adminThere has always been something forthright and unapologetic about the Vice-Presidents that President Mugabe has appointed to deputise him from the ex-Zapu liberation movement, right from the time of the Unity Accord in 1987.
That is not to say the VPs from the Zanu side are duplicitous — except maybe for one.
The two sides, Zanu and Zapu, bring their own star quality to Zanu-PF: which is why the unified party continues to dominate the political landscape in a manner that has reverberations across the world.
But there is no escaping that Dr Joshua Nkomo brought a brand of straightforward politics that have only served to benefit Zimbabwe, hence his lionisation as “Father Zimbabwe”.
Cde Joseph Msika was not called “Bruno” because he was a retreating figure who did not know how to speak his mind.
And Cde John Landa Nkomo was known as a strict and principled man who was not afraid to say what he meant and mean what he said.
Now we have a man called Cde Report Phelekezela Mphoko as VP, alongside another VP who many know as “Ngwena”.
It is a formidable combination, a winning combination.
Cde Report, like his predecessors is a man who speaks his mind.
This week we carry him in this publication airing his very candid views on the matter of Gukurahundi.
It is an issue that the columnist called Nathaniel Manheru reintroduced to mainstream public discourse in our sister publication, The Herald, a few weeks ago.
Manheru’s exhortation was for honesty, so that we could — to borrow loosely from Chinua Achebe — get to the point where we can tell where the rain began to beat us so that we know how to get dry.
Unfortunately, that discourse was killed in a cacophony of ugly language that did no merit and served no higher purpose beyond trying to resurrect political cadavers that must indeed already move from the morgue to the cemetery.
It was George Orwell who said, “(Language) becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”
Cde Report has brought back to the fore a very serious issue, hopefully it will not be murdered by foolish language informed by foolish thoughts.
His plea is that we go back to the source, analyse where the problem leading to Gukurahundi started, so that we can achieve real national reconciliation.
Tellingly, his words mirror brilliantly those by Father Zimbabwe back in 1983 in an interview with Jeremy Paxman in Britain right at the beginning of the troubles.
Father Zimbabwe said, “Some people believe that because the Fifth Brigade is made up of Shona-speaking young people and therefore its actions are actions of the Shona against the Ndebele; I think this is a misrepresentation, I don’t think it is so.
“. . .when you’re confronted by people who speak a (different) language and they do harm to your life, yes you do come to wonder whether it is not tribal and conclude the Shona are against the Ndebele.
“But here I’m talking as one who knows that in fact it is not so. It is a mistake for anybody to believe that the Shona have organised against the Ndebele. That is not so.”
As Cde Report says today, and Father Zimbabwe said 32 years ago, our problem is not a tribal one, though it may symptomatically present itself as such.
We must analyse the source, the cause. Just as Father Zimbabwe and Cde Report implore us to do.
After all, in that interview with Paxman, Father Zimbabwe spoke of importance of amalgamating Zanu and Zapu on the foundation of a frank assessment of what were the underlying causes of the friction.
He spoke of how former enemies in World War II — the Anglo-American alliance on one side and the German-Japanese-Italian axis on the other — were now friends.
“It means people facing problems and doing everything possible to try and resolve them — I think the people of Zimbabwe are capable of doing that; of looking back, seeing where they’ve gone wrong, go back and retrace their steps, if need be, so as to solve the problems of Zimbabwe,” Father Zimbabwe said then.
Today, Cde Report says pretty much the same thing, pointing out that genuine reconciliation can only be premised on that.
It is something we owe to our future.
Online Reporter