Opinion / Columnist
The leaderless people of Matabeleland and part of the Midlands
27 Feb 2018 at 13:31hrs | Views
In 1980 the people of Zimbabwe had a fearless leader who was humiliated in every way possible and saw his followers killed without any mercy in the name of dissidents. Joshua Nkomo, eventually rested with a disappointed tortured heart. He had been forced into what was termed Unity Accord which worked in favour of ZANU-PF, Robert Mugabe's machine of terror using ZANLA forces who were in Zimbabwe National Army and the genocidal Brigade, the 5 Brigade led by none other than Perence Shiri.
After the death of J Nkomo, the region has been thrown into every ambitious leader mainly without vision. Those weak leaders have taken the region to ZANU-PF and the MDC with nothing at heart but position and money. The very people are not at heart at all but a way of giving positions. Dr J Nkomo did unite the nation as he had every person from all the regions under his leadership, but that was taken away from him by the mafia genocidal Mugabe regime. The current Matabeleland leaders fail to read between the lines, failing to realise that not one leader from Matabeleland would ever achieve what the late Nkomo had managed.
This has led to visionless leaders believing that they are still able to bring the nation together hence selling the people of the region to either ZANU-PF, MDC or any other party name coming from Mashonaland.
The MDC-T at the burial of Tswangirai,(RIP), directly told Khupe and Bhebhe to go back to Matabeleland labelling Khupe the mother of dissidents, these people shouted Chamisa. During the 80's as they shouted Mugabe, they called the people of Matabeleland dissidents. Did the region have dissidents that could not be eliminated without causing so many unnecessary deaths? Today we see the rise of another dictator Chamisa whose name is called out at the elimination of those from Matabeleland, yet we see visionless leaders taking the people of this region to vote for this monster who is able to over look the constitution and take over power while Tswangirai's body was still hot. This is how Mugabe started out, pretending to control his thugs but on the other hand blessing their actions.
People of Matabeleland and the Midlands its time to realise that you have to fight for your region by directly forming your own regional Parties that will fight for your rights in the government, stop selling your votes to people that do not recognise you except as dissidents. The experience in the GNU says it all. Once the MDC-T landed into government, the people of Matabeleland were given such meaningless positions that they still are awarded today in what ever organisation they are in, second and third deputies/vice whatever. This is an insult to Ubuntu of a once respected people. The insult is not only directed to Khupe who is labelled as a mother of dissidents and incompetent, but to the people of the region. Welshman Ncube is humiliated on every kind of media while Dabengwa is thought of as useless, a stigma given by those from Mashonaland and kindly embraced by the region hence selling our voting power to Mashonaland Parties.
It is sad that the region even recognises and accepts that only 20000 people were killed during the sad genocidal period while the figure is a lot higher. To highlight a few things. ZIPRA and ZANLA contributed each just over 15000 solders for intergration into the National Army while the Rhodesians contributed about 10000. The Army strength was therefore just over 40000 men and women. Soon after intergration there were disturbances like Ntabazinduna and other places. These disturbances brought about such killings of former ZIPRA cadres never seen in life. The commanders like Dumiso Dabengwa, Lookout Masuku, Mike Reynolds to name just a few were quickly arrested leaving a huge leadership vacuum making it impossible for anyone to stand for the former ZIPRA cadres in the Army. 1Brigade under Chiwenga then and the CIO people based in Bulawayo went into over drive eliminating a huge number of former ZIPRA cadres. In 1Brigade the killings were led by the late Colonel Magama and the late Brigadier Gunda(then a Major) while the CIO used Stops Camp torture chamber to eliminate former ZIPRA cadres the Hitler style. Only one cadre known escaped this torture chamber.
Former ZIPRA cadres by the time of 1987, only half the intergrated figure had remained in the Army. The biggest casualty was the lower ranks. The officers were eliminated but cautiously, may be due to their few number in the Army, but other ranks were cruelly eliminated. If the number of over 7500 former ZIPRA cadres in the Army was eliminate during that period and the number of those former ZIPRA combatants who were not intergrated, but disbanded were followed up for execution before the start of the genocidal period how then does the genocide figure be put only at 20 000?
Are the current leaders of Matabeleland blind to this or positions and money making them blind? This is not an advocacy of the so called Mthwakazi as I recognise other tribes in the region, but a wake up call for the leaders to stop selling their votes and realise how strong they are united. Eventually the region will want justice for what happened, this dilution by Mashonaland Parties will never get the justice the region so deserves. The modern Mugabes in the form of Chamisa call our people dissidents, see the people of Matabeleland as unfit to leader but be led and then made second or third deputies/vices!
It is time that the Matabeleland and Midlands people give themselves a strong voice in the government. Due to the running around with other parties from Mashonaland, and selling the region's votes, ZANU-PF has now been able to reject the devolution knowing and realising that they are faced with a weak leaderless people of Matabeleland and Midlands whom they killed.
As a proud people of the region let us unite and for a moment through away this national unproductive approach and give back to our region the pride it has lost. The Mashonaland people have stood together and been able to with unity recognise Matabeleland as a region of dissidents and incompetent people.
Are we going to accept this forever?
May the people of Matabeleland and the Midlands unite!
After the death of J Nkomo, the region has been thrown into every ambitious leader mainly without vision. Those weak leaders have taken the region to ZANU-PF and the MDC with nothing at heart but position and money. The very people are not at heart at all but a way of giving positions. Dr J Nkomo did unite the nation as he had every person from all the regions under his leadership, but that was taken away from him by the mafia genocidal Mugabe regime. The current Matabeleland leaders fail to read between the lines, failing to realise that not one leader from Matabeleland would ever achieve what the late Nkomo had managed.
This has led to visionless leaders believing that they are still able to bring the nation together hence selling the people of the region to either ZANU-PF, MDC or any other party name coming from Mashonaland.
The MDC-T at the burial of Tswangirai,(RIP), directly told Khupe and Bhebhe to go back to Matabeleland labelling Khupe the mother of dissidents, these people shouted Chamisa. During the 80's as they shouted Mugabe, they called the people of Matabeleland dissidents. Did the region have dissidents that could not be eliminated without causing so many unnecessary deaths? Today we see the rise of another dictator Chamisa whose name is called out at the elimination of those from Matabeleland, yet we see visionless leaders taking the people of this region to vote for this monster who is able to over look the constitution and take over power while Tswangirai's body was still hot. This is how Mugabe started out, pretending to control his thugs but on the other hand blessing their actions.
People of Matabeleland and the Midlands its time to realise that you have to fight for your region by directly forming your own regional Parties that will fight for your rights in the government, stop selling your votes to people that do not recognise you except as dissidents. The experience in the GNU says it all. Once the MDC-T landed into government, the people of Matabeleland were given such meaningless positions that they still are awarded today in what ever organisation they are in, second and third deputies/vice whatever. This is an insult to Ubuntu of a once respected people. The insult is not only directed to Khupe who is labelled as a mother of dissidents and incompetent, but to the people of the region. Welshman Ncube is humiliated on every kind of media while Dabengwa is thought of as useless, a stigma given by those from Mashonaland and kindly embraced by the region hence selling our voting power to Mashonaland Parties.
It is sad that the region even recognises and accepts that only 20000 people were killed during the sad genocidal period while the figure is a lot higher. To highlight a few things. ZIPRA and ZANLA contributed each just over 15000 solders for intergration into the National Army while the Rhodesians contributed about 10000. The Army strength was therefore just over 40000 men and women. Soon after intergration there were disturbances like Ntabazinduna and other places. These disturbances brought about such killings of former ZIPRA cadres never seen in life. The commanders like Dumiso Dabengwa, Lookout Masuku, Mike Reynolds to name just a few were quickly arrested leaving a huge leadership vacuum making it impossible for anyone to stand for the former ZIPRA cadres in the Army. 1Brigade under Chiwenga then and the CIO people based in Bulawayo went into over drive eliminating a huge number of former ZIPRA cadres. In 1Brigade the killings were led by the late Colonel Magama and the late Brigadier Gunda(then a Major) while the CIO used Stops Camp torture chamber to eliminate former ZIPRA cadres the Hitler style. Only one cadre known escaped this torture chamber.
Former ZIPRA cadres by the time of 1987, only half the intergrated figure had remained in the Army. The biggest casualty was the lower ranks. The officers were eliminated but cautiously, may be due to their few number in the Army, but other ranks were cruelly eliminated. If the number of over 7500 former ZIPRA cadres in the Army was eliminate during that period and the number of those former ZIPRA combatants who were not intergrated, but disbanded were followed up for execution before the start of the genocidal period how then does the genocide figure be put only at 20 000?
Are the current leaders of Matabeleland blind to this or positions and money making them blind? This is not an advocacy of the so called Mthwakazi as I recognise other tribes in the region, but a wake up call for the leaders to stop selling their votes and realise how strong they are united. Eventually the region will want justice for what happened, this dilution by Mashonaland Parties will never get the justice the region so deserves. The modern Mugabes in the form of Chamisa call our people dissidents, see the people of Matabeleland as unfit to leader but be led and then made second or third deputies/vices!
It is time that the Matabeleland and Midlands people give themselves a strong voice in the government. Due to the running around with other parties from Mashonaland, and selling the region's votes, ZANU-PF has now been able to reject the devolution knowing and realising that they are faced with a weak leaderless people of Matabeleland and Midlands whom they killed.
As a proud people of the region let us unite and for a moment through away this national unproductive approach and give back to our region the pride it has lost. The Mashonaland people have stood together and been able to with unity recognise Matabeleland as a region of dissidents and incompetent people.
Are we going to accept this forever?
May the people of Matabeleland and the Midlands unite!
Source - Clive Zulu
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