Blessing Miles Tendi attacks Nehanda Radio

Last week UK based Zimbabwean writer Blessing Miles Tendi used a presentation at the Frontline Club in London to accuse MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai of consulting then US Ambassador James McGee during power sharing talks with Mugabe’s regime in 2008.

The MDC issued a statement denying the claims (see statement here) and Nehanda Radio.com published the statement in full. Apparently Miles Tendi is not happy we published the statement and has decided to shoot the messenger. Below we produce in full, his e-mail to the editor of the website Fortune Tazvida.

Dear Fortune

You say that Nehanda Radio draws its inspiration from Mbuya Nehanda. From my humble understanding of Mbuya Nehanda she was a questioner. She questioned the entry of white colonial settlers, their takeover of land and the unjust system they were slowly setting up.

Is Nehanda Radio continuing in this tradition of questioning by giving publicity, and perhaps legitimacy, to the MDC’s branding of me as a ZANU PF apologist? If you do not question the motive of the MDC’s statement and what it seeks to deflect attention from you are doing those who follow Nehanda Radio a major disservice.

There is a lot that is wrong in the way that the MDC conducted itself in the power sharing formulation phase and in the power sharing government period. These are the issues. Why do you not tackle them head on? Why do you not write articles challenging the MDC to account for its record in the power sharing government?

Are these not the true occupations of media? To critique. To be a bulwark against ignorance. To be like Nehanda. To not regurgitate the hollow pronouncements of politicians because this only reinforces them.

You do not have to be ZANU PF to be critical of the MDC. You do not have to be MDC to be critical of ZANU PF. I am disappointed that Nehanda Radio is unable to rise above the polarised nature of Zimbabwean politics.

Best wishes, Miles Tendi

Fortune Tazvida, the editor responds as follows

We make no apologies for our editorial stance which is clear and straight to the point. Zimbabwe is in the grip of a brutal dictatorship that has no hesitation killing and maiming innocent people to stay in power.

From the Gukurahundi Massacres, Operation Murambatsvina and Operation Mavhotera Papi, the examples are many of how thousands have been beaten, tortured, raped and killed by militants loyal to the regime.

We find it tragic that while everyone should be focussing on the source of our problems academics, writers or analysts like you Miles Tendi are trying to waylay Zimbabweans and have them chase red herrings. Who gives a rat’s arse what Mbeki or those in the ANC and SADC think of the MDC leadership?

Miles Tendi challenges us to “write articles challenging the MDC to account for its record in the power sharing government.” Seriously how is that an important issue? The people of Zimbabwe were unequivocal in the March 2008 elections when they voted for Tsvangirai and his MDC party.

Tsvangirai is the only legitimate expression of the people’s will in the current government whether you like him or not. The power sharing deal crafted by former South African president Thabo Mbeki to save the humiliated Mugabe only became necessary to stop the senseless bloodshed.

Miles Tendi urges us to continue a tradition of questioning whereas he believes hook line and sinker what Thabo Mbeki and those in the ANC told him about the 2008 talks. How does he vouch for the authenticity of the CIO transcripts of Tsvangirai’s conversations that Mbeki talked about when everyone knows Zanu PF has doctored evidence in the past for use in cooked up cases?

We all know the ANC and Zanu PF have a close relationship going back to the liberation struggle and Miles Tendi makes no attempt to factor this bias in his current ‘research’. Another issue that arises is how he was able to get this ‘exclusive’ access to Mbeki and the ANC officials he spoke to and why should those same ‘mediators of yester-year’ seek to speak out now?

If Miles Tendi is to be respected as a writer, researcher or whatever he calls himself, he needs to stop trying to sanitize the Mugabe regime with cute little theories. His book, Making History in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is a good example of sugar-coating the brutality of the regime by offering subtle justifications.

It is the MDC who have called Miles Tendi a Zanu PF apologist, not Nehanda Radio. All we can say is ‘If it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck…….

Watch the Frontline Club Presentation