Vusumuzi Dube
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
WHEN Cde Washington Nkomo was elected to be the ruling party Zanu-PF’s Provincial Commissar for Matabeleland South last year, it was only the latest chapter in a political story whose pages started turning when he was a mere schoolboy in Esigodini.
Before the big conferences, where Cde Nkomo rubs shoulders with other men and women seized with the task of steering their country’s destiny, he remembers when he was just the runt of the litter, a young man who usually found himself seen as a nuisance in meetings where serious matters were debated. It was in those meetings, where Cde Nkomo remembers being shooed away alongside his bothersome peers, that the political bug bit Cde Nkomo. He caught a political fever and since that time, he has not looked back.
“I started working for the party when I was in school in Esigodini. Even at Form 4 I was already active politically in the party. We used to have problems in the community, for example, concerning things like (council) rates so the elders would mobilise us to go with them and confront such challenges. We were young then we would just toyi-toyi with them without realising what was happening. Eventually we were put in the party structures although we would be driven away from some meetings because we were so young. Eventually we started growing a love for politics because we could tell that our elders cared for the community,” he told Sunday News in a recent interview.
Cde Nkomo remembers his patient and steady rise in the party, reaching the peak of his youthful political career when he was elected the Provincial Youth Chairman in 2008. However, that high was followed by the lowest of lows over a decade later, as he was expelled from the party that stole his heart when he was a schoolboy at the behest of cadres from the infamous G-40 grouping.
“We started rising through the structures of the Youth League. I became a committee member while I was in school, then I became my district’s secretary for administration. In 2008 I stood to become the Provincial Chairperson of the Youth League and I won. I was in that post for 10 years before I was expelled for two and half years when G-40 started causing ructions in the party,” he said.
Cde Nkomo remembers that time of his expulsion from the party as the most challenging in his young political career. A lesser cadre, one that did not have the conviction of his beliefs, may have divorced himself from the party that had seemingly turned its back on him. Cde Nkomo, however, never wavered.
“It was a very tough period because everyone had been told not to interact with me or be seen with me because I was one of the Youth League members that was opposed to what was happening. I was even afraid to come into town and join others when they were doing party activities but even during that time, I was never possessed by a spirit that encouraged me to join another party. I was still working with some of our elders in the party that wanted to accommodate us. We were loyal until the time for Operation Restore Legacy when normalcy was finally restored,” he said.
As the Commissar for Mat South, for Cde Nkomo now perhaps is the hardest task of his burgeoning political career. With the country heading for elections, it is now his duty to make sure that his party’s vision and achievements are vivid in the minds of voters as they enter voting booths in his province and across the country.
“As the commissar, I want people to understand that this party has strong roots and whatever we agree on, it will prevail because we carry the hopes of the people. While we might have challenges as a country, we need to reinstall the party that we know has the interests of the people of Zimbabwe at heart and would never betray them. But what has been encouraging has been how our people are mobilising themselves to align with the ruling party, for instance we have the Young Women for ED and Teachers for ED. This is something that is encouraging because the country, like the party, belongs to them,” he said.
As one who entered politics early, Cde Nkomo is encouraging young people to also throw their hat into the ring and be part of efforts to steer their country in the right direction.
“The youth should not be afraid of politics. This is the arena where the issues that affect their lives are solved. As long as they are honest individuals, they will be encouraged to join the right structures of the party. There is no way we can divorce ourselves from the party because in every family you find someone who is in it or who helped in the liberation of the country,” he said.
Away from the political arena, Cde Nkomo is a keen follower of the arts. A one-time artiste himself, he is keen to see the arts and artistes prosper in the country, something that he believes the Second Republic is well on the way to achieving.
“I was in the arts while at school but I was mixing it with my political activities but in the end, I had to choose one because both require one to be fully focused. Arts and politics are almost one and the same thing because in politics you speak on people’s lives and that is what happens in the arts. You expose hidden issues in society and explore how they can be solved. At the same time, you amplify the voices of those that don’t have the platform to voice them.
“I still have a passion for the arts but more as a consumer. So far, the Second Republic has shown that it has an appetite for helping artistes because artistes have a lot of ideas but they don’t have the financial muscle to implement them. The Government should help because the arts should be an industry. We don’t agree with this thing of seeing people with the tendency of paying artistes with food which is wrong because artistes should be paid with money and handsomely so,” he said.
Online Reporter