We really need a dialogue on tribalism
By Tino Chinyoka
It seems like one cannot criticise a Ndebele person without being called a tribalist. Is this correct? I think not. I think that people should be judged by the content of their character, and not their surnames or accent.
If Simon Khaya Moyo comes out and says that we should applaud Zanu PF for a job well done in government, when civil servants are going without pay, l think it is okay to call him stupid, callous and insensitive.
I think that if a vice president decides to stay in a 5 star hotel for more than a year because the mansions he is being offered are not big enough when the country is as broke as it is, then it is okay to call him stupid, callous and insensitive.
I think that when Jonathan Moyo says that Itai Dzamara is not really dead and suggests that it is okay to joke about his disappearance, then that is stupid, callous and insensitive.
That is not to suggest that Ndebele people are stupid, callous and insensitive.
It merely means that Messrs Khaya Moyo, Mphoko and Jonathan Moyo are stupid, callous and insensitive. 99% of Ndebele people likely do not support Zanu PF, but there is a 1% that is greedy and insensitive, serving in a government that committed a genocide against their kind. To that 1% belongs Messrs Khaya Moyo, Mphoko and Jonathan Moyo.
It is okay to castigate them without being called names.
Equally, there are many Shona people that are stupid, callous and insensitive. A certain indigenisation minister is one. So is his uncle. And his aunt. And likely their dogs. Most definitely the uncle’s spokesman. All Shona, all stupid, callous and insensitive.
So, can we stop getting sidetracked on an issue in respect of which we are all in agreement: we do not have a tribal problem..what we have is a Mugabe problem.
Isn’t it time we attended to that instead of fighting each other? Or shall we allow him to rule until he dies while we get sidetracked?
