malvernmugadzikwa
Retired Major Action Mandingo
OVER the past few weeks, Professor Arthur Mutambara has been trying to sound all macho, spewing gibberish about the socio-economic and political situation in Zimbabwe.
Like a typical political opportunist he has always been, the professor has been trying to smuggle himself into the national discourse by making unfounded statements about developments that took place during the Government of National Unity (GNU), which stretched from 2009 up to 2013.
Since Prof Mutambara thinks he can lie and get away with it, it is time we expose him for what he is — a coward and backbiter who went out of his way to get the post of Deputy Prime Minister in the GNU by snitching on the late MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
After sneaking himself into opposition politics in February 2006, following divisions in Tsvangirai’s MDC, Prof Mutambara played dirty, actually very dirty, as he betrayed Tsvangirai during the talks that led to the formation of the GNU. He was the mole in the opposition as he, under the cover of darkness, held several meetings with top ZANU PF officials to brief them on all MDC secrets.
During the day, he would pretend to be on Tsvangirai’s side, glean vital information and sneak out in the evening to hold secret meetings with top ZANU PF officials. Maybe, it is important to give some background so that readers understand the context of Prof Mutambara’s clandestine operations and machinations.
Before 2006, Prof Mutambara was not really actively involved in the country’s opposition politics. He was known as a robotics professor, who rose to fame during his days at the University of Zimbabwe, when he was the president of the Student Representative Council from 1988 to 1989.
During that time, he led anti-government protests at the university, which led to his arrest. After this, he got a Rhodes scholarship and went to Merton College, Oxford, in the United Kingdom, where he obtained a DPhil in Robotics and Mechatronics.
He then disappeared from the Zimbabwean political radar, only to resurface in 2006. He joined opposition politics, not because he was a good politician and not because there was anything extraordinary about him, but because there was a vacuum that had to be filled.
When the MDC split in 2005, Professor Welshman Ncube and Gibson Sibanda, who were among the founding figures of the MDC, decided to form their own party, leaving Tsvangirai with the main MDC, which was later renamed MDC-T.
After forming their party, Prof Ncube and Sibanda somehow decided that they could not lead the party, informed by the reasoning that since they were Ndebele, they could not win an election across Zimbabwe.
They thought a Shona presidential candidate had more chances of winning national elections than any one of them.
The two scouted around and settled for Prof Mutambara, who quickly seized the opportunity and came to lead this new MDC formation.
The professor was elected as the leader of this party during its February 2006 congress. Those who knew Prof Mutambara from his days at the University of Zimbabwe thought he was the real deal, but they soon discovered that there was a big difference between student activism and national politics. In no time, it was clear that Prof Mutambara could not measure up to the demands of national politics and he resorted to theatrics and prolixity to cover up his glaring political shortcomings.
Following the elections in 2008, there was a stalemate that almost brought the country to its knees, leading to protracted talks on forming the GNU.
On July 21, 2008, ZANU PF, led by the then President Robert Mugabe, and two MDC formations, one led by Tsvangirai and the other by Prof Mutambara, signed a memorandum of understanding paving the way for the formation of the GNU. However, before the GNU was formed, there were heated talks around the power-sharing agreement.
The issue about Cabinet appointments dragged the talks for weeks.
When Prof Mutambara was chosen to lead the other MDC faction, Tsvangirai described this move as a nullity and so, in opposition circles, the professor was seen as a sellout.
As the talks about the formation of the GNU gathered pace, Tsvangirai found himself in a quandary as the then President Mugabe and Prof Mutambara teamed up against him. However, when the talks that were being mediated by former South African leader Thabo Mbeki started, Tsvangirai thought Prof Mutambara was on his side and so he would discuss with him his party’s strategy, thinking and hoping they could team up against Mugabe.
Unknown to Tsvangirai, Prof Mutambara was already double-dipping. After the official meetings at the Rainbow Towers, Prof Mutambara would later meet top ZANU PF officials and reveal Tsvangirai’s strategy during the talks. Some of the sticking points during the talks revolved around who, between the political parties, was to control the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. Without divulging much for now, let me say Prof Mutambara was quite useful to ZANU PF during those secret meetings.
During the talks, Prof Mutambara would repeatedly ask the ZANU PF officials to “please make sure I am repaid for this”.
And indeed, he was repaid.
When the GNU was formed, the then President Mugabe retained his post, with Joice Mujuru as the First Vice President and Joseph Msika as the Second Vice President.
Tsvangirai became the Prime Minister, while Prof Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe became Deputy Prime Ministers.
For Prof Mutambara, this was a coup of some sorts. He rose from nowhere to become the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and, of course, as we all know, he went on to draw lots of media attention and reduced himself to a cartoon character, through his comical gesturing while making presentations.
Other than selling Tsvangirai’s secrets to ZANU PF, Prof Mutambara really did not do anything worth mentioning during the GNU. He should not pretend he was in the thick of things because some of us know that he was wallowing on the periphery of the GNU. He was the nuisance that both Mugabe and Tsvangirai could not avoid because of Prof Ncube and Sibanda’s inferiority complex.
And because he was in the GNU by chance, Prof Mutambara’s political career died with the GNU.
He is a dismal failure when it comes to politics. There is nothing spectacular about him, other than knowing robotics that he is failing to put to good use.
Verbosity and pomposity are his only claim to fame. Anyway, after 2013, he again disappeared from the political radar and got buried in his robotics career.
Now, he is back on the political radar. Some of us already know why he is back.
From a distance, he has realised that Chamisa is messing up opposition politics in the country. Prof Mutambara can see that the Western world is tired of Chamisa. The professor is smelling his second coming! He is seeing an opportunity to pounce again. He is seeing himself as the most suitable candidate to wrestle the opposition baton from Chamisa. He has mastered this game of opportunism. He is ready for a smash and grab. And he thinks the best way to sneak back to national politics is to attack President Mnangagwa in the hope of endearing himself with opposition supporters.
But then Prof Mutambara should not think we all have short memories.
He has been saying all sorts of hogwash about President Mnangagwa, talking about his performance during the GNU, but, as I said, Prof Mutambara was on the periphery of the GNU and there was no way he could know, let alone judge the performance of President Mnangagwa during the GNU.
Under this arrangement, President Mnangagwa was the Minister of Defence. I know for a fact that both Tsvangirai and Prof Mutambara never got anywhere near to know what was happening in the Ministry of Defence.
They were blocked from knowing the goings-on in such sensitive ministries.
Let me not reveal too much for now, but in the army, Tsvangirai and Prof Mutambara never existed.
They remained sellouts who wanted to reverse the gains of the country’s hard-won independence and there was no way they could gain access to anything serious that was happening in the Ministry of Defence.
Remember the famous statement by the then Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, the unforgettable General Vitalis Zvinavashe in 2002.
“We wish to make it very clear to all Zimbabwean citizens that the security organisations will only stand in support of those political leaders that pursue Zimbabwean values.
“We will therefore not accept, let alone support or salute anyone with a different agenda . . . Let it be known that the highest office on the land is a straight-jacket whose occupant is expected to observe the objectives of the liberation struggle.”
The GNU was formed in 2009, but we never forgot the wise words from General Zvinavashe and so, Prof Mutambara should know that he knows nothing about what President Mnangagwa was doing at the Ministry of Defence.
We would not let sellouts like him anywhere near anything to do with the country’s security and defence.
But we know Prof Mutambara is just trying to seek relevance by lying because in one of his books, titled “In Search of the Elusive Zimbabwean Dream Volume 3”, he clearly confessed that President Mnangagwa was a key figure during the GNU talks.
Said Prof Mutambara: “In fact, the Zanu PF negotiators, Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche, report to him first before going to Mugabe . . .”
If President Mnangagwa played such a key role during the GNU talks, how then can Prof Mutambara turn around and say he did not play a big part during the GNU.
We know Prof Mutambara is desperate for a return to full-time politics and we know he has seen the opportunity that is being presented by Chamisa’s political immaturity, but he should not drag President Mnangagwa into his dirty machinations.
Some are saying we should be a bit lenient with the desperate Prof Mutambara because, just like renowned author Alec Bourne rightly said, he has taught us the big lesson that “It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated”.
Thomas Sowell was very blunt when he said: “Soft education produces useless people and is also dangerous.”
There is your professor and his inflated ego!
He is indeed an uneducated professor!
Online Reporter