Tafi Mhaka

By Tafi Mhaka As the debate on the planned July 31 demonstration rages, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) chairperson Chris Mutsvangwa is seething with anger. Mutsvangwa has described the masses that want to demonstrate against endemic corruption, joblessness and hyperinflation as hired troublemakers and disloyal activists. Today, the very people that have worked hard to make Zimbabwe what it is, stand accused of seeking to betray it. Yet the construction workers earning US$16 a month, for example, aren’t particularly affiliated to any political agenda. They are just ordinary people, hoping for better, struggling to survive.

By Tafi Mhaka Until Patrick Chinamasa actually fends for his family on a salary of US$30 a month, I don’t have time to indulge his profound stupidity. Why should Zanu-PF’s acting secretary for information set the agenda and parameters of a demonstration led by opposition leaders?

By Tafi Mhaka Rhodes infamously said, "I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race." That perceived superiority inspired heinous colonial crimes and led to the establishment of “Rhodesia”. To Rhodes, conquering Africa appealed to his white supremacist leanings and he found meaning in illogical tropes that justified founding a perverse brand of extractive capitalism. It facilitated the long and reckless extraction of petroleum, copper, chromium, platinum and gold for export to Europe, and enabled colonisers to monopolise land ownership. This while Britain, France and Germany built the political systems that aided economic plunder. Hence, the case for reparations is strong and just: compensating Africa for decades of multifaceted colonial exploitation is both a moral and financial imperative.

By Tafi Mhaka While studying at the University of Cape Town in 1997, I discovered the presence of “gaps” in the South African labour market. Sometimes my friends Credence, Fair, Chi and I would catch a taxi from Rondebosch and go to Itai and Dudu’s shared flat in Salt River. There, we would drink and hang out, until it was time to go out. It was on one of these drink-filled Saturdays that I met Shingirai. An artisan by profession, he worked at Eskom. Back then, you wouldn’t find that many Zimbabweans working in formal employment.

By Tafi Mhaka In a piece for The Standard, titled, “The question that the MDC-Alliance must answer”, Professor Ken Mufuka dares Nelson Chamisa and the MDC Alliance to make a hard decision before the 2023 elections: play ball or fight the system. The MDC Alliance remains in parliament and the many formidable obstacles that conspired to produce a disputed election in July 2018 remain intact. From ZEC to the government media and military complex, the unashamedly partisan forces that helped thwart the MDC Alliance’s electoral rise are stronger than ever. Still, speaking on the 2023 poll, Chamisa has vowed to stop the election, claiming there would be “no election that is not an election, we are sick and tired of rituals.” Often the man speaks very well, but predictably to no avail.