adminHerald Correspondent
AT LONG last, the online anti-Impala Car Rental crusade is dying a natural death. Of course, there still remains some after-shocks of this needless crusade and of course, there still remains the hard-core faceless cowards on Twitter and Facebook who can’t smell the coffee and will continue flogging this dead issue in the vain hope for a resurrection.
As the anti-Impala crusade fades into oblivion, this is the most opportune time to take stock of what exactly birthed that toxic hatred against a fellow black businessman running his company. It’s time to reflect on why there was such deep jealous served in a torrent of posts on Twitter and Facebook that sought to bring Impala Car Rental to ground zero.
Developments over the past few weeks clearly show that the attacks on Impala Car Rental were just a dummy and a distraction from something dangerous and sinister that was cooking elsewhere. Yes, as was shown on the CCTV footage, the vehicle that was used in the alleged abduction of Tawanda Muchehiwa was hired from Impala Car Rental and the car hiring company has admitted that indeed this was one of their vehicles.
The panic, the over-reaction and the relentless attacks against Impala soon after shocked many neutrals. It was as if the person driving the car was an official or employee from Impala. The insistent focus on Impala Car Rental was suspicious. The zeroing in on such a trivial matter was mindboggling, especially after Impala Car Rental had forwarded all documentation to police to facilitate investigations into Muchehiwa matter.
Impala chief executive officer, Mr Thompson Dondo, understandably lost his cool last week saying: “When we were asked to facilitate investigations into the matter, we handed all the required documents pertaining to this matter to police. I am not Paul Nyathi, the police spokesperson. I can’t speak on behalf of police. Anyone who wants any information regarding this issue should go to the police and not Impala Car Rental.”
The tone was enough to show that Mr Dondo had had enough of the misdirected and clearly unfair attacks. Indeed, there was nothing more Impala Car Rental could do other than handing over the required documents to police. The company is in the business of hiring out cars and it’s not their duty to track down their clients to see what they are doing with the cars. Doing that will not only chase away clients but would also be an intrusion into the privacy of their clients.
The merchants of doom also accused Impala Car Rental of doing business with government, yet the world over, all car hire companies draw clients from both private and public institutions. The reasoning by these prophets of doom didn’t make sense. There was definitely something wrong. Some big fish was cooking somewhere. Kunzwa nemunhuwi kuti pane kuri kubikwa kachasu, but woshaya kuti kupi chaiko.
Fair-minded people watching from a distance also wondered why those who wanted information regarding the Muchehiwa matter were not approaching the police. Everything looked clear and simple, but surprisingly the brick-bats continued in the direction of Impala Car Rental.
And then the bombshell came! Former MDC-A Bulawayo province women’s assembly chairperson Tendai Masotsha blew the cover and in an instant, everything became clear. All the evil machinations were laid bare in a stinging audio recording that left the opposition party at sixes and sevens. It’s important to quote Masotsha verbatim so that we put things into proper context.
“I, Tendai Masotsha, would like to say unless they want the whole family to be in soup, if they corner me I will reveal everything that Tawanda wanted to do on that fateful day.
“Tawanda told me that he had 20 people who were waiting for the instruction to burn government buildings. Tawanda received money to buy explosives to burn down those buildings. Amongst those 20 people, I did not see them, he was telling me that they were ready and he was pushing me to find a safe house and convince the chief to buy them food while they were carrying out their activities…
“Unless if they want me to go public and tell the world that I was also afraid of what I was being asked to do, Tawanda knows that he wanted to burn government buildings. I told (Jameson) Timba that if they continued to harass me, I am going to expose everything. If I am coming out, I am going to tell the world what Tawanda wanted to do.
“I don’t know how he got caught, maybe among the 20 people (there was an informant). He said there were some people who had guns and I couldn’t go along with them. I didn’t see those people, maybe they were foreigners,” said Masotsha without mincing her words.
In his response to the audio recording, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana said: “We are talking of very serious allegations of terrorism here.”
Indeed, the audio recording was loaded with serious allegations that seem to explain the panicky behaviour by Mdudusi Mathuthu in particular and the opposition supporters in general. Someone was caught with his pants down and in trying to pull the pants up, they thought Impala Car Rental could provide the cover.
Thanks to Masotsha, we now know why some people were running around like headless chickens and we now know why Mathuthu was showing shocking uneasiness. Maybe Mr Dondo was spot on when he said: “You see, the young man who is said to have been abducted, Tawanda Muchehiwa is related to Mdudusi Mathuthu. I think he is a nephew. So Mathuthu is fighting in the corner of this young man.
“I think Mathuthu is feeling bad because somehow I think he misled that young man to do whatever he was doing. Mathuthu is feeling bad and he feels he let down that young man. That is why he is fighting viciously like that. He feels he really let down that young man.”
They say the guilty shall always be afraid! What else does Mathuthu know about the Muchehiwa issue? What else does the MDC-A leadership know about the alleged plot to bomb government buildings? The answers to these troubling questions are hidden in the way both the MDC-A and Mathuthu have treated Masotsha.
Sensing danger, the MDC-A hurriedly convened a committee that was chaired by Timba which quickly absolved Masotsha of any wrong doing in the Muchehiwa issue. This committee absolved Masotsha in the hope that she would not spill the beans, but unknown to them, the lady was already fed up with the threats to her life. After dropping the bombshell, Masotsha resigned from the MDC-A.
When the MDC-A absolved Masotsha in the Muchehiwa case, Mathuthu went bonkers: “Been going through a hellish few months. MDC-Alliance SG Charlton Hwende has not helped the situation. He told the MDC standing committee last week, while defending Tendai Masotsha, that I’m pursuing a G40 agenda against his party.
“I pray the MDC has more sophisticated ways of addressing issues of this nature. It cannot be sufficient to dismiss victims as G40 while pursuing a shoddy investigation. I got frustrated writing this. My nephew is tortured near death, and Mr Hwende thinks I’m out to get his party.
“Was Masotsha working for the MDC-Alliance chief? I don’t recall your party claiming parentage of July 31. Why don’t you let her carry her own cross?” wrote Mathuthu on Twitter.
Well, well, well — if it has been a “hellish few months” for Mathuthu, it has been a hellish what for Impala Car Rental? And did Impala Car Rental deserve the hellish whatever?
In his Twitter post Mathuthu asks Hwende whether Muchehiwa was working for the MDC-A, and goes on to say, “I don’t recall your party claiming parentage of July 31?” Was Mathuthu trying to tell us that Muchehiwa was working for someone else and not the MDC-A? If Muchehiwa was not working for the MDC-A, who then was he working for?
Maybe this gives credence to allegations by MDC-A that the Muchehiwa issue was a G40 issue. But whatever the spat between Mathuthu and MDC-A, what is clear is that something bad was brewing somewhere and the system moved in before the beer was served to the unsuspecting public.
If things are so clear, why was Impala Car Rental dragged into the boxing ring? Why was the small issue of a rented car played up and given more prominence than the real big issues?
American-German poet, Charles Bukowski would say: “People are strange: They are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice,” While theoretical physicist Albert Einstein would add: “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex . . . it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
We were supposed to watch the wind, while they plotted to bring death and misery right to our doorsteps. Thank God there was a Morris Nyathi (liberation war sellout) within their midst.
Online Reporter