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Let's fight the common enemy
By Silence
Chihuri
THIS week
most people genuinely concerned about the prevailing sorry conditions
in our country have been celebrating Professor Arthur Mutambara’s
arrival or maybe re-entry onto the Zimbabwean political scene.
Surely nobody in their rightful state of mind could seriously choose to ignore Mutambara’s political pedigree regardless of their inclinations because the flame of opposition politics has been re-lit.
Obviously, the celebration of the re-union with Mutambara comes against the backdrop of dire challenges that call upon all of us as Zimbabweans to pool together our efforts and confront our problems that continue unabated.
If at all possible, I will try to digress from the prevailing Mutamnbara mania because usually behind that veil of such excitement and euphoria, the forces of evil seek to prevail in the comfort of reduced focus. I know that it could be quite difficult to brush aside AGO because the man will be an integral element of that vital process of national reclamation and the level of interest generated by his arrival does confirm it.
Sadly, those in charge of our destiny and who should be in the forefront of troubleshooting and championing the efforts for national redemption, once again took time to feast and drown our sorrows in their drink while basking in the sunshine of the Eastern Highlands. That is what happens when the pre-occupation of the leadership of a country ceases to be that of ensuring the welfare of their people is safeguarded
Surely, even a fraction of the money spent on the this big bash in the eastern highlands could have repaired the mortuary of some Midlands Hospital where close to a hundred innocent corpses were reportedly stashed indecently to rot. That is what happens when the pre occupation of a country’s leaders ceases to be that of ensuring the welfare of their people is safe guarded. President Mugabe duly acknowledged his gratitude to the people of Zimbabwe for enabling him to live as long as 82 years. I wonder how many could say the same to him today, but surely many people would have liked to live as long or half as much but have seen their lives slashed due to poverty
As a nation, Zimbabwe has now come full circle. We have seen it all but we have not defeated it all. Indeed together, we conquered colonialism, and it is only sad that ironically, some of those who played a very important role in defeating the scourge of exploitative imperialism have actually turned into our worst nightmares. President Mugabe created this system of patronage whereby only those openly and enthusiastically loyal to him are rewarded with positions of influence in government and parastatals.
The problem has now grown bigger than Mugabe because he is virtually under siege from his own ministers who wantonly defy him without much censure at all and does not absolve him from culpability. The eulogy that Mugabe is accorded during occasions such as his covertly national birthday is merely a window for his lieutenants to stray with little notice from the chief of state. The occasional broadsides that Mugabe throws at his erstwhile colleagues are simply meaningless because the same people blunder upon blunder courtesy of their master’s ubiquitous tolerance.
I think there is now an even greater need and scope for Zimbabweans to come together and fight a common enemy in the government because this is should not be approached from a fragmented discourse. We have seen at times when we pinned our hopes on a particular group from our population to deliver our objectives and this has only been taken the process so far, but fell short of actually fulfilling those aspirations. From the mid to late 1980’s, the early 1990’s up to the year 200 and thereafter leading up to today, we have seen many players take centre stage to lead our struggle for equality. By equality here I mean with regard to virtually most respects such as equality in means and purposes, as well as intends; equality before the law; equality in the eyes of the powers that be; and such related natural justice.
We witnessed the days of the most robust student activism that involved the likes of Mutambara, Obey Mudzingwa, Learnemore Jongwe, Munyaradzi Gwisa just to name a few, and an assortment of other celebrated student leaders. This was to be followed by a wave of trade unionism that also took centre for a long time involving of course, the likes of Morgan Tsvangirai and Gibson Sibanda at ZCTU before they left to lead the MDC; now Wellington Chibhebhe and Lovemore Matombo who took over at ZCTU; Raymond Majongwe and the Progressive Teachers Union; and Gift Chimanikire with others at the Telecommunications Workers Union. The unions were complemented by a restive and lethal civic society that courageously agitated for the human and basic rights of the people of Zimbabwe with Zimrights arguably leading the pack. Also, out of this vibrant civic establishment was born more groupings such as the NCA and the Crisis Zimbabwe Group headed by Dr Madhuku and then Brian Kagoro respectively. Journalism also weighed in and occupied leading space directing the course of the struggle for the equality of Zimbabweans, with papers such as the Daily News making a huge impact.
In between, there have been distinguished individuals who have actually taken it upon themselves to champion the cause for Zimbabwe at great personal expense such as John Makumbe, lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, and others. All this was topped up with the foray into oppositions politics that was kicked off in earnest with the formation of ZUM by Edgar Tekere in 1989 and hot on the heels of ZUM was Margret Dongo’ ZUD and a few here today gone tomorrow and some one-man-band political groupings.
Come 1999 and enter the MDC, the mother of all opposition parties in the history of Zimbabwe and suddenly our hopes were set ablaze with the belief that at last deliverance was at the doorstep. Help was on its way and failure was not an option, yet we are still here today the big question to ask is: Why are we still fighting for a just society 25 years after independence from colonialism and racial discrimination? Why are we still a nation under siege while we boast of such an array of the mouthpieces and voices of reason? My answer, which is a very personal point of view, is that our efforts are too fragmented in this fight for national pluralism.
There is discord and disharmony in the way we have sought to redeem ourselves and the government has sought to capitalise on this to dodge our efforts. During the war for liberation there was more co-ordination common direction and similarly, this fight for equality and social justice also calls upon wise and capable guidance to take us to the next stage. All those who curved the route down the emancipation lane did a great job, but there is need for a more concerted approach so as to take the cause down to the end of this curved out route. A leadership that will seek to unite the people of Zimbabwe and instil that sense of national belonging that does not founded upon any specific grouping or origin. Of course, it maybe difficult at times to harmonise the synergies of political and non-political entities, but history has shown that there is always a coincidence of purpose within the framework of a struggle and that sometimes makes it virtually impossible to distinguish between the position of politics and that of civic activism in that given struggle.
Unity of purpose that seeks to pool the most capable man and women of our generation and lead the people through this elusive but yearned for stage of the struggle for economic democratic deliverance from a home grown evil. This is not the time for people who seek to own the struggle, or to be possessive of this people’s cause, but it is time to take the struggle to the people so that the people can be the struggle, and live with the struggle. I think Mutambara’s rallying call for all and sundry to revisit their united instincts is perfectly in order and must be taken embraced with the seriousness it calls for.
Chihuri is chairman
of MDC UK and views expressed here are his own. He can be contacted
on: silencechihuri@hotmail.com
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