Strategic thinking dictates that from now on we must fight our political fight as Mthwakazi

By Ndabezinhle Edwin Mkwananzi

Today, I want to make the point that, as Mthwakazi, we must begin to think strategically. I also want to make the point that, that strategy demands that we fight our political fight as Mthwakazi.

The reason for this is that the Zimbabwe Project oppresses and dominates us as Mthwakazi. Our political strategy must take stock of the effects of the Zimbabwe Project in the past 30 years as well as its present and lingering effects. We therefore need to remove it completely from uMthwakazi’s psyche and body politic. That is a long-term task that requires us to think strategically and to execute it in terms of a clear strategy.

In response to the Zimbabwe Project, as a starting point and as a critical first step of our strategy, uMthwakazi must seek to disengage with present-day Zimbabwe. As I say in my last message, we are saying, post-Mugabe, present-day Zimbabwe cannot continue to be governed as it has, as this project of domination of one people by another, of one system by another or one culture by another, and a project of suppressing and under-developing a specific population of present-day Zimbabwe society.

We therefore have a real political struggle in our hands.

Disabusing our people from the mentality that uMthwakazi’s independence is impossible to that which says, to quote Barack Obama, “yes we can”, is going to take some doing. Obama provides a useful anecdote for Mthwakazi. Only a few years ago, he was distant outsider, and even at recent elections, that he could become US first Black President, was to mainstream American politics a laughable joke. It has not been a honeymoon for him; it has been hard, sometimes, frustrating work. Unless there is something special about us, we have no right to expect the task before us to be a honeymoon.

Being a strategic project, our agenda is not short-term. It does not therefore carry the promise of immediate political reward. Nor does it offer the present excitement of joining the new gravy train of Zanu-PF and the MDC. For these reasons, we will admit, it is an unattractive agenda to many but the most brave and committed. It is this committed few who see the vision who we want to help transform that vision into an attainable goal.

Because our agenda is defining, it is long-term and hard. Because it is young, it is wobbly. But we struggle up, trudge on, and ferret, fully reminded that we will grow and become stronger with time. We have one advantage our oppressors do not have; and that is the justness of our cause. In it, is the political capital and political fire that will see us confront and cross every obstacle we will encounter.

We have already shown we can stand even the toughest tests thrown at us. We emerged from the Gukurahundi experience intact and more united. We have rejected Zimbabwe rule since, over and over. We have made our political point. It is time to make that point count for Mthwakazi, propel us to what we want and to be who we want.

It is no longer the time for protest voting. Protest voting achieves nothing. Protest voting translates to a political mandate to whoever you express your protest votes through, even a protégé of your political enemy. Today, the MDC through whom you have registered your protest against Zimbabwe rule has taken your votes and gone back home.

Which party did Mr Tsvangirai belong to before he became MDC?

Now that Mr Tsvangirai and his MDC are back home, where are you Mthwakazi? What reason do we have to condemn any Mthwakazian in Zanu-PF today while glorifying any Mthwakazina in the MDC today?

Betrayed and deceived once again, you are now left to leak your political wounds. How many times do you want to be betrayed and what do you want to happen before you open your eyes?

The facts are as crude and simple as that.

We know there are some, inside and outside the MDC, who would rather we did not say these well-known facts. In an environment of political justice we would have been persuaded not to but ours is a political environment of crude tribalism, matched only by the crudeness of the methods used.

Look, Mthwakazi! When Zanu-PF and MDC quarrelled in a domestic incident, MDC got a slap on the hand. When uMthwakazi rejected tyranny ever taking root in today’s Zimbabwe, uMthwakazi had a sledge hammer dropped on them; some 30 000 of our citizens paid the ultimate price and today lie in unmarked graves.

Mthwakazi, ever stopped to think why this is so?

With the so-called GNU now confirmed, the Zimbabwe Project is on the roll once again.

Mthwakazi, this is therefore the truth in our hands many of us would wish it was not. But it is the raw truth!

While celebrations to welcome Mr Tsvangirai back home in Harare were beamed across the world uMthwakazi was conspicuous by their absence. Yet, we have heard over and over again that Matebeleland is Mr Tsvangirai’s stronghold. Of course, in a few days Mr Tsvangirai will be going to Matebeleland to explain the GNU to his ‘supporters’ or ‘people’.

But Mthwakazi, do you matter to anyone now? And where has Mr Tsvangirai taken the MDC?

And is that not where the recently revived Zapu has recently come from, complaining that their own version of ‘unity’ has not worked? And did you not condemn Zapu when it went there in the first place? So, where do you stand now Mthwakazi?

There is a fundamental difference with the MDC, though. The MDC and the bulk of its supporters were Zanu-PF before. For them, their return to Zanu-PF is a political homecoming. There is therefore a probability things might work. Only time will tell. In the meantime, Mthwakazi will bewhere you have been in the last 30 years and will be for a long time unless you woke up: in the political freezer!

So for those who have supported the MDC, against all objective truth, it is back to square one. Here, at square one you will find MPC waiting, and here, MPC has been inviting our people for a long time now. We think it is time we all responded and took up and fought a political cause which is Mthwakazi’s.

You see Mthwakazi; the Zimbabwe Project used a simple strategy against uMthwakazi. It scattered us. Since then it has sowed seeds of distrust and planted mutual suspicion among us. In some cases, it buys or bribes us, all as part of a state-sponsored operation designed to finish uMthwakazi off politically once and for all.

We must regroup. This latest betrayal, this time by the MDC, adds urgency to that.

Our overriding and continuing task must therefore be to beat back of the tools of repression: mistrust and mutual suspicion and the vulnerability to be bribed or bought. We must learn to work together again even if, for the time being, that may mean we will be infiltrated. Infiltration must not worry us overly for once our struggle takes a life of its own, as we want it to, it will not matter which enemy is in our midst. Like all revolutions, we will carry the system’s spies and informers together with us to Mthwakazi’s freedom.

With Mr Tsvangirai and those he had taken away with him from Zanu-PF now back home, the system can now focus on the real political enemy: uMthwakazi, now defined through the prism of the revived Zapu and MPC. Don’t say you were not warned!

We must now chart a new course.

This is therefore no longer a political fight we can fight just as ‘something’. It is a fight we can only and truly execute as Mthwakazi because we are oppressed and dominated as Mthwakazi.

Such a political fight can also no longer be fought ‘somehow’ or in terms of self-deluding notions of some imagined apolitical arbitrator who sees the reasonableness of our acquiescence in our own oppression under Zimbabwe rule. It is a political fight we can only fight in a structured way and in terms of a framework designed to be effective and responsive to our unique political experience under Zimbabwe rule.

Such a political fight can no longer be fought through chance or the comforts offered by political ‘mainstreamism’. Nor is it a political fight we can fight through ‘incrementalism’, the sorry view that we should start small and claim bigger and bigger as we go along, a view which is often a convenient excuse for cowardice and inaction. It is no longer a political fight which can be fought in a piecemeal, disjointed, contradictory, and duplicating way. It is a fight that must be co-ordinated, deliberate, and focused.

This is also no longer a political fight that can be left to be led by people who ambrace ambiguity about who we are or who obfuscate a cause as clear as Mthwakazi’s by fashionable political-speak and political correctness. It is a political fight which must be fought through the crude application of good old fashioned truth and ‘speaking’ facts.

It is also no longer the time for political blur or imagined choices. It is an imagined choice that there is a struggle between rejecting the oppression and domination of Mthwakazi and not being seen as having embraced Mthwakazi’s independence altogether. There is no such choice; it exists only in the minds of the ‘learned’. For the rest of our people, nothing has been clearer since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. For them, and some of us, there is a clear duty, not just to reject this oppression and domination but also the obligation to stand up and do something about it.

MPC has long answered this call to political arms. We believe it is time for all Mthwakazians to get up and get their hands dirty as Mthwakazi.

We regret that those of us who believe we should go through political detours or rest camps, whether they are christened Government of National Unity (GNU) or Coalition Government (CG), or any other intermediate station, are mistaken. Our route must be direct and straight.

Another thing; let us not take our eyes off the ball. While it is commendable to help a village or community with fertilizer or seed or some other such hand of benevolence and charity, we are sure, ultimately, this is not helpful to Mthwakazi’s political circumstance.

Our problem is not want. Want is only a consequence of our political circumstance created for us by the Zimbabwe Project. What uMthwakazi wants is political freedom that will release its creative energies. It also wants opportunities of life created by a supportive and facilitative state of their own.

In the long-term these acts of charity are abetting the system that is oppressing and dominating us rather than helping to dismantle it.

This is why.

The Zimbabwe Project was built as this overarching system of Mthwakazi’s oppression and domination in terms of which everything uMthwakazi does must be micro-level. UMthwakazi is therefore designed to operate below a certain political sub-system where uMthwakazi must be kept. Manifestations of this are everywhere. Meanwhile, the system operates a different, facilitative system for its people that prepares them to take over the levers of power and economic advantage, while at the same time extending opportunity and political credit to its people.

You only need to look at who has senior experience in government and in the private sector in today’s Zimbabwe. You also need to look at the profile of Zimbabweans currently employed in international organizations, inter-government and non-governmental organizations across the world. Mthwakazians are conspicuous by their absence.

Here, therefore, is the critical point.

It is therefore the framework or edifice of domination that uMthwakazi needs to dismantle, not the detail or manifestations of it. Mentally, we also need to destroy micro thinking and replace it with strategic thinking. This is MPC’s message today.

The late ZAPU President, Joshua Nkomo, once said: “Think big!” He was lampooned and caricatured, with some Mthwakazians joining in in laughing at him but I believe Nkomo was sending a clear message to us because he knew the inside story.

The political system built by the Zimbabwe Project also operates a ruthless system of using uMthwakazi politically. It is at the level of politics that uMthwakazi’s sad political situation is most telling.

In terms of this political system anything started or led by a Shona person is ‘national’ purely on the strength that it is led by a Shona and something started or led by an Ndebele is ‘tribal’ purely because it is started or led by an Ndebele. This is Zanu-PF’s Zimbabwe, long endorsed by many of our Shona citizenry across all class divide but many of whom put on a show of pretending otherwise. The acceptability of this system among many of our Shona citizenry is best illustrated by the deafening silence from all but Mthwakazians about this joke of our time we have had as governance.

Here is the sad political irony of it all.

The more politicians from Mthwakazi try to appear ‘national’ (a notion which should be repudiated completely in the context of present-day Zimbabwe) the more the system makes them look and ‘proves’ they are ‘tribal’. Thus, Mthwakazians earn the ‘national’ tag not in terms of the views and the values they hold but by being wrapped in ‘Shonanostra’ by a Shona person placed above them to lead them. It is the crudest system founded on tribalism to have disgraced the political landscape of Africa anywhere!

Is it only MPC, then, who understand very well what ‘national’ means in the context of present-day Zimbabwe?

Mthwakazi, have you ever stopped to think why Zanu-PF chose ‘national’ for its name as against ‘people’ when it left Zapu in 1963? What did they mean and what do they mean by ‘national’? Thirty years into Zimbabwe’s independence, and after thousands of Mthwakazian kinsman lost their lives to the system to drive the point home, are you still blind to what ‘national’ means in today’s Zimbabwe? We think it is time to think long and hard.

So, as MPC we are aware that our agenda is not immediately demonstrable or implementable as that of the MDC and other parties. We are not front-runners, nor do we aspire to be. We are not afraid to say we are political underdogs. We are only happy to be doing what we can to put together a political framework through which we will prosecute our political struggle strategically and effectively.

So, where does uMthwakazi go from here, and how does uMthwakazi break this vicious cycle of political strangulation?

There are no easy answers. But one thing is clear; we can no longer afford to approach our political situation in the way we have so far, by hiding and ‘waiting’ inside Zanu-PF and the MDC. We fool no one. In any event, who is fooling who? From where MPC stands, we have no doubt in our minds, who is being a fool.

It is time to change our political toolkit.

As a start, we must now refuse to hanker to a glorious past that never was. We must learn from our mistakes. We must move on. We too must face the dangers and anxieties of liberating ourselves and celebrate the thrills and excitement of having achieved our liberation by our hard work and sacrifice. We want it easy, as many of us seem to, then we have hit the last nail on our political coffin. While we draw breath, many of us undertake never to.

This is no longer the time for political soothsaying, wish lists, or private fiefdoms of personal or quasi-political influence, or the time to harp on stories of our past glory and heroism. This is the time to staff our political toolkit with political tools necessary to fight the political battles of our time effectively and successfully.

There is not a better time to do that than now when we face the sure end of Mugabe’s rule. This is the time for men and women of Mthwakazi who cannot be bought or coerced into betraying uMthwakazi, to be found or to present themselves for service to our people.

There are those of us who say we must work inside political groups in today’s Zimbabwe. With these people, we completely disagree. There are those of us, MPC included, who say we must work together with other political groups in today’s Zimbabwe. With these people we are in total agreement.

The former group comprises Mthwakazians inside Zanu-PF and perhaps both factions of the MDC, and those that support them. Our history under Zimbabwe rule and inside Zanu-PF and the MDC dictates that working inside these formations is no longer an option. We don’t wish any Mthwakazian, thirty years from now, walking out of an MDC or some such other government having seen that things have not worked. In any event, the MDC is now back in Zanu-PF.

Mthwakazi; you don’t want to go there! In any event, the revived Zapu has shown the way and come out of there. Some of those from Zapu who remained have only recently been politely shown the door to make way for the true occupants of those warm seats.

We cannot accept guarantees either. Ours is not a political experience of political guarantees. Minus 30 000 of our loved ones, expect we have learnt the hard way. Nothing short of total control of our political destiny will do.

As noted above, MPC agrees with those people who say we must work with other political groups. To this end, MPC has placed its agenda in the public domain so that anyone who wishes to engage us politically is clear what we stand for and want. We are an open and public political movement. We will engage anyone, anytime with regard to our agenda.

We are therefore delighted that the revived Zapu is offering itself as a choice available to the people of present-day Zimbabwe. We also look to welcoming Mavambo/Kusile Movement when it transforms itself into a political party. We extend a similar welcome to disgruntled members of Zanu-PF and the MDC and other groups, when they join the political fray. This fluidity in the political market presents prospects for working with, not inside, other parties to advance uMthwakazi’s cause.

This is an opportunity we should never allow to slip through our fingers.

It is therefore tragic that at precisely the time when the Zanu-PF’s system is collapsing, in jumps Mr Tsvangirai and Mutambara to rescue it. The so-called Government of National Unity (GNU) throws a political life-line to Zanu-PF and Mugabe at precisely the time when the system is coming virtually unstuck. So, Mthwakazi and Zimbabwe, there you have it.

It seems clear, the lure of gravy seats has proved too strong for the MDC to resist. Forget the shriek denials!

A GNU in Zimbabwe at this stage is simply a crazy idea. It is crazy not only because of its grotesque size; three Presidents, three Prime Ministers, a shared ministry and a total cabinet of nearly sixty persons, including their usual coterie of political hangers-on. It is also crazy in terms of its very concept.

We ask: What are Zanu-PF and the MDC uniting?

A GNU is also gross because it includes Mr Mugabe, and as President for that matter. If press reports about the split between Mr Tendai Biti and Mr Tsvangirai are correct, then Mr Biti is spot-on on the point this time. (the other reason suggested is incredulous). We believe Mr Biti and those that support him are opposed to the GNU on a point of principle and strategy.

Now that the MDC has joined Zanu-PF in government, it has prevented the country getting where it should be – a formal transitional position.

For a long time, MPC has been a lonely voice in calling for a Transitional Government (TG) and transitional arrangements under such a government. There is now a growing consensus that a TG is the only authentic way forward. That is to be welcome.

Present-day Zimbabwe does not need a GNU.

A TG is the only way to ensure that no topic, no issue, and no matter is too hot to engage; that no topic, issue or matter is blocked or swept under carpet. The mentality of suppressing opinion must end with the demise of Zanu-PF rule and the system it has built to support it.

MPC’s view is that the TG must be composed of eminent persons from present-day Zimbabwe who will not be contesting elections under the new constitution, not a judge or Roman Catholic priest, as suggested by some people (We don’t understand the reasons for ‘a Roman Catholic priest’).

The TG must, as soon as it is constituted, convene a political conference on Zimbabwe similar to South Africa’s CODESA which will discuss and identify all political and other issues to be included in the New Constitution. It is envisaged that such a conference will be convened under the auspices of the UN. The constitution-writing process must only follow after such a political conference.

A transitional government also has the benefit of removing Mugabe, not just as a regime change agenda but also as a wider effort to get to the bottom of the political problems of present-day Zimbabwe. In the process, the whole political architecture built by Zanu-PF, which needs and must be destroyed, will begin the slow but sure process of political death. It is a terrible legacy that must not have even the remotest chance to connect to posterity. A transitional government also has the benefit of resolving the Matebeleland Question and any other issues, constitutionally, once and for all.

MPC believes that this so-called GNU illustrates the urgency with which the political foundation of present-day Zimbabwe must be dismantled and all traces of it permanently confined to the political grave. Instead of raising the spectre of Zanu-PF’s political death, the so-called GNU has rescued Zanu-PF from the clutches of political death.

There is also an overriding matter of principle inside this latest version of the ‘Unity Accord’ which should be stopped on its tracks.

With the so-called GNU almost political fact it now means that the next political party to unleash its own violence can expect to have a high seat in the next round of power-sharing talks. At that stage, and logically, we must expect to have is a second tier of Vice-Vice Presidents and Vice-Vice Prime Ministers, Deputy-Deputy Ministers, multiplied by the number of ruthless and vicious parties who have trampled the citizenry on their way to the cabinet posts-sharing table.

This is lust for power gone mad! Some people seem to have taken leave of their senses!

In my previous message I condemned the regime change agenda. I do not wish to be misunderstood as now saying that I support regime change because I say Mr Mugabe must not be part of any new government in present-day Zimbabwe. There is no conflict between my previous position and the present. MPC is still opposed to regime change as a political agenda.

We are opposed to regime change because it does not get rid of the terrible system Zanu-PF has built. We are also opposed to regime change agenda because it does not even begin to tinker with the outer edges of what needs to be done in present-day Zimbabwe. Present-day Zimbabwe is a political and constitutional black hole that needs sorting now.

Further, because the regime change agenda has come as an outside imposition and with its ugly face of Iraq and Afghanistan intact, it has jettisoned Africa’s goodwill in confronting the Zimbabwean crisis, which seemed to hold promise not so long ago. The principle around which Africa has galvanized, which Mugabe has taken full advantage of, seems to be that it should no longer be the prerogative of powerful states to appoint and fire African presidents.

Unfortunately, we think there has been a clumsiness about the regime change agenda as it has been applied even to Zimbabwe which has only served to prolong Mugabe rule and to give us totally ridiculous solutions such as we are now facing with the so-called GNU which retains Mugabe in government as President. We doubt that Africa has rallied to Zimbabwe’s side to support Mugabe himself, as is sometimes erroneously assumed. We think Africa has decided to stand up to what it perceives as the political bullying of the past by powerful states.

There is now an opportunity to correct these errors of the past.

The new US administration led by new US President, President Barack Obama, presents an opportunity for a new approach. Within the region, the impending presidency of Jacob Zuma, now bolstered by Presidents of the region who now want nothing short of good governance, must complement these fresh approaches. All these factors present a rare opportunity for Mthwakazians and Zimbabweans to get things right this time around.

Ultimately, however, the solution must rest with Mthwakazians and Zimbabweans assisted by the international community. A Transitional Government and transitional arrangements offers the best political environment for Mthwakazians and Zimbabweans to do exactly that.

Now that the MDC has agreed to join Zanu-PF in the so-called GNU, no one should be left in doubt about what has happened. It has been long in coming but many will also say they long saw it coming.

I thank you.

Ndaba E Mkwananzi
MPC President