Keep Zanu out of Bulawayo - Meet Your Representative

Mpopoma-Pelandaba Constituency

The battle against tyranny and greedy has never been an easy one in the Zimbabwean political landscape, right from white colonial rule to post- independent Zimbabwe.

This having been said, if the saying that knowledge is power is true, then ZAPU's Mpopoma-Pelandaba candidate Dr Strike Mkandla ought to be natural choice for the people.

And not that he has a fancy title! He went through the mill, from being traumitised  by the repressive white minority rule through loss of wealth, being made homeless, expulsion from school, ruthless police interrogations, only to  shove and push these insurmountable frontiers  to become a shining international civil servant and activist for a pro-people Zimbabwe.

Born in rural Matabeleland on the 17th of March 1948, it was no coincidence that his birth came about at the same time with  the first industrial action or strike by black laborers in the then Rhodesia  over poor working conditions and segregation.

"I was born in 1948, at a time when black laborers first staged widespread strikes against ill-practices by the white employers hence my father, then a vocal black laborer with the Shell Company named me Strike.

"With the coming in of the Land Husbandry Act and the Apportionment Act we were harshly displaced from time to time to pave way for greedy whites losing a lot of cattle along the way," says Dr Mkandla.

And that is how little Strike was to find himself together with his family in Pelandaba, at the age of 10.

This was the place he was to call home for his entire life,  a suburb he saw rising to become one of the most modest black townships in colonial Rhodesia, a township that horned him into a political figure he is today through brushing shoulders with the likes of the late nationalists such as Cdes  Joshua Maqcbuko  Nkomo and Stephen Nkomo and Benjamin Burombo .

"Before I couldn't understand politics I became involved in political processes as a young boy. I would help setting public address systems for the then National Development Party under Benjamin Burombo at rallies," recalls the eloquent Dr Mkandla.

"I also came to discover that I was the youngest one at all the political platforms I graced," he added.

Dr Mandla who started off his education at Induba Primary School right there in Pelandaba where his political umbilical cord lies, the man was to suffer a blow for his political involvement when he was expelled from School in Plumtree while in form 2 for his underground political activism as a ZAPU youth cadre.
That could have brought him down educationally, but he chose to fight and hard he did strike.

Proving his mettle as a leader by birth, Strike then initiated study and literature groups in his neighborhood, turning a sad story into a joyful one, even for those who for different reasons had failed to access formal education then.

Today he stands proud as an accomplished governance and development practitioner with a PHD in International Relations form Kent University, obtained in 1983; among other qualifications.

Having worked for the various arms of the   United Nations for a lengthy period, the man who is confident of victory in the coming elections boasts of extensive exposure to best international governance and development standards and practices.

From 1985 to 1990 Dr Mkandla was with the United Nations Institute for Namibia which was based in Lusaka, Zambia where he was instrumental in coaching future leaders of one of Africa's shining democracies-Namibia-  brushing shoulders with its current president Hage Geingob who headed the now defunct institute.

For his constituency, the former youth leader, strategist, one of the party's spin-doctors who helped craft ZAPU'S manifestos and also the current Alternate Secretary General for the party only has  one mission to accomplish and that is to ACCOMPLISH.
"It's very sad that through ZANU PF's misrule  Pelandaba which literally means 'end of problems' as this was a suburb of thriving blacks, is now in a sorry state.
"While the whole of Bulawayo may have unique problems, the major ones are unemployment and de-industrialisation.

"So I am going to work tight to introduce capacity building programmes for youth, work towards achieving devolution of power to ensure more participation for the people as well as economic liberalization  and work towards reviving industries," stresses Dr Mkandla.
He decries lack of support to small and medium enterprises in his constituency  noting that this hampers creativity, vowing to  work round the clock to fix the issue for good  as a legislator, however stressing that lasting solution lies in getting industries in Bulawayo- once Zimbabwe's pride -  ticking again.

As an example he points out to the Kelvin Industrial Area near Mpopoma High School where a thriving carpentry venture there is being affected by the rains and other weather patterns as the business thrives in the open.

As a parting shot he remarks, "I am ready to Strike, Keep Zanu out of Bulawayo."