Opinion / Columnist
Patson Dzamara: Thank you very much fellow Zimbabwean and brother!
26 Feb 2016 at 22:51hrs | Views
I read your article in Nehanda Radio of 25th February: Dzamara rebukes Honourable MP Maziwisa on Tsvangirai pictures, please respect our mothers, sister and daughters!.. I thank you for this great article written by a man at a time we women all over the world will be celebrating the International Women's Year on the 8th of March. Having gone through the articles several times, I was so much in awe and wonder: could this be an African man, a Zimbabwean man writing so beautifully, uplifting his womenfolk, empathising with women folk!
I am not an MDC-T member; I am not here to defend Mr. Tsvangirai. I am alluding to Mr. Dzamara's utter disgust towards the right Honourable MP Maziwisa. My concern is about the language used by the right Honourable MP Maziwisa to denigrate women. Making disgusting remarks about women is abhor able and it should be condemned by all right thinking men and women. Women are not objects, you rightly say. Looking at those photos there was no erotic in them. I can see young girls who were overly happy to see their political leader: Richard Morgan Tsvangirai.
Should we wonder then why this politician Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, with all his obvious shortcomings, he can draw such a large crowd of followers wherever he goes? His rallies are red, red and well attended. A political party is not a church organisation with dress codes. A political party welcomes all, all across the social divides. This is what makes Tsvangirai popular. It is this welcoming of him to all peoples of all social classes that define a leader, a charismatic leader. That photo is saying to us Tsvangirai can shake his hand to anybody, he can mix with all of them. Tsvangirai is not a Catholic priest who you will expect vakadzi veruwadzano to dress in a particular dress cord for the dignity, or for the sake of the church ethos, Tsvangirai is a politician, Honourable MP Mr. Maziwisa.
I would never use those photos of Tsvangirai with happy young women to attack him politically. MDC-T failed to the implement the political reforms during their GNU tenure of 5 years in office and he as Prime Minister and several other key ministries that would have implemented reforms to remove Zanu PF from power in 2013 general elections. This is a powerful argument to kill Tsvangirai from politics surely not those pictures. The MDC-T and other political parties in the GNU slept on the wheel, they enjoyed the gravy train at the detriment of the people of Zimbabwe, and they let us down seriously.
I will also attack Mr. Tsvangirai for not being exemplary in his life style, choosing to remain in the posh house in Highlands instead of going back to the people he wants to represent. To still remain in that posh house sends a wrong message that he loves comfort more than the fight to give the nation an alternative to Zanu PF.
I would attack Tsvangirai for not using a golden opportunity to radicalise his electorate and remove Zanu today because right now Zanu is at its weakest, those internal conflicts taking place before his nose, he fails to take advantage of that and stage a sound revolution to send Zanu PF packing! For goodness sake Tsvangirai should leave the Highlands posh house and all its trappings of luxuries and lead a sound opposition to remove the current government. He should use the dissatisfaction of the people to galvanise his large support, a strong support to effect change. The fire to effect a revolution should come from the leader and not the people Mr. Tsvangirai. It appears as if Tsvangirai is burnt out.
I would attack Tsvangirai for his lack of foresight in most ground taking decisions; since 2000, he missed several opportunities in his life time. He must step down and let other young ones with youthfulness and dynamism, radicalize the opposition and we be rid of this despotic government. This Handiende politics is so African, it stinks to high heaven, and can he not see that it impedes development, Africa-continent-wide. (Museveni in Uganda has been voted back to power) Is it a wonder then that we have a President who is 92 years and still thinks he ticks! Mr. Tsvangirai should give the baton to younger Turks to remove the African stigma of clinging to power by all means, ruling forever till death rid us of them.
I would attack Tsvangirai for his inability to take risks. Politics means boldness until you smell and see death. Sure, Tsvangirai has been tried and tested in several situations, was beaten severely, tried for treason, I need not trivialize those adversities he went through in the hands of Zanu and the notorious CIO. But heroism is when you know that your time is up, and you give the baton to the next to finish what one started.
Mr. Dzamara again, thanks for your contribution regarding women. The sound and power you gave that article stands out in my mind still. This article is written at a time when we reflect our long and tedious fight for the rights and dignity of women in our societies. As you can see we have a long road to go regarding the equal rights of women. We want to be respected and not be seen as sex objects all the time.
Your article gave me a lot of hope, this fight for women's rights and women's dignity is not our fight as women alone but a fight we need to do with our men too. Those concerted efforts you have made are a great contribution to our cause. There was nothing erotic to write about in those pictures, I see youthful young women who just got excited when they saw their leader. Is that wrong again to be trigger happy to see someone you think he is your political leader?
Psychology, I wonder what makes you think that women are mere objects? I am sure the threshold of your worldview and conscience informed your poor judgement in this case. What is it that makes you think and say that those women who posed for a photo with the MDC-T leader are whatever you referred to as erotic? I do not see anything erotic there. That's just a production of your uncircumcised eyes and imagination my brother.
Mr. Patson Dzamara, I will keep your article as a memorabilia; it will remind me that there are men out there who respect us women. When you see a woman you see a sister, a mother, a daughter, a grandmother and not an object of sex. Again thank you dear. God bless you for this enlightenment in a world dominated by masculinity and male chauvinism. We shall overcome this only when we have great minds like yours to enlighten our societies to embrace women as equal partners and great contributors of our market economies.
In isiNdebele we say: "wantinta umfazi, wathinti mbokodo" This means women are the rocks, cornerstones of families, villages, communities, it goes on. They deserve respect first and foremost from our men, Zimbabwean men!
In my prayers I do remember your brother Itai Dzamara who disappeared without trace because he wanted to liberate us all. The thought of what could have happened can make one sleepless.
Ugogo omncane
Chirikadzi
Nomazulu.thata(at) hotmail.com
I am not an MDC-T member; I am not here to defend Mr. Tsvangirai. I am alluding to Mr. Dzamara's utter disgust towards the right Honourable MP Maziwisa. My concern is about the language used by the right Honourable MP Maziwisa to denigrate women. Making disgusting remarks about women is abhor able and it should be condemned by all right thinking men and women. Women are not objects, you rightly say. Looking at those photos there was no erotic in them. I can see young girls who were overly happy to see their political leader: Richard Morgan Tsvangirai.
Should we wonder then why this politician Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, with all his obvious shortcomings, he can draw such a large crowd of followers wherever he goes? His rallies are red, red and well attended. A political party is not a church organisation with dress codes. A political party welcomes all, all across the social divides. This is what makes Tsvangirai popular. It is this welcoming of him to all peoples of all social classes that define a leader, a charismatic leader. That photo is saying to us Tsvangirai can shake his hand to anybody, he can mix with all of them. Tsvangirai is not a Catholic priest who you will expect vakadzi veruwadzano to dress in a particular dress cord for the dignity, or for the sake of the church ethos, Tsvangirai is a politician, Honourable MP Mr. Maziwisa.
I would never use those photos of Tsvangirai with happy young women to attack him politically. MDC-T failed to the implement the political reforms during their GNU tenure of 5 years in office and he as Prime Minister and several other key ministries that would have implemented reforms to remove Zanu PF from power in 2013 general elections. This is a powerful argument to kill Tsvangirai from politics surely not those pictures. The MDC-T and other political parties in the GNU slept on the wheel, they enjoyed the gravy train at the detriment of the people of Zimbabwe, and they let us down seriously.
I will also attack Mr. Tsvangirai for not being exemplary in his life style, choosing to remain in the posh house in Highlands instead of going back to the people he wants to represent. To still remain in that posh house sends a wrong message that he loves comfort more than the fight to give the nation an alternative to Zanu PF.
I would attack Tsvangirai for not using a golden opportunity to radicalise his electorate and remove Zanu today because right now Zanu is at its weakest, those internal conflicts taking place before his nose, he fails to take advantage of that and stage a sound revolution to send Zanu PF packing! For goodness sake Tsvangirai should leave the Highlands posh house and all its trappings of luxuries and lead a sound opposition to remove the current government. He should use the dissatisfaction of the people to galvanise his large support, a strong support to effect change. The fire to effect a revolution should come from the leader and not the people Mr. Tsvangirai. It appears as if Tsvangirai is burnt out.
I would attack Tsvangirai for his lack of foresight in most ground taking decisions; since 2000, he missed several opportunities in his life time. He must step down and let other young ones with youthfulness and dynamism, radicalize the opposition and we be rid of this despotic government. This Handiende politics is so African, it stinks to high heaven, and can he not see that it impedes development, Africa-continent-wide. (Museveni in Uganda has been voted back to power) Is it a wonder then that we have a President who is 92 years and still thinks he ticks! Mr. Tsvangirai should give the baton to younger Turks to remove the African stigma of clinging to power by all means, ruling forever till death rid us of them.
I would attack Tsvangirai for his inability to take risks. Politics means boldness until you smell and see death. Sure, Tsvangirai has been tried and tested in several situations, was beaten severely, tried for treason, I need not trivialize those adversities he went through in the hands of Zanu and the notorious CIO. But heroism is when you know that your time is up, and you give the baton to the next to finish what one started.
Mr. Dzamara again, thanks for your contribution regarding women. The sound and power you gave that article stands out in my mind still. This article is written at a time when we reflect our long and tedious fight for the rights and dignity of women in our societies. As you can see we have a long road to go regarding the equal rights of women. We want to be respected and not be seen as sex objects all the time.
Your article gave me a lot of hope, this fight for women's rights and women's dignity is not our fight as women alone but a fight we need to do with our men too. Those concerted efforts you have made are a great contribution to our cause. There was nothing erotic to write about in those pictures, I see youthful young women who just got excited when they saw their leader. Is that wrong again to be trigger happy to see someone you think he is your political leader?
Psychology, I wonder what makes you think that women are mere objects? I am sure the threshold of your worldview and conscience informed your poor judgement in this case. What is it that makes you think and say that those women who posed for a photo with the MDC-T leader are whatever you referred to as erotic? I do not see anything erotic there. That's just a production of your uncircumcised eyes and imagination my brother.
Mr. Patson Dzamara, I will keep your article as a memorabilia; it will remind me that there are men out there who respect us women. When you see a woman you see a sister, a mother, a daughter, a grandmother and not an object of sex. Again thank you dear. God bless you for this enlightenment in a world dominated by masculinity and male chauvinism. We shall overcome this only when we have great minds like yours to enlighten our societies to embrace women as equal partners and great contributors of our market economies.
In isiNdebele we say: "wantinta umfazi, wathinti mbokodo" This means women are the rocks, cornerstones of families, villages, communities, it goes on. They deserve respect first and foremost from our men, Zimbabwean men!
In my prayers I do remember your brother Itai Dzamara who disappeared without trace because he wanted to liberate us all. The thought of what could have happened can make one sleepless.
Ugogo omncane
Chirikadzi
Nomazulu.thata(at) hotmail.com
Source - Nomazulu Thata
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