Opinion / Columnist
It is good to work with your Gibson Sibanda, Mbuso!
29 Jun 2011 at 18:03hrs | Views
THE NewsDay of Monday, June 27, 2011, carried an interesting front page story which announced that Mbuso and Thandi Sibanda – the children of Gibson Sibanda -- had defected from the Movement for Democratic Change led by Welshman Ncube to the other faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
The story said the two defected at a rally held at the White City Stadium on Sunday and they were pictured with MDC T's national organising secretary, Nelson Chamisa, smiling in a public parade at the rally.
I have known the two for more than a decade and their alleged defection came as a huge surprise to me given that they were never involved in any political activities for reasons that range from being absent from the country to that they had other things to do, than the dirty game.
I have thus gone back to my notes that I keep about individuals that I met in life, for future use and have found them so laughable when you read all the fuss about the grand defection they made, from a party that their dear father died in, to that of his sworn life rival – Morgan Tsvangirai.
Because of the interesting notes I have, I elected to offer some advice to the children of Gibson Sibanda, advice that is not new, that I heard elsewhere. Accordingly, hereunder are the facts that make the alleged defections dramatic if not completely comical and insulting to the memory of Gibson Sibanda.
I have established that the national organising secretary of the MDC-T, Nelson Chamisa, got a call on Saturday informing him that Thandi and Mbuso have defected to his party. Seeing that there was platform to grandstand and embarrass Ncube, he phoned the NewsDay offices in Harare and made a passionate plea for them to stay the publication of the story until after the Sunday star rally at White City Stadium.
The editor in charge that day agreed with Chamisa, who then placed a second call to Thokozani Khupe's driver only known as George. George has always been close friends with Thandi since before the October 12, 2005, split in the MDC.
George called Thandi and she agreed to talk to her brother Mbuso and persuade him to go to the MDC-T rally at White City Stadium that had an estimated crowd of 7,000 people.
Upon arrival, the two were whisked to a corner near the tuck shops and given some coaching on how to behave amongst other matters by Nelson Chamisa and other senior MDC-T functionaries.
A bit of background. Mbuso Sibanda went to the United Kingdom in 1997 before the MDC was even formed and he has never voted at all since then. He in fact appears in the MDC records in Bulawayo under the personal folder of his late father, in a page entitled 'Family Members'.
As for Thandi, the same is true: she went to the Untied Kingdom before Mbuso and only came to Bulawayo when her mother, Ntombizodwa Sibanda, was ill. They stayed in Sibanda's house in Nkulumane.
Following Ntombizodwa's death in 2003, Thandi did not go back to the United Kingdom.
The last time Mbuso was seen in Zimbabwe was when he came to bury his mother in Silalatshani (Silalabuhwa), Filabusi, and quickly left for the United Kingdom.
Mbuso failed and or chose not to attend his father's burial in August 2010 because he was in the United Kingdom, God knows doing what which was more important than his father!
Interestingly, the next time Mbuso was seen in public in Zimbabwe was in May 2011 when he was a delegate to the MDC-T congress at Barbourfields Stadium held in Bulawayo.
It is, therefore, false that Mbuso defected to the MDC-T on Sunday, since he was accredited as a delegate and not an observer, journalist or service provider at the MDC-T congress held a month earlier.
In the history of political party congresses, a card-carrying member like Mbuso at the MDC-T congress sits where other delegates sit unless if there are specific security concerns about them.
I am dead sure there was nothing putting the life of Mbuso in danger at the congress that would have merited his protection, save for violent disorders that all other delegates including Morgan Tsvangirai were subjected to (remember he was barred from the stadium for a time and threatened by his own people).
I find the whole defection story of Mbuso a huge ruse because the MDC-T went as far as offering transport to one Emeli Mguni, an MDC councillor from Mangwe district, to the venue for the grand parade. So what would stop them to fishing out for Gibson Sibanda's son to score political points in a defectors stage run parade if they managed to transport a political no-one like Emeli Mguni?
Is the MDC-T now so more popular and appealing than MDC that a son of Gibson Sibanda would opt to join them at the expense of a political party founded and led by his father?
I ask because there is so much fuss about the three defections from MDC to MDC-T and not so much fuss about 47 defections from both Zanu PF and the MDC-T to the MDC led by Ncube.
And why is the MDC-T not worried about parading those who defected from Zanu PF to their party?
After the MDC split, the then Harare provincial chairman of the MDC-T, Morgan Femai was quoted in The Herald as saying:"We want to deal with these Gibson Sibanda people once and for all, and then we will deal with Zanu PF."
The irony of it all is that Morgan Femai as the chairman (then) of Harare province made this statement and to prove him right in the 2008 elections, the "Gibson Sibanda people" were wiped out of the city of Harare while Zanu PF got several councillors and a senator!
While I congratulate Mbuso for joining politics as his father did, joining by way of "defecting" or saying you are defecting from what you were never is not the way. How are you going to work with people like Elfas Mukonoweshuro who are so known to have said: "Gibson Sibanda anedumbu fanekara Nkomo?"
I am sure you can read the real message, given that Mukonoweshuro said this long after the split, and when your father was alive and in another faction of the MDC. I was a reporter for Chronicleand MDC-T activists laughed their lungs out, enjoying this message. My good old tape recorder still has his speech.
I find it laughable to hear MDC-T activists celebrating that Mbuso will go back to the UK to raise funds for the party when he failed to find a single cent for his father's losing campaign against Thamsanqa Mahlangu in Nkulumane.
To date, Mbuso has failed to go and greet his late father's best friends, the likes of Welshman Ncube, Fletcher Dulini Ncube, Mozes Mzila Ndlovu and Essaf Mdlongwa, men who buried his father while he was busy in the United Kingdom.
On September 15, 2008, Robert Mugabe said to Botswana President Ian Khama: "How good it was to work with your father."
Before Mugabe, Nelson Mandela told George Bush Jnr: "It was good to work with your father"."
It is perhaps the best and only thing you can tell a man who sets about embracing everything that his father stood against.
The story said the two defected at a rally held at the White City Stadium on Sunday and they were pictured with MDC T's national organising secretary, Nelson Chamisa, smiling in a public parade at the rally.
I have known the two for more than a decade and their alleged defection came as a huge surprise to me given that they were never involved in any political activities for reasons that range from being absent from the country to that they had other things to do, than the dirty game.
I have thus gone back to my notes that I keep about individuals that I met in life, for future use and have found them so laughable when you read all the fuss about the grand defection they made, from a party that their dear father died in, to that of his sworn life rival – Morgan Tsvangirai.
Because of the interesting notes I have, I elected to offer some advice to the children of Gibson Sibanda, advice that is not new, that I heard elsewhere. Accordingly, hereunder are the facts that make the alleged defections dramatic if not completely comical and insulting to the memory of Gibson Sibanda.
I have established that the national organising secretary of the MDC-T, Nelson Chamisa, got a call on Saturday informing him that Thandi and Mbuso have defected to his party. Seeing that there was platform to grandstand and embarrass Ncube, he phoned the NewsDay offices in Harare and made a passionate plea for them to stay the publication of the story until after the Sunday star rally at White City Stadium.
The editor in charge that day agreed with Chamisa, who then placed a second call to Thokozani Khupe's driver only known as George. George has always been close friends with Thandi since before the October 12, 2005, split in the MDC.
George called Thandi and she agreed to talk to her brother Mbuso and persuade him to go to the MDC-T rally at White City Stadium that had an estimated crowd of 7,000 people.
Upon arrival, the two were whisked to a corner near the tuck shops and given some coaching on how to behave amongst other matters by Nelson Chamisa and other senior MDC-T functionaries.
A bit of background. Mbuso Sibanda went to the United Kingdom in 1997 before the MDC was even formed and he has never voted at all since then. He in fact appears in the MDC records in Bulawayo under the personal folder of his late father, in a page entitled 'Family Members'.
As for Thandi, the same is true: she went to the Untied Kingdom before Mbuso and only came to Bulawayo when her mother, Ntombizodwa Sibanda, was ill. They stayed in Sibanda's house in Nkulumane.
Following Ntombizodwa's death in 2003, Thandi did not go back to the United Kingdom.
The last time Mbuso was seen in Zimbabwe was when he came to bury his mother in Silalatshani (Silalabuhwa), Filabusi, and quickly left for the United Kingdom.
Mbuso failed and or chose not to attend his father's burial in August 2010 because he was in the United Kingdom, God knows doing what which was more important than his father!
It is, therefore, false that Mbuso defected to the MDC-T on Sunday, since he was accredited as a delegate and not an observer, journalist or service provider at the MDC-T congress held a month earlier.
In the history of political party congresses, a card-carrying member like Mbuso at the MDC-T congress sits where other delegates sit unless if there are specific security concerns about them.
I am dead sure there was nothing putting the life of Mbuso in danger at the congress that would have merited his protection, save for violent disorders that all other delegates including Morgan Tsvangirai were subjected to (remember he was barred from the stadium for a time and threatened by his own people).
I find the whole defection story of Mbuso a huge ruse because the MDC-T went as far as offering transport to one Emeli Mguni, an MDC councillor from Mangwe district, to the venue for the grand parade. So what would stop them to fishing out for Gibson Sibanda's son to score political points in a defectors stage run parade if they managed to transport a political no-one like Emeli Mguni?
Is the MDC-T now so more popular and appealing than MDC that a son of Gibson Sibanda would opt to join them at the expense of a political party founded and led by his father?
I ask because there is so much fuss about the three defections from MDC to MDC-T and not so much fuss about 47 defections from both Zanu PF and the MDC-T to the MDC led by Ncube.
And why is the MDC-T not worried about parading those who defected from Zanu PF to their party?
After the MDC split, the then Harare provincial chairman of the MDC-T, Morgan Femai was quoted in The Herald as saying:"We want to deal with these Gibson Sibanda people once and for all, and then we will deal with Zanu PF."
The irony of it all is that Morgan Femai as the chairman (then) of Harare province made this statement and to prove him right in the 2008 elections, the "Gibson Sibanda people" were wiped out of the city of Harare while Zanu PF got several councillors and a senator!
While I congratulate Mbuso for joining politics as his father did, joining by way of "defecting" or saying you are defecting from what you were never is not the way. How are you going to work with people like Elfas Mukonoweshuro who are so known to have said: "Gibson Sibanda anedumbu fanekara Nkomo?"
I am sure you can read the real message, given that Mukonoweshuro said this long after the split, and when your father was alive and in another faction of the MDC. I was a reporter for Chronicleand MDC-T activists laughed their lungs out, enjoying this message. My good old tape recorder still has his speech.
I find it laughable to hear MDC-T activists celebrating that Mbuso will go back to the UK to raise funds for the party when he failed to find a single cent for his father's losing campaign against Thamsanqa Mahlangu in Nkulumane.
To date, Mbuso has failed to go and greet his late father's best friends, the likes of Welshman Ncube, Fletcher Dulini Ncube, Mozes Mzila Ndlovu and Essaf Mdlongwa, men who buried his father while he was busy in the United Kingdom.
On September 15, 2008, Robert Mugabe said to Botswana President Ian Khama: "How good it was to work with your father."
Before Mugabe, Nelson Mandela told George Bush Jnr: "It was good to work with your father"."
It is perhaps the best and only thing you can tell a man who sets about embracing everything that his father stood against.
Source - Busani Ncube
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