Sunday, January 30, 2011

DECARATION AT THE INNAUGURAL PROVINCIAL ANNUAL YOUNG PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE


We, the Youths of Bulawayo representing the 29 wards of Bulawayo Province gathered at the Bulawayo Provincial office, Proclaim for the Youth of the Bulawayo to know:
Cherishing the legacy of selfless resistance to injustice left by our predecessors through heroic efforts from 1890 to 1980
Committed to the attainment of a plural, democratic, non discriminatory, non violent and prosperous society
Mindful of the culture of plunder, natural resource abuse and disrespect of humanity inflicted upon our fellow countrymen by the successive Governments of the Rhodesian Front and the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front and the need to reverse such status quo,
Devoted towards the social, political and economic interests of young Zimbabweans
Pursuant of the attainment of the resolutions of the All Working People’s Convention of 26th to 28th February 1999
Having consulted amongst ourselves and Youths throughout the province.
Cognizant of the challenges facing Young people.
United behind the Movement for Democratic Change Youth Assembly
Do hereby resolve:

On Education
  • To embark on partnerships with the international academic institutions to facilitate that members of the Youth Assembly get access to quality tertiary education
  • To lobby the organisations that offer scholarships and bursaries to avail such to qualified members of the Youth Assembly
  • To engage the business community towards setting up a scholarship fund for the members of the Youth Assembly who are unable to proceed with education due to financial constraints
  • To embark on campaigns and engage the government to ensure that the schooling system prepares young people to be key players in the country’s mainstream economy as entrepreneurs through the relevant curriculum.

ON EMPOWERMENT AND INDIGENISATION

  • To lobby for direct representation of Youth in the Empowerment and Indigenization Board
  • To lobby the key role players in the indigenization process to ensure that the Youth benefit during the indigenization process
  • To lobby for a non-discriminatory distribution of the Youth Empowerment Fund
ON JOB CREATION
  • To lobby the City Council to give first preference to young people on general jobs that might arise in the municipality.
  • To ensure that first preference is given to the Youths in the rehabilitation of the Municipality infrastructure e.g. as bridges
  • To lobby the Ministry of Youth to adequately and unequivocally distribute the Youth Fund to every young person regardless of political affiliation.
  • To gather a database of resume’s of members of the Youth Assembly
  • To conduct a quarterly Jobs Fair to fast track the employment process

FOOD SCHEMES
  • To lobby the City Fathers for the implementation of Youth Market Gardens with at least three in every ward

INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY
  • To push for the convening of a National Youth ICT conference for the adoption of a clear ICT programme
  • To lobby the municipality and the Non-governmental organisations to rehabilitate the Youth Centers
  • To engage the Ministry of ICT for the connection of internet in the Youth Centers
  • To mobilize the members of the Youth Assembly to participate in the Podcasting revolution
  • Encourage members to participate towards community development by adding their voice to debates through opinion pieces to newspapers and engaging in media policy debates
  • To develop a dedicated programme to encourage Youth Entrepreneurship in the ICT sector.
  • Encourage local government to provide e-government services
  • To embark on skills training for District , Ward and Branch leadership throughout the Province
ON CADRE DEVELOPMENT
  • To distribute and educate members on the Party Building Manual
  • To develop a cadre development programme to develop a cadre who is able to respond to all political situations according to the MDC-YA aims and objectives
  • To create a structured annual programme to enhance the capacity of the members to deal with ideological questions
ON YOUTH MOBILISATION
  • To intensify the process of mass mobilization and recruitment behind the process of change
  • Develop programmes that will target the youths of the white and Indian origin
  • To develop programmes that will attract the youths of Islamic, Hindu and Jewish religions who are generally excluded from many programmes
  • To develop programmes that will address the following
          1. Poverty and unemployment
          2. Health issues
          3. Academic challenges
          4. Social development

ON GENDER EQUALITY
  • Engage training institutions like the Women In Politics Support Unit to capacitate young women with leadership skills.
  • To campaign for a 50% women representation in all local and House of Assembly elections
  • To jointly work with the Movement for Democratic Change Women’s Assembly (MDCWA)
ON LEGAL STANDING
  • To engage the MDC at all levels to push for the role, space and semi-autonomous status of the Youth Assembly
  • To lobby for the adoption of a Youth Assembly constitution at the 3rd All people’s Congress

Monday, January 24, 2011

DEAR PROF NCUBE

BY JOSH MHAMBI


Please accept our commendation and congratulations on being elected President of the MDC. We would like to share with you and other progressive leaders in the country in general and our Party in particular the Paradoxical commandments of Leadership. As you have traversed and continue to traverse the narrow and lonely road of leadership take heart in the following words of wisdom. You will discover or have already discovered that:
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centred-
Love them anyway,
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives-
Do good anyway
If you are successful, you will win false and true enemies-
Success anyway
The good you do today will perhaps be forgotten tomorrow-
Do good anyway
Your Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable-
Be honest anyway
The biggest man with the best ideas can be shot down by the smallest man with the smallest mind-
Think big anyway
People favor underdogs but follow only hot dogs-
Fight for a few underdogs anyway
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight
Build anyway
People really need help but may attack you if you help them-
Help them anyway
Give the world the best you have and you get kicked in the teeth-
Give the world the best that you have anyway
If the best is possible, then good is not enough
Josh Mhambi for The Friends of Welshman)

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

MDC Youth Assembly response to Khupe’s attacks on Ncube

While every Zimbabwean should enjoy their right to freedom of speech, it is also important for those who stay in glass houses never to throw stones.

Recent rants by MDCT Deputy President... on the election of Prof Welshman Ncube to the Presidency of MDC are but a reflection of the extent to which ignorance is celebrated in Zimbabwe. While President Ncube was popularly elected by the twelve provinces of MDC in a transparent process that can only be disputed by those who were not part of it, Thoko pretends to be unaware of the process that made her Deputy President of her party.

The reality of the matter is that after the “super stars of Masvingo” namely Morgan Tsvangirai, the late Isaac Matongo, Nelson Chamisa, Obert Gutu, Elias Mudzuri, Lucia Matibenga and Eliphas Mukonoweshuro had decided on what they positions wanted, they then went in search of tokens that could appease the Ndebele people and “represent” women in the top six. The product of that search is none other than Ms. Thokozani Khupe. What form of national party will have a President, Chairman, Spokesperson, Organiser and Chairlady all from the same province by birth?

Her continued mention of her victory in Makokoba in 2008 is understood in the sense that beating President Ncube is the best she could achieve in her life. Unfortunately President Ncube is bigger than that. Even grade ones dream daily about the first day a star was put on their books ahead of the most intelligent student in class.

As democrats we are shocked that three years down the line, Khupe is still with reason to celebrate results of elections conducted using a constitution that even ZANU PF has agreed that it must be changed.

Even if it is true that the total number of people who voted against Khupe in 2008 is more than those who voted for her, it is difficult to have her understand how defective the process that made her Member of Parliament is. The difficulty stems from the fact that her party was formed on a belief that thirty one is greater than thirty three.

Khupe should be reminded that she is who ever she is because of flawed processes. She is MDCT Deputy President because of tribal hegemony, Makokoba MP because of a first past the post electoral system and a single mother due to defective affairs. She is nothing but just a pawn being used to satisfy egoistic agendas. No wonder why her rodent-infested Fast Climbers Restaurant was used as a venue for the undemocratic ousting of Lucia Matibenga from her position as Women’s Leader.

It is unfortunate that she does not realize that it is through President Ncube’s works that there is the Global Political Agreement. The same Global Political Agreement has made her Deputy Prime Minister and by extension given her access to a better salary using which she can purchase better makeup and face powders.

Khupe and her colleagues should know that the approximately five thousand delegates at City Sports Centre were not gathered for the purposes of a primary election for Makokoba constituency but rather to elect a National Party President and hence a candidate for the Presidential elections.

Be warned little pawn

Statement by Discent Bajila

Secretary General MDC Youth Assembly

The acceptance speech delevered by the President of the Movement for Democratic Change Professor Welshman Ncube in the 3rd National Party Congress in Harare City sports Centre on the 9th of January 2011


Chinja Maitiro-Maitiro Chinja    Guqula Izenzo- Izenzo Guqula

 The Honourable Deputy Prime Minister  of the Republic of Zimbabwe Prof. Arthur Mutambara, Honourable Ministers here present, members of the national executive of the MDC, invited guests from within and without Zimbabwe, fellow delegates. I am humbled and inspired  to stand before you this morning to make this address to you, accepting the responsibility that you have reposed on me  to lead this great party for the next five years. I accept the responsibility with humility recognising that in our small way we have together made history, not just as Zimbabweans but as Africans.
First, let me begin by paying tribute to our outgoing president Professor Arthur Mutambara, for the visionary manner in which he led our party in the last five years. Prof. Mutambara, we salute you, we honour you, we will forever be indebted to you for your contribution, for your sterling work in leading our party as a democrat who held us together even in the most challenging of times. We thank you for your unequalled work in the inclusive government where you have worked not just as a visionary but as a patriot, guided only by the national interest, never one to shy away from difficult questions and difficult decisions. Your exceptional intellect as well as your inspiring work ethic always put you head and shoulders above the rest. We thank you. We salute you. I thank you particularly for being a true democrat , for embracing the truism that the responsibility of leadership is a relay and for accepting that there must be a point in every relay, however enjoyable or how ever difficult, even the young, should pass on to the next member of the team, the relay button. Take heart that what these patriotic delegates have done in this Congress, what we, together as fellow members of this great party, hardly ever gets done in Africa. To pass the responsibility of leadership without raccour and with such memorable dignity is something for which we will always be grateful and proud and indeed indebted to you. It is a fact that the crisis that we face in Zimbabwe today has a lot to do with the fact that our liberation leadership has failed to appreciate and accept that, a nation cannot prosper unless its leadership embraces, as you have done, the basic truism that leadership is a relay. This precedent we have together, established with you as our leader is particularly poignant for this reason.
I ask you to take heart, as you absorb the abuse being thrown at you by our detractors and partisan activist media practitioners who are a disgrace to the journalistic profession, that there is a great deal of truth in the words of Winston Churchill, when he said “I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosity he excites among his opponents”
Honourable Deputy Prime Minister, I also ask you to stand tall and proud that you led this great Party, at a time when we proved beyond any shadow of doubt the truth in the perceptive observation made by Margaret Mead that “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed  citizens can change the word. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Secondly, I would like to acknowledge and thank our founding fathers who cannot be with us today as the Lord saw it fit to call them when we still needed them the most. While we will never understand why the best among us are always taken away from us so prematurely and so painfully leaving us bewildered and empty, we do understand that we are who we are today, we are richer and wiser as individuals and as a collective because they touched our lives and enriched our party in ways only us who worked with them can understand. Join me dear delegates in dedicating this our Congress to the late Gibson Jama Sibanda, who taught us through his exemplary life the meaning of servant leadership,  the essence of humility, the strength that comes from honesty and integrity and to the late Renson Gasela,the great story teller, who taught us that no matter how deeply our opponents hate us and abuse us they will always be on the losing side if we refuse to hate them back and who always demonstrated the truth in Abraham Lincoln’s great maxim, “Am  I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?” and to umdala the late Lyson Mlambo, always so dignified, always so patient, always so considerate and always exuding such strength, he taught us to reject aggression, revenge and retaliation  as methods of resolving disagreements.  They were all icons of our struggle for true freedom and for the prosperity of our people. I am who I am today because I learned the value humility, the strength of honesty, the importance of principle and the value of love from the three of them. To amai Ntombizodwa Gumbo our beloved mother and to Mukaro and many other pillars of our struggle who cannot be with us today I give my pledge to all of you as you rest in peace, that we will never forget your contributions to our struggle, we will not fail you, we will complete the struggle for the prosperity of our people as a whole. May your souls rest in peace, take heart that we will forever cherish your memories and that we will never fail you.


Thirdly, I want to define in the most clear of terms, what we as a party stand for, what we as a party fight for. We hold no brief for anyone. We fear no one. Our only brief is that of the ordinary working men and women of Zimbabwe who are burdened by unemployment, poverty and hunger. The workers who toil only a daily basis for a grinding existence, our mothers  and fathers in the rural areas who work and work, toil and toil on the land, only to remain steeped in an endless cycle of poverty. It is for them that we are in the trenches fighting.  It is because of them that we will never give up the struggle. We are here in the service of the people of Zimbabwe.

I want to acknowledge the words of Professor Arthur Mutambara when he took over the leadership of this great party at our last National Congress in Bulawayo in February 2006 when he said that “We stand on the shoulders of our liberation war heroes Nikita Mangena, Josiah Tongogara , Herbert Chitepo and  Jason Ziyapapa Moyo.” I repeat those words today and reaffirm that indeed we stand on the shoulders of all our liberation heroes.  We stand for all that they fought for. We stand for all that they died for. We stand for the liberty of our people. We stand for the freedoms of our people. We stand for the equality of all Zimbabweans without regard to race, ethnicity, gender, religion and political opinion. We stand for the political independence of all our people. We stand fort the economic  independence of all Zimbabweans. We are the true heirs and heiresses of the values of the liberation struggle. Our generational mandate is to realise the vision of the liberation struggle by delivering prosperity to our people. We acknowledge and cherish our liberation history. We are who we are because of it. We must now move forward to be who we must be, a great nation of prosperous free and happy citizens living side by side in joyous neighbourliness. Only our generation has the capacity, the training, the understanding, the skills and the will to deliver on this vision. Our founding fathers delivered on the vision of a free, politically independent and democratic Zimbabwe. We ask of the them to now not to stand against our future, not to obstruct this generation in its quest to assume its mandate and responsibilities!! Let our people be free so that they can freely choose a future of economic prosperity. We will not fail. We can not fail!!! It is our destiny!!
At the centre of the liberation struggle was the fight for the restoration of the dignity of all our people and  the absolute imperative for economic independence through the control of our resources. Our liberation war heroes fought for the economic independence of all Zimbabweans so that each and every one of us can be free from joblessness, free from homelessness, free from poverty and hunger, free from ignorance, so that we could all have access to quality education and medical care. We understand that  political independence is meaningless without economic independence.
We therefore reject totally and entirely those that seek to appropriate to themselves the legacy of the liberation struggle which is a legacy for each and every Zimbabwean. We therefore pledge here today that this leadership that you have elected today shall continuously ensure that we remain faithful to the ideals of the liberation struggle.  We also pledge that those ideals will always include the economic prosperity of our people. As we leave this Congress, we implore you as the owners of this great  Party to go back to your communities and mobilise and remain true and faithful to the values and founding principles of the Party.  Remain true and faithful to what this Party stands for even in the face of constant abuse.
Let me also state that these values and principles we captured in the Global Political Agreement. In that agreement we made them the Manifesto of the Inclusive Government. This your leadership today therefore pledges this day to all of you dear delegates, you the owners of this Party, that we will do everything in our power as part of the inclusive government, to ensure that this Manifesto of the Inclusive government is fully and faithfully implemented.  We will insist that the constitution making process must be completed. We will ensure that the new constitution faithfully reflects the will of the people.  The governance reforms of restoring our full political freedoms and liberties must be completed. Our economic recovery and growth which is the foundation of the properity of our people must not be put in jeopardy by political expediency!!
This, our Party must remain in the service of the people. In the service of the people we must work tirelessly for the creation of jobs for our people, for the elimination of poverty, for the economic welfare of all our people and for quality education and for access to adequate medical health.
To those that refuse to hand over power to a new generation of leaders, to those that think that they are the only ones born to lead, we say we pledge to organise against you. We promise you that the people of Zimbabwe will reject come the next election. There is still time for you to recognise that you did your part and its time to let the next generation of leaders to assume their responsibilities.
To the pseudo democrats and the hypocrites who have perfected the art of deceptive politics and double speak, we say to you, we refuse to be intimidated by the herd mentality  which you have so assiduously cultivated in our body politic with the support of your friends in the media who stand out like a sore thumb as enemies of freedom. We will remain faithful to the founding values and principles of the MDC. Those values and principles require that we shun the resort to violence as a tool of political organisation. They require that we shun the resort to ethnicity as a tool of through which to gain political advantage. Those values  require that we embrace and hold dear the principle of democratic collective decision making. Those values bind us to erternal integrity, unbending  to honesty and to fidelity to the truth.
Guqula-izenzo   Chinja- Maitiro-Guqula Izenzo- Chinja Maitiro
Before I conclude, Honourable  Deputy Prime Minister, I want to speak briefly on our international relations principles.  Our fundamental principle as a Party is that we shall work with all in the international community, be they in the West, East, South or North.  We shall work honestly and faithfully with all of them. We extend our hand of friendship to all nations and hold no ill will against any. In pursuit of the national interest of Zimbabwe we will look East, look West, look North and look South always cognisant that we are first and foremost Africans who still bear the scars and traumas of slavery, colonialism, racism and discrimination. We will continue to respect the African states and African institutions, the African Union, COMESA and  SADC, all of which we are proud members. We value the contribution of the AU, SADC and COMESA to the growth and stability of our nation. We remain proudly Pan African in our outlook and world view.
To those in the international community whose friendship and solidarity we seek we once again say, in us you will find our hand of friendship extended to you at all times. However, our hand of friendship has one condition which is not negotiable, you must accept and respect the sovereign right of the people of Zimbabwe which is so clearly enshrined in international law, to elect their political leadership without foreign interference. You have no right to seek to foist on Zimbabweans a leadership chosen by yourselves. We are not a colony of any nation. We are a free independent people. We will not allow any nation, however powerful, to anoint Zimbabwean leaders. That prerogative and right exclusively, by international law, vests with the people of Zimbabwe.
Thus, we reject with the contempt it deserves those of the school of thought that that holds that some powerful nations have a right to say this or that Zimbabwean leader should be pushed off the political stage in favour or this or that favoured leader of their choice.

We must acknowledge and thank all those international partners who have worked with the inclusive government to address the challenges we face as Zimbabwe. We thank in particular China,  Iran, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the UNDP and other Un agencies. Of course we thank all the SADC countries for working so tirelessly to help us resolve both our political and economic challenges, We thank South Africa for the leadership role it has played both before and after the formation of the inclusive government.

Finally,  allow me  Honourable Deputy Prime Minister to say that we will remain faithful to the policies of this party, those policies demand that all sanctions against Zimbabwe be lifted. We affixed our signatures to the GPA which enjoins us to work together with other partners in the inclusive government, to secure the lifting of all forms of sanctions and measures against our country and citizens of Zimbabwe. Our integrity requires of us that we must faithfully and honestly seek the fulfilment of this undertaking we made or our free will. We will never speak in forked tongues  on this or any other matter. We will not say one thing by the day and another during the night. We proclaim here today for all to hear us loud and clear, that all forms of sanctions against our country and any and all of our people should be lifted as per our agreement in the GPA.  Honourable Deputy Prime Minister,  will continue to speak as you have spoken on this matter.
Let me also say that the single most pervasive threat we face on the road towards the re-democratisation of Zimbabwe today is the sanctions regime. Sanctions are now ZANUPF’s most potent weapon against the people for they are a ready and always available pretext to deny us our political liberties by always raising the spectre of sanctions as a condition to abiding by some critical provisions of the GPA. Whatever the original intentions of imposing sanctions might have been, it is now abundantly clear, that today work in favour of ZANUPF and against the prospects of democratisation.  They are undermining our ability to move forward with the democratic agenda.
I conclude by thanking all of you, my fellow delegates for the confidence you have reposed in me to be your President for the next 5 years. I am humbled by your faith and trust in me.  We have walked together through the furnance, in which we have been steeled in our resolve and commitment to a democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe. But the heat of the furnance has not darkened our love for each other nor has it diminished the fountains of empathy for all our people.  We have been persecuted, arrested, tried, beaten and abused. For it we are that much stronger today than we were yesterday. Together, we have been hardened in our resolve to be honest fighters and advocates for the common man.
I pledge and commit myself to work tirelessly to fulfil the trust you have placed in me. On behalf of the entire leadership you have elected at this our 3rd National Congress I pledge, that together there will be no village, no suburb no valley, no home  and no community in Zimbabwe we will not enter in search of the support of the people to be the Party that will form the next government. We will do all we can to ensure that by the time of the next Congress, this great Party shall be the party, leading us into a secure and bountiful future as descendants of Mambo and Mzilikazi.
I say to all of you. It has been a long bruising struggle but change will come. In the remaining short time left before change comes let us be mindful of the lyrics from the song   “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke.

“I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die
'Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep telling me, "Don't hang around"
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

Then I go to my brother
And I say, "Brother, help me please"
But he winds up knockin' me
Back down on my knees

Oh there been times that I thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will”
As we move into the final mile of our struggle for a free and prosperous Zimbabwe join me as we sing again and again this song which so poignantly captures the essence of who we are and what we strive for.
Thank you, Tatenda, Siyabonga. May God bless all of you.
Chinja – Maitiro-Maitiro-Chinja * Gugula Izenzo – Izenzo Guqula

Monday, January 17, 2011

Thokozani Khupe a lady of shallow mind.



By NICHOLAS MATHANZIMA
 
The fact the congress of the Movement for Democratic Change held a few weeks way has sent shivers t down the spines of the pseudo democrats and celebrated hypocrites in the MDC-T is no longer an issue of political propaganda by the members of that party, the outburst by the shallow minded Deputy President of the MDC-T is  a clear confirmation that the reign  of President Ncube is and would surely change the political landscape in this country.
It is shallow and misguided for Thokozani Khupe to still hold onto the past results and use them as a tool to predict that she will indeed win in the next election, let her be aware that President Ncube will contest the national election as a president not a small constituency, her attempts to reduce him have been overruled by the verdict of the congress.
Khupe deserves to know that only one thing is constant in our lives and that thing has change. It is public record that in the last election Thokozani Khupe with the assistance of some criminals she bused and paid some college students to register and vote in Makokoba, this is a stubborn fact that Khupe will not dispute wit a straight face. The fact that Welshman Ncube decided it was unworthy to challenge these results in a court of law, does not make Khupe a warrior. It is this defective electoral system that Ncube and other progressive are working on to close these loopholes.
Apart from that Khupe has done a lot of mistakes in Makokoba Constituency in the past, as a residents of this constituency I am  aware that Khupe founded and funded a burial society that the Councilor James Sithole is the chairperson, this burial society has made is its point to fraudulently squander the  money for the poor residents. This association has been made a vehicle to finance the MDC-T activities in the constituency, despite the initial appeal that it is a community programme that is apolitical. We are aware that this burial society’ major casualties are the Ndebele speaking people who have appealed and cried to Khupe  for their compensation only to receive her deception and cunning responses which point to the fact that she is aware of the scam.
It is a public secret that Thokozani Khupe , Sipepa Nkomo, Gorden Moyo through his Bulawayo Agenda have to constantly insult political opponents of their own tribes especially those that are a threat to Tsvangirai’ tribal empire MDC-T. These  insults are not only music to Tsvangirai but also a form of showing allegiance thus guaranteeing security of their position.
It is amazing that Khupe up to this day thinks with her token position that she didi not even earn in  the MDC-T believes that she has the right to question the wisdom of 4 320 delegates that grouped and so it fit to elect President Ncube. Khupe should to pour out her frustration of their failure to hold the elective congress where all positions are elected unconditionally, everybody knows in fact it is a record in the media that they had to go through a national council and other all made to kneel and swear that they won’t contest Tsvangirai in their congress as the precondition.
Yes Khupe can fool some but we refuse to be fooled by people that are not real but shall remain as a symbol of tribal assimilation for their handlers in the capital, the public deserves to know that Khupe herself has no support of her district as recently on the tour of her president in Bulawayo she failed to respond to the allegations of division in her constituency but chose arrogance,  this happened at small city hall a fact that Khupe can’t dispute.
Such vitriol against those that have never had made it their business to attack her party is surely embarrassing to say the least, it does not only expose her weak leadership but  her own insecurities. Thokozani must not forget that she might have made it as a fast climber in politics, the name she finally gave her restaurant she failed to manage, that same specie of a tree has no strong roots, the dry season is nigh her arrogance won’t help.
Surely Khupe has a very poor memory, she was called from oblivion by the same Ncube after the departure of Doctor Mthupha who was supposed to be a candidate, President Ncube and the late Gibson Sibanda had to convince the people of Makokoba that she be given the opportunity to leave and now because of the thirty pieces of silver she attacks the hand that fed her.
Yes Welshman Ncube lost the election but let me remind Khupe that her leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the first top six management of the MDC remains the only one who has never won an election even under the united MDC, he only landed that position in government after the sterling and intelligent negotiation of President Ncube, so if she wants to see a perennial election loser Khupe must not look far from her master.  Morgan Tsvangirai  even lost a vote thin the party, the verdict he failed to respect leading to the split and choosing just boot leckers to surroung him and not real democrats.
She might hate him or love him. Ncube possess’ a  divine political acumen that no one will ever take it away from him, today we expect him, infact he has already taken the office of the principal, where he will expose the intellectual short comings of Khupe’ handler, I believe this is the source of her frustration. Khupe must be informed that you can’t pin down a man of many talents like President Ncube, the most rationale thing is to celebrate this diversity.
Her outburst expose the desperation of Khupe to keep on trying to match the ever rising profile of Ncube, where he earns decoration after decoration, surely what drawing board can MDC-T return to, when in fact it doesn’t have any, they have exposed and continue to expos  their strategic poverty on daily basis something that has even disturbed their handlers.
The achievement of President Ncube are historic on their own, those with a sharp memory will remember it was last in 1956 that a Ndebele leader was elected president of  national political party in Harare, that leader late Joshua Nkomo.
President Ncube should not distracted by this molehills the mandate of the congres aws and is that he should tackle the mountains. Such things must inspire him to fight more for the total democritisation of the state.

Nicholas Mathanzima is a student of Proper Thinking at the University of Cyprus. he can be contacted at: mathanzinicho@yahoo.co.uk.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

CONGRADULATIONS ON YOUR APPOINTMENTS

The Bulawayo MDC Youth Assembly would like to congratulate Cdes Ellen Shiriyedenga and Qhubani Moyo (who previously held positions of Secretary General and Organizing Secretary in the Youth Assembly) on their appointment to the National Executive as Secretary for Science and Technology and National Organizing Secretary of the MDC respectively. We further applaud the elevation of founding National Youth Executive member Hon Siyabonga Malandu Ncube from Matebeleland South Provincial Vice Chair of the Main Assembly to National Secretary for Water and Sanitation.

These re-affirm the position of the Youth Assembly as a boiling cauldron of Leadership development.

MUGABE REFUSES TO GO!!!!!

akhosi

By Innocent Batsani Ncube


B.O.B
I am the ‘bhoza’ of Zimbabwe
I am the bomb
Born of Bona
I am Bob the boss
My people love me
Whether they like it or know it
I am the first and best secretary
Unbeaten in eight major elections
Whether Blair or Brown calls them
Feja feja or feya feya
I am Bob the boss
The commander in chief
The commissar in chief
The secretary in chief
The liberator in chief
The war vet in chief
The intellectual in chief
The warrior in chief
The minister in chief
The governor in chief
The president in chief
Yes, I am Bob
The boss in chief
Triumph after triumph
Since 1980
I came, I saw, I conquered
In Mozambique,
There was Samora Machel
Then came Chissano
Then Guebuza,
I am still Bob the boss!
In Namibia there were the boers
Then came Nujoma
Then came Pohamba
In Zambia, there was Kaunda
Then came Chiluba
Then Mwanawasa
I am still Bob the man!
In South Africa there was Botha
Then came de Klerk
Then Madiba
Then Thabo Mbeki
I am still the boss
In Botswana
There was Khama
Then came Masire
Then Mogae
Now Khama
I am still……
In Malawi there was Banda
Then came Muluzi
Then came
WaMutharika
I am still….
In Tanzania there was Nyerere
Then came Mwinyi
Then came Mukapa
Then came Kikwete
I am still……
The Mois have gone
The Jerry Rawlings have gone
The Abachas,Babangidas
Obasanjos , Eyademas have gone
The Mobutus have died
The Kabilas have gone!
I am still around
As Bob the boss!
Margaret Thatcher came
John Major left
Ronald Reagan was there
George Bush snr left
Bill Clinton left
Dubya found me around
Tony Blair resigned
Gordon Brown has arrived
Who am I ?
I formed SADCC
I was there when we removed the other C
OAU I joined
AU I joined
The Commonwealth I joined, chaired and left
27 UN General Assemblies
I have addressed
Butros Butros Ghali I saw
Kofi Annan I saw
Ban ki-Moon I have seen
I am Bob the boss
My ideology is the ideology
Bobocracy is the name of the game
Bobism the sine qua non
I died for this country
I am Bob the boss
2008 is Bob’s year
One president, one people
One party, one ideology
I am Bob the boss
My people love me
Whether they like it or know it
I am the main man
I am Bob the boss in chief!!!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

BIASED REPORTING BY THE STATE MEDIA ON THE COMMODITY EXCHANGE LAUNCH


The  MDC has observed the expected though shameful reporting from the state media who have chosen to tell the world and the nation the half-baked story  on the Launch of the Commodities Exchange in Zimbabwe held in Harare on Friday 15 January 2011.
It is unfortunate that the state media chose to ignore the parent ministry of the project which is the Ministry of Industry and Commerce despite the address delivered by Minister Prof Welshman Ncube. We thus wish to make known to the world that the inclusive government mandated this Ministry with the responsibility to facilitate, coordinate and oversee the establishment of the commodities exchange in Zimbabwe under the  Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme (STERP). It is this Ministry that gave birth to the Commodity Exchange.
In line with this mandate the Ministry launched the program after a wide consultation and had asked the Deputy President John Landa Nkomo to conduct the official opening who in turn sent his emissary Didymus Mutasa. Amazingly the state media being aware of this information decided not to mention that this is the works of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce while preferring to accord space to the emissary of the Deputy President. We are disturbed by this journalism and editorial policy of the state media that has reduced the public institution into an instrument of settling political scores.
As a party we are aware that the sterling performance of our Minister and Ministers in the inclusive government has exposed the deadwood deployed by the handlers of the state media, as expected they are trying to steal the victories from those that are performing  excellently  up to the expectations of the people of Zimbabwe. We are not going to sit and watch while some dead wood with the assistance of morally empty media steal the victory of the hard and diligent works of our members in the government.
We want to put it on record that despite this attempt to hide the achievements of our Ministers by this disgraceful journalism, which ignores the basic ethics of practise which are fairness and truthfulness, our Ministers shall remain the servants of the people  and will not lose heart.
Furthermore we are aware that the state media through the instigation of their handlers who are our political enemies have since the ascent of Prof Welshman Ncube to the presidency of our party they have intensified their efforts to vilify his person, position and that of the party, we wish to make it known that we chose the side to fight hand in hand with the people of Zimbabwe, a decade ago well aware of the trouble inherent in our decision. We are bracing for more of these attacks but we are aware that the people of Zimbabwe will no longer be fooled.
Kurauone Chihwayi
Deputy Secretary for Information and Publicity- 0772 748 515

MUGABE AND TSVANGIRAI- UK MEN IN HARARE

by Dinizulu Macaphulana


THAT Robert Mugabe remains in power after slaughtering 20,000 Zimbabweans and collapsing a booming economy to dust is an irony whose insult cannot continue to be ignored.

The monumental falsehood that Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe for thirty years only by his employment of violence and his tyrannical steel must be confronted. The role of Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial power, and the Movement of Democratic Change Tsvangirai (MDC-T)  in keeping Mugabe in power must urgently be exposed.

Behind the curtain of British pretence and MDC-T posturing, Mugabe’s service to Britain in securing British economic interests in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s is still being well appreciated. So the myth that the courageous and heroic peasants of Zimbabwe who defeated British colonialism are failing to defeat a dictatorship must be urgently exploded, and world opinion must be informed accurately that Mugabe continues to lord himself over Zimbabwe thanks to the elites in the MDC-T and in Britain.

First, it is important for all who care about the future of Zimbabwe to understand that a huge fraction of Mugabe’s crimes against humanity that he committed, he executed with British approval and support, if not blind or quiet diplomacy.

When Mugabe sent troops to Matabeleland and the Midlands in the 1980s, Britain maintained a loud silence as people were slaughtered like goats at Christmas. The elite in Britain were actually happy that Joshua Nkomo and PF-Zapu, who were bent on nationalising the land and the mines in which the British had interests, were being suppressed. It is no accident the Margaret Thatcher, the then Prime Minister of Britain, referred to Mugabe as “our man in Harare”.

After the genocide, the Queen of England visited Zimbabwe in 1991. Three years later, she met Mugabe for tea at Buckingham Palace and bestowed him the prestigious knighthood of the order of Bath. Not only that, but Perence Shiri, the king-pin of the army operation in Matabeleland, was honoured in Britain with a scholarship to the Royal College of Defence Studies. It is as clear as the sky that Mugabe and Britain come a very long way in the service of each other.


Only when Mugabe started slaughtering white commercial farmers did the British start seeing dictatorship and human rights abuses in their “man In Harare”. Suddenly, Mugabe was an evil man and the British made sure the whole world saw him through this prism, from then on. That said, I would like to observe that Mugabe and the British elite remain separated but not divorced.

There must not be any doubt that both Mugabe and Tsvangarai are British “men in Harare.” In truth, the MDC-T was created and sponsored by the British not to replace Mugabe and Zanu PF but to irritate, annoy and or frighten them into renewing their vows with London. I have no doubt the British will be happier with a reformed Zanu PF in power than the MDC-T, a party which they are happy to use as their spoilt pressure group whose job is to frown at and at best disturb and keep Zanu PF on their toes and not eliminate them.

That the MDC and Tsvangarai’s deep-down appointed missions is to pressurise and not topple Zanu PF and Mugabe is demonstrated in how the MDC-T and its leader are not willing to confront Mugabe and Zanu PF at their capital crime -- which is genocide in Matabeleland. Tsvangarai has never challenged Mugabe on Gukurahundi, and the slaughter of twenty thousand people. He has been very loud on Murambatswina, the economic meltdown and the humanitarian crisis, and the reason is clear -- Mugabe unleashed Gukurahundi when Tsvangarai and more than half of his ministers were still loyal cadres in Zanu PF ranks and they shared in the operation whose objective was to crash Nkomo and PF-Zapu. The plan was to stop them from their intended nationalisation of the land, the mines and the factories in Zimbabwe that they were resolved on doing.

In fact, it cannot be an exaggeration that Tsvangarai has a lot of respect if not fear for Mugabe whom he has openly called his hero. At the end of the day, contrary to contemporary and popular opinion, Tsvangirai is too much of a child of Zanu PF and a loyalist of Mugabe to subject him to the full wrath of a revolution.

There have been two incidents where Morgan Tsvangarai led the MDC-T away from Armageddon with Zanu PF and Mugabe. After the 2000 elections which everyone in and outside Zimbabwe agreed were clearly rigged in favour of Mugabe and Zanu PF, Tsvangarai responded by announcing that “we will consult” on the way forward instead of providing revolutionary leadership that the moment demanded to push Mugabe out of office.

In 2009, when Mugabe clearly lost and delayed announcing results for a whole month, Tsvangarai stayed at home until Mugabe gained confidence to insist on a run-off which Tsvangarai politely boycotted, allowing “my hero” to declare himself the winner and forcing everyone into talks that led to the current unity government that has strengthened Zanu PF even more.

Tsvangarai is willing to oppose Mugabe with his sweat, and not with his blood. Mugabe will for now remain in office even after the coming elections as long as Zimbabweans and the international community still believe Tsvanagrai and the MDC-T are genuinely resolved on replacing Zanu PF in government.

The truth must actually be exposed, that Tsvangirai and the MDC-T are beneficiaries of Gukurahundi politically. The Matabaleland vote that the MDC-T is guaranteed of and actually takes for granted is actually Tsvangarai’s harvest of the fruits of Gukurahundi. The hatred and anger that the people of Matabeleland have for Mugabe because of Gukurahundi guarantees Tsvangarai their vote. It is unfortunate that the people of Matabeleland do not understand yet that on Gukurahundi, Mugabe and Tsvangarai are inseparable comrades.

It is not even a joke that the British themselves celebrated the crushing of the Ndebele people through Gukurahundi because they still have not forgiven the Ndebele for the trouble they gave British settlers in 1893. It is also known history that even the then settlers claimed they had to use the Maxim gun against Ndebele impis to protect the Shona people from marauding Ndebele warriors. There has been an enduring British and Zanu PF agenda to settle a score with the Ndebele from times past.

The reason why Julius Malema and others still believe that Mugabe is a protector of African economic and political interests is that the MDC-T and others have not done their homework, or in fact it is not their appointed task to expose Mugabe’s phoney Pan-Africanism and hollow nationalism that is punctuated with massgraves and cemented by his loyal service in securing British economic interests in Zimbabwe.

The MDC-T is opposed to true nationalism and Pan-Africanism and that is why popular MDC-T opinionators love to hate Arthur Mutambara and are quick to curse him as a Zanu PF agent when what he is trying to do is to return to the Zimbabwean spirit that defeated colonialism, and which must resist imperialism that Mugabe and Tsvangarai have so loyally served. Also adding to Mutambara’s troubles is his blindness to ethnicity whereas the elite in Zanu PF and the MDC-T are clear about where Ndebeles belong in Zimbabwean politically affairs.

In short, as things stand, Mugabe and Zanu PF may go by the force of gravity and not by the MDC-T and Morgan Tsvangarai. Zimbabweans who are so hungry for freedom have to think again on who and what will free them from “the men in Harare” because behind the thick curtain of British and MDC-T pretences lie enduring interests that make Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Britain servants of one cause.

Dinizulu Macaphulana is a student in Lesotho. He is contactable on e-mail macapulana@yahoo.com

Friday, January 14, 2011