Opinion / Columnist
Over to you, Nkosana Moyo!
07 Jul 2017 at 19:50hrs | Views
One of the worst-kept secrets in Zimbabwe is out.
Nkosana Moyo has finally announced his long-anticipated formal entry into next year's presidential race with many people not taken by surprise at all. It had become a question of "when", not "if". This worst-kept secret was only bettered by Presidential spokesperson George Charamba's recent admission that he was the pseudonymous State media columnist going by the name Nathaniel Manheru whereas the whole nation had known that for years and years.
Moyo - who really needed no introduction after famously quitting President Robert Mugabe's so-called "war Cabinet" abruptly in 2001 becoming the first minister not to give Mugabe the pleasure to fire him after appointing him at his pleasure - did not flood the media with lies and exaggerations in order to instantly endear himself to the electorate.
It was most auspicious that Moyo -who does not flaunt his erudition ad nauseam, to a boring and exasperating extent, to a sickening extreme like his namesake Jonathan Moyo and Charamba do - made some refreshing and most telling observations, saying: "I would like to think that Zimbabweans are not stupid, my mother can hardly read, but she is anything, but stupid. So I don't even confuse education with the ability to analyse what is going on in this country."
This was/is a significant differentiator. Moyo has said from the word go that highly-educated as he is, he will be a man of the people, the ordinary people. He will move alongside the people, not drag them by the nose or herd them like cattle to completely control them Zanu PF style. It's imperative to end the cult of personality where the Head of State orchestrates - through Zanu PF youths and other lumpen elements at stage-managed Zanu PF gatherings - that he is infallible and next to God. Yes, the fact that Mugabe has not ordered a stop to this irresponsible, disgusting and dangerous talk shows he is behind it all, making it, again, one of the worst-kept secrets in Zimbabwe.
It's more than a hint that Moyo - Nkosana, not to be confused with Jonathan, please, because the similarity ends with their surnames - is looking at forming a truly people-based movement, not the patronising elitism which has bogged down even some opposition parties narcissistically boasting that they are thought leaders - whatever that means and for whatever it's worth - solely ordained with intellectual prowess. Reminds one of this observation by American academic and social critic Camille Paglia: "Why has the Democratic Party become so arrogantly detached from ordinary Americans? Though they claim to speak for the poor and dispossessed, Democrats have increasingly become the party of an upper-middle-class professional elite, top-heavy with journalists, academics and lawyers."
Paglia might as well have been referring to one opposition party in Zimbabwe which looks like a law firm with its leader and his deputy both lawyers.
And Moyo has started on the right foot with his honest admission and refreshing candour, not by conveniently and savagely lying against his potentially biggest rival, not by telling people what they want to hear, but what they need to hear, saying: "Now, we know that [MDC-T leader] Morgan [Tsvangirai] supposedly won that (2008) election, but … instead of Zimbabweans saying we are not accepting anybody doing anything else with our results, we collectively let it happen. We - not Morgan. And once we take that responsibility, I think we will be fine."
This shames all those rabid critics who are now conveniently wiser with the wisdom of hindsight placing all the blame on Tsvangirai as if he was solely responsible when we all - yes, all of us - folded arms bemusedly and cowardly as the regime trampled all over us. These confusionists routinely resort to sophism - a flawed argument superficially correct in its reasoning - such as that Tsvangirai has lost three successive elections to Mugabe - but designed to deceive and mislead as if this was a free and fair poll by deliberately omitting that over 200 of Tsvangirai's supporters were killed in 2008 and the voters' roll was not availed to opposition parties in 2013. But it's good that more and more people are now dismissing these misfits as crackpots. They are too argumentative to be part of a project in which teamwork is essential. It's a kind of psychosis. The sheer volume of what they post on social media shows this obsessive mania.
These confusionists, who will stop at nothing, are even accusing Tsvangirai of being Zanu PF. But, again, it's good that Zimbabweans are not that easily fooled. Observed, among many others, "Rumbidzai Gloria" on Facebook: "The majority started in Zanu PF, including MT [Morgan Tsvangirai]. So please stop with the accusations. At independence in 1980, most were Zanu PF."
Many of us were Zanu PF enthusiasts until the party was captured by megalomaniacs as they sought - with shocking genocidal violence and other repressive and murderous rampages - to impose a one-party State. This forced homogenisation of every Zimbabwean into Zanu PF was, to me, the final straw; it was the last in a series of unpleasant events that finally made you feel that you could not continue to accept a bad situation. It's not that the people have changed, but that Zanu PF has moved away from the people with repression and brazen corruption now its ideology. To illustrate the point, former United States President Ronald Reagan, who was in office from 1981 to 1989, and had been a lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party, but was elected on a ticket of the rival Republican Party, explained how this came about: "I didn't leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me." Similarly in that context, being called names over one's Zanu PF past is actually a compliment.
All said, now to the most important, the most pertinent questions of all about Nkosana Moyo.
How deep is his commitment? Will he sacrifice everything - including his career and, crucially, his family commitments - like Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Govan Mbeki, Nelson Mandela etc did - to fully - not half-heartedly - commit to the struggle? All these individuals went into the trenches with the people. These amadoda sibili lived up to the saying: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. You can tell what a man is made of when there is a crisis and the man shows strength and courage. Real men will come through finally to win. You can say all the right things about policy solutions, but it won't make a dent without being a tough cookie in dealing with Mugabe, who is as unyielding as they come. We are not only taking about high intellect, but that personal courage essential in confronting this thuggish regime. Either you have personal courage or not because it is not taught at university alongside subjects like economics and law.
Will he lead from the front in taking on the regime in street protests? If the worst comes to the worst, is he prepared to risk life and limb like Tsvangirai did in 2007 when he was brutally beaten up by the regime-captured police while leading a demonstration, resulting in his hospitalisation?
Will he stay if or - as is increasingly looking likely with the opposition in such disarray late, late into the day - when he loses? Will he - like Arthur Mutambara and others, some of them defeatists and deserters, before him with fallback positions outside politics - ditch the project and leave people in the lurch, abandoning them in an even more difficult plight?
Over to you, Moyo!
Nkosana Moyo has finally announced his long-anticipated formal entry into next year's presidential race with many people not taken by surprise at all. It had become a question of "when", not "if". This worst-kept secret was only bettered by Presidential spokesperson George Charamba's recent admission that he was the pseudonymous State media columnist going by the name Nathaniel Manheru whereas the whole nation had known that for years and years.
Moyo - who really needed no introduction after famously quitting President Robert Mugabe's so-called "war Cabinet" abruptly in 2001 becoming the first minister not to give Mugabe the pleasure to fire him after appointing him at his pleasure - did not flood the media with lies and exaggerations in order to instantly endear himself to the electorate.
It was most auspicious that Moyo -who does not flaunt his erudition ad nauseam, to a boring and exasperating extent, to a sickening extreme like his namesake Jonathan Moyo and Charamba do - made some refreshing and most telling observations, saying: "I would like to think that Zimbabweans are not stupid, my mother can hardly read, but she is anything, but stupid. So I don't even confuse education with the ability to analyse what is going on in this country."
This was/is a significant differentiator. Moyo has said from the word go that highly-educated as he is, he will be a man of the people, the ordinary people. He will move alongside the people, not drag them by the nose or herd them like cattle to completely control them Zanu PF style. It's imperative to end the cult of personality where the Head of State orchestrates - through Zanu PF youths and other lumpen elements at stage-managed Zanu PF gatherings - that he is infallible and next to God. Yes, the fact that Mugabe has not ordered a stop to this irresponsible, disgusting and dangerous talk shows he is behind it all, making it, again, one of the worst-kept secrets in Zimbabwe.
It's more than a hint that Moyo - Nkosana, not to be confused with Jonathan, please, because the similarity ends with their surnames - is looking at forming a truly people-based movement, not the patronising elitism which has bogged down even some opposition parties narcissistically boasting that they are thought leaders - whatever that means and for whatever it's worth - solely ordained with intellectual prowess. Reminds one of this observation by American academic and social critic Camille Paglia: "Why has the Democratic Party become so arrogantly detached from ordinary Americans? Though they claim to speak for the poor and dispossessed, Democrats have increasingly become the party of an upper-middle-class professional elite, top-heavy with journalists, academics and lawyers."
Paglia might as well have been referring to one opposition party in Zimbabwe which looks like a law firm with its leader and his deputy both lawyers.
And Moyo has started on the right foot with his honest admission and refreshing candour, not by conveniently and savagely lying against his potentially biggest rival, not by telling people what they want to hear, but what they need to hear, saying: "Now, we know that [MDC-T leader] Morgan [Tsvangirai] supposedly won that (2008) election, but … instead of Zimbabweans saying we are not accepting anybody doing anything else with our results, we collectively let it happen. We - not Morgan. And once we take that responsibility, I think we will be fine."
This shames all those rabid critics who are now conveniently wiser with the wisdom of hindsight placing all the blame on Tsvangirai as if he was solely responsible when we all - yes, all of us - folded arms bemusedly and cowardly as the regime trampled all over us. These confusionists routinely resort to sophism - a flawed argument superficially correct in its reasoning - such as that Tsvangirai has lost three successive elections to Mugabe - but designed to deceive and mislead as if this was a free and fair poll by deliberately omitting that over 200 of Tsvangirai's supporters were killed in 2008 and the voters' roll was not availed to opposition parties in 2013. But it's good that more and more people are now dismissing these misfits as crackpots. They are too argumentative to be part of a project in which teamwork is essential. It's a kind of psychosis. The sheer volume of what they post on social media shows this obsessive mania.
These confusionists, who will stop at nothing, are even accusing Tsvangirai of being Zanu PF. But, again, it's good that Zimbabweans are not that easily fooled. Observed, among many others, "Rumbidzai Gloria" on Facebook: "The majority started in Zanu PF, including MT [Morgan Tsvangirai]. So please stop with the accusations. At independence in 1980, most were Zanu PF."
Many of us were Zanu PF enthusiasts until the party was captured by megalomaniacs as they sought - with shocking genocidal violence and other repressive and murderous rampages - to impose a one-party State. This forced homogenisation of every Zimbabwean into Zanu PF was, to me, the final straw; it was the last in a series of unpleasant events that finally made you feel that you could not continue to accept a bad situation. It's not that the people have changed, but that Zanu PF has moved away from the people with repression and brazen corruption now its ideology. To illustrate the point, former United States President Ronald Reagan, who was in office from 1981 to 1989, and had been a lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party, but was elected on a ticket of the rival Republican Party, explained how this came about: "I didn't leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me." Similarly in that context, being called names over one's Zanu PF past is actually a compliment.
All said, now to the most important, the most pertinent questions of all about Nkosana Moyo.
How deep is his commitment? Will he sacrifice everything - including his career and, crucially, his family commitments - like Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Govan Mbeki, Nelson Mandela etc did - to fully - not half-heartedly - commit to the struggle? All these individuals went into the trenches with the people. These amadoda sibili lived up to the saying: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. You can tell what a man is made of when there is a crisis and the man shows strength and courage. Real men will come through finally to win. You can say all the right things about policy solutions, but it won't make a dent without being a tough cookie in dealing with Mugabe, who is as unyielding as they come. We are not only taking about high intellect, but that personal courage essential in confronting this thuggish regime. Either you have personal courage or not because it is not taught at university alongside subjects like economics and law.
Will he lead from the front in taking on the regime in street protests? If the worst comes to the worst, is he prepared to risk life and limb like Tsvangirai did in 2007 when he was brutally beaten up by the regime-captured police while leading a demonstration, resulting in his hospitalisation?
Will he stay if or - as is increasingly looking likely with the opposition in such disarray late, late into the day - when he loses? Will he - like Arthur Mutambara and others, some of them defeatists and deserters, before him with fallback positions outside politics - ditch the project and leave people in the lurch, abandoning them in an even more difficult plight?
Over to you, Moyo!
Source - newsday
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