Good bye February 2014

Zimbabweans are a defiant people. They can do the least expected things anytime.

They invest a lot in educating their children and brag of being the most educated people in Africa, yet they hate educated people so much that they conclude that because one educated person is responsible for their woes, trouble-making is synonymous with education.

At the height of droughts, corruption, political violence and record unemployment they will pass a vote of confidence to those responsible for such calamities. Some actually believe that it is a noble idea to do one million pages of a petition and fax them to Number 10 Downing Street in London and hope for a swift and positive response.

Whether you choose to look at it as the Month of Love or as the Black History Month, February is a remarkable month the world over. It is so much filled with celebrations of human passion and civility. In Zimbabwe's theatre of dreams, all this can be brought to nothing by just a few persons in a manner that defies everything about celebrating Love and/or Black History.

Part of the arguments used to oppress black people used by institutions like Ku Klux Klan were that the black man was corrupt, feudalistic, irresponsible and violent and it was the KKK's divine responsibility to civilize black man no matter what it takes.

The February 2014 media headlines about Pastor Robert Martin Gumbura, President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Dr. Dennis Magaya, Mr. Elton Mangoma and Mr. Tendai Biti are indicative of a society that needs to civilize itself or risk having that responsibility to civilize oneself stolen from them.

These media headlines require the nation to do a serious introspection on five questions;

• What society breeds a man who marries 11 women and proceeds to rape 6 others while hidden behind the solemnity of the pulpit?

• What government would invest so much into spying on the activities and communications of ordinary citizens yet fail to know basic information like salaries of senior civil servants and even are unable to do background checks on people that get appointed to head state enterprises and parastatals?

• What father, what statesman, what liberator would hold a lavish birthday celebration at a time when some of his children are harangued by natural disasters such as Tokwe Mukosi?

• Where else in the world do people say about a disabled person "He should never have come to Parliament to represent normal people, but disabled people like him"? Aren't disabled people normal?

• Is it not the time as a society and as a nation we sincerely abhorred all forms of violence and began to convince and persuade each other through dialogue?

While the five questions summarize Zimbabwean the drama of February 2014, surely there is a lot of it that just began and will go far and long. For those itching for action, all eyes are on Elton Mangoma and students of history are already doing permutations on what he could possibly do because history is littered with tales of conflict and change.

Who among us can forget Che Guevara returning from the first day of fighting in the battle for Santa Clara and saying to his commander, "Comrade Fidel, I give up. Batista's men are throwing stones at us." Fidel was sympathetic. When he was a boy, his father threw a stone at him and he had never forgotten the hurt it caused. Okay, so it was more a grenade than a stone. But Fidel forced Che to go back out there and take Santa Clara, forcing the evil Batista into exile. If Che had not been able to overcome his fear of stone- throwers, Cuba would not be the prosperous nation that it is today.

Same with Scotland. When one of King Edward's men threw a stone at William Wallace while he was out walking his dog in Falkirk, it hurt his feelings to such an extent that he moved back in with his parents. And because of that, Scotland is still trying to get its independence.

Across the Limpopo, a day before Mangoma was attacked the Democratic Alliance organized a march to the African National Congress Headquarters. A few minutes after the demonstrators arrived they were seen back in their cars and their leader Mmusi Mainame shouted "they threw stones at us". Will Mangoma go back to his constituency and say "they tore my shirt", or we aint seen nothing yet?

With these issues in mind one can only say good bye February, Welcome March and please behave yourself.

Discent Collins Bajila is the Youth Secretary General of the MDC and wrote this piece in his personal capacity, extracted from his Facebook page.