Tsvangirai Gukurahundi accusations laughable

By Benjamin Semwayo

Vice President Mpoko and Jonathan Moyo recently joined hands in blaming Tsvangirai for the Matabeleland genocide of the 1980s. This is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to the news that the possibility of a truly grand coalition against Zanu PF is growing by the day. Tsvangirai’s MDC recently resolved to welcome the smaller political parties that they had hitherto barred from joining their coalition. This news has rattled Zanu Pf because if there is anything they dread it is a unified front against their febrile party riven by internal strife.

The suggestion by Mphoko and Moyo needs to be dismissed with the concept it deserves for various reasons. Firstly, it comes from Jonathan Moyo. For decades we have had to endure the torture of having all kinds of hogwash dumped on us, spewed by Moyo. Those who know Moyo well know that he is a man whose words and actions are motivated by personal gain and will be altered frequently to suit the most lucrative source of material gain, which is why he has widely been acclaimed as a serial flip-flopper. In making this shocking and malicious utterance we can be sure he is obviously eyeing a certain advantage, only known to himself. Naturally he will not voluntarily reveal to us the identity of the thing he has set his mind on, but if we think long and hard we will spot it.

I’ve just had a brainwave. I remember reading somewhere that the axe is hovering over Moyo’s head and he is facing jail for corruption. On the other hand the news of a grand coalition led by Tsvangirai is the worst news Zanu PF has received in the past four decades. If this plan falls through then the unpopular party is definitely staring defeat in the face. The grand coalition has to be stopped at all costs and Zanu PF is clueless on how to stop it. Anyone who saves Zanu PF in its dark hour of need will be rewarded bountifully.

The stage has been set for Moyo to spring into action and do what he knows best. He has no scruples about spinning a web of lies to nail Tsvangirai while extricating himself from the mess he has landed himself in. If he rescues Zanu PF the party will be so grateful it will reward him by turning a blind eye to his misdemeanour, or just let him off with a slap on the wrist. There you have your answer.

Secondly, it comes from Mphoko. This is a man who gained notoriety for his shocking display of greed and arrogance when he checked into a hotel with his grandchildren and lived there for years, refusing to leave ostensibly because the mansion allocated to him was unbefitting of his status as the country’s Vice President.

He only vacated the hotel when he moved into a $2M mansion. He is also a man whose usefulness is questioned by many who feel that the existence of his post unjustifiable. No-one knows what he really does and, fascinatingly, not even he seems to know what he is meant to do despite gobbling a huge chunk of the fiscus.

All we know is that he is meant to be an appeasement for the disgruntled people of Matabeleland. How he does that is a mystery because when he squanders public money the Ndebele people do not get a single cent of it. He is supposed to be the glue that holds together Zanu PF and ZIPRA in their fragile marriage of convenience whose usefulness is known only to themselves.

So useless is he that one Kizito Chivamba, the chairperson of the Midlands chapter of Zanu PF once called him ‘Mboko’, which literally means ‘rascal’. No-one takes him serious, not even in the party that made him one of two Vice Presidents of the nation. Why on earth should anyone take him seriously when his subordinates in Zanu PF think he is a big joke.

Curiously, in May 2015 Mphoko dismissed the Gukurahundi as a conspiracy by the western governments and downplayed it, referring to it euphemistically merely as ‘the disturbances of the 1980s’. Suddenly the disturbances of the 1980 have morphed into a genocide for which Tsvangirai is responsible? This plan has hastily been knocked together just to tarnish Tsvangirai’s image and scupper his plans for a grand coalition. How can such a vacillating person who is always blowing hot and cold be taken seriously?

The two men have decided to make the sensational claim that Tsvangirai’s hands are tainted with Gukurahundi blood. Why is this news emerging now? The MDC was formed in 1999, and the two Zanu PF hatchet men were silent until now when the news of the grand coalition has been released. The mere timing of the revelation gives away the evil motive behind the injudicious utterance.
When Mphoko absolved Mugabe of any wrongdoing with regards to the genocide he was lying through his teeth, obviously trying to curry favour with Mugabe and his bootlickers. The genocide was committed over five years and there were newspaper, radio and television reports of it, so it is impossible that Mugabe never got wind of it. Besides, he received daily briefings from his securocrats on events happening in the country, and to suggest that for five years the subject of ethnic cleansing in Matabeleland never cropped up is to make an unsuccessful attempt to take the nation for a ride.

If Mugabe was not supportive of the genocide he would have put a stop to it in its early stages. Although he did not personally pull a trigger or hack a victim to death he was responsible for it as the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. The crime was perpetrated by the Fifth Brigade, and in Zimbabwe brigades are never deployed without the express approval of the Head of State.

Mphoko himself was a senior figure in the Intelligence ministry and was obviously privy to the minutest details of what was happening to his cousins but chose money over protecting his own and his ZIPRA comrades. He may be telling the truth when he says in his life he has never killed a single soul, but by virtue of being a senior figure in a machinery that mowed down thousands of people he was complicit to the crime. Mphoko is a big sell-out that the Ndebeles should shun like cholera.

The accusation that Tsvangirai had a hand in Gukurahundi does not cut much ice. If Mphoko and Moyo are desperate to nail him they should try something else. This is a hare-brained ploy, and it simply will not work.