You can’t defeat dying lion by feeding its cubs

Opinion — By on November 13, 2010 8:46 pm

By Moses Chamboko

If anybody had been wondering for how long the GNU would last, events of the past few days have probably painted a clearer picture.

At the risk of sounding like I’m prematurely celebrating termination of this peculiar marriage, I would be the last one to give a hoot if the arrangement collapses as it has failed to deliver the real change that Zimbabweans have been fighting for, for the past ten long years.

If anything, the GPA and its extension or surname, GNU, have literally afforded ZANU PF a golden opportunity to regroup. A close friend of mine once observed “You can’t defeat a dying lion by feeding its cubs”.

Paradoxically, the GNU has done precisely that. Often, when a marriage comes to an end, the experience normally brings about pain, grief, anxiety and a very dark cloud of uncertainly.

The good thing about the demise of the GNU marriage is that it will actually bring hope, prosperity and real change. Like labour pains, a woman suffers for a few hours but enjoys for the rest of her life when she admires the beauty of the gift she would have brought to mother earth.

To start the ball rolling in serving divorce notice was Gushungo himself when he unilaterally reappointed governors, ambassadors and other senior government officials against the letter and spirit of the GNU.

Not to be outdone, prodigal son, Simon Khaya Moyo, declared recently in Mutare that ZANU PF will never hand power to the MDC even if it lost the next election.

A few days later, ZANU PF Secretary for Legal Affairs and perennial presidential hopeful, my homeboy Emmerson Mnangwagwa (some will fondly remember him as the first minister of Social Amenities) repeated the same message at a rally in Chivi, Masvingo.

This was like a well calculated move to wind up and give credence to ill-advised Jabulani Sibanda’s terror campaign in Masvngo province particularly the arid district of Zaka, where I proudly and nostalgically come from, born and bred.

Not long after, we read about two incidents where some irate “strangers” visited the Senate and pretended to be members of that respectable assembly before alert Senators from the MDC stood up and effectively opposed the invasion.

Reason Wafawarova

Then, came the drama of one (unreasonable) Reason Wafawarova, writing from the comfort of the humid breeze of Bondi Beach in Sydney to the effect that the new Zimbabwe ambassador to Canberra had unilaterally authored, constructed and launched a website that had numerous errors and untruths about Zimbabwe.

It was at this point that I got more and more interested in the unfolding drama. The first question to come to my mind was “how does an ambassador unilaterally construct a website, particularly one who is not even an IT expert?” The next question was “in an embassy where there are at least three full-time secretaries, how come none of them picked up those obvious errors before the website went live, if at all it did?”

Instinctively, I went onto the internet and searched for the website in question for more than an hour but did not find any link that could answer my questions. Even the world’s most reliable internet engine, Google, could not find it. Then I started reflecting on the cases I’ve alluded to above. This, to me, appears to be quite a concerted, well coordinated and adequately sponsored effort to denigrate or besmirch the person of the ambassador in particular and the MDC in general.

Given this scenario, it is quite possible that, either Mr. Reason Wafawarova works for the embassy (in some obscure capacity which the ambassador may not be aware of) or he has somebody within the staff of the embassy who updates him hourly on events at the embassy.

I won’t be surprised if he even knows the number of times the ambassador visits the bathroom in a day or the amount of sugar she takes in her morning tea. God knows if this “sharing of information” is in line with diplomatic etiquette. For some strange reason, whatever Reason writes gets coverage in The Herald even if it unjustifiably occupies acres of space.

The stand-out charade was the latest article written by the same Wafawarova and published by The Herald. The “ambassadorial defamatory article” if I may call it that, alleges that Ambassador Zwambila stripped in front of her male staff in protest of a leak to The Herald regarding the content of the new embassy website.

Having lived on this side of the planet for some time now, if anything like that had indeed happened, the local or federal police would have taken much interest in such a case well before the Harare-based tabloid knew about it.

Interestingly, Wafawarova referred to himself as The Herald throughout the article. I just wonder how long it will take Minister Shamu to rebrand The Herald “The People’s Voice” because that’s precisely what it has become with scribes such as Wafawarova.

Allow me to ask; who is Reason to have such an authority and intimate knowledge about the workings of the embassy in Canberra ahead of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Bimha or even the minster himself? Have certain officers at the embassy grown bigger than their shoes to the extent that protocol does not matter anymore? On whose payroll is Reason Wafawarova?

This, to me, is just a tip of the iceberg. It appears that there are civil servants that have not fully embraced the reality of working with people from other political backgrounds.

May I remind such officers of what Chinos once said “Hakuchina MDC kana ZANU PF, kwava neGNU” Those who can’t tell that the Great Zimbabwe train is about to take off, will be left behind forever and will have nobody to blame but themselves.

Shall I remind all Zimbabwe diplomats across the globe that once you join Foreign Affairs (or any govt dept), you are working for Zimbabwe and its people regardless of your political beliefs and affiliation?

Government and ZANU PF are no longer synonymous. If any of you believes they can’t work with an ambassador who is a product of the MDC or GNU, feel free to hand in your resignation for it is better to voluntarily resign than to be charged with gross insubordination.

Speaking for myself, despite my grounded political persuasion, I’ve in the past known, respected and admired Ambassadors such as Chidyausiku (China), Florence Chitauro (Australia/NZ), the late Tirivafi John Kangai (India), Lucia Muvingi and Zenso Nsimbi (Botswana).

Even though I knew their political opinions were at variance with mine, I did not see anything wrong dealing with them as a proud Zimbabwean. To me, they were just wonderful servants of the people. This is ast it should be.

If Reason Wafawarova believes that Ambassador Zwambila is not to be respected because she doesn’t belong to the same party as his, then he is free to jump onto the next plane back home. Nobody will miss him. If anything, Zimbabweans need to find each other at this crucial juncture of our history and take our potentially great country forward.

Those who still live in the past have absolutely no role to play in our future. Ask Banda, Moi, Kaunda, Mobuto, Amin, Saddam and others what happens when winds of change start blowing earnestly. Zimbabwe will not be different. It is just a matter of time.

Chambokom@gmail.com

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