A giant and pioneer of Mthwakazi politics dies

Dr Edwin Mkhwanazi is the man who revolutionised the Mthwakazi politics. He was the founder and president of MTHWAKAZI. MTHWAKAZI was the first political party which sought the restoration of Mthwakazi and to achieve it through peaceful political processes. MTHWAKAZI evolved to Mthwakazi People's Congress and Mthwakazi People's Convention, he was the president of these organisations.

Edwin Mkhwanazi was a serious intellectual whose influence will be felt in many generations to come. One of his ideas that I still remember vividly well and we had a heated debated over his idea.

He suggested that Mthwakazi needed to form a one issue political party and the issue should be about a Mthwakazi independence referundum. My question to him was that the oppressors have infiltrated Mthwakazi and that they would out vote us. It took him some time to respond but his response was revealing and revolutionary at the same time, he said that he acknowledged that fact but that that could be circumvented by formulating a referendum question which will render their numbers irrelevant and moribund.

The referundum question he had in mind was something like this "Do you want Mthwakazi to be an independent state or for Mthwakazi to join South Africa?".

At first I thought this was a weird question so I asked Dr Mkhwanazi to explain, I had already known that he had thought about this question carefully. He explained the premise of his question as the need for Mthwakazi to be outside Zimbabwe as an independent state or as temporary appendage of South Africa. He said that once the question is framed in that manner it does not matter whether the oppressors participated in the referundum vote or not. He went on to say that South Africa has a constitutional provision for self-determination and that Mthwakazi could easily secede from South Africa.

Without Edwin, the politics of Mthwakazi will never be the same again. Mkhwanazi shaped the ideological struggle for Mthwakazi, many people are now using the concept of restoration but they do not know where it came from, it was Dr Mkhwanazi who coined the term and packaged it to suit the Mthwakazi struggle. Dr Mkhwanazi was a humble man who shied away from publicity. His greatest strength was his ability to write and articulate an idea. He was a prolific writer who wrote under many different pseudonyms. He produced many political models and frameworks which Mthwakazi and Zimbabwe could use in separation of the two states. All his models were predicated on a peaceful political transition. Dr Mkhwanazi was against violence as a political tool he always advocated for peaceful political processes.

 Dr Mkhwanazi liked to share his ideas with the people who challenged him, he always made sure that he polished and improved his ideas after having intellectually engaged people. He had clear and strong views and he rarely shifted from his core ideas, however, he would take on board othe people's views and improve his original ideas which in most cases were superior and well thought out. He was a perfectionist, he would write numerous drafts before the final one. He was keen on using words correctly and for the words to portray his idea the way he wanted. Syntax and semantics were important to him.

Lala ngokuthula Gagisa
Lala ngokuthula Shamase
Qhawe lamaqhawe
Mthwakazi will never forget your contributions
ENtumbane kulapho ofanele ukulondolozwa khona
Uyihlomisile impi kaMthwakazi ngolwazi
Bathi ayihlehli Nkwali yenkosi.
Uyicijile inqama elophondo ukumelana nesitha sempumalanga.
Siyabonga Gagisa
UMthwakazi uyabonga Nkwali yenkosi.