Nicholas Goche’s humble tent

By Andrew Kunambura

DURING his days in office, he commanded authority and respect, ruling with an iron fist in Mashonaland Central Province where he was the political godfather.

Clad in expensive suits, he, for years, strode the marble corridors of government offices with the exuberance of a prince while occupying high seats at prestigious State and party functions.

Famous for his dramatic chaperoning of civil servants and State security agents during his tenure as minister of public service and State security, Nicholas Goche was among the few powerful politicians in a small and closed cast that, until late last year, starred in President Robert Mugabe’s administration.

Never at the time would anyone have thought that Goche, then all powerful and close to the President, would become a simple and humble man that the world witnessed at a Rushinga rally on Wednesday last week.

Goche’s fall from grace started about this time last year — during that infamous and volcanic build up to the December congress — when he was accused of belonging to former vice president, Joice Mujuru’s alleged cabal that sought to dethrone President Mugabe.

In fact, ZANU-PF accused Goche of being the brains behind the alleged plot to assassinate the President. As fate would have it, Goche fell out with President Mugabe and got sacked, losing his lofty party and government positions.

His health took a knock as he spent the duration of the congress battling reported hypertension in the intensive care unit of a local hospital.

In May this year, Goche further slid down the ZANU-PF packing order when he was handed a five year suspension from the ruling party. The suspension, however, meant he avoided, thus far, a boot from Parliament and retained his Shamva North National Assembly seat.

But ZANU-PF gangs have reportedly been baying for his blood ever since, and even threatened to invade his flourishing farm on the outskirts of the farming and mining town of Shamva. The farm currently has a thriving wheat crop.

Members of the alleged Mujuru team, which was felled alongside the then vice president, have chosen different approaches to life after government and party.

Goche belongs to the same group as Francis Nhema, Olivia Muchena, Ray Kaukonde, Dzikamai Mavhaire and Tendai Savanhu who have decided to keep their cards close to their chests and maintain low a profile, often making isolated appearances at funerals and carefully selected public gatherings.

The likes of Temba Mliswa, Rugare Gumbo, Didymus Mutasa, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti and Jabulani Sibanda have chosen to go rubble-rousing and feather-ruffling as they join the fight to muscle ZANU-PF out of power.

The unpredictable Webster Shamu keeps trying his luck, hoping to be embraced by those who suspended him from ZANU-PF, but has met no luck.

Last week, Goche seemed to have had little choice but to show his face at First Lady, Grace Mugabe’s rally at Chimhanda Business Centre in Rushinga. It was actually a colleague who alerted this reporter to Goche’s presence.

“Do you see former minister Goche sitting there in the tent,” the colleague nudged me as he pointed to a crowded tent where attendees were regularly wiping rivulets of sweat with the back of their palms as the terrible Rushinga heat took its toll.

When this writer took a closer look, he saw Goche sitting deep in the middle of commoners.
A bowler hat, a plain shirt tucked into a khaki pair of trousers and farmer’s shoes conspired to blend Goche so perfectly well with villagers that someone who did not know him previously would be forgiven for mistaking him for just one of them.

When the master of ceremonies for the day, Saviour Kasukuwere, called out for MPs to walk to the front to be introduced to the First Lady, Goche stood in a row that for minutes was at the mercy of the sun.

It was such an interesting spectacle seeing Goche retreating humbly to his tent soon afterwards while his former juniors, Kasukuwere included, walked importantly to the cool VIP tent.

As if that was not enough, the First Lady had spared a few words for him, apparently.

“If leaders of the party charge you for indiscipline and they say step aside for some time, you should not lose heart. Keep faithfully working for the party and the country.

“In due time, you will be rewarded and be brought back into the party. We have some people here who were suspended from the party but are still working for it,” she said in a perceptible taunt.

And then at the end of the rally, Goche was one of the members who fell over each other to donate goods to poverty-stricken and hungry people of Rushinga through the First Lady.

It was the First Lady who announced that Goche was donating five tonnes of maize to the hungry community, at which point some women were heard singing:

Goche adzoka kumusha, mutambirei shuwa adzoka, in a bastardisation of a local Christian hymn. Loosely, the chanters were saying: “Goche has come back home, please accept him, he has surely come back home.”

Goche presented a perfect glimpse into the lives of former government ministers and former party bigwigs chucked out of the party. Higher Education Minister, Jonathan Moyo, once described life outside ZANU-PF as “very cold”. Financial Gazette