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Leading the opposition pack

WE wrote about it here barely three weeks ago. Many did not believe us. It needs restating: Mwonzora leads the opposition pack!

My favourite sartorial metaphor sums it. Little politicians rush to wardrobes for appropriate wear on a cold, wintry day; real leaders make the weather.

In politics, the weather is defining the zeitgeist: the governing spirit of an age which no one dares challenge.

This is exactly what Douglas Mwonzora has successfully done in respect of opposition politics. He jettisoned politics of confrontation for those of collaboration with winners. Until the next round of polls.

A sonorous message they never comprehended

His reasoning was simple: Irrational disputing of elections merely on foreign instigation and to serve entrenched colonial foreign interests, gets no one anywhere, the weaponised opposition included.

There must be closure to plebiscitary politics, to allow the nation to settle after an electoral simmer.

That means engaging constructively across the political divide, thus paving the way for national development through the support and participation of everyone, electoral foe and friend alike.

His sonorous coinage was rational disputation. Maybe his erstwhile colleagues in Triple C — the majority of whom never went up to university; or went to universities via polytechnics and correspondence — never quite grasped what that meant.

The story of my headboy at Hartzell

I am light-heartedly reminded of my former headboy at Hartzell High School back in the early 80s.

His name was Rogers Dhliwayo — May his dear soul rest in eternal peace! Given to bombastry, Cde Dhliwayo found himself leading us in turbulent, early post-war times.

The headmaster then, Mister Amos Dangarembgwa — May his dear soul rest in eternal peace — wanted us to shake off riotous behaviour of wartime, so we focused on our studies for a new Zimbabwe.

Possibly because of post-traumatic stress disorders, many of my contemporaries drank and did other unmentionable things.

The war had wrought an environment of riotous permissiveness, with a whole generation living by and for the day. War allows no plan, no foresight; it limits horizons and vision severely.

The burden to get us out of that ruinous rut fell on Amos Dangarembgwa, father to the writer Tsitsi Dangarembga.

Santa and Hartzo rivalry

There was also another dimension. Hartzell which is United Methodist, and nearby St Augustine’s which is Anglican, were locked in an unresolvable duel for intellectual mastery.

The key indicator was a simple one: O and A Level results. St Augustine’s — Santa for short — had walloped our dear Hartzo the previous academic year, all to great collective ignominy, with Mister Amos Dangarembgwa being the most wounded.

To redeem his honour, he decided to curtail student happiness severely. Before this decision, life was latitudinarian.

Happiness would start on Friday night, terminating on Sunday morning, well ahead of church services meant to clear off sins committed the weekend before.

Now, all that had to end, said the headmaster, so more time would be devoted to studies. Where we used to enjoy both, we now had to choose between dance and bioscope, not both.

Film or Music?

Riotous and militant as behoved children of, and freshly from, the Struggle, we would have none of that trimming choice.

We decided on a strike action which would paralyse the school, with an option to reduce it to rubble, all to force the headmaster to reverse his high-handed decision!

In his wisdom — or lack of it — Dhliwayo, our headboy, decided on a last ditch effort to save the school, and a number of us who would emerge as suitable victims for retributive school justice sure to follow.

In that last ditch meeting, VaDangarembgwa would not budge: it was an either/or equation, nothing more, or certainly less!

Bioscopic entertainment or tonality?

After a long, difficult meeting,  Dhliwayo came back to grim news. He rounded the whole school and packed it into the school hall to break the bad news. But Rogers being Rogers, would never pass up an opportunity for boisterous drama which, I must admit, he contrived with unmatched excellence.

After a dramatic pause — again another of his many contrivances — Rogers broke his silence to an audience whose impatience he had skilfully made, and truly relished. The headmaster, he began in his typically husky voice pitched to high notes, the headmaster would want to know whether you prefer bioscopic entertainment to tonality!

Mwonzora is dead, long live Douglas

Until then, I never knew that impatience creates such a denunciatory chorus. The students were in no mood for Rogers’ verbosity. Together, they thundered: Haaa Rogers hatina basa nemavhoko ako ayo; tinoda disco redu chete!

After yelling students had exhausted their ardour, Rogers — again after a false silence of the imperturbable — cooly responded: In other words you want tonality! Clearly Mwonzora is the Rogers of opposition politics. Triple C and its polytechnic graduates would have none of Mwonzora’s rational disputation. Instead all they want are talks with Zanu-PF! Mwonzora is dead; long live Douglas!

US supports Nazism, Racism and Xenophobia

Putin’s Russia runs a deep state, very profound indeed!

After two resolutions against Russia: one in the UN General Assembly, another in the UN Human Rights Council, the Russians responded by crafting a resolution against Nazism, Racism and Xenophobia. They indicted no country; simply crafted a plain, seemingly un-pointed resolution for consideration by the General Assembly.

Oh my word, what a result! 130 countries voted in support of the Russian resolution; 49 abstained, with two — yes TWO — against! And the TWO are USA and Ukraine! Russia’s special operation in Ukraine has been predicated on a claim that this is an operation against resurgent Nazism which the Zelensky government is accused of forming, arming and deploying, with US connivance.

Until this resolution, many thought the Russians were fibbing. Not anymore! The world now knows the dual parentage of Ukrainian neo-nazism. Now knows USA supports Nazism, Racism and Xenophobia. It contextualised all the racial killings which daily take place in American cities.

More Russian mischief

And a lot more came from that resolution result: never again can the US claim the whole world has taken a stance against Russia’s so-called invasion of Ukraine.

I can almost predict what Russia will do next: sponsoring another UN General Assembly Resolution against biological weapons whose US-sponsored experimental stations it claims it smashed in Ukraine.

Now, such a resolution is an instant hit for a country like Zimbabwe which is still reeling from lab-generated anthrax pathogens let loose in communal Zimbabwe by Rhodesians during our war of liberation.

Of course South Africa too, will find instant favour with such a resolution! USA cannot insist the resolution be preceded by an international inquiry which it denied the Russians ahead of the Human Rights Council vote.

Russia can also brew another one, if she so wishes. Alongside Afghanistan, it can co-sponsor a resolution for the release of Afghan reserves impounded by the West, foremost America.

Sponsor it in the name of starving Afghan children whom America is killing through a quiet genocide. The Russians are slowly but inexorably overturning US’s claims of moral leadership on Ukraine and the world, which it extorted and extorts through coercive action in the hallways of the United Nations.

India refuses to kowtow

There is more that has happened. India has refused to be browbeaten by Americans into condemning Russia, or supporting America on Ukraine against Russia.

Why would India do that? BRICS quite apart, India stands to gain the most from a post-Ukraine War world order in which the US dollar most probably will have died both as a medium of global trade and as a store of value. Just look at what is happening to the Russian ruble, the Chinese yuan and the Indian currency, and you get to know that a new global order in which countries trade with each other through national currencies, thus circumventing the US currency, is gradually forming.

With a Russia dominating the global stomach and regulation of body temperature — both dire existential needs — the world cannot ignore a Russian-led world order.

Even the World Bank now acknowledges, albeit backhandedly, the centrality of Russia to global economic stability. Israel, too, has just added the Chinese yuan to its basket of settlement currencies.

Watch out for Russia-Vietnam pact

Militarily, something else is brewing. As I write, Russia and Vietnam are mulling joint military exercises.

Now, that’s highly foreboding for the US, itself a bete noire of a resurgent Vietnam. Until now, the US hoped to profit from Vietnam’s angst over Chinese designs in the South China Sea.

With Russia and Vietnam together, and Russia and China daily renewing their special partnership, chances are that Russia will broker some rapprochement between China and Vietnam, the same way China and India have managed to paper over their cracks. The times are interesting, very interesting indeed.

The beast is in heat again

The beast is in heat again! United States of America is again meddling in our internal affairs. Just less than two weeks ago, US’s interim man here, one Mister Hastings, met and conspired with ARTUZ’s Masaraure, Majongwe and the discredited Peter Mutasa who heads some Crisis America routinely funds. They forgot they sought to hide in a field of roundnuts; we all saw.

Beaten in the health sector, the Americans are trying to instigate instability in the education sector using these little labour aristocrats who feed fat on contributions from abused unions. I should have also mentioned Hastings’ meeting with Trevor Ncube and his team, which meeting Ncube thought he was lowering State interest on through pre-emptive disclosure.

A welter of tools and pawns!

America is planning more harm. On February 12, it released a report in which it brazenly publishes its funding for its tools for intrusive politics against our Zimbabwe.

The list of its pawns all funded through NED, National Endowment for Democracy, is endless: some CIPE gets over US$270k to mobilise the informal sector for America; right-wing IRI gets USD400k for America’s media projects run together with CSOs; Institute for Young Women Development Trust gets US$65k to mobilise women for Triple C, as too, does Youth Forum Zimbabwe which gets almost US$50k.

Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe Trust led by a bitter police retiree gets another US$50k to agitate around local government for the opposition; a whooping US@200k is set aside for Security Services Defending Human Rights whose purpose is to target actions against our security establishment America has always wanted reformed for regime change.

Next is Peter Mutasa’s Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition which gets almost US$100k, and for which a lobbying desk covering the whole of SADC has been created. Another beneficiary is Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum which gets US$145k to mobilise civil society against Zanu-PF and Government. Other beneficiaries include Centre for Research and Development; Centre for Innovation and Technology Trust, Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (it has just published a report given editorial pride of place by Ncube’s NewsDay),  Mukoko’s Zimbabwe Peace Project which gets US$100k, Fatso’s skits generator, Magamba Network which gets US$140k, Violet Gonda Productions which gets nearly US$67k. The list is endless!

Dissembling Triple C

All told, the Americans are targeting labour unions, the media, CSOs, resource governance NGOs, political NGOs, the security sector, human rights lobby, youth organisations and urban community mobilisation structures for influence ahead of 2023. All these structures aim to punt for Triple C, which is why its facade of change of course must be treated with a shovel of salt.

Its handlers are stepping up mobilisation and support, while it makes dissembling gestures which fool no one. I know why Americans are happy. One day I shall share.

Suffice it to say they now move on a limp, which is why their charge is having to do the impolitic, in the process showing America’s desperate hand. But Zimbabwe is a land of formidable spirits. Hark, the donkey brays; the beast is in heat yet again!