The Resurrection of Simba Makoni...Another Dawn?

As I look out the window of this Gauteng taxi weaving its way past a maze of traffic at break-neck speed; I find myself jerking left, right and centre. What a better time to drown myself into my blackberry and see what is happening some thousand kilometres away in my beloved homeland. Facebook is the new meeting point not the former tuckshop, terminus or Fantasy Land; the crisis has thrown us far and wide we resort to social networks to find people who are familiar with our inclination.

As always Jones Musara does not disappoint, you are guaranteed updates every morning, afternoon or evening. He reminds me of Matigari of Ngugi Wa Thiongo, his life seems to be 99% politics with the 1% reserved for Chelsea football club. However on this day there is a slant to his updates, he is the subject of his own focus after some friend voiced concern about his weight or lack thereof, still another chided that he is not the type to be liked by any woman except the woman happen to be politics. Can a man be married to politics? What would be the conjugal boundaries and rights in that setting?

As I ponder this unusual matrimony of human to ideology I find the business of the day, something to awaken me before the taxi zooms past the point where I am supposed to disembark. It reads Simba Makoni calls for a non-political Transitional Structure to replace the current Government of National Unity; I almost fell off my seat but luckily we are packed in this taxi like sardines and I have 2 heavily built women on either side for support. Maybe they are the can and I am the sardine ensconced in between. For a year or so I thought Simba Makoni had retired at the break of Dawn/Mavambo project, the dead surely are risen, I hear Jesus calling Simba not Lazarus.

As I read further I understand this Transitional Structure will have to exclude Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe; what criteria Simba? Simba Makoni was probably sitting in the house waiting for the next assignment. My take is Mugabe is already advanced in age so excluding him from a Transitional structure is neither here nor there, save for Chinotimba crying foul and a yell of president for life from women's league. But for Morgan Tsvangirai my eyebrows were raised, what if Simba is onto another project to exclude the guy on whom most if not all opposition politics revolve? How would the Zimbabwe political landscape look without Morgan Tsvangirai? I believe ZANUPF knows Morgan Tsvangirai is gaining ground with every passing day as evident in his surpassing of Mugabe in terms of popularity during the 2008 presidential election. Other means to dissuade people from MDC seem to bear little fruit, if it is true that Simba Makoni's Mavambo Project was a ZANUPF ploy then it follows what we are seeing is another gambit to sell Simba Makoni after eliminating Morgan Tsvangirai.

Whatever happens the GNU must follow the SADC roadmap to free and fair elections. By having a new constitution we can put to rest the ghost of rigging, intimidation and draconian laws that have worked against opening democratic space. Time is running out on the part of ZANUPF and the tactics seem to be drying as well, after a decade of scheming against the masses there are not many options left to retain power through clandestine means. With the advent of mobile internet or GPRS/3G in Zimbabwe, the propaganda machinery is no longer efficient as well, the social network footprint among Zimbabweans has increased significantly and ZANUPF seem to be losing ground; what with many in the diaspora feeding those at home with information that is detriment to ZANUPF. With all this to consider, Simba Makoni might be the last hope of splitting votes as another Dawn/Mavambo breaks but in a free and fair election might be futile. It is imperative that Zimbabweans consider well their options and what they do, no one would want to be donating experimental votes to a another Mavambo. He who has ears, let him see!

Life & Times of GND (Government of National Disunity)

The events of the past week have been disturbing; many members of parliament, Ministers have found themselves locked up for one reason or another. The mayhem reached a crescendo with the nullifying of the post for Speaker of Parliament or the election thereof. The Supreme Court overturned the ruling passed earlier by the High Court that Lovemore Moyo should continue as speaker of parliament. So now we have no speaker of parliament in place, a deputy Prime Minister whose position bears no mandate from his party, a Finance Minister failing to account for monies that should have made way to the government treasury. Everything is not well in the government of Zimbabwe, every party is pulling to its own side. Despite people being upbeat at the formation of the Government of National Unity, many have now lost faith in this cause. ZANU PF appears keen to maintain the status quo prior to February 2009, at every turn they are eager to frustrate the country moving forward. Their blend of patriotism is to the party leader first, party second and everything else comes thereafter. Despite the nationalism tag which ZANU PF desperately cling to, they are far removed from the principals that brought them together to fight the Ian Smith regime, empty slogans is what remains, the party is turned into an appendage of a few big wigs. Anyone in the establishment can seek promotion only up to number two position; the first place is ensconced in one Robert Mugabe.

Perhaps the GND was not necessary but at that juncture it was the only plausible thing to do, the people had been held hostage after a run-off election where the incumbent had pulled all stops to frustrate any outcome favouring the opposition. Life has somewhat improved for the ordinary man on the street, food has become visible at affordable price, the runaway inflation was tamed. But the chaos is threatening to unleash itself once again; the arrest of many government officials is testament to the fact that ZANUPF is unwilling to forsake its violent nature, torture is crawling back into the mainstream after having gone on holiday. ZANUPF will be happy to go into elections with the current setting that will allow them to manipulate the system; the fear of defeat in free and fair elections might be the reason why they have shifted into flight mode.  Haply if they can force the break of the Government of National Disunity, elections can be held in the same conditions as in 2008. But will SADC and Zuma be amenable to such a situation? It remains to be seen but it appears SADC is not eager to proceed until its road map to free and credible elections is adhered to, without Mbeki at the helm, Mugabe also finds himself without much support within SADC and this might be the reason why he is tentative about going it alone. The fact that SADC is willing to proceed with a makeshift DPM in Arthur Mutambara might bear testimony to the fact that a lasting solution to Zimbabwe’s squabbles is seen as urgent.

On the other arm of the GND you have MDCM/N now led by Welshman Ncube, this group appears to be in government for vendetta and this overlaps to within their own ranks. Currently it has metamorphosed into two other parties MDC99 and the one led by Arthur Mutambara. But it is the hate they have for the main MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai that is astounding, they have scored minor victories in the form of joining hands with ZANUPF to elect a speaker of parliament. Despite the fact that their candidate lost, just the notion of forming a pact with ZANUPF had many tongues wagging. Recently they scored a major in ensuring that the speaker of parliament was removed from his post, it remains to be seen if they will go into bed with ZANUPF again to frustrate the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

But overall democracy has suffered, the people’s misery has been prolonged, from the results thus far, it is clear MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai went into the GND eager to prove something, that given a mandate they can be able to turn around the situation. They are the only group who played the ball and not the man. They had goals to achieve but unfortunately they had to work with the masters of dirty on the one hand and the architects of vendetta on the other. What remains is for the GND to be done away with, therefore it is expedient that a new constitution be enacted together with a clear roadmap to elections. However this will not be easy as ZANUPF is eager to hold on to the one thing that has kept them going, a dysfunctional constitution as well as electoral bodies that are manned by party loyalists. As it is Tobaiwa Mudede is past retirement age but is still holding office for the sake of ZANUPF, he knows how to manipulate those dead votes and do the balancing of figures. But it is evident that we are reaching an end game, there is no way out, the tenacity of the people of Zimbabwe has outlived the oppressors.

The Ghetto Kind of Life – A Tribute to The Struggle!!

I was pondering the uproar regarding comments alleged to have been made by Job Wiwa Sikhala on his facebook profile. He had written or in facebook terms his mind was thinking about some rumour he received from unnamed sources in Singapore, the post or what was on his mind appear obscure but many took it he thought Robert Mugabe was dead. How people arrived at such a conclusion baffles my mind. Nevertheless can anybody be prosecuted on account of “what’s on your mind?” Do we have the “thought police” as envisaged in George Orwell’s 1984? Haply if so then we can expect Mr. Job Sikhala to be charged with “thought crime”, we are living in interesting times indeed.

However the whole scenario reminded me of the ghetto where Job grew up and most likely still reside. His way of speech might display immaturity but such is life in the ghetto, salacious chatter is a norm. Who does not remember his/her mother standing in her yard speaking to a neighbour with the fence in between as the stupefied judge? Or if time and chance allow, a gathering of many housewives in the street whose quorum was only broken when the fathers started to trickle from work holding a Herald newspaper. Such is life in the ghetto; the ghetto laws transcend the laws of the land and mostly seem to be in direct conflict with each other. Growing up in the ghetto of Chitungwiza, affectionately known as Chi-town, it was customary to see the law being made a mockery of, a desire to come against the system was an in-born trait, who does not remember the municipal police chasing public drinkers down a street with bystanders cheering on Olympic style, the half-drunk fellows always ended being caught and hauled by their belts to the municipal van. Perhaps it was the reluctance to let go of that Lion Lager that disturbed their dash for freedom, with one hand trying not to spill the holy waters as they were called, it was always a losing battle one which played out repeatedly as if the offenders had exhausted their mental strength to recall.

It always seemed the law was against the people, against the ghetto spirit. It (the law) had to be defied with all might, in some cases the people would feel enough was as good as a fist, men & women would form a human wall to defend the street vendors. The green grocers always bore the brunt of the authorities, watching our compatriots’ mangoes, veggies, tomatoes being ferried by the police was always painful. It defied logic how people trying to eke out a living could be treated as criminals. Everyone always had it rough one way or the other in the ghetto.

The ghetto was a harsh environment; happiness and sorrow were so intertwined an outsider observer would hardly comprehend the juxtaposed anomaly. But we were fine that way; our struggle defined our vision and stubbornness to reach our goal to be free. Freedom to drink as we liked on the bottle store without police interfering, freedom for the ganja smokers to indulge the golden leaf as if they were in downtown Kingtson Jamaica, freedom to gather as we liked, anywhere we liked with no one having to eavesdrop what is going on. But times changed, bottled emotions soon gave way to collective outburst of anger, the ghetto people said enough of the harassment, retribution came in the form of food riots in 1998, we posted minor victories until the full might of the state was unleashed, suddenly the ghetto was not the same, soldiers, police filled the streets. It was decided from then onwards that the ghetto people had to be kept in check, a short leash was enacted. Since then the ghetto has known no freedom.

The municipal police withdrew only giving way to a more brutal force, an animal called POSA (Public Order Security Act) came into being, it had no respect for the ghetto kind of life and for the gossiping mothers, AIPPA (Access to Information & Protection of Privacy Act) was promulgated, one would think it protected their gossip but was an instrument to intrude into it. I recall days we had bashments (a house party usually organized and patronized by the youth), from nowhere you would find a Santana parked outside the party venue, disembarking would be police armed to the teeth. People would scurry in all directions, some scaling the durawall or fence to escape the pain of a police mboma (Baton). I remember the mavericks who tried jumping over the razor wire, it was a blood on the dance floor kind of thing. Soon our steps wandered elsewhere, one by one we formed lines out of the ghetto, some to United Kingdom, others to South Africa and others just to anywhere except the ghetto. But still the ghetto remains a part of us, we still believe in freedom for the ghetto, respect for the ghetto, love for the ghetto.

So when I reflect on the issue surrounding Job Sikhala and what he is alleged to have “thought” on his facebook page, I feel an aura that the ghetto is alive & invincible. The ghetto might not appeal to everyone or conform to the dictates the law, but we owe the struggle to the ghetto. In the words of George Orwell, "Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.", I envisage the ghetto being conscious at all times, born conscious, living consciously. Waiting for that opportunity to express itself, but the ghetto is under the check of the rogue animals POSA and AIPPA. Still the ghetto spirit will not wane as shown by Dread Gwisai and many others who gathered in the spirit of the ghetto, as they say, they can take us out of the ghetto but the ghetto will not be taken out of us. The ghetto lives to fight another battle, another struggle till the ghetto spirit has overcome. Still then the ghetto will remain the face of the struggle eternally.

With love and respect to the “Ghetto Kind of Life”.

Is Zimbabwe Ready For Change?

As the social network revolution sweeps past Muslim countries, many in Zimbabwe have been murmuring that such a wave should flow to Zimbabwe. It is agreed across political circles that change is long overdue in Zimbabwe. For ZANU PF its the succession debate that has been simmering for a long time, nationally its the people yearning for a less autocratic system of governance, a passing of the baton from the liberation movement's grip on power. The north African revolutions are spontaneous, uncoordinated, ours is a protracted one, the government is well aware of the aspirations of the majority hence always on the alert.

Despite the mood in Zimbabwe, most people are not prepared for what change would usher in. There are many citizens who sought asylum in countries such as England, to them change means letting go of the good life jumping to the next plane to Zimbabwe. Their complicity was evident when they were addressed by the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, booing him when he advised them to prepare for the home coming. The thought of going back to Zimbabwe haunts many who are somehow trapped in the first world, many left home with personal goals, only to find these frustrated by watertight first world economies that do not promote enough saving, heavily leaning on credit systems to siphon the meagre wages.

The less spoken of element of change is on the economic front, most Zimbabweans at home and abroad do not have capital reserves. Change will only see many look on as investment opportunities are taken by mostly foreign companies and individuals. If there is investment by locals it will be small scale or the preserve of a few well to do individuals. This is a situation far from ideal, having put up with a lot of violence, suffering & exploitation, Zimbabweans deserve to reap the gains of an economic boom. But can we escape the calamity that has befallen most countries that were in our predicament? Its possible, we have to be strategic in our outlook, we have to muster the art of working collectively, pooling our resources together.

As individuals we can be frustrated at the thought of change, we can look at our incapacity then fall into apathy to the extent of loathing those that preach change. As a people we ought to be in active dialogue on how we can make collective investments across the whole economy. Despite our exceptional literacy rates, we seem to have been deliberately deprived of knowledge in the areas of investment, few Zimbabweans know the mechanics investment instruments such as shares, bonds and tr. In my time of schooling I did not come across a lesson teaching how one can apply wisdom to trading in shares, unit trusts and government bonds.

However true emancipation does not come easy, we have to be prepared for the belt tightening that comes with it, the current scenario whereby government goes to seek foreign cash injection is exchange for mining, farming and manufacturing concerns is just but an addressing of the symptoms. The fall out with the West and subsequent withdrawal of much investment by companies such as Anglo-America, BHP Billiton awakened us to the harsh reality that we have no safety net albeit we walk a tight rope some miles above the ground, our fall can only be disastrous. For the little resources we can be able to extract from the ground, we should invest in capital goods that will create more opportunities with the aim for self-sustenance. Added to this frugal spending must be an investment in technology, Zimbabwe's internet penetration ratio is very low for a country with high literacy rates, for competiveness goods must be produced with as little cost incurred, technology is at the heart of most gains made to reduce cost of manufacture.

To achieve a different set of results, we must do things different, since independence we joined the long list of perennial beggars, moving from nation to nation, bloc to bloc with our begging bowl as if the first world owe us anything. The beggarly mentality must cease, it’s a mockery when our leaders go before national television and mourn that we have been excluded from an AIDS funding project. Such experiences only serve to entrench the penury case in the minds of young children. Nothing is given for free, the borrower will always subject to the lender, its ironic that some sections of our politicians scream sovereignity and freedom yet still go about begging. Can a beggar be a master of anything? Does a beggar have the tools to influence anything except a handout of coins from the well-to-do passers-by? Food for thought, bottomline we need a shift in our mindsets, get down to work for the people, deploy our meagre resources to the most economically beneficial projects. The chasing of luxury cars, mansions in Scotts mountains must stop and end with the current politicians, we need new brooms to sweep better, only then will we find safety in our own domicile and perhaps have the luxury to scream a genuine SOVEREIGNTY.