Silencing Silence Chihuri

Silencing Silence Chihuri

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By Makusha Mugabe

I WAS moved to respond to Silence Chihuri's article published on New Zimbabwe.com in which he seems to take all Zimbabweans for fools - talking about leadership qualities that he knows little about.

To quote his introduction, "political national leadership calls for original thinking, malleable character and most importantly, the ability to judge and deduce a sustainable way forward from a given state of affairs."

Further, he says: "One needs to stand his own ground and have an independent mind that is not parasitic when it comes to ideas and initiatives..."

Then he goes on to be parasitic and puerile in his analysis of Morgan Tsvangirai's leadership and his transition from being a trade union leader to a political leader.

To begin with, when the civic coalition met to decide how to go about changing the political situation or dislodge Zanu PF from its militarily-reinforced iron-grip of the Zimbabwean society, it was only Tsvangirai who put himself forward.

All the so-called intellectuals were chicken, and the only strong voices heard to criticise Mugabe without fear were from Tsvangirai and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, University of Zimbabwe students, the Churches, and the human and women's rights organisations.

But still when it came to the question of who was going to bell the cat it was only Tsvangirai who was found there, dragging all the others behind him and - how quickly Chihuri forgets - being detained for it.

But the true mark of his leadership was how he, in a consultative way, managed to lead a coalition catering for interests as diverse as Gwisai's Socialist International on one end and Gays and Lesbians on the other because of the realisation that what we needed was strength in numbers.

He did make a sea change and went through a whole year of inconclusive consultative meetings in places as diverse as Paul Themba Nyathi's Zimbabwe Project, Kadoma and the University of Zimbabwe and numerous workshops and retreats, only to be able to come up with a consensus.

And all the time we were also dealing with political opportunists, one-man political parties, and all the NDA NDE NDI NDO NDUs. Fredrick Chiluba does not come anywhere in this picture. He was just a Trade Union leader who walked into a political vacuum as Kaunda' economy collapsed under the weight of falling copper prices.

Tsvangirai not only developed his own leadership skills, but helped all the young people in various grass-roots movements to rise and develop their own leadership skills as well - thus we see the multiplicity of civic organisations that we have in Zimbabwe today, with strong and capable leaders.

And when the time came and the movement was strong some university professors even saw it fit to join, and were welcomed in Tsvangirai's inclusiveness, and even given top posts from which to show what they could do.

But when he saw opportunists trying to hijack the movement for their personal ends, Tsvangirai was quick to put his foot down and stand his ground.

Where Chihuri, the columnist, proves that he does not know what he is talking about is when he says as soon as Tsvangirai assumed the MDC mantle, he narrowed the scope of the MDC party’s appeal especially to the broader Zimbabwean intelligentsia, academia and business class.

These were the comfortable middle-classes who did not believe that Mugabe's mismanagement of the economy would one day touch their stomachs. These are the people who would find theories from here to Mukuvisi just to avoid engaging Mugabe in serious confrontation - out of fear, out of protecting their interests and out of the belief that they were OK.

In fact the best decision that the MDC made under Tsvangirai's leadership was to go out to the masses, the peasants, the rural dwellers and the workers and the unemployed in the cities - these have made the MDC the invincible movement that it is today, so much so that Chihuri and his masters now find it difficult to call a meeting in the rural areas, let alone to hijack it.

MDC's agenda, far from being just about removing Mugabe, was shaped by the desire to bring about democracy - thus the name of the party, which took many months of debate and workshopping to develop.

The human rights activists who preached and workshopped democracy and human rights in rural areas and high density suburbs are today's MDC branch and provincial leaders.

If Chihuri does not know this I wonder where he was and if he can explain what it is that is meaningful that should have been explored "so as to excite and entice a broader following", as he put it.

And if Zimbabwean business moguls were protecting their businesses in the existing patronage system by not being seen to be involved in anti-Zanu PF activities, what were we supposed to do - put guns to their heads and make them sign cheques?

The only inferiority complex in Zimbabwean politics is in people like Chihuri who like to use words they do not understand and are jealous when down-to-earth people who speak to the people, like Nelson Chamisa, rise to rerejuvenate an information department that never issued one Press release in five years. It is just as well Themba Nyathi is is gone.

He was sitting on information, and if he thinks that the computers that he has taken away full of information will suddenly start putting out the information by themselves, he will be shocked that without them, but with our determination and the support of the people, we will make the loudest noise ever.

If Chamisa's ambition nauseates Chihuri it is only because he has stepped up into the part and is driving the engine much better than the mature-in years people who did not know what to do with the position.

Chihuri himself knows nothing about leadership as shown by his invisibility as an executive member of the MDC UK for the last five years and his total failure as a treasurer.

And with that attitude he will probably never mature. What is left is only for MDC UK members to now go and knock on his door asking for the books so that we can see where our money went to.

His jealousness of Chamisa is quite disturbing. Any objective person, even from the opposition, can see that Chamisa has risen, or rather, is rising to the challenge, because when the real people's congress happens in March, that is when Chihuri will find out just how much damage Chamisa can do to Zanu PF and its Chihuris - including the Commissioner.
Makusha Mugabe is a member of the MDC's Birmingham Branch in the UK. He can be contacted at: makushalondon@yahoo.co.uk
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