PRESIDENT Mugabe says the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is abusing the United Nations Charter to loot Libya's vast oil reserves and impose leadership on its people.
Addressing the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly here yesterday, the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces said Western powers deliberately misinterpreted their mandate to protect civilians to settle bilateral scores with Libya.
He said the African Union preferred a peaceful resolution of the conflict compared to "murderous Nato bombings".
The AU should not be undermined, but must be allowed to complement UN peace and security efforts on the continent, he added.
"The newly minted principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) should not be twisted to provide cover for its pre-meditated abuse in violating the sacred international principle of non-interference in the domestic
affairs of states because to do so amounts to an act of aggression and destabilisation of a sovereign state," he said.
"Moreover, to selectively and arbitrarily apply that principle merely serves to undermine its general acceptability. Indeed, more than other states, all the five permanent members of the Security Council bear a huge responsibility in this regard for ensuring that their historical privilege is used more to protect the UN Charter than to breach it as is happening currently in Libya through the blatant illegal, brutal and callous Nato murderous bombings.
"After over twenty thousands Nato bombing sorties that targeted Libyan towns, including Tripoli, there is now unbelievable and most disgraceful scramble by some Nato countries for Libyan oil, indicating, thereby, that the real motive for their aggression against Libya was to control and own its abundant fuel resources. What a shame!
"Yesterday, it was Iraq and Bush and Blair were the liars and aggressors as they made unfounded allegations of possessions of weapons of mass destruction. This time it is the Nato countries the liars and aggressors as they make similarly unfounded allegations of destruction of civilian lives by (Colonel Muammar) Gaddafi."
President Mugabe said contrary to Nato's position, the AU would have preferred a peaceful resolution of the Libyan conflict.
"It (the peace process) was deliberately and blatantly excluded from shedding positive influence over developments. There was quick resort to invoking Chapter VII of the Charter with gross deliberate misinterpretation of the scope of the mandate originally given Nato to oversee and protect civilians.
"Bilateral hatreds and quarrels or ulterior motives must not be allowed to creep into considerations of matters pertaining to international peace and security, or to the principle of Responsibility to Protect.
"We are yet to be convinced that the involvement of the mighty powers in Libya's affairs has not hindered the advent of the process of peace, democracy and prosperity in that sister African country.
"Our African Union would never have presumed to impose a leadership on the fraternal people of Libya as Nato countries have illegally sought to do. At the very least, the African Union would have wished to join those principled members of this august body who preferred an immediate ceasefire and peaceful dialogue in Libya.
"The African Union was and remains fully seized with this crisis and will spare no energies in fully complementing the UN so that peace returns to Libya and its tormented people. We wish that process God's speed."
Cde Mugabe said the UN Charter was "a set of commandments" that must be upheld to maintain world peace.
He said: "The theme, ‘The role of mediation in the settlement of disputes', is most apt. But, how do we, the UN members, measure in relation to it in our activities here at the United Nations and out there in the real world.
"It is my principled view that we must be duty and honour bound to operationalise the principles upon which the Charter of the United Nations is based. We must not be guilty of manipulating that Charter to serve our particular or sectional designs and ambitions.
"The Charter is our set of commandments that must be strictly obeyed by each and every member if international and regional peace is to be maintained.
"We cannot honestly say this is the position today in regard to Nato states versus Libya. Whatever political disturbances might have first occurred in Bengazi, the process of mediation and peaceful negotiation was never given full play."
The President added that some Western countries continue to vilify Zimbabwe for correcting racial and colonial prejudices through the acquisition of natural resources. He said Zimbabweans condemn the Western-imposed sanctions against the country as expressed by the two-million signature anti-sanctions petition.
He thanked Sadc and the AU for demanding the scrapping of the embargo. He said Zimbabwe supported a "revitalised" UN General Assembly and reform of the Security Council.
"When we in Zimbabwe sought to redress the ills of colonialism and racism, by fully acquiring our natural resources, mainly our land and minerals, we were and still are subjected to unparalleled villification and pernicious economic sanctions, the false reasons alleged being violations of the rule of law, human rights, and democracy.
"My people have condemned these illegal sanctions and recently, over two million signatures of protesters have demonstrated their antipathy to them. We thank Sadc and the African Union for supporting us and demanding the immediate removal of the illegal sanctions.
"We in Africa are also duly concerned about the activities of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which seems to exist only for alleged offenders of the developing world, the majority of them Africans. The leaders of the powerful Western States guilty of international crime, like Bush and Blair, are routinely given the blind eye. Such selective justice has eroded the credibility of the ICC on the African continent.
"My country continues to work with others for a revitalised General Assembly. However, our ambitions extend to the need to reform the Security Council as well. Africa's call for at least two permanent seats for its members on the Security Council has been constant for decades. Africa cannot remain as the only region without permanent membership in the Security Council."
The President upheld the centrality of the African Union in resolving conflict on the continent. He said Zimbabwe would remain committed to the UN, adding that the body should also embrace legitimately sovereign states.
"My country fully supports the right of the gallant people of Palestine to statehood and membership of this UN Organisation. The UN must become credible by welcoming into its bosom all those whose right to attain sovereign independence and freedom from occupation and colonialism is legitimate. Similarly, the tormented people of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic must not be forgotten. We call for immediate progress in the engagements for a solution to their long-running saga.
". . .Let me reiterate my country's full belief in the aspirations enshrined in the Charter of the UN. We must all resist any abuse to which it may be exposed through the unwelcome behaviour of a few. My country celebrates the UN-Women entity as it addresses the position of more than half of humankind in all our countries.
"The African Union must not be undermined. Rather, it should be allowed to complement the UN's efforts for peace and security on the continent. Zimbabwe is a peaceful member of the AU, Sadc, Comesa, NAM and many other international economic and trade organisations and thus desires to continue to play its part in creating a peaceful environment in the world. The United Nations can count on the unqualified support of Zimbabwe as required, even if only in our modest way."
The Herald
By Morris Mkwate
PRESIDENT Mugabe says the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is abusing the United Nations Charter to loot Libya's vast oil reserves and impose leadership on its people.
Addressing the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly here yesterday, the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces said Western powers deliberately misinterpreted their mandate to protect civilians to settle bilateral scores with Libya.
He said the African Union preferred a peaceful resolution of the conflict compared to "murderous Nato bombings".
The AU should not be undermined, but must be allowed to complement UN peace and security efforts on the continent, he added.
"The newly minted principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) should not be twisted to provide cover for its pre-meditated abuse in violating the sacred international principle of non-interference in the domestic
affairs of states because to do so amounts to an act of aggression and destabilisation of a sovereign state," he said.
"Moreover, to selectively and arbitrarily apply that principle merely serves to undermine its general acceptability. Indeed, more than other states, all the five permanent members of the Security Council bear a huge responsibility in this regard for ensuring that their historical privilege is used more to protect the UN Charter than to breach it as is happening currently in Libya through the blatant illegal, brutal and callous Nato murderous bombings.
"After over twenty thousands Nato bombing sorties that targeted Libyan towns, including Tripoli, there is now unbelievable and most disgraceful scramble by some Nato countries for Libyan oil, indicating, thereby, that the real motive for their aggression against Libya was to control and own its abundant fuel resources. What a shame!
"Yesterday, it was Iraq and Bush and Blair were the liars and aggressors as they made unfounded allegations of possessions of weapons of mass destruction. This time it is the Nato countries the liars and aggressors as they make similarly unfounded allegations of destruction of civilian lives by (Colonel Muammar) Gaddafi."
President Mugabe said contrary to Nato's position, the AU would have preferred a peaceful resolution of the Libyan conflict.
"It (the peace process) was deliberately and blatantly excluded from shedding positive influence over developments. There was quick resort to invoking Chapter VII of the Charter with gross deliberate misinterpretation of the scope of the mandate originally given Nato to oversee and protect civilians.
"Bilateral hatreds and quarrels or ulterior motives must not be allowed to creep into considerations of matters pertaining to international peace and security, or to the principle of Responsibility to Protect.
"We are yet to be convinced that the involvement of the mighty powers in Libya's affairs has not hindered the advent of the process of peace, democracy and prosperity in that sister African country.
"Our African Union would never have presumed to impose a leadership on the fraternal people of Libya as Nato countries have illegally sought to do. At the very least, the African Union would have wished to join those principled members of this august body who preferred an immediate ceasefire and peaceful dialogue in Libya.
"The African Union was and remains fully seized with this crisis and will spare no energies in fully complementing the UN so that peace returns to Libya and its tormented people. We wish that process God's speed."
Cde Mugabe said the UN Charter was "a set of commandments" that must be upheld to maintain world peace.
He said: "The theme, ‘The role of mediation in the settlement of disputes', is most apt. But, how do we, the UN members, measure in relation to it in our activities here at the United Nations and out there in the real world.
"It is my principled view that we must be duty and honour bound to operationalise the principles upon which the Charter of the United Nations is based. We must not be guilty of manipulating that Charter to serve our particular or sectional designs and ambitions.
"The Charter is our set of commandments that must be strictly obeyed by each and every member if international and regional peace is to be maintained.
"We cannot honestly say this is the position today in regard to Nato states versus Libya. Whatever political disturbances might have first occurred in Bengazi, the process of mediation and peaceful negotiation was never given full play."
The President added that some Western countries continue to vilify Zimbabwe for correcting racial and colonial prejudices through the acquisition of natural resources. He said Zimbabweans condemn the Western-imposed sanctions against the country as expressed by the two-million signature anti-sanctions petition.
He thanked Sadc and the AU for demanding the scrapping of the embargo. He said Zimbabwe supported a "revitalised" UN General Assembly and reform of the Security Council.
"When we in Zimbabwe sought to redress the ills of colonialism and racism, by fully acquiring our natural resources, mainly our land and minerals, we were and still are subjected to unparalleled villification and pernicious economic sanctions, the false reasons alleged being violations of the rule of law, human rights, and democracy.
"My people have condemned these illegal sanctions and recently, over two million signatures of protesters have demonstrated their antipathy to them. We thank Sadc and the African Union for supporting us and demanding the immediate removal of the illegal sanctions.
"We in Africa are also duly concerned about the activities of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which seems to exist only for alleged offenders of the developing world, the majority of them Africans. The leaders of the powerful Western States guilty of international crime, like Bush and Blair, are routinely given the blind eye. Such selective justice has eroded the credibility of the ICC on the African continent.
"My country continues to work with others for a revitalised General Assembly. However, our ambitions extend to the need to reform the Security Council as well. Africa's call for at least two permanent seats for its members on the Security Council has been constant for decades. Africa cannot remain as the only region without permanent membership in the Security Council."
The President upheld the centrality of the African Union in resolving conflict on the continent. He said Zimbabwe would remain committed to the UN, adding that the body should also embrace legitimately sovereign states.
"My country fully supports the right of the gallant people of Palestine to statehood and membership of this UN Organisation. The UN must become credible by welcoming into its bosom all those whose right to attain sovereign independence and freedom from occupation and colonialism is legitimate. Similarly, the tormented people of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic must not be forgotten. We call for immediate progress in the engagements for a solution to their long-running saga.
". . .Let me reiterate my country's full belief in the aspirations enshrined in the Charter of the UN. We must all resist any abuse to which it may be exposed through the unwelcome behaviour of a few. My country celebrates the UN-Women entity as it addresses the position of more than half of humankind in all our countries.
"The African Union must not be undermined. Rather, it should be allowed to complement the UN's efforts for peace and security on the continent. Zimbabwe is a peaceful member of the AU, Sadc, Comesa, NAM and many other international economic and trade organisations and thus desires to continue to play its part in creating a peaceful environment in the world. The United Nations can count on the unqualified support of Zimbabwe as required, even if only in our modest way."
Friday, September 16, 2011
Homecoming for Lucia Matibenga?
By Tichaona Zindoga
With indications that trade unionist and MDC-T Kuwadza MP, Lucia Matibenga is set to assume the position of Minister of Public service left vacant following the death of Eliphas Mukonoweshuro recently, it is almost a case of a home coming for her.
Those familiar with the inner workings of the party led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai might be familiar of how the premier leads his party in a fashion that contrasts the democratic pretences he and his cheerleaders have.
In particular is his propensity towards the politics that favours tribe, which has compelled him to surround himself with men and women of the Karanga tribe.
This dates back to his days at Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, through the formation in 1999 and inaugural congress of MDC when he ensured that he stuffed his tribesmen like Nelson Chamisa, Isaac Matongo, Lucia Matibenga, Tendai Biti, Learnmore Jongwe, Job Sikhala, and Sekai Holland into influential positions.
These and other Karangas Tsvangirai was to ensure “safe” Harare seats at the general elections in 2000 while filing subsequent vacant seats with more Karangas.
The same rang true at when Tsvangirai – having successfully split the original MDC because of his alleged tribalism and dictatorial tendencies – entered Government in 2009 under the GPA in 2009.
He almost appointed 16 members of his favoured Karanga tribe to fill 19 posts for ministerial and deputy ministerial positions.
The GPA configured that MDC-T had to fill provide 13 ministers, which Tsvangirai all filled with his tribal favourites; and six deputies, of which he threw three of his tribal kins.
As of August 2010, during a mini-reshuffle, Tsvangirai added more of his tribesmen Tapiwa Mashakada, Obert Gutu and Tongai Matutu to cabinet.
The Karanga homegirl
Yet something happened to “Karanga girl” Lucia Matibenga along the way to heaven.
In a twist of fate, in 2000, came Theresa Makone whose husband, Ian, was the director of elections at the MDC as well as advisor and funder of Tsvangirai.
Theresa was also believed to be a relation of Tsvangirai’s wife, Susan.
In that stroke, Matibenga who had considerable influence, to the extent of being viewed too powerful for the comfort of some women including the leader’s wife, was shunted aside by Tsvangirai as he unconstitutionally dissolved the leadership of the Women’s Assembly of which Matibenga was leader.
A power struggle ensued, with Matibenga on the losing side, as the Makone party holding the winning of two congresses that the warring sides convened in Bulawayo at a downtown restaurant owned by Thokozani Khupe, vice-president of the party and now deputy premier.
A bitter Matibenga, who had the support and sympathy of the majority of the party membership, bemoaned how Tsvangirai had abused his relationship with Makone.
She called him dictatorial.
As bitterly, she complained that “(a)n HIV virus (sic) has attacked our party and an enemy has risen in the party…”
She also led a demonstration against Tsvangirai, denouncing the “kitchen cabinet” of handpicked Tsvangirai loyalists.
Matibenga said of Makone then: “You come into the bus and you find the conductor busy issuing tickets and all of a sudden you want to take away the pen – that’s impossible. I am the conductor here.”
Yet she was to be consigned to the cold world outside, almost into oblivion as she wallowed in the world of trade unionism.
In fact, her fall from grace even provided ammunition for feminist theses on how chauvinistic Zimbabwe’s politics was and how women were being ill-used by their male counterparts.
Interestingly, 11 years on, it was MDC-T party that pulled the strings to allow for her recent elevation to become ZCTU third vice president.
Ironically, the labour body’s congress was held in Bulawayo.
Now Matibenga might have to kiss her new position goodbye to become minister.
“It is basically about tribalism as Tsvangirai seeks to bring back his ‘home girl’,” explains David Muzhuzha former editor of ZCTU monthly publication The Worker, who has also written a magnificent book “A travesty of democracy: The untold story”.
The book focuses on the rise of the MDC from the labour movement and points out the Machiavellian nature of Tsvangirai.
Muzhuzha says Tsvangirai is not only “whole-heartedly fascinated with men and women of his tribe, but he also sometimes, willy-nilly manipulates his party processes to favour persons not of similar origins, as long as such persons serve his main selfish interest: to hold the reigns (sic) of power tightly and undisputedly, wherever he goes.” (pp75)
But there is another dimension, which in fact might hold true for this latter expose.
“Tsvangirai is also trying to reconnect with labour by taking Matibenga who has a trade union background and whom he had alienated,” explains Muzhuzha.
And need it be pointed out that Matibenga and Mukonoweshuro shared the same “Masvingo netara”?
Wikileaks, again
True enough, revelations by the whistle-blower website Wikileaks are fast becoming too hot to handle.
Suffice to say, the revelations have let in on the inner workings of the political systems of Zimbabwe, revelations of which most players have not been too comfortable with.
But then when Wikileaks became a hit for the first time, it let in on the leadership qualities of Tsvangirai, which even the recent leaks in which Obert Gutu and Nelson Chamisa (oh, these ungrateful kinsmen!) even corroborate.
Dell described Tsvangirai as a “flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment in selecting those around him.”
Today, if Tsvangirai manages to bring Matibenga into his bosom, it does not quite vindicate him, does it?
It only serves to highlight how he is so flawed as to, as earlier demonstrated, seek security in a particular clique of individuals with whose feathers he identifies.
Admittedly, this same clique has some of the best brains in the country, which won’t do anybody good to deny.
On this score, though, Matibenga would not fit, just as Tsvangirai is not noted for sharpness in letters.
So how should the rest of the country, especially those that believe in him, take Tsvangirai’s fascination with those that identify with Masvingo road?
It does not take much to notice that this is a politically and morally unhealthy situation.
Tsvangirai might as well be sowing the seeds of division in his party, just as he was accused of causing the split not so many years ago.
If one were to go by the assumption that by bringing Matibenga into the fold Tsvangirai is trying to reconnect with labour it therefore confirms that he is indecisive and poor in judgement, as Dell diagnosed him.
This means he is manipulative, too, and runs the MDC-T as a tuckshop.
But it may be homecoming for Lucia Matibenga, all the same.
With indications that trade unionist and MDC-T Kuwadza MP, Lucia Matibenga is set to assume the position of Minister of Public service left vacant following the death of Eliphas Mukonoweshuro recently, it is almost a case of a home coming for her.
Those familiar with the inner workings of the party led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai might be familiar of how the premier leads his party in a fashion that contrasts the democratic pretences he and his cheerleaders have.
In particular is his propensity towards the politics that favours tribe, which has compelled him to surround himself with men and women of the Karanga tribe.
This dates back to his days at Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, through the formation in 1999 and inaugural congress of MDC when he ensured that he stuffed his tribesmen like Nelson Chamisa, Isaac Matongo, Lucia Matibenga, Tendai Biti, Learnmore Jongwe, Job Sikhala, and Sekai Holland into influential positions.
These and other Karangas Tsvangirai was to ensure “safe” Harare seats at the general elections in 2000 while filing subsequent vacant seats with more Karangas.
The same rang true at when Tsvangirai – having successfully split the original MDC because of his alleged tribalism and dictatorial tendencies – entered Government in 2009 under the GPA in 2009.
He almost appointed 16 members of his favoured Karanga tribe to fill 19 posts for ministerial and deputy ministerial positions.
The GPA configured that MDC-T had to fill provide 13 ministers, which Tsvangirai all filled with his tribal favourites; and six deputies, of which he threw three of his tribal kins.
As of August 2010, during a mini-reshuffle, Tsvangirai added more of his tribesmen Tapiwa Mashakada, Obert Gutu and Tongai Matutu to cabinet.
The Karanga homegirl
Yet something happened to “Karanga girl” Lucia Matibenga along the way to heaven.
In a twist of fate, in 2000, came Theresa Makone whose husband, Ian, was the director of elections at the MDC as well as advisor and funder of Tsvangirai.
Theresa was also believed to be a relation of Tsvangirai’s wife, Susan.
In that stroke, Matibenga who had considerable influence, to the extent of being viewed too powerful for the comfort of some women including the leader’s wife, was shunted aside by Tsvangirai as he unconstitutionally dissolved the leadership of the Women’s Assembly of which Matibenga was leader.
A power struggle ensued, with Matibenga on the losing side, as the Makone party holding the winning of two congresses that the warring sides convened in Bulawayo at a downtown restaurant owned by Thokozani Khupe, vice-president of the party and now deputy premier.
A bitter Matibenga, who had the support and sympathy of the majority of the party membership, bemoaned how Tsvangirai had abused his relationship with Makone.
She called him dictatorial.
As bitterly, she complained that “(a)n HIV virus (sic) has attacked our party and an enemy has risen in the party…”
She also led a demonstration against Tsvangirai, denouncing the “kitchen cabinet” of handpicked Tsvangirai loyalists.
Matibenga said of Makone then: “You come into the bus and you find the conductor busy issuing tickets and all of a sudden you want to take away the pen – that’s impossible. I am the conductor here.”
Yet she was to be consigned to the cold world outside, almost into oblivion as she wallowed in the world of trade unionism.
In fact, her fall from grace even provided ammunition for feminist theses on how chauvinistic Zimbabwe’s politics was and how women were being ill-used by their male counterparts.
Interestingly, 11 years on, it was MDC-T party that pulled the strings to allow for her recent elevation to become ZCTU third vice president.
Ironically, the labour body’s congress was held in Bulawayo.
Now Matibenga might have to kiss her new position goodbye to become minister.
“It is basically about tribalism as Tsvangirai seeks to bring back his ‘home girl’,” explains David Muzhuzha former editor of ZCTU monthly publication The Worker, who has also written a magnificent book “A travesty of democracy: The untold story”.
The book focuses on the rise of the MDC from the labour movement and points out the Machiavellian nature of Tsvangirai.
Muzhuzha says Tsvangirai is not only “whole-heartedly fascinated with men and women of his tribe, but he also sometimes, willy-nilly manipulates his party processes to favour persons not of similar origins, as long as such persons serve his main selfish interest: to hold the reigns (sic) of power tightly and undisputedly, wherever he goes.” (pp75)
But there is another dimension, which in fact might hold true for this latter expose.
“Tsvangirai is also trying to reconnect with labour by taking Matibenga who has a trade union background and whom he had alienated,” explains Muzhuzha.
And need it be pointed out that Matibenga and Mukonoweshuro shared the same “Masvingo netara”?
Wikileaks, again
True enough, revelations by the whistle-blower website Wikileaks are fast becoming too hot to handle.
Suffice to say, the revelations have let in on the inner workings of the political systems of Zimbabwe, revelations of which most players have not been too comfortable with.
But then when Wikileaks became a hit for the first time, it let in on the leadership qualities of Tsvangirai, which even the recent leaks in which Obert Gutu and Nelson Chamisa (oh, these ungrateful kinsmen!) even corroborate.
Dell described Tsvangirai as a “flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment in selecting those around him.”
Today, if Tsvangirai manages to bring Matibenga into his bosom, it does not quite vindicate him, does it?
It only serves to highlight how he is so flawed as to, as earlier demonstrated, seek security in a particular clique of individuals with whose feathers he identifies.
Admittedly, this same clique has some of the best brains in the country, which won’t do anybody good to deny.
On this score, though, Matibenga would not fit, just as Tsvangirai is not noted for sharpness in letters.
So how should the rest of the country, especially those that believe in him, take Tsvangirai’s fascination with those that identify with Masvingo road?
It does not take much to notice that this is a politically and morally unhealthy situation.
Tsvangirai might as well be sowing the seeds of division in his party, just as he was accused of causing the split not so many years ago.
If one were to go by the assumption that by bringing Matibenga into the fold Tsvangirai is trying to reconnect with labour it therefore confirms that he is indecisive and poor in judgement, as Dell diagnosed him.
This means he is manipulative, too, and runs the MDC-T as a tuckshop.
But it may be homecoming for Lucia Matibenga, all the same.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Unmasking Theresa Makone
Yet who will sacrifice their pots and pans; life and limb for Theresa Makone, a self-professed beautician who has achieved nothing so far in Government?
Not the poor women of Zimbabwe!
Maybe Tsvangirai who is a beneficiary of her financial services and other ends like her alleged go-between the premier and his love interest with one Locadia Tembo, a relative of Goromonzi West legislator Beatrice Nyamupinga.
Makone is also reported to have been influential in bringing former disc jockey James
Maridadi, to the PM’s office.
By Tichaona Zindoga
The biggest talking point of the recent 12th annivessary celebrations of the MDC-T at Gwanzura stadium is arguably the violence that occurred at the function.
However, if that was blight enough of and in itself, the statement by the party’s women’s assembly chair and Home Affairs co-Minister Theresa Makone sticks out in equal notoriety.
Makone, addressing the crowd, preached violence and said women would “take pots and pans” in fighting Zanu-PF.
It will be noted that this statement is a variant of what she had said about 60 days earlier in defence of her party boss Tsvangirai when he preached the same gospel in Masvingo, much to the disdain of the peace-loving people of Zimbabwe.
Makone said then: “Zanu-PF used to beat us like drums and you expect us to say ‘thank you.’ “When I was young my mother told me that if someone beats you, you should hit back.”
For a moment, one would be tempted to think that she is just another vigilante from the street or some college activist willing to impress colleagues with a showing of brawn.
But Theresa Makone is a whole – make it half perhaps – minister of Home Affairs, which brief she shares with Zanu-PF’s Kembo Mohadi in an arrangement born out of the so-called Global Political Agreement.
It is a role that has oversight of the Zimbabwe Republic Police which naturally is tasked with maintaining peace and order in the country.
Now, if Makone, the supposed boss of the police, instigates violence it becomes quite curious of the establishment obtaining in Zimbabwe today.
It will be recalled that Makone and her party have in the past blamed police for not prosecuting offenders, in particular alleged perpetrators of violence against MDC-T supporters and members.
So, if the law should take its course, surely a person who instigates violence like Makone has done must be prosecuted?
On the other hand had she the latitude, she could as well prosecute and persecute her opponents.
Questions ought to be raised in relation to this so-called “Iron lady” of the MDC-T.
What is she trying to achieve by preaching violence?
Is it not a case of a politician bereft of any substance trying to cause chaos and gain from it?
Makone is noted for lacking grassroots support within the MDC-T, having ghosted from nowhere to now claim an enviable position at the labour driven party.
What does Makone have in common with the women of his party save for their relation to pots and pans that entail their station in life?
Makone needs reminding that the same pots and pans are better committed to their culinary role than being used as weapons.
Interestingly, she trained in Human Nutrition in the UK!
So does she not feel the irony that the MDC-T has not brought food on people’s tables as it promised, instead taking every opportunity to make life harder for people by denying them salary increments and raising the prices of commodities?
From this, the world has a chance to see the caliber of Makone as a politician and as a Minister of Home Affairs.
She is not only criminally reckless and dangerous and a misfit as a minister but also empty as a politician.
Yet her character is somewhat representative of the dilemma afflicting the MDC formations.
They simply cannot outgrow their opposition days.
Many times have politicians from the formations donned party hats when they were supposed to be representing the bigger, party-less institution called Government.
It possibly explains why there seems nothing amiss should the MDC formations be referred to as opposition, like many people are given to, when they ceased to be such at the birth of the inclusive Government in 2009.
Although the party indulgently calls itself a party for the future it would seem it belongs to the opposition – infantile opposition at that.
Kitchen cabinet
But Makone is a controverssial character.
She is part of what has been referred to as Tsvangirai’s kitchen cabinet which is made up of his loyalists.
(Is this where she gets her ideas of pots and pans?)
Makone and her husband Ian, a top Tsvangirai advisor and financier, came in 2000 “as ordinary members”, like she puts it.
But she quickly rose quickly from the obscurity of a district treasurer in Wedza, to women’s leadership in Mashonaland East right to being the chairperson of the Women’s Assembly in October 2007.
And it was her rise to the top of the women’s ladder that sparked outrage as Tsvangirai controversially dissolved the leadership of trade unionist Lucia Matibenga to pave way for Makone.
The highlight of the congress in Bulawayo that swept Makone into the fold was the controversy which saw two separate “congresses” with Makone’s faction holding its own at a restaurant belonging to Thokozani Khupe, the party’s vice president.
So intense was the dislike for Makone, at least from the perspective of bona fide party members that had been around for long, that Matibenga complained that “(a)n HIV virus (sic) has attacked our party and an enemy has risen in the party…”
She, like many other party members who had seen Tsvangirai allegedly violate the constitution to make room for Makone, decried that Makone and Tsvangirai’s friendship had been abused.
Matibenga, who said Makone had come “yesterday”, complained that “someone who came as a donor suddenly wants to take over.”
And take over Makone did, even if it divided the party right through.
She said defiantly: “I was duly elected…It does not matter whether the congress was held on a tree or in a river…”
Makone was to consolidate her hold on the women’s leadership at the party’s congress in Bulawayo last April.
By then she was already a co-minister of Home Affairs, having entered Government in 2009 as Minister of Public Works.
Bullet or ballot?
When she returned to Bulawayo in June, Makone said her party had to win elections and the right to govern.
She told supporters: “We are not going to take this country by fighting. We will take it through the ballot box…As a party we have resolved to remain focused through on the ultimate goal of taking over power through the ballot box and with the support of Zimbabweans.”
Less than two weeks later, she was singing a different tune and promising to hit back.
She has not looked back since.
It now remains to be known what Makone is up to.
A safe guess will be to fear that the woman will continue on her warmongering path.
Yet who will sacrifice their pots and pans; life and limb for Theresa Makone who has achieved nothing so far in Government?
Not the poor women of Zimbabwe!
Maybe Tsvangirai who is a beneficiary of her financial services and other ends like her alleged go-between the premier and his love interest with one Locadia Tembo, a relative of Goromonzi West legislator Beatrice Nyamupinga.
Makone is also reported to have been influential in bringing former disc jockey James Maridadi, to the PM’s oiffice.
So it is clear who should expend energy on, or lose sleep over Makone, isn’t it?
Not the poor women of Zimbabwe!
Maybe Tsvangirai who is a beneficiary of her financial services and other ends like her alleged go-between the premier and his love interest with one Locadia Tembo, a relative of Goromonzi West legislator Beatrice Nyamupinga.
Makone is also reported to have been influential in bringing former disc jockey James
Maridadi, to the PM’s office.
By Tichaona Zindoga
The biggest talking point of the recent 12th annivessary celebrations of the MDC-T at Gwanzura stadium is arguably the violence that occurred at the function.
However, if that was blight enough of and in itself, the statement by the party’s women’s assembly chair and Home Affairs co-Minister Theresa Makone sticks out in equal notoriety.
Makone, addressing the crowd, preached violence and said women would “take pots and pans” in fighting Zanu-PF.
It will be noted that this statement is a variant of what she had said about 60 days earlier in defence of her party boss Tsvangirai when he preached the same gospel in Masvingo, much to the disdain of the peace-loving people of Zimbabwe.
Makone said then: “Zanu-PF used to beat us like drums and you expect us to say ‘thank you.’ “When I was young my mother told me that if someone beats you, you should hit back.”
For a moment, one would be tempted to think that she is just another vigilante from the street or some college activist willing to impress colleagues with a showing of brawn.
But Theresa Makone is a whole – make it half perhaps – minister of Home Affairs, which brief she shares with Zanu-PF’s Kembo Mohadi in an arrangement born out of the so-called Global Political Agreement.
It is a role that has oversight of the Zimbabwe Republic Police which naturally is tasked with maintaining peace and order in the country.
Now, if Makone, the supposed boss of the police, instigates violence it becomes quite curious of the establishment obtaining in Zimbabwe today.
It will be recalled that Makone and her party have in the past blamed police for not prosecuting offenders, in particular alleged perpetrators of violence against MDC-T supporters and members.
So, if the law should take its course, surely a person who instigates violence like Makone has done must be prosecuted?
On the other hand had she the latitude, she could as well prosecute and persecute her opponents.
Questions ought to be raised in relation to this so-called “Iron lady” of the MDC-T.
What is she trying to achieve by preaching violence?
Is it not a case of a politician bereft of any substance trying to cause chaos and gain from it?
Makone is noted for lacking grassroots support within the MDC-T, having ghosted from nowhere to now claim an enviable position at the labour driven party.
What does Makone have in common with the women of his party save for their relation to pots and pans that entail their station in life?
Makone needs reminding that the same pots and pans are better committed to their culinary role than being used as weapons.
Interestingly, she trained in Human Nutrition in the UK!
So does she not feel the irony that the MDC-T has not brought food on people’s tables as it promised, instead taking every opportunity to make life harder for people by denying them salary increments and raising the prices of commodities?
From this, the world has a chance to see the caliber of Makone as a politician and as a Minister of Home Affairs.
She is not only criminally reckless and dangerous and a misfit as a minister but also empty as a politician.
Yet her character is somewhat representative of the dilemma afflicting the MDC formations.
They simply cannot outgrow their opposition days.
Many times have politicians from the formations donned party hats when they were supposed to be representing the bigger, party-less institution called Government.
It possibly explains why there seems nothing amiss should the MDC formations be referred to as opposition, like many people are given to, when they ceased to be such at the birth of the inclusive Government in 2009.
Although the party indulgently calls itself a party for the future it would seem it belongs to the opposition – infantile opposition at that.
Kitchen cabinet
But Makone is a controverssial character.
She is part of what has been referred to as Tsvangirai’s kitchen cabinet which is made up of his loyalists.
(Is this where she gets her ideas of pots and pans?)
Makone and her husband Ian, a top Tsvangirai advisor and financier, came in 2000 “as ordinary members”, like she puts it.
But she quickly rose quickly from the obscurity of a district treasurer in Wedza, to women’s leadership in Mashonaland East right to being the chairperson of the Women’s Assembly in October 2007.
And it was her rise to the top of the women’s ladder that sparked outrage as Tsvangirai controversially dissolved the leadership of trade unionist Lucia Matibenga to pave way for Makone.
The highlight of the congress in Bulawayo that swept Makone into the fold was the controversy which saw two separate “congresses” with Makone’s faction holding its own at a restaurant belonging to Thokozani Khupe, the party’s vice president.
So intense was the dislike for Makone, at least from the perspective of bona fide party members that had been around for long, that Matibenga complained that “(a)n HIV virus (sic) has attacked our party and an enemy has risen in the party…”
She, like many other party members who had seen Tsvangirai allegedly violate the constitution to make room for Makone, decried that Makone and Tsvangirai’s friendship had been abused.
Matibenga, who said Makone had come “yesterday”, complained that “someone who came as a donor suddenly wants to take over.”
And take over Makone did, even if it divided the party right through.
She said defiantly: “I was duly elected…It does not matter whether the congress was held on a tree or in a river…”
Makone was to consolidate her hold on the women’s leadership at the party’s congress in Bulawayo last April.
By then she was already a co-minister of Home Affairs, having entered Government in 2009 as Minister of Public Works.
Bullet or ballot?
When she returned to Bulawayo in June, Makone said her party had to win elections and the right to govern.
She told supporters: “We are not going to take this country by fighting. We will take it through the ballot box…As a party we have resolved to remain focused through on the ultimate goal of taking over power through the ballot box and with the support of Zimbabweans.”
Less than two weeks later, she was singing a different tune and promising to hit back.
She has not looked back since.
It now remains to be known what Makone is up to.
A safe guess will be to fear that the woman will continue on her warmongering path.
Yet who will sacrifice their pots and pans; life and limb for Theresa Makone who has achieved nothing so far in Government?
Not the poor women of Zimbabwe!
Maybe Tsvangirai who is a beneficiary of her financial services and other ends like her alleged go-between the premier and his love interest with one Locadia Tembo, a relative of Goromonzi West legislator Beatrice Nyamupinga.
Makone is also reported to have been influential in bringing former disc jockey James Maridadi, to the PM’s oiffice.
So it is clear who should expend energy on, or lose sleep over Makone, isn’t it?
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
A step towards real engagement with US, EU?
It is to be hoped that the West is not trying to run away from its economic war crimes of sanctions.
Whereas the West is given to making demands and setting conditions, Zimbabwe must throw its hurt back at it.
This is not just about vindictiveness or intransigence: it simply is to say that if the West is so hurt about the human rights of which it is a self-proclaimed champion and policeman, its sanctions have hurt Zimbabwe so.
Only after such openness will the relations be healed.
By Tichaona Zindoga
In the last couple of days Zimbabwe has been involved in a not-so-usual diplomatic engagement with the United States of America and the European Union.
The latter have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe at the instigation of Britain which was stung by the loss of colonially-gotten lands in Zimbabwe through the fast Track Land Reform which Government instituted to benefit marginalized black majority.
Of course, the Western countries do not say so, preferring to hide behind the discourse of human rights, which they allege members of the Zimbabwe Government violate.
Zimbabwe believes that both sets of sanctions are illegal as they were imposed outside the ambit of the United Nations Security Council.
In fact, it has become almost customary for various commentators to prefix “sanctions” with “illegal’ when talking of the punitive measures that the West has invoked!
Re-engagement with the West, which was formalized under the Global Political Agreement, has yet to bear meaningful fruit.
The US and EU authorities have even had the temerity to maltreat and ostracise some members of the so-called re-engagement team.
But then something happened recently that might be the game changer.
The Zimbabwe Government, through its chief legal office of the Attorney General, wrote to the EU asking the bloc to furnish Zimbabwe with reasons for the sanctions or face litigation.
The litigation would be executed on the very European soil whereon sanctions were rashly and illegally imposed against Zimbabwe.
It is a safe guess that the move by Zimbabwe jolted the EU into action and dispatched its managing director for Africa Nick Wescott into the country in the wake of the two-week ultimatum.
Although Wescott has been singing the same old hymn concerning his (divided) bloc’s stance on Zimbabwe, saying that the sanctions were imposed legally and that they would be removed if Zimbabwe met certain conditions, something can be read in EU’s reaction.
A Sunday Mail editorial critically observed that the EU had “blinked too soon”.
And Wescott gave away that Zimbabwe could give the EU a taste of its own medicine.
He admitted Zimbabwe could seek recompense at the European courts.
“The measures (read sanctions) we have taken were done legally,” he said.
“If anybody disagrees with that they are free to challenge it.”
Whatever Wescott might say, even bordering on Dutch courage, it would seem that Zimbabwe might after all have its day to stand up to the bully in the EU, whatever the outcome.
Matter-of-factly this is not unprecedented.
Industrialist and Zanu-PF member Senator Aguy Georgias has successfully challenged the deportation of his children from the UK where they have been studying.
He has been urging that a class suit be instituted against the EU over the sanctions.
Interestingly, Georgias has been removed from the EU hitlist.
A layman’s observation is that the EU authorities did not want to be embarrassed and so had to remove, and muzzle Georgias.
And surely what Zimbabwe can do against the EU it can against the US, and perhaps succeed to sling the twin goliath with the same pebble?
It will not be quite safe to surmise that the same force that drew Wescott here is what drove US Ambassador here, Charles Ray to request to see President Mugabe.
However, apart from the interesting coincidence, the developments are important.
Call them positive, if you like.
(This writer recently counseled the American diplomat to engage Zimbabwe in a respectful fashion.)
The US envoy regretted that so much time was being spent on disagreements rather than areas of convergence. He identified that “every coin has two sides” and that it was time to paint a more realistic picture.
Expectedly, he said he had no control over the offending Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act which his country promulgated against Zimbabwe.
But he promised to make recommendations to the effect of removing the same.
Now, it will be interesting to see how Zimbabwe’s relations with the West fare in light of such developments.
On one level, it must be admitted that just as Ray points out of the two sides of the coin, and Wescott says the EU “will continue to watch events”, inevitably there ought to be, and there will be compromises on both sides.
As it is, these compromises will be both political and legal.
The West has been coercing Zimbabwe via sanctions which are intended to make the economy scream.
The sanctions are a form of terrorism covering the economy, politics and media among other sectors.
December 21, 2001 on which day former US President George W Bush signed Zdera is Zimbabwe’s equivalent of September 11 1999, terrorist attacks.
So how would our principals engage on the issue?
Zimbabwe’s reply to the sanctions terror of the West, outside of the near-futile reengagement, has been to challenge it in the courts where hopefully there can be an even playing field.
If this latter recourse presents the West with a nightmare, if EU’s apparently fast-blinking knee-jerk response to the ultimatum is anything to go by, does it not present a pointer to how a wronged Zimbabwe should go ahead?
A wronged Zimbabwe has lost so much during at the hands of sanctions.
Academic Dr Tafataona Mahoso recently gave a glimpse into how and what Zimbabwe had lost due to sanctions:
- The cost to the whole economy of having to pay cash upfront for imports over 11 years;
- The cost of higher transport and energy expenditure due to lack of credit, restricted access to spare parts and relying on outdated machinery;
- The value of lost export revenue over 11 years;
- The value of lost income tax resulting from shrinkage of jobs and eroded salaries over 11 years;
- The value lost through the emigration of professionals and other skilled workers to foreign jurisdictions;
- The cost of environmental damage resulting from the shrinkage of power generation, power imports, and the shelving of rural electrification programmes;
- The cost of induced smuggling and other corruption caused by rising costs and acute shortages of goods and services;
- Health costs arising from the collapse of infrastructure, the rising prevalence of eradicable diseases, the failure to repair or replace water and sewerage systems and inability to import medical equipment and drugs;
- The cost of hyperinflation and the collapse of the national currency which wiped out pensions, medical aid schemes, insurance policies, mortgages and savings;
- The cost, in business terms, of the propaganda war which was mounted by the Anglo-Saxon countries and their sponsored lobbies and parties to justify and maintain illegal sanctions; and
- The cost of sabotage activities meant to accompany and intensify the illegal embargo.
In light of the foregoing, Zimbabwe, if it has its day in the court, will have to find redress.
It is to be hoped that the West is not trying to run away from its economic war crimes of sanctions.
Whereas the West is given to making demands and setting conditions, Zimbabwe must throw its hurt back at it.
This is not just about vindictiveness or intransigence: it simply is to say that if the West is so hurt about the human rights of which it is a self-proclaimed champion and policeman, its sanctions have hurt Zimbabwe so.
Only after such openness will the relations be healed.
· tichaona.zindoga@zimpapers.co.zw
Monday, September 5, 2011
Tsvangirai’s letters: the shame, danger
One is repelled by Tsvangirai’s sycophantic exhortation of Bush’s “characteristic determination” when the man evidently expended the same determination for evil ends like invading Afghanistan and Iraq.
By Tichaona Zindoga
It is hardly news to know, as the world recently did through a batch of Wikileaks on Zimbabwe, that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai works with hostile outsiders to achieve regime change in the country.
The grovelling Tsvangirai even forgot the history that the US itself had been actively involved in busting UN sanctions against Smith.
He did forget too, that the Bush regime was violating people’s rights at Guantanamo and could never be trusted to lay a healing hand on anybody.
Bush even left his people to perish in Hurricane Katrina.
But the unctuous Tsvangirai, far from thoroughly discrediting himself for his smarmy activities, represents a present and continuing threat to the national security of Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans.
If the country could count itself lucky to have survived a Chapter VII, as calls for the same were made as lately as 2008, sanctions that the US maintains, as conducted by Tsvangirai, represent a real danger.
It is clear that the “leverage” that Tsvangirai talks about is the suffering or screaming of people which amounts at best to threatening the power of President Mugabe and worst fomenting a humanitarian disaster or civil strife in the country.
By Tichaona Zindoga
It is hardly news to know, as the world recently did through a batch of Wikileaks on Zimbabwe, that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai works with hostile outsiders to achieve regime change in the country.
Such revelations only serve to confirm that which is already known in Zimbabwe and outside that the MDC-T leader is what some would pointedly call a Western puppet.
Where that description seems unpalatable, there is a wish that the former trade union leader would divest of the manifest Western influence which only serves to provide fodder to his detractors.
On the other hand, Tsvangirai’s actions lead to the recognition that he is a national security threat, the same actions being basically what would pass for treason.
But there is something fundamentally dangerous about the MDC leader, as revealed in what The Sunday Mail dubbed “Tsvangirai’s letters of shame.”
Consider for example his October 16, 2002 letter to the then US President George W Bush.
Similar text of this letter were sent to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter; then US ambassador to the UN Ambassador John Negroponte; Representatives Ed Royce and Donald Payne; Senators Thomas Daschle and Chester Trent Lott; Reverend Jesse Jackson and Chester Crocker.
A cursory look at this list shows men of dangerous imperialist credentials like Negroponte, former intelligence director and US ambassador to Iraq, while the likes of Donald Payne and Chester Crocker were heavily involved with sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Lott is credited for pushing for US military expansion, as he worked with Pentagon.
Jackson, a well-known civil rights activist, provided wolf in sheepskins, just as the missionary of yore did to colonialism.
In this shameful letter Tsvangirai invited the United Nations Security Council to institute a war against Zimbabwe based on Article 39 (Chapter VII Powers) of the United Nations Charter.
Using the well-worn criminalisation catchword, Tsvangirai claimed that the “Mugabe regime” was “carrying out crimes against humanity as a means of subjugating the people of Zimbabwe and denying them the right to freely determine their own destiny.”
Wrote Tsvangirai: “Crimes that rival fascism and Nazism in scale and wickedness are being committed daily, not by an occupying force, but by a supposedly sovereign government of the country.”
He then called on for investigation into “the gross human rights abuses and crimes against humanity”; “state-sponsored violence and the breakdown of the rule of law”; and “the denial of food relief to suspected political opponents and the consequent mass starvation”.
Tsvangirai also likened the “Mugabe regime” with that of Rhodesian strongman Ian Smith who fashioned a rogue regime out of what was termed the Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
The UNSC slapped Smith with sanctions
in 1966, which Tsvangirai wanted replicated in Zimbabwe.
in 1966, which Tsvangirai wanted replicated in Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai then beseeched Bush: “We therefore urgently appeal to you, Mr President, as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, to act with your characteristic determination to put a stop to the violent abuse of human rights and the carnage that is going on and assist in the process of laying a healing hand on the country and its tortured people.”
It is important to read this letter of shame with the other one that Tsvangirai wrote to Bush’s successor, Barack Obama.
One of the key highlights of the December 21, 2009 letter is Tsvangirai’s call for the US to maintain its sanctions regime – the Zimbabwe democracy and Economic Recovery Act – “striking a careful balance between retaining leverage and rewarding progress.”
Characteristically, Tsvangirai thanks Obama for working behind the scenes with another foreign power, South Africa and its leader Jacob Zuma to influence events here.
Tsvangirai’s “letters of shame” – and one can sense a pun here – demonstrate that he is a shameless politician who will go to great lengths to access power.
It is hard to reconcile Tsvangirai’s claims of “crimes against humanity” as supposedly committed in Zimbabwe without him providing the slightest evidence to back that.
In fact, at the time he wrote to Bush, his party had claimed no more than 100 deaths of his supporters in the previous elections.
The number was as liberal as could be given the propensity of Tsvangirai’s party to overstate such numbers just to play the victim.
This has led observers to remark upon MDC’s “morbid” preoccupation with dead bodies to the extent of claiming those who died naturally to have been their own killed in political violence.
It is surprising that Tsvangirai could call on for an investigation into “crimes that rival fascism and Nazism in scale and wickedness” that were “being committed daily” when it is known that these crimes as the world saw them being committed in the West, could well speak for themselves.
It is little wonder then that the leaders that Tsvangirai appealed to did not heed the call, certainly not because of their goodness but because the allegations did not hold any water at all.
As for Bush, he chose to invade Iraq the following year where “better” lies on weapons of mass destruction had been spun to pave way for the invasion of that country.
He went on to do just what Tsvangirai falsely accused President Mugabe of doing here, namely violent abuse of human rights and carnage and torture of innocent people.
One is repelled by Tsvangirai’s sycophantic exhortation of Bush’s “characteristic determination” when the man evidently expended the same determination for evil ends like invading Afghanistan and Iraq.
The grovelling Tsvangirai even forgot the history that the US itself had been actively involved in busting UN sanctions against Smith.
He did forget too, that the Bush regime was violating people’s rights at Guantanamo and could never be trusted to lay a healing hand on anybody.
Bush even left his people to perish in Hurricane Katrina.
But the unctuous Tsvangirai, far from thoroughly discrediting himself for his smarmy activities, represents a present and continuing threat to the national security of Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans.
If the country could count itself lucky to have survived a Chapter VII, as calls for the same were made as lately as 2008, sanctions that the US maintains, as conducted by Tsvangirai, represent a real danger.
It is clear that the “leverage” that Tsvangirai talks about is the suffering or screaming of people which amounts at best to threatening the power of President Mugabe and worst fomenting a humanitarian disaster or civil strife in the country.
A politician that behaves in such a Machiavellian manner is clearly a threat to national security.
Tsvangirai and his party have thrived on the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe which Tsvangirai and his party contrive to attribute to President Mugabe and Zanu-PF.
Tsvangirai, in the real fashion of the devil, goes even further to taunt his victims saying they will suffer even more.
“Muchasaisisa!” promises the sadistic Tsvangirai.
If this is not a threat to national security, which in any sane world should be appropriately censored, then nothing is.
One other thing that makes Tsvangirai a national security threat is his working with foreign powers to effect regime change in Zimbabwe.
It is reprehensible that a politician can be grateful that foreign powers meet in the shadows to discuss how to influence events in his country.
Tsvangirai could be criminally naive, but the regularity with which he acts in a manner that prejudices Zimbabwe’s security points to his being a present and continuing danger.
It would not be very fair on President Zuma to point to what Tsvangirai’s letter without affording him a hearing, but it would not be out of order to express fears over his role on Zimbabwe especially in light of his mediation.
One is bound to think of the likes of Lindiwe Zulu, President Zuma’s international relations advisor and spokesperson of his facilitation team here.
Zulu has conducted herself in a manner that has found question in Zanu-PF, whom she has blatantly and undiplomatically described as daydreaming on the issue of elections which the party is demanding, while she has found favour with the MDC formations.
The favour she has also found with Western-sponsored media here also seems to speak of how she resonates with the foreign agenda of the MDC in which the media has mutual funding.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)