Matabeleland should be given autonomy

Back to Home Page

04 January 2009

By Bridget Tapuwa

They say that whatever you are trying to avoid won’t go away until you confront it. This being so and focusing on Zimbabwe, It is of grave concern that the Government of Zimbabwe has failed to address the plight of Matabeleland, a big province in Zimbabwe.

In Zimbabwe there is a general tendency to evade or discard as baseless, some issues; issues which however matter so much to some of the Zimbabweans. Not only that, but there is a general tendency to discard as junk or belittle, views by some other Zimbabweans. It is such attitudes which then lead to some unending disgruntlement within certain constituencies. And Matabeleland falls as one such.

I am no Ndebele, yet upon some reflection; I realize that Matabeleland is best given autonomy; best declared an independent state; distinct and separate from the rest of Zimbabwe.
It is pertinent to raise this issue of autonomy at this point in time, because Zimbabwe appears to be at cross roads, and it is during such periods that such pertinent issues should naturally be tackled and addressed.

The granting of independence to Matabeleland matters to most of the Ndebele people. I have not really given myself time to follow their line of argument for their autonomy, however some brief discussions with some has reflected that some Ndebele’s really opt for the merging of Matabeleland and South Africa as a better option than to continue to be abused by Zanu pf led central government.

Matabeleland has for the longest time been discriminated and deprived of a fair slice of her cake despite her generating a significant portion of Zimbabwe’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). For instance, a reflection on the Mac’imbi production, a very nutritious product particularly for the Zimbabwean HIV/AIDS sufferers is one such productive activity among many other lucrative ventures in Matabeleland, ventures which are quite underrated, undeservedly so, in Zimbabwe. Yet very little is ploughed back to the province.

She has seen insignificant developmental projects come to fruition under the guidance of the Central Government. Take for instance the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP) which was first mooted ages back in 1912 and to date lies an idle unfinished project. Other projects which could be of great benefit to Matabeleland include, a potato and fruit juice project initiated by the late vice-president Joshua Nkomo at the Balu Estate just outside Bulawayo which also remains an unfinished story.

From an economic spectacle; this falls as daytime robbery, and such thieving should be stopped. Justice can only reign if Matabeleland retains power and tax money rather than sending it to the Central Government.

The failure by the Government to also recognize Ndebele as one of Zimbabwe’s national languages other than Shona is another burning issue. Both Shona and Ndebele languages should have been incorporated in all the education syllabi stretching from primary education; and each and every Zimbabwean should have been bilingual.

The lack of respect for Ndebele as one of Zimbabwe’s languages has also been exposed by the failure of the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Cooperation (ZBC) to run at least two distinct broad television and radio channels, the Shona and the Ndebele channels to cater for the two dominant different language groups.

It is against this background that Matabeleland is best able to stand and ‘do it or go it’ alone. Zimbabwe is not too small to be divided. The world has some even smaller countries with less people, so propounding such an argument against the split up of Zimbabwe is but baseless.

The granting of autonomy to Matabeleland will not only benefit Matabeleland. The split will also augur well, healthily so for the rest of Zimbabwe in many ways to pick up a few; more transparency, fewer squabbling when it comes to the scramble for limited resources, which include enrolment places at tertiary institutions. And of cause on this note, we should not forget the long thwarted squabble, involving the Tertiary colleges in Matabeleland enrolling more Shona candidates than the Ndebele candidates.

Discussions with other Zimbabweans has within some quarters raised concern that allowing Matabeleland to be declared an independent state could bolster other ethnic and linguistic minorities in Zimbabwe to also rise up and seek autonomy.

On a positive note it is greatly commendable that some pressure groups pressing for the independence of Matabeleland have been born. Such pressure groups should muscle up more, sell themselves more and give unending heat on the relevant authorities through pushing hard for their independence; if at all Matabeleland is to get sanity. And the muscling up has to begin right at grass root level. Otherwise, as a province of Zimbabwe, I fail to see how else her interests could ever be justifiably catered for.

A couple of weeks ago, the Editor of New Zimbabwe, Mduduzi Mathuthu opened up an interesting debate on the issue of How feasible the prospect of a Ndebele president for Zimbabwe is. And a Daniel Fortune Molokele reacted mainly arguing that with an appealing package and ability to market their political vision so well, a Ndebele candidate could make it into the highest political Office in Zimbabwe.

BritaVoice however notes that Zimbabweans are still quite politically immature to cross ethnic boundaries and vote for a President from the minority group as the Ndebeles. If even the Zimbabweans who are learned and have had the taste of democracies in the Western world, can be insulting each other on the internet over who supports MDC and who supports Zanu pf, and if back home, a Zimbabwean is still stoned for wearing an MDC t shirt, then there is still a lot of hammering to be done on the mind of a Zimbabwean before political maturity can be achieved and before a Shona can vote for a Ndebele into the highest political office.

A lot of sensitization still has to be done in Africa as a whole. The problems associated with ethnicity and tolerance as a whole in Africa are inexplicable, and continue to threaten peace and stability in Africa. Zimbabwe is no exception. Even in Zimbabwe today, Ndebeles and Shonas in Matabeleland still treat each other with some kind of suspicion, years after the Gukurahundi. This symptomises unspoken anger, bitterness and rage, an issue which makes it difficult for some Zimbabweans to cross their ethnic background in voting.

The revival of ZAPU is highly commendable, thrives well for democracy; Zimbabwe having more and more political parties, but we only hope that maybe as a political party they should adopt as one of their priority areas the granting of independence to Matabeleland. We wait in eagerness to see what unique issues Dumiso Dabengwa and crew are going to offer on the Zimbabwean electorate table. Yes, the very fact that they are choosing to go it alone outside of the already standing opposition parties means they are vowing to sell better policies.

To therefore dream of a Ndebele President for Zimbabwe for now may still be quite far fetched. In that light BritaVoice strongly advocates for the granting of autonomy to Matabeleland.

The writer, Bridget Tapuwa is based in Belgium and she can be reached at britavoice@gmail.com or
http://britavoice-zim-girl.blogspot.com/

Join our main forums to debate this and many other articles

Back to Home Page

• Comment on this article

• 

  Custom Search

Elsewhere on this site

Recent programmes on Nehanda Radio

• Exclusive Carol Nyakudya gospel album launch
• October Show
• Growth point starter pack with Brilliant Pongo
• Gospel show with Brilliant Pongo
• To advertise on this site
• Links to other Zimbabwean sites