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Tafara Shumba Correspondent
An effortless admission of those who left the party on their own volition also gives a wrong precedent. Zanu-PF must not be seen as a farm where a labourer can leave and come back at will. Today it’s Kunaka, tomorrow it will be many others.
The Biblical story of a prodigal son was told to edify people about the need to embrace those who sincerely repent, a lesson that zanu-pf has taken heed of.
zanu-pf has accepted into the fold former Harare provincial youth leader, Jimu Kunaka. Kunaka had joined the Joice Mujuru-led Zimbabwe People First party (ZPF). His return gives credence to Professor Jonathan Moyo’s “it is cold out there” adage which he coined when he rejoined zanu-pf in 2009 after four years in the political wilderness.
Prof Moyo summed up how traumatic life was outside zanu-pf in his generous advice to zanu-pf members who were said to have been mulling divorcing themselves from zanu-pf in 2014. He gave the advice from a deep sense of reflection based on his experience. “They should take it from me. It’s horrible and miserable. They should take it from those who have been down the path,” said Prof Moyo.
Even the late zanu-pf Secretary for Legal Affairs Eddison Zvobgo used to advise people that notwithstanding one’s frustration, quitting zanu-pf was not an option.
Unfortunately the young Kunaka did not take heed of the words of wisdom from the learned elders. Instead, he took it as an option to quit zanu-pf so that he could feel for himself the temperature outside zanu-pf. True to the elders’ word, Kunaka found life outside the revolutionary party unbearable. He told zanu-pf supporters at a rally in Kuwadzana at the weekend that there was nothing in ZPF. He told the jubilant crowd which was as joyful as the biblical father of the prodigal son, that he had joined ZPF out of anger.
Blessed is one who remembers his home when things become desperate. He has learnt and it’s a lesson to all members in zanu-pf that you cannot burn a house to kill a snake. For those who are still in the political wilderness, they must not forget that zanu-pf is a godly home that is accommodative to the converted rebels. There is no one who is beyond forgiveness and redemption.
However, the hand of reconciliation extended to the prodigal sons must not be misconstrued as a desperate endeavour to add numbers. zanu-pf is not desperate for supporters as its house is already full. The house will only be extended to accommodate those who are sincerely remorseful.
Hopefully Kunaka is fully penitent. There is no need to dig into his past which he himself has reckoned as time of madness. Indeed, it was, considering the video clips he circulated on internet where he berated the system. His deeds will show that he has genuinely repented. He must fight the temptation of re-joining as a factionalist. He must join zanu-pf led by President Mugabe not any of the factions, perceived or real. He would do well if he listens to this voice of reason.
It is prudent for zanu-pf to exercise due diligence before accepting prodigal sons. Some may re-join with hidden agendas up their sleeves. When they are re-admitted, some of them seek to even the score with the people they suspect of having been authors of their initial expulsion or suspension.
In its process to hear the appeals of the expelled and suspended members, the National Appeals and Review Committee (NARC) must ensure that the appellants are not coming back to get at perceived enemies or kill the party from within. There might have been some oversights in the way some people were fired or suspended, but an eye for an eye will leave the whole party blind.
History is replete with prodigal sons who later caused untold chaos within the party. Some of these prodigal sons have a hand in the ongoing infighting within the ruling party. Rugare Gumbo and Dzikamai Mavhaire are two case studies where lessons can be drawn.
Gumbo was among the coup plotters that were captured at Inchope, Mozambique in 1978, after they turned against the party and attempted to dethrone President Mugabe. He and his colleagues were only released after independence as an amnesty condition raised by Ian Smith at Lancaster House.
It was the late Vice President Simon Muzenda who pleaded with President Mugabe to re-admit Gumbo into zanu-pf in the 1990s.
Little did he know that shiri inemuririwo wayo haiuregi (a bird will not stop its peculiar sound). He must be turning in his grave when he sees the unrepentant Gumbo whose readmission he fought for, attempting to re-enact his failed 1978 bloody coup.
He rejoined zanu-pf with an agenda to get back at President Mugabe. The mistake that zanu-pf made was to give him the influential post of information and publicity secretary. He ceased to be the party’s spokesman and became the spin doctor of Dr Joice Mujuru’s faction known as Gamatox. He is alleged to have said President Mugabe would be assassinated the same way that the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Laurrent Desire Kabila was assassinated, if he did not leave office for Mujuru.
Dzikamai Mavhaire was fired from zanu-pf in 1997 after he openly called for President Mugabe’s resignation in Parliament. He did not like President as far back as 1997. He languished in political wilderness for a decade, selling oranges from a ramshackle vehicle in Masvingo. President Mugabe fished him out of the doldrums and promoted him into cabinet where he was given charge of the important Ministry of Energy and Power Development. He was part of the Mujuru cabal that unsuccessfully plotted to unconstitutionally dethrone President Mugabe. One of his shenanigans include coercing Zesa Holdings to deposit $40 000 into zanu-pf Manicaland women’s league account which was led by his deputy’s wife. The money was meant to facilitate the unseating of President Mugabe in the Gamatox plot.
History must teach us lessons. This is, however, not an advocacy for the rejection of the come backs, but a call for extra care in dealing with such issues. Once bitten twice shy. It’s a fact that the temperature out there is excruciating and that explains why the NARC has been inundated with appeals from expelled and suspended members. Even Mujuru and Tsvangirai themselves would not think twice if given the opportunity to rejoin the revolutionary party.
It is also dangerous for the party to hastily promote these people without giving them a probation period to establish their bona fides. Some were given higher positions soon after their readmission. Unfortunately that move sends a wrong signal that rebellion can be handsomely rewarded.
An effortless admission of those who left the party on their own volition also gives a wrong precedent. zanu-pf must not be seen as a farm where a labourer can leave and come back at will. Today it’s Kunaka, tomorrow it will be many others.
Online Reporter