Memory is a site of the struggle. Today marks the third anniversary of the death of Alex Tawanda Magaisa, a prolific writer, a friend, a colleague and a former workmate.
Magaisa died of cardiac arrest around 8am Sunday morning on 5 June, 2022 and Zimbabweans across the spectrum received the news of his death with great shock.
Today, Alex, the boy from Njanja, lies still and motionless in the dark rictus of death. Yet his great works have outlived him and have assumed a new life of their own, well beyond his grave.
Alex had enamoured and endeared himself to the average Zimbabwean through his weekly, incisive column that he dubbed the Big Saturday Read (BSR).
When I spoke at his memorial at Eastend Hall at Harare’s Showgrounds on Sunday, 26 June 2022, I told the gathered mourners that for me and many other Zimbabweans, Alex’s best BSR piece was the one that was titled “When Mamvura drove the Bus.
In that epic piece that he wrote way back in 2016 well before the coup, Magaisa recounted how in his rural home of Njanja in Wedza, a mad man at Sadza Growth point once drove a bus while the driver had stopped over for “recess.”
In his trademark, simple prose, Magaisa told us the heart-warming story of how Mamvura, a mad vagabond at Sadza growth point, drove a bus and sent everyone at the bustling rural business centre shouting out in sonorous panic
Well before the incident, Mamvura, who survived through alms at the famous growth point, had been telling anyone who cared to listen that he would one day drive a bus.
As fate would have it, one day, a driver of a Buhera- -bound bus made a stop-over at Sadza growth point to afford his passengers the much-needed “recess”, leaving the bus idling at this busy rural rendezvous in Mashonaland East province.
As he had promised over the years, Mamvura sneaked into the bus, sat driver’s seat and drove away as bemused passengers both inside and outside the bus, cried out in a frenzied delirium.
Luckily, Mamvura calmly managed to stop the bus before anyone got injured.
But he had made good his promise that he would one day drive a bus.
Magaisa concluded his seminal 2016 piece by warning the nation of a similar fate. He concluded his epic write-up with an ominous but simple line: “One day, a Mamvura will drive this bus called Zimbabwe “ takati vavava ” (under our watch).
And that is exactly what happened the following year in November 2017.
But while the Mamvura at Sadza growth point had the sense to safely stop the bus after a brief drive, the latter-day Mamvura who clambered onto the driver’s seat in 2017 now wants to drive it until 2030.
And given the current talk of palpable cognitive decline on the part of the Mamvura currently on the wheel who wants to drive the bus well beyond the permitted time-frame, the label Mamvura is a befitting assignation.
Indeed, Zimbabweans have since come to learn that Mamvura, the famed man in Njanja folklore, is truly alive and well. True to Magaisa’s prediction, Mamvura has now taken to the wheel of the national bus.
He has since left the precincts of Sadza growth point and is crazily driving the bus around the whole country, carving out his own unique reputation as a maniac of national fame.
I will not describe him any further but everyone now knows him because almost every day, he is donning a scarf embroidered with national colours around his neck. He wears the scarf daily regardless of the weather, including even in the scorching October sun.
And with his bus, Mamvura has left a huge carnage of cadavers in his wake and these include Nyasha Zhambe, Mboneni Ncube and Moreblessings Ali, among many others.
Today, on the third anniversary of Alex Magaisa’s death, we can only reminisce about his rich legacy, particularly his passionate writing through which the Mamvura tale has etched its way into national memory.
I knew Alex Magaisa very well. He joined us in 2012 in the Office of the Prime Minister towards the end of the era of the inclusive government. We worked together in the OPM at Charter House at the corner of Julius Nyerere Way and Samora Machel Avenue.
Alex was the Prime Minister’s political advisor while I was the PM’s spokesperson and Director of Communications.
Alex’s office was number 205 and mine was 206. Both of us were part of a contingent of Dr Tsvangirai’s staffers that had not been attested into the civil service.
The “system” refused to formally employ us but Dr Tsvangirai insisted he wanted us in his office, citing his powers in the Global Political Agreement.
As I told mourners at Magaisa’s memorial in June 2022, I shared four commonalities with him.
The first commonality was that both of us later refused offers to sell out by joining the Mnangagwa regime. We refused to be bought because for us, values are more important than trappings and trinkets.
Through our separate refusals to be bought, we both sent this regime a cardinal message that we are not buyable; that we are not purchasable.
Hatitengeke.
The second commonality I shared with Alex was a passion for writing. We both found writing not only therapeutic but cathartic as well.
The third commonality was a love for William Shakespeare. Every Monday morning at the Prime Minister’s Office, the two of us would recite to each other our favourite lines from Shakespeare’s works.
The fourth and last commonality that we shared was the love and support for Arsenal football club.
Even after we had left government, with him returning to his job as a lecturer at the Kent University Law School in England, we remained in constant touch until his demise on 5 June 2022.
Alex was a sober character who spoke with a softness that belied his huge knowledge and competence. He had depth.
And width too!
In the daily morning briefings with Dr Tsvangirai, you would always expect Magaisa to alert the boss and the office of possible future dangers that would arise from what seemed at the time to be innocuous and inconsequential political developments.
And maybe that is why in 2016 he was able to foresee in 2016 that a Mamvura would one day drive Zimbabwe, which did not take a year to happen!
Such was Alex’s foresight. And maybe that’s why he wore glasses!
In the sculpting of the country’s current Constitution, Alex ably assisted the MDC-T COPAC team led by Douglas Mwonzora, who later became notorious for assisting Zanu PF in tearing asunder the same Constitution he has led in its making.
Alex, or Musaigwa, his totem with which we used to address him and which he shared with Dr Tsvangirai, was gifted with a great, alert mind. He was a thought champion.
Through his column, he would unpack the country’s political developments in simple but gripping prose.
Sometime in May 2013, when his personal driver and uncle Edmore Munyoro, whom he affectionately called ‘Bra Eddie” died in a car accident, Alex was devastated. He was seriously affected by that death.
Bra Eddie died while driving Alex’s car from Murehwa. Alex himself was not in the car at the time.
They had grown up together in Wedza with Bra Eddie and had probably heard of the Mamvura story together in their youth. They were so close and Eddie’s death affected Alex in a huge way.
After the death of Dr Tsvangirai on Valentine’s Day in 2018, we both felt we had lost a mentor.
A friend.
An irreplaceable boss.
We spent almost a week exchanging online the unforgettable experiences of our interactions with Dr Tsvangirai. The moments of laughter we had shared with Zimbabwe’s democracy icon were indeed moments to be eternally treasured.
Save was gone but today, we remember yet another great Musaigwa, AlexT awanda Magaisa.
Alex too was a citizens’ hero. A patriot. A thought champion.
His incisive column was always a must-read. It showcased the soft power of thought, ink and the pen. In his own unique way, Alex “luke-d” the beast in the eye and used his writing prowess to challenge the status quo.
Go well Musairwa. Zimbabweans will miss your incisive analysis of the political developments in this great country that we all love.
The citizens of our great country will always savour your written material which remains immortalized in cyberspace for the benefit of future generations.
As yet another Mamvura appears hell-bent on driving the bus well beyond the permitted time, we fondly remember that at least, the Mamvura from Sadza growth point was decent and sane enough to know when to stop the bus and quit the driving,
Rest in power, Alex.
Luke Tamborinyoka is a citizen from Domboshava. He is a trained journalist and a trained political scientist who was awarded the Book Prize for best student when he graduated with his Political Science degree at the University of Zimbabwe. You can interact with him on his facebook page or on his X handle @luke_tambo.
