Why has Sibanda found a new home in Masvingo!

Jabulani Sibanda boasts of fully utilising his farmland, but for as many months now the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) chairperson has been away from his farm, waging a controversial election campaign for ZANU-PF in the fractious Masvingo province. "They will tell you that I drive my tractor 24 hours a day. You can check with the Grain Marketing Board on what I deliver," Sibanda told The Financial Gazette on Monday as divisions deepened in ZANU-PF over his continued presence and political activities in the area.

Since October last year, the war veterans leader has been rolling out a political campaign in the province code-named "Operation Kubudirana Pachena" (Operation Come out Clean), meant to educate people about the liberation struggle - a campaign platform for ZANU-PF.

But the ZANU-PF Masvingo Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) last week ordered Sibanda to pack his bags and leave their territory saying he had overstayed his welcome.

The resolution, received with sighs of relief by the people of Masvingo, came months after Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) provincial leaders had made similar calls on grounds that Sibanda was terrorising villagers.

ZANU-PF officials, who used to dismiss claims by the MDC-T, staged a u-turn after realising that the war veterans' leader was committing political suicide on behalf of the party as his actions were alienating the party from grassroots support.

There were also claims that Jabu, as Sibanda is popularly known among the war veterans, had "anointed" certain candidates before ZANU-PF's primary polls.
In an interview this week, the war veterans' leader denied allegations levelled against him, even scoffing at claims that he was too young to have gone to war.
At the time the Second Chimurenga or Zimbabwe's war of liberation ended in 1979, Sibanda was nine years old. This is according to ZANU-PF insiders.
Under Sibanda's leadership ZNLWVA mobilised Zimba-bweans in the expropriation of land stolen under colonialism.
He was however, expelled from ZANU-PF in 2004 for being part of the Tsholotsho Declaration, a meeting that plotted against certain members of the ZANU-PF presidium.

Despite the fact that he was expelled and therefore not a member of ZANU-PF, Sibanda led "million-men" marches across the country to endorse President Robert Mugabe as the candidate for ZANU-PF in the March 2008 presidential election.

Sibanda was inducted as chairperson of the war veterans with blessings from President Robert Mugabe.

The ZANU-PF leader at one time wanted Sibanda to be Matabeleland ZANU-PF chairperson, an influential position, but heavyweights in the region refused to acquiesce to this.

Over the weekend, the former combatants said their chairperson would stay put in the province, adding that only President Mugabe would direct him otherwise.

The boisterous fighters of the liberation struggle said not even the politburo - ZANU-PF's supreme decision-making body in between congresses - could give them instructions, save for their patron, who is President Mugabe.

However, with ZANU-PF having lost considerable territory in the 2008 general polls, the party became weaker, not only in Masvingo but nationally, raising questions as to why Sibanda and his colleagues have chosen to be rooted in Masvingo.

The 2008 election results show that ZANU-PF got its worst drubbing in Bulawayo province where the MDC-T garnered 11 seats, with the former having zero.
In Harare, ZANU-PF managed a single seat (Harare South), while the MDC-T had 28.

In the contentious Masvingo province, although ZANU-PF lost, the margin was respectable as it managed 12 seats compared to the MDC-T's 14.

ZANU-PF fared badly in Matabeleland provinces, Sibanda's home ground where there is no language barrier in communicating history lessons among people who clearly speak his tongue.

So why settle in Masvingo ahead of Matabeleland or Harare provinces that appear to need more lessons about the liberation struggle judging by the way ZANU-PF lost?

There is also Bulawayo province where voters rejected ZANU-PF en masse.

Political analyst, Eldred Masunungure, this week said it defies logic as to why Sibanda has remained in Masvingo, but it might boil down to ZANU-PF's factional fights playing out in that province.

He added that Sibanda's strategy is not panning out as one aimed at reviving the party nationally, as it has only managed to create friction even within his party as revealed by ZANU-PF's Masvingo PCC position.

"I think it defies logic as to why he has a specific interest in Masvingo, it may be provincial power play more than anything else. Otherwise, why should this be a Masvingo affair, not a national affair? said Masunungure.

The political scientist said the party's Masvingo leadership was correct in rejecting Sibanda and his divisive campaign methods as the best way to win people's minds and hearts is through persuasion not coercion.

Others said Sibanda was dispatched to Masvingo instead of Matabeleland because ZANU-PF had long given up on Matabeleland, whose residents are said to be still seething with anger over the early 1980s political disturbances.

They allege it would be easier to cow the people of Masvingo than Matabeleland, the bulk of whom have a long history of refusing to vote for President Mugabe and ZANU-PF.

"Political violence of a larger scale is a new phenomenon in Masvingo compared to Matabeleland. People in Matabeleland seem to have developed a thick political skin and take delight in voting against ZANU-PF, come rain come sunshine," said an analyst, speaking strictly on condition that he is not identified.

"So Masvingo has been an easy target. ZANU-PF is aware it is easier to regain lost ground in the province than elsewhere in the country," added the analyst.
But given that the war veterans have vowed to stay put in the province, the party is likely to pay dearly for Sibanda's actions as they are likely to do more harm than good.

Observers said Sibanda's defiance of a resolution made by provincial politicians exposes the fact that there are no political heavyweights left in the province following the death of larger than life characters, kingmakers and sometimes no nonsense politicians such as the late vice president Simon Muzenda, Eddison Zvobgo, Josiah Tungamirai and Vitalis Zvinavashe.

Last week, The Financial Gazette reported that senior ZANU-PF politburo members in the province such as Dzikamai Mavhaire and Stan Mudenge did not attend the crucial meeting that ruled that it was high time the axe fell on Sibanda in what could be an indication of simmering divisions over his fate.

So as Masvingo's former political heavyweights quietly lie at the National Heroes Acre no one seems able to hold the forte in their home turf anymore.

And in an act that is likely to turn them in their graves, it appears that some in the country's current political class continue to support impunity, ignoring the cries for justice among victims and ordinary villagers.

On Tuesday, the secretary general of the Progre-ssive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Raymond Majon-gwe, said his organisation has received distressing calls from its members in Masvingo claiming that Sibanda was intimidating them, sometimes temporarily closing schools to force them to attend his meetings.

"We have received reports that he is terrorising teachers and he has made serious threats that he will deal with them and their families.

"We are surprised that the police are leaving him wandering around and terrorising people," said Majongwe.

He added that if Sibanda had really endured the liberation struggle, he would not be moving around war mongering.

But this tinkering with the education sector through intimidation ahead of impending polls could be a time bomb waiting to explode in Masvingo.

A December 2008 United Nations Children's Fund report revealed that as a result of teacher shortages after most left because of political intimidation, school attendances in Zimbabwe dropped from 85 percent in 2007 to 20 percent by the third term of 2008.