Wikileaks probe could haunt the hunters

Opinion — By admin on January 20, 2011 4:05 pm

By Dr Alex T. Magaisa

“Kutsvaga n’anga neinobata mai.” These words, bequeathed to posterity by the ancestors, contain a dose of wisdom that Zimbabwe’s political establishment might do well to take heed of.

The aged saying comes from an enduring tradition of the local people. As with most societies, there is belief that some things can’t simply be explained by forces of this world. Fortune and misfortune are products of forces of good and evil respectively, whose full understanding is often beyond the reach of mere mortals other than the chosen few.

When misfortune visits a community, an explanation must therefore be found from the world beyond. And if those of that world demand appeasement, then it shall be done. Even when the Heavens’ taps run dry and drought announces its presence in the land, manifesting through hunger, disease and misery, community elders have been known to consult the world of the spirits. When illness or death visits a family, elders trek to the world of the ancestors through the medium of the chosen few.

Even in the modern day, when others proclaim ‘enlightenment’ from the traditional mode of life and claim to have found sanctuary in other faiths, some are known to be guests of traditional practitioners in the dark of the night. Or they visit maporofita, the prophets and others who speak in tongues that only they understand, which it is claimed, is the language of the chosen ones.

Maporofita, n’anga and other human agents who purport to have a licence to operate in the outer world are known to ply a hectic and for some a profitable trade up and down the country and beyond. Often, families and communities seek answers to questions on the identity of the human agents who must be labelled with the responsibility of authoring misfortune. These souls are labelled varoyi (witches) and suffer the consequences.

And so it is that after every death, family elders must visit those privileged enough to have remote access to the spirit world, to discover the authors of their troubles. It is from this that the saying that forms the first line of this article emanates.

The saying itself was a warning from the elders about the risks of overzealous resort to those licensed to ‘speak’ with the ancestors. Accepted though it was, the tradition was not supposed to be used with careless abandon. For no-one, apart from the favoured licensees, knows what happens there and there is an ever-present risk that anyone, including the seeker of help could be accused as the author of misfortune.

The n’anga could throw his bones and identify your own mother as the witch. They were words of warning of the possibility of embarrassment which may visit those who scream most about finding fault in others. Put simply, when you start a witch-hunt, there is a risk that it could catch you.

It is an apt piece of wisdom in our present circumstances characterised by the hullabaloo over WikiLeaks revelations. News is that Zimbabwe’s Attorney-General has set up a panel of legal experts to trawl through the thousands of documents released by WikiLeaks with a view to identifying whether crimes may have been committed by any persons.

Presumably, any suspected persons will be brought to court for trial. Chief among concerns is that some persons were responsible for calling for sanctions against Zimbabwe. Individuals that have been mentioned include Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Critics of the AG’s proposed investigation argue that this is yet another witch-hunt against opponents of Zanu PF, the government of national unity notwithstanding. They also point to the zeal with which the AG’s Office has responded to the WikiLeaks cables which rings too loud compared to the lethargic approach that has accompanied numerous complaints over politically-related violence that plagued the country during the 2008 electoral season and other occasions in the past.

The critics argue that it is yet another instance of the selective application of the law that has characterised the country’s legal and political landscape for some years. These arguments must be seen in context – they are not to say there must be no investigation at all. It is that the law must be seen to be applied equally across society regardless of political affiliation or any other index of association and that it would be fair if the same zeal exhibited in regards to the WikiLeaks cables were matched in other circumstances where complaints have been raised.

Then there is the problem of elevating personal opinion to fact. Admittedly, trading gossip (makuhwa) is one of humankind’s enduring pastimes. We like to talk about other people, even if we deny it to ourselves and to others. Even if we don’t like to talk about other people, we like to hear what other people say about others. People eavesdrop to hear the slightest piece of information that might be passed on to others.

Gossip is also passed off as news through media channels. It doesn’t have to be fact. It can simply be opinion, however wild, based on what one observes. Wikileaks has provided access to privileged diplomatic chatter; the kind of chatter that goes on and continues in pubs, homes, email or social networking forums. It doesn’t elevate those conversations to representations of the truth merely because they were said by diplomats.

True, WikiLeaks has been a great source of excitement, not necessarily because everything that has been revealed is factual. Breaking the cordon protecting the secrets of the world’s superpower and the embarrassment it has caused has naturally been a source of fascination and excitement.

Yet, when all is said and done, the vast majority of what we have seen are mere opinions of the diplomats and sometimes uncorroborated and unverified reports of which the subjects mentioned had no control in their authorship. Such opinions will never undergo a miraculous metamorphosis to become facts that can stand rigorous scrutiny in a court of law.

The futility of criminal proceedings based on these formerly secret documents arises from the fact that it is unlikely that any of the authors of those cables will be available to testify in a court of law. If they do bother to respond at all, they will likely raise a preliminary point (what lawyers like to call a point in limine) of diplomatic immunity, a long-standing principle formally agreed under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961). This principle generally shields diplomatic staff from judicial proceedings and it is unlikely that the US or other country will waive this immunity to allow implicated diplomats from participating in criminal proceedings.

The dearth of witnesses to prove the authorship and authenticity of the documents and also the veracity of the statements contained in them will strike a huge blow to the prosecution and this could all become a huge waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when reports indicate that Zimbabwe is considering ‘exporting’ nursing staff because it doesn’t have the financial wherewithal to absorb them, the staff shortages at health centres notwithstanding.

One is reminded here that proof of an offence under the criminal law is set at a very elevated standard that it must be ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. WikiLeaks cables, without more, are unlikely to pass this test in a court of law. One is left with the impression that the purpose of the investigations and any trial, which even the prosecutors know would be fundamentally flawed must be serve a single purpose – to harass and embarrass opponents with a view to gaining some political capital from the so-called ‘exposure’. To that extent, it would be tantamount to public flogging of medieval times.

Yet, as some have rightly pointed out, this could backfire terribly by earning the prosecuted and persecuted more sympathy votes. Far more than their own merit opponents of Zanu PF have gained more from their perennial status as victims. The public-flogging under the label of WikiLeaks investigations and prosecutions could only serve to propel this sympathy vote within and outside the country. 

Still on that ‘witch-hunt’ theme, there is every possibility that WikiLeaks could end up embarrassing a lot of people, including those instigating the investigations. The nature of the whole mass of WikiLeaks cables is unknown; its full content is yet to be revealed. It is said to go back scores of years. It might end up revealing more than drivers of the with-hunt exercise may have bargained for. There are some who are proud to be called heroes today but would rather some parts of their history were kept in the closet forever.

WikiLeaks investigations could open those closed doors for how would you ignore other revelations without being accused of selective pursuit of justice? And taking it seriously suggests that whatever it reveals must also be taken with the same seriousness. As it is, it has been revealed that a large number of bank files have been handed over to WikiLeaks by a former Swiss banker. Those in Zimbabwe’s political establishment with funds stashed away in foreign bank accounts have reason to be worried about such revelations.

Given that Zanu PF is unlikely to gain much from being seen to be persecuting political opponents, the one reasonable explanation for these investigations is that they are constitute a nascent power-struggle within Zanu PF itself. It could be that there are some who are known to have links with the much-criticised Western countries who nevertheless feign ignorance within party circles. Wikileaks could therefore be a convenient channel to expose and embarrass internal opponents in the ever-present battle for succession to the leadership of Zanu PF.

The one Zanu PF person (a Mr Mudarikwa) who has been fingered in the Wikileaks cables is admittedly small fish but that is not the point. One might want to look closely with who he is connected in the party and if he can be categorised in one faction or another and what that mean in the bigger picture. There perhaps, could be where targets of the Wikileaks investigations lie.

The sun shines for all to see. Likewise, the rain wets everyone that it catches without cover. In many ways, Wikileaks is a force that has the potential to affect everyone, the hunters and the hunted.

Dr Alex T. Magaisa can be contacted on e-mail: wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk 

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