Zimbabwe: a journey to the moon

Zimbabwe: a journey to the moon

• Rocket man takes aim at Mugabe

• Mutambara: 'MDC has image problem'

• Coltart turns down MDC appointment

• Is Mutambara hope for Zimbabwe?

• Msekiwa Makwanya: Standing in the way of unity

• Mutambara has clean race as Chimanikire pulls out

• Eldred Masunungure: Mutambara, anxiety and panic among political gladiators

• Conrad Nyamutata: Mutambara can fight Mugabe at two levels

• Bekithemba Mhlanga: Let King Arthur set sail

• Arthur Mutambara Biography

• Mutambara goes on charm offensive

• Statement by Prof Arthur Mutambara

• MDC receives $8 billion from government

• Mutambara 'not for turning'

• Mutambara set to be new MDC leader

By Diana Mitchell

...and just when I thought there was no such thing as a UFO!

This one carried home Arthur Mutambara who could not have landed any other way; it's a dangerous journey by road and flight passenger lists are watched closely by the spooks.

He is going to fight the Mugabe regime `tooth, nail and claw'. No guns I am glad to note. Not even the `axes and spears' that the gentle Enoch Dumbutshena had the temerity to mention fourteen or so years back.

This one is a natural fighter, taking his cue from the sage who gave us `nature, red in tooth and claw'. The image is scary but thrilling. A REAL professor this one. We have had so many charlatans awarding themselves the title. But this new excitement of the opposition taking off with a rocket scientist - aeronautics is close enough - is dizzying.

To shift to another allusion: he came with an earthquake, didn't he? Mozambique last week experienced a huge one - 7.5 on the Richter scale and its tremors were felt as far off as Harare and Bulawayo. Even in Johannesburg. Mr Mbeki must have felt it. Tell the people that when a man of Arthur's calibre lands on Zimbabwe's soil and says he's going to help kick out the tyrant, and the earth moves... its magic. That's the sort of thing they need to believe in since all else, especially `quiet diplomacy' has failed. Only a leader proclaiming himself `the anti-Senate leader of the pro-Senate faction' could utter such powerful incantations. And all this in the midst of Mugabe's 82nd birthday celebrations which nobody in the opposition wanted to attend. Maybe they hadn't heard about it?

And there's more mystery. Some would call it synchronicity. What about coincidence? The MDC pro-Senate faction has just got its $Zim8bn worth of funding for its parliamentarians. Patrick Chinamasa, the responsible Minister, says he hasn't heard about the split: lucky he went blind and deaf for a shortwhile when that decision was being debated in the corridors of power.

It gets better: a new Bill is on the way, nicknamed `crosstitution' (who was the genius who thought that one up?). MDC Members of Parliament will, under this law, be allowed to keep their seats, whatever their factional or political preference. With a little more luck, some `loyal' Zanu PF MPs might perhaps think about crossing to the MDC if it means the money keeps coming in. Nobody can afford to lose a job in a Zimbabwe with 70-80% unemployment.

Sad though it is that Budiriro MP for the MDC, Gilbert Shoko, passed away at this moment of joy, his spirit will surely smile upon Arthur and his re-invigorated band of knights and damsels as they take up the fight again at a by election.

Other opposition spirits whose lives were wasted in battle will surely be around wherever there is a plan to help to re-unite an incredibly brave band of democrats in peace - or at the very least, to bring friendship and co-operation between the two factions. No harm in dreaming.

Zimbabweans, keep your eyes on the stars! Watch out as you make your flight to the moon for the spirits of Kaguvi and Nehanda hovering out there.

See Diana's blog at www.z-cr.blogspot.com
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