Is supporting Nkosana Moyo not about the leadership nhai Baba Hazvi

Politics changes people. My husband, with whom I share a name, believes that ever since I read that article on ‘Who is Nkosana Moyo’, I have changed. He points out that while I used to eschew social media, I have now opened a Facebook account and am on Tweeter.

This is all true, about the social media, but not that I have changed. It would be the equivalent of saying that almost every Zimbabwean changed in 2016. Remember that time when we all woke up one morning and listened to this video by this unpolished Pastor talking about the flag? How, over the next three weeks or so, you would wake up and search around for another video, just so that you listened to things that we all knew but had never said? Things that we would identify with?

We did not change then. We simply identified ourselves in the words that he used. That, Baba Hazvinei, is the reason why we all went to that vigil by the court, not for him, bless him, but because of the idea that he said what we all felt. Yes, the combi drivers started the tension that culminated in the best stayaway since the 1990s, but it needed a voice. We did not change then, we just rose as one.

That, Baba Hazvinei, was about being inspired. The same way that I have been inspired by this article ‘Who is Nkosana Moyo?’ Something that is like you know when you were young and you got a packet of Things and you ate them, then tore up the paper to lick the insides just to prolong the taste because it had been so good?

I think that those like me who were disillusioned by politics as usual needed to be inspired, and Nkosana Moyo’s CV to me suggests leadership. Leadership that says on principle, a party of democracy cannot and should never make common cause with anyone and everyone without looking at principle for the sake of some ‘grand coalition’.

Leadership that says coalitions must be based on a vision, not on who will lead and who will be deputy. Leadership that says instead of focusing on positions, it is time to talk about the shambolic state of our education system, about the embarrassing tales of people queuing to withdraw their own hard earned money and being told they cannot have it like little children, about the total and complete breakdown of society, about the lost generations, and about the wholesale conversion of all people into the vending profession.

It is not right, Baba Hazvinei, that you now rely on your mother working at Mbare musika for cash when she sent you to university. Leadership that looks beyond politics, but promises in its vision food to the dinner tables, teachers to the classroom, peace on the roads and money in people’s pockets.

That is why I disagree with the man with whom I now share a name, when he disagrees with me about this promise. I see in Nkosana Moyo’s CV the promise of real change. Change that says we need to first define the Zimbabwe we want then look for leaders for  that Zimbabwe.  Change that says we must create first the institutions that will not only protect the rule of law and constitutionalism, but will also prevent the emergence of any other Robert Mugabes for the next 36 years.

Change that does not perpetuate poverty by keeping education incapable of fostering social mobility. Change that eschews the predatory politics where people talk of having suffered for their chance to govern, where injuries sustained fighting Zanu PF are a supposed qualification to lead, never mind a vision, and where the reality is that these so-called credentials just mean the supposed messiahs are only after “their turn”. To do what? is a question never addressed.

Change that does not reward comrades in arms but calls on competent people from all shades of political and other persuasions, not as representatives of those persuasions, but rather, as competent Zimbabweans in their own right. By implication then, such an administration would include people who call themselves ZANU and/or MDC and/or any other political persuasion or indeed individuals who choose not to belong to any such political formations. That is not possible with a coalition President, who must recycle from what is in their ranks and those of their coalition partners. That is not change.

So, when you talk about me being changed, Baba Hazvi, I hope you mean it as a compliment. I was not planning to vote, but now I will. I just hope that this is not just hype, but that this Nkosana person will actually run. I have read that he once said: “If you have a view of what Africa should be like, it is your responsibility to identify similar minded people, to mobilize and then set out to create it.” For my part, I want a Zimbabwe with the kind of leadership that he promises.

So, I will organise Whatsapp groups for  our families, two because as you know Baba Hazvi your family has issues with my sisters’ confidence, and we do not want to start a civil war. Once this Nkosana person announces, we will build networks where we start small groups each and disseminate the message. Zanu PF will not see us coming, I promise you that. It will not be door to door like they wish in order that they beat us, but baba to baba, mai to mai, mwana to mwana, muroora to muroora.

Yes, my husband, with whom I now share a name, you are right that I have changed. I have been inspired, that is why. It is about the leadership, Baba Hazvi. And, like the article said,  it is about time.

 

Mai  va Hazvinei Mushonga

(PhD in Sociology, working in the NGO sector, Harare)