Sibangilizwe Nkomo's interview was a disaster in the making

Not long-ago last month, Sibangilizwe Nkomo announced his Zapu candidacy to replace the late DD: Comrade Dumiso Dabengwa. I was excited about this, well as someone who grew up in Zapu and known the late Comrade Joshua Nkomo well, I was in Zambia together with him as leader of guerrilla movement. It somehow enticed me to rethink and track my steps back to see if there is a role one can still play in the region under the banner of party Zapu, not necessary targeting to win the 2023 elections perse but to garner acceptance for focus on regional development.

This is what I was warming up to in Zapu party: a devolution their brainchild. Matabeleland needs its sons and daughters to develop it. If the devolution was implemented, we can start to improve this region right away. I had not seen Sibangilizwe's interview to have warmed up for a return to Zapu!!!

Having seen the interview of Sibangilizwe Nkomo: I changed my mind right away. Firstly, the question that came into mind is, "Is Sibangilizwe really the son of Joshua Nkomo, u Jechewa u Mafukufuku? The boy lacks all that Joshua Nkomo was as leader of Zapu. Sibangilizwe has zero leadership qualities, uncharismatic, cannot speak uprightly and convincingly, zero confidence in an interview. We have never heard of him as party of Zapu membership during my time as active member in the UK. We took it that if he is a recipient of the government funding, he cannot be seen to be near Zapu. But to come and want to assume Presidency from nowhere because he is the son of Joshua Nkomo is complicated and tasteless at the same time.

The question we ask ourselves is, has he been jettisoned by Zanu?

Sibangilizwe told us that he failed college in the USA and failed again when he came back home after independence. Sibangilizwe is a failed son of the soil who needs government funding to sustain himself and his family since his father played such a pivotal role in the struggle for independence of this great country. How does a failed person with no academics to lean on in today's world that glorifies education want to lead a political party? Is he coming to fail Zapu from the onset?

We need new names such as Mso Ndlovu, Siphosami Malunga, Thamsanqa Zhou, Zwe Ncube Bekezela Dube, Zenzo Ncube: those are young vibrant youth Zapu should be recruited once more  to revive this noble party. We need young blood in Zapu I agree fully but with calibre and not leadership inherited as Sibangilizwe Nkomo will want us to do. Sibangilizwe cannot realize that his ability and capabilities fall short of what his father was.

Coming back to the interview that shook me to the core: it is not that I could have done better than him, but that poor delivery of interview!!! And these Matobo people who pushed for him to be a candidate at presidential level, Sibangilizwe is a joke of the year. He says he is aspiring to be the third president of the Republic of Zimbabwe. Sure; He painfully tried to articulate himself but failed dismally. Why would Kezi people be cruel to front Sibangilizwe Nkomo as a candidate of an iconic party like Zapu. Are we failing to recruit young men and women in the region to take over where we left?

It is equally cruel, whoever is feeding him falsehood that there is donor funding in Europe to finance leadership of the calibre of Sibangilizwe? Which European man or woman will open his/her purse to give Sibangilizwe money to run Zapu having seen that today's interview?
The boy is dreaming; those heydays where his father Joshua Nkomo was globally known are gone. Even in Russia he will never meet Putin and talk to him in the way Brezhnev sat with Joshua Nkomo and was able to convince the Soviet Union that our struggle for freedom is a noble cause. Who is Sibangilizwe on this earth? The times have changed, the glorious Zapu party of yesterday is a song of the past.

You do not aspire for presidency with the hope of getting donor funding from Europe. Those in Zapu Europe who are perpetuating falsehood, entice Sibangilizwe to stand for presidency are very cruel people indeed because in his mind Sibangilizwe is flooded with easy money from Europe: there is no funding coming from Europe. These are pseudo revolutionaries of our times. Your father Joshua Nkomo was a revolutionary: wafa le nsiba zakhe.

You can wear his clothes, but you are not Joshua by any stretch of your imagination. You can also wear his itshoba lakhe almost every day and several times, you will never be near of what he was or worse still you should have learnt at least one or two things from him, you did not. You painfully fall short of what your father was. You missed it in your upbringing to emulate him, Joshua or we called him u Mafukufuku; in your area they called him Jechewa was one of the finest leaders in the continent and is in history books for generations to come, rightfully so.

To be fair with you Sibangilizwe, your sister Thandi has some of your father's leadership traits but certainly not you. She used to give us powerful speeches when we were in Zambia. Thandi could have replicated your father in words, mimic, and other gestures of charismatic leadership. This is so much I remember about Thandi Nkomo. I need to be brave to accept Sibangilizwe as a candidate for Zapu. I need to remove all my brains and put them aside to accept Sibangilizwe Nkomo as President of Zapu, that is if he won the coming elections. He can surprise us and win, I do not doubt it for once.

If those who are fronting you for Zapu leadership will use that interview to get funding here in Europe, then they will get nothing. This is the problem we have about opposition parties that dream big of donor funding coming from Europe. What I know is that, with this Sars-Covid 2 global pandemic those countries that previously gave donor funding are closing international aid and concentrating on how to feed its citizens who are out of employment, will be without jobs for unspecified time. Nobody knows how long this pandemic will take. Not even private people are dishing out their money to poor Africans anymore. Its high time Africans should regain their pride and stop this begging culture that in Europe money is be given to Africans.

You were born in 1958, you tell me you have not learnt how to generate wealth in Zimbabwe even now? Who are these Europeans who will dish out their hard-earned wealth to lazy Africans, chronical beggars? These Africans who have no shame to beg to once-upon-a- time colonisers of the African continent? If you need money, go to Zanu government, and ask for assistance; you father liberated this country: you should be a local recipient of donor funding from Zanu and not Europe.

To give such a shallow interview, I am told by Thulani Nkala that Sibangilizwe's interview was a tsunami, I rest my case. No wonder this region of Matabeleland is not doing well. These Ndebele's feed each other on liars even when his interview performance is glaringly poor; so sad. Should he win the elections and Sibangilizwe becomes the President of Zapu, it was a decision I made long back to quit this party, I now realize my gut was correct. There are numerous ways to assist the peoples of Matabeleland outside political parties.