Musekiwa a political opportunist

Musekiwa a political opportunist

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AT 24, he became the youngest ever Member of Parliament in Zimbabwe but now, Tafadzwa Musekiwa, a former student leader who burst into politics through the MDC, is exiled in the UK. Talking to SW Radio Africa this week, he said he feared his life was in danger. But journalist Innocent Chofamba Sithole who knows him well today says Musekiwa is nothing more than a petty thief and opportunist

By Innocent Chofamba Sithole

TAFDZWA Musekiwa should be asked why he, of all the MDC's parliamentarians and party activists, deserted his party and country. Is it not ironic that of all those in the party leadership, the CIO or whoever should wish to kill only him?

Musekiwa was never a radical activist, I was with him (in the Polad department and sharing classes in optional courses, saka ndinomuziva) at the University of Zimbabwe and he was among those known within the Learnmore Jongwe SRC as the 'voiceless' members. His main interests in student politics were the business opportunities that came with political office.

Do you know how he got into the MDC? It was more by chance than by active endeavour really. After the Jongwe SRC of 1997, Gabriel Shumba aka Marechera (the lawyer) was elected president, beating Job Sikhala, Nixon Mao Nyikadzino and Jethro Mpofu. An amendment to the student union constitution had just been made earlier which split the SRC into the executive (SEC) and the representative assembly (SRA, composed of faculty representatives).

The latter acted as a check on the SEC. What happened after Marechera's election was a mixture of political naivete on the new president's part and skilful political manoeuvring by the cabal of former SRC leaders and those who had lost the election. Knowing the pitfalls of student politics, the cabal, among them Fortune Mguni (Molokele), Sikhala, Jongwe, and a guy called Albert Moyo who was the SRA chairman moved to investigate looting by the new SEC (which is always a certainty with every admin) and upon finding evidence proceeded to impeach Marechera and his administration. Before the impeachment itself a few members of the new SEC resigned because of the corruption expose, among them the first female secretary general Commence Mucheni (Sista Coe, Pedzisayi Ruhanya's wife). Marechera went to the extent of inviting prominent former leaders Tinomudaishe Chinyoka and Raymond Majongwe to address the student extra-ordinary general meeting at the clinic but his efforts were in vain. Moyo advertised new elections for all the vacant posts.

The union was polarised coz the vote to impeach Marechera did not return a clear verdict with some still routing for Marechera. So there was great apathy attendant to the by-elections. For the plotters it was a chance now to retake political power. Mguni had been in the SRC since his first year at the UZ but had never been president, so naturally he went for the vacant post.

Mao who had been vice president had also been impeached for stealing the union decoder for the satellite tv bought by the Jongwe admin. There was a gentlemen's agreement on how to vie for the empty posts: Wiwa scaled down his presidential ambitions and decided to go for the SG post while Musekiwa settled for the VP post. they had little competition and Mguni was voted in by a mere 400 or so votes, down from the over 1000 characteristic of the presidential election.

Musekiwa continued to play his voiceless role, concentrating instead on making money thru selling beer in the October 4 student bar which was being run by a former UZ retrenchee called Masawi- he would sell a certain number of crates of Musekiwa's beer ontop of his own. Wiwa was also in on the deal. In a sense i guess you could say this SEC had a destiny with history. The hot demosntrations of 1998 - led mainly by Jongwe at the level of Zinasu but driven mainly by the UZ students union under this new leadership - coincided with the external agitation by the ZCTU in response to the growing crisis in the country.

The symbiosis between labour and student struggles was consolidated with students joining ZCTU rallies and demos, and labour and civil society leaders coming to address the union at political galas in the Great Hall and at NLT400 on campus. These were the formative days of the new opposition party and Musekiwa was only fortunate to be in that student leadership.

Otherwise as an individual he had no radical political views and was more conspicuously motivated by personal percuniary interests. Little wonder that he successfully contested for the chairmanship of the finance committee in the SEC. Predictably, at the handover ceremony when Takura Zhangazha's SEC was taking over power at the end of 1998, Musekiwa, as chairman of the finance committee, presented a financial report that had a $300 000 hole in it, and the fact that they did not go to great lengths to cover it up showed how much impunity attended the looting of student funds by the leadership. I was one of those respondents who stood up to challenge Musekiwa on this blatant fraud and to call for the invitation of the police fraud squad as per student union constitution, along with new SRA members Maxwell Maketo and Maxwell Saungweme. The issue raised heated debate with Jongwe threatening to 'show us dirty politics'; this was because a police probe would also unearth financial impropriety of his own administration.

Conviction in such a case would have hurt his chances of registering as a lawyer, not to mention tarnishing his political image which was at that point poised for take-off. Musekiwa himself came to my room in new complex 2 to threaten me for wanting to 'get him jailed' by suggesting the police fraud squad issue. He promised to 'fix' me when he got into a position of power; he said there was a new labour party coming and he would be in it. The fraud squad did come but the matter was quashed after the guys enlisted the assistance of the then dean of students George Madzima who was also corrupt and eventually lost his job after an $11m scandal involving the supply of curtains to the UZ halls of residence.

I've never bought Musekiwa's story about running for his life. Ask him why Wiwa, after being tortured and being dragged into detention countless times, and having enemies in both Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, has not bothered to leave the ghetto of St Mary's, let alone the country?

Musekiwa munhu wechibhanzi, regai atsvage mari, but ngaaitsvage akanyarara kwete kunyepera kuita victim.

Chofamba Sithole is a Zimbabwean journalist and writes in his personal capacity
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