A revolution that lost its course – Mugabe at 88

By Tabani Moyo

In the state owned weekly, The Sunday Mail of February 19 – 25, 2012 President Mugabe was asked, “We are told there are groups in ZANU PF positioning themselves to succeed you. Are you aware of such groups?” His answer, was little bit mind blowing to the level heads, “Those you cannot avoid. But, they are not serious. All the people (to say all is to be too absolute) support that I stand. There is no one who can stand and win at the moment… you have got to groom a candidate. You can’t just get someone and put them in the forefront. You must groom a successor.” 

This is the thinking of the man who has been at the helm of the country’s leadership for the past 32 years. His commends speaks of a lost revolutionary course. It seems as if the president has come to know of the need to groom a successor at the age of 88. To him it looks like if he is not in the equation or the matrix of political happenings the country will grind to an abrupt stop. 

In his 1979, Unity and Struggle, Amilcar Cabral is quoted saying that, “We must avoid the obsession of some comrades that everything is spoiled, everything is over if they should leave the posting where they are. Nobody is indispensible in this struggle; we are all needed but nobody is indispensible. If someone has to go and goes away and then the struggle is paralysed, it is because the struggle was worthless… this is without mentioning cases of other comrades who think when they are transferred, they are going to die, because they have already established all conditions for working in one spot and are called upon to go to another. What blindness! As if our land were just a little corner! This shows a lack of awareness of the real reason, the aim and characteristics of our struggle.”   

If our liberation struggle which Zanu PF played a pivotal role, was anchored on revolutionary thinking, the party itself was founded on revolutionising the nation and its founding, the country would not be stuck with a leader celebrating 88 years in office.  Our revolution was founded on the principles of dismantling the colonial yoke, giving the citizens that right to be human and making choices in a freed nation and above all defining our nationhood. This definition includes freely choosing its leadership, living in peace, human advancement in all faculties and a peace of mind.

As Cabral noted, the revolution lost its course as seen by how the citadels of the president are stepping on each others’ toes splashing close to a million dollars in celebrating one man’s birthday. If it was an independence celebration ceremony held across the country’s ten political provinces, we could have spared this critique. But no, it’s not a national event.

no one in Zanu is capable of winning?

The president posits an oxymoron statement that no one is capable of winning in his party. Though it is free knowledge that ZANU PF is no longer capable of winning anything worth competing for, he believes that he is God given. This is depicted at a level of brazenly coming out in the public saying that no one can offset competing offerings and secondly through deliberately stifling the open debate on succession, which entails that he wants to end his life in the public spheres of life.

His concubines cannot read the lines on the walls. They cannot smell the big rat in the house even when they are clearly aware of the fact that they made Robert Mugabe through posting him to the position he holds. That making of Mugabe was squarely rooted on the national ethos of creating a state that is responsive to the national needs. When he was posted, there was absolutely no thinking that one day we will dedicate our creative facilities through songs and dance to perfect his stay in power. 

At any given time we need to remind each other of the fact that the nation is convince that he is no longer a public good. He is no longer the best person to carry the national fleg at both domestic and international for a. This is given the fact that times have changed. That’s why he is angry at everyone from within his party as exposed by wikileaks, the nation for voting against his candidature in 2008, SADC for pushing for reforms and the AU for recognizing the new Lybian government. Times have changed comrade President!  

  

a true revolution never runs out of leaders

A clear case of well thought out revolutionary outfits like the African National Congress (ANC) is never deficient of leadership. On the contrary it builds stronger on the strength of leadership renewal. ZANU PF’s infections of leadership stagnancy have, just like any other lost course infected a domino effect in our lives. We see people refusing to leave office at trade unions, in churches, in civil society, in soccer and political parties. 

This is how deep the nation has lost direction as a cascading result of President Mugabe’s long term incumbency. We have transgressed. Our knowledge systems have become symbolic. If at any stage of our cultivation we cannot use our minds to change things and the status quo, that knowledge is helpless, it’s irrelevant and a complete worst of effort. 

To this we start hearing of other leaders convincing gatherings that, “leaders are God given”. That is dangerously coming from the fact that the ‘revolution’ in itself have become and evolution of mimicry tactics. We hope our nation will fumigate this cunning demon.

time out…

The president should know that its time out for him, he needs to rest so that we don’t worst any valuable time discussing and debating about age and producing cloths of an 88 year old. This should become increasingly clear to everyone. When we say time out, it means its his time that is out not for the nation.

His continued stay in office will subject the nation to unseen dangers. This is mainly because at that age, we are not sure what he will say at different for a, some of his statements will one of these days subject the nation to aggression from the global bullies. 

moving on

We need to remain alive to the fact that very soon Mugabe will be a fading memory. Zimbabwe will never fade off. Lets collectively make this point at every engagement of our lives. Our actions and thinking should be founded on the national well being rather than on building enigma personalities and threatening the country with war when we differ.

As the late good general Solomon Mujuru would say, “Those who threaten the people with war did not fight the war”. As you celebrate your 88^th birthday president Mugabe, you need to go and rest. The country believes you did your bit but as is the law of diminishing returns have taken over.

Tabani Moyo can be contacted at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

BAZ a conduit for the ZANU PF election campaign

By Tabani Moyo

In the Sunday Mail of January 22 – 28, 2012, the Chairperson of the disputed Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), Dr Tafataona Mahoso was going in circles trying to redeem the bettered image of the illegally constituted board. He jumped from one point to another in a bid to mislead the nation that everything was done above board pertaining to the millennium charade of awarding licenses to ZANU PF sympathizers.

This article tries to highlight the major defects pertaining to the status of the BAZ and the subsequent awarding of three commercial licenses to AB Communication and the Zimbabwe Newspaper (ZIMPAPERS) by the same. The controversial move has been branded as a millennium charade in the media circles and fraud elsewhere.

In trying to dispel the ruse of impartiality and objectivity painted by Dr Tafataona Mahoso the article shall attempt to zoom on the following critical issues:

·         Which advert did the current board members responded to when they applied for the positions they are holding, that is if ever they applied?

·          Is it out of coincidence that only the allegedly ZANU PF aliened companies were granted the licenses to broadcast?

·         Is the current BAZ as is, ever going to discharge its duties without putting on its political spectacles and/or probably party regalia?

·         What is the way forward under such circumstances?

where was the advert flighted?

In the lengthy and tedious interview in the weekly state owed Sunday Mail, Dr. Mahoso painted a picture of normalcy on the status of the BAZ. This is sad because as he is fully aware, he never responded to any advert in the press for board members. The parliament of Zimbabwe advertised for commissioners’ posts for the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC). Mahoso and others applied for such placements but failed, and dismally in that regard, in the public’s full glare. How the doctor and others of like mind, who by the way failed to make it into the ZMC ended up at the BAZ remains a millennium mystery.

As members of the public we are therefore calling on the Parliament of Zimbabwe to follow the laws of the land. Through the Standing Rules and Orders Committee (SROC), it should dissolve the current politicized outfit and advertise vacancies for board members in the press for prospective board members to apply. This is what it should have done in the first place.

the day ZANU PF awarded itself licenses.

 In early 2010, the ZANU PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, was quoted by the Zimbabwe Independent as saying both Tafataona Mahoso and Professor Jonathan Moyo were doing voluntary work for his party. This is sequentially confirmed by the contents of his long, meandering and some yester year century articles in the state media where he is always trying to spruce up the disintegrating party image.

The Manica Post (7 – 13 October 2011) carried a apt headline titled Journalist Supa Mandiwanzira joins politics. The headline was supported with a picture of Supa Mandiwanzira flanked by two senior Zanu PF members. The picture had the following caption: Zanu-PF national secretary for administration, Cde Didymus Mutasa (left), cde Moses Gutu (centre) present Nyanga South constituency aspirant Supa Mandiwanzira to party supporters during the constituency coordination meeting held at Sedze Business Centre last Saturday. If the need be for purposes of evidence and transparency I can still produce this newspaper cutting.

Dr Paul Chimedza, the chairperson of ZIMPAPERS is gunning for the Gutu South constituency on the ZANU PF ticket.

Due to the space constrains I will not hazard going into detail on the obvious party lineage of the likes of Dr Vimbai Chivaura,  Colonel Reuben Mqwayi (Rtd), Ms Charity Moyo and Brig-Gen Elasto Madzingira (Rtd) among others.

This smacks of a ZANU PF ploy to beef up its tools as the party prepares for elections sometime in 2013. It is upon us as the peoples of Zimbabwe, the region, continent and the international community to note that a BAZ chaired by a ZANU PF “voluntary worker” set and issued two licenses to two commercial radio stations whose heads are contesting in the forthcoming elections under the ZANU PF ticket. This can only be defined as fraud.

a void in broadcasting regulation.

Given the aforesaid situation, there is a void in our broadcasting sector for there is no legitimate and credible regulator to call for licenses for the people of Zimbabwe to start broadcasting. Therefore, there is no way under the current circumstances that the current board can claim to be registering ‘authentic broadcasters’ in essence what is happening is a clear situation were by ZANU PF is building a paper trail to the establishment of its manifesto.

Zimbabweans should refuse to be subjected to such a toy-story of political grandstanding rather than national development.

where do we go from here?

In conclusion we need sanity in the broadcasting industry through firstly ensuring that the current BAZ board needs to be dissolved by parliament; legal challenges and/or political parties coming back to their senses and disbanding the creature which is causing chaos in the industry.

There after the long term solution has to safeguard against the recurrence of such mischief through ensuring the establishment of an Independent Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (IBAZ) that is done in sync with the regulation of telecommunications and ICTs. These two arms will be responsible of managing our frequency spectrum.

With such measures in place, as a nation we would move towards much progressive issues like digital migration rather than being stuck with Stone Age laws like the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), Interception of Communications Act (ICA) and the Criminal law Codification and Reform Act (CODE) among others

Tabani Moyo can be reached at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

Speech presented by Tabani Moyo (Quill Club Secretary General) on the occasion of handing over the Zimbabwe Somalia Solidarity Fund to UNICEF

05 October 2011

Speech presented by Tabani Moyo (Quill Club Secretary General) on the occasion of handing over the Zimbabwe Somalia Solidarity Fund to UNICEF

The UNICEF Representatives,

Quill Club Executive members

Members of the press

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank colleagues at UNICEF Zimbabwe offices for according us this opportunity to handover our humble contributions in our efforts to respond to crying voices in the Republic of Somalia. We engaged with the Harare office for quite some time for this day to become a reality. On behalf of the Quill Club, we appreciate the role you are going to play in handing over this donation to the beneficiaries.

Ladies and gentlemen,

On the 22^nd of July 2011, the National Press club, having been touched by the broadcasts and pictures exposed in the international media launched a week’s campaign targeting to raise USD 1000.00 under the banner Zimbabwe-Somalia Solidarity Fund

The initiative, as you might be aware became the first one of such a nature in Zimbabwe. As such we are proud to be the pioneering institution to publicly mobilise the people of Zimbabwe towards a such a noble cause of saving lives.

The inspiration is founded in the comprehensive notion of African solidarity. We come from the background that we take care of each other. If our brother or sister is struck by such a natural calamity through our solidarity we must act. 

At no given point in our collective lives have we reneged from this notion, which is entrenched on the pedestal that life is sacrosanct and we as Africans should collectively uphold such a value system. With this campaign, we therefore answered to more than 9.6million peoples’ cry for help in the adverse face of famine in Somalia to express our solidarity beyond spiritual, thought, empathy and sympathy to economic and humanitarian solidarity.

We as Africans can not find restful and peaceful nights when we are aware that the vultures await to patch at shallow graves of victims of hunger. As we serve dishes of lunch and dinner at our respectful homes we need to remain alive to the fact that a child is buried daily in Somalia due to starvation, dehydration and failure to access medication. As I said, as Africans we are bound by the spirit of Ubuntu, which prescribes that we are each other’s keepers as brothers and sisters therefore with this statement of commitment to the same we seek to raise a new sense of hope to the people of Somalia.

As each other’s keepers, we surely must be haunted by the devastating pictures and video footage of the humiliating suffering which continues to haunt more than 360 000 children and the starvation of the general populace of up to 9 million people.

Therefore our nights can only be nights punctuated by nightmares in light of such gruesome conditions of degrading starvation. The sight of children getting permanently disabled due to limited supply of food and water can only but exacerbate the nightmares on fellow Africans and the peoples of the world.

Neither can our souls find peace for as long as children die of mosquito bites due to limited access to blanketing and other clothing requirements. Such suffrage corrodes the development of our human progression and our value system, which differentiate humanity from the rest of the animal world.

The very same spirit of solidarity which was shared amongst the peoples of Africa in dislodging the colonial administrations in the respective nations from Cape to Cairo has not left us as a people. It is the very same spirit which has inspired this group of journalists to make this humble contribution.

With this small donation, we are hopeful that we have set in motion a national process of solidarity from business, the churches, the various sectors of our economy and the polity to name but just a few. We therefore believe this process shall among other things manage to achieve the following:

·         Trigger into motion other institutions to remember and assist the people of Somalia during this trying time

·         Escalate the Somalia humanitarian disaster to unlock additional areas of interventions

·         Increase awareness on the need for solidarity amongst Africans in both times of trying and triumph,

·         And ultimately save lives in Somalia

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Having noted the above, the Quill Club, whose membership is mainly of journalists remain forever indebted with this expression of solidarity from fellow journalists, members of the civil society, the business community and the general public who through their contributions shall make a difference. Special thanks go to the UNICEF Zimbabwe office for accepting to receive our humble contribution on behalf of the Children of Somalia.

Finally, we would like the people of Somalia to know that as we hand over this donation, we are doing so with sadness for we could have done better. We are doing so knowing very much that this is like going to bed with an unfinished song, yet we know the fully well the pains of such a song. Theirs is a song of sorrow; the hymns of human lose and choruses that threaten humanity.

With those few remarks,

I thank you.

MDCs digging own graves

Tabani Moyo
September 01, 2011
fist published by Kubatana.net 

The dust of the government’s hollywood lifestyle is refusing to settle down. It cannot settle down especially when the people are living in such a sea of poverty. However, the development has shown beyond reasonable doubt that the MDCs are stuck in an omnibus syndrome to governance. The mimicry politics have taken over the voice of reason as the so called ‘democratic change merchants’ stampede for the gravy train.
I happened to bump into three ministers one from the MDC and two from the MDC-T riding in their new filthy lucre. The windows where lowered, music loud as if to attract attention from the public in the exhibition of a newly acquired status. The status of a polished league of gentlemen/women I guess. I said god forbid. These are not business people who have the leeway to do whatever they want with their profits, but public officials ridding on the poor taxpayers’ hard earned income.

What happened to the so called paragons of virtue, those who saw everything wrong about public officials abusing state funds on luxuries? The virtue seems to have sublimated during the ‘opposition’ times, as the train gets more gravy laced, the elements of virtue are crucified on the altar of public suffrage. As we stand no single minister has declined the offer of these fuel guzzlers, their consciences are clean and their declaration of intent manifest that they are still in a struggle for a better Zimbabwe!

Personally, I don’t have a problem with ZANU PF being implicated in this bangle, we as a people know of its heinous deeds. That’s why the people of Zimbabwe risked limb and life in forming and supporting an alternative vehicle to rid the rot in ZANU PF. It becomes confusing when the line between ZANU PF’s actions and those of the MDCs becomes blurred. 

20 million on luxuries! 

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) is set to increase the utility cost of delivering energy. The public hospitals have collapsed, children this summer shall die of mosquito bites, the industry performing below 30%, women failing access basic sanitary facilities and our education system turning into an elitist platform among other things.

With the above cacophony of problems, we have learnt that ZANU PF and the MDCs can actually unite in ‘looting’ from the poor. The current blame shifts between Minister of Transport, Infrastructure Development and Communication Nicholas Goche and the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti should not be tolerated to continue stealing our intellectual space in the papers. The decision to purchase the goodies is a collective one from the cabinet which the three parties are represented. 

In this process there is no room for afterthought. The three parties could not agree at cabinet level on the need to increase civil servants salaries but unanimously agreed to squeeze harder the drying pockets of the taxpayers.


As I stated before such are the pitfalls of proximity to state power it exposes the cravings which were going to manifest themselves soon after the ‘opposition’ takes total control of state power. We are better off with some of these happenings are unfolding at this juncture of our cultivation as a people. The MDCs only got into office two years ago; they are already leaving the lives of movie stars or the English premier soccer stars. One can only remind the MDCs of the calamity of approaching this ‘struggle’ with omnibus gloves. It gives the impression of a false sense of ‘arrival’, a false sense of destiny. The ministers believe, their yearnings have been achieved, hence the need to amass as much as they can before sporadic cabinet reshuffles. These state trappings are dangerous for the same people who came up with these platforms or movements can still do the same and push aside primitive ‘accumulativists’ into political dustbins.
Tabani moyo is reachable at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com