Live (life) at 28!!!

By Tabani Moyo

Life is a paradox I must say!
On a day like this we need to start from the beginning. I guess!
You are growing old ‘young’ Tabani! The cotton grower from Gokwe you are really growing old! You are now 28, you are not growing any younger you know. I know the dangers of time, you keep on seeing the same faces, same building, same workmates and you mislead yourself that everything is the same and nothing is changing – time is moving!

You better start realizing that you are not living in no man’s land! Time is triggering motions of changes some of which are dramatic, some earth shattering and others threatening the essence of human kind’s survival, ‘young’ man as Annie Musodza will keep on misleading you, that you are still young! Time is not on your side.

As in Wole Sonyika’s You Must Set Fourth at Dawn, the rainy season that leaves moist thickets, fording swollen gorges, sliding on treacherous rock and being suck into mud gullies, day or night – at night – with nothing but few stars seen through branches, or chasing after fireflies as if to test one’s patience and judgment are gone. They are gone cotton boy, you are now supposed to make tough decisions, decisions that will make or break you and the nation at large.

You have made enemies and friends alike during the 28 years cotton boy, it’s the time for you to carefully structure and charter your plane to destiny--- friends of yester year are now enemies. The danger cotton boy is captured in Bob Marley’s song witch you can’t remember the title stipulating that your best friends are the worst enemies since they know all your secrets and they hold the leverage to reveal them. Cotton boy, never mind, you keep on telling yourself it does not matter that you have broke ties with friends of yester year. Yes you keep on telling yourself that it’s okay, you are of your own making, never ‘godfathers’ making.

You look in the mirror today and you can afford a smile? Why? You have served your conscience well, growing up in Gokwe, walking 10km to and from school you must be very proud? Are you not? Well you are very proud, from the arid lands of Gokwe, where you have to wait until there is moonlight to start tilling the barren lands with the hope that they will feed the multitudes of hot air stomachs to coining the Save Zimbabwe Campaign name that have brought this inclusive government today, you have made some strides ‘young man’!

As they say, the struggle shall never be televised, when books are going to be written never expect your name to appear in those fly by night books, in their foreword to epilogue never dream your name to be captured. You have never played a role in the struggle for Zimbabwe in their minds, thought and fliers disguised as books, never mind that cotton boy, you will write your own books to counter such futile ‘truths’ when they present it to mean facts. Facts are sacred you will intent to tell you kids later on in life, that they must never be tempered with. Never allow clobbered thinking to warp your critical thinking. When facts are misrepresented always stand for the facts to remain your campus for you are the custodian for future generation’s access to information.

They will tell you that you were never close to the points of action when Gift Tandare was shot. They will tell you that because we now have more access to information and a proper context of the struggles of Zimbabwe which they were not able to witness due to the dictates of nature.

That’s why you got surprised when you passed by a certain country and found a group of people claiming that they engineered the brand Its Our Country Too (Oc2) which was used at the All Stakeholders Conference of September 2008 which gave birth to the People’s Convention of February 2009. You set there listening as if you were a stranger to the day light intellectual robbery and disregard of intellectual rights. You knew deep down in you that the people who coined that brand are; Tabani Moyo, Ellen Kandororo, Nixon Nyikadzino, Takura Zhangazha, Benjamin Nyandoro and three more comrades you can’t remember at this time. So history Cotton Boy can easily be distorted, you have to learn and live to challenge that!

When Honorouble Nelson Chamisa was nearly killed at the airport, ‘young’ man, they will tell you that they were the first to seek help, that they informed the world that all was at stake, yet you know deep down in your heart that you informed the world and coordinated efforts together with Itai Zimunya to keep the world informed. Never mind them cotton boy, if you stand by the truth you will always stand by yourself!

They will tell you when the action was folding in Highfileds on the 11th of March 2007, they kept the world focused on Zimbabwe’s brutality which took place yet you kept silent until today, that you were at the epi-center of events keeping the stakeholders, the media and the international community’s lenses zoomed on the country together with the other comrade you can’t name given the processes happening in the country. You were the information centre cotton boy they know, you know and thats why you are dismissing myths of the present day history coming to the fore.
You have worked closely with the MPs so that they get into office! The other time Cotton Boy, you had to be detained for ensuring the safety of your good MP friend for St. Marys. It was yourself and Maureen Kademaunga who mislead the police that the prospective MP was not in the Building when you knew that he was hidden under you office desk.

All the same, life at 28 can be a paradox; the people whom you thought were making a stand for certain values, life time principles have become anathemas to the same – butchering the very same principles with perceived impunity. Life is not that simple, history will judge the same brutality. No human being can manage to mortalize history, given the fact that humans are mortals and history will forever remain the cardinals of our reference points.

Unfortunately at 28 I have come to learn of young generations sublimating into primitive accumulation, in a capitalistically cannibal manner that have left me with more questions than answers. There is nothing wrong in differing but I see everything wrong in a failure to appreciate principles – very sad.

In the same vain, I have come to realize of paid for mercenaries amongst our midst, people who are willing to hire corruptible and disgruntled soldiers to bash those holding differing perspectives to officialdom, above all there are certain civic individuals who have settled for a rather atrocious position that because the MDC is in government they hold themselves as equally ruling and part of the government because of perceived proximity to the person of PM Morgan Tsvangirai. It’s a perception and a dangerous one for that matter. People who will do anything for money – such people are dangerous in life because they can KILL for money – there is need to go back to the source!

At 28, I hope Zimbabwe will start answering some of the hard questions which are more profitable for nation building than caressing individualistic egos. Facts should be respected at all cost as in Thabo Mbeki’s words, “we have the possibility and latitude and necessity to speak thus because we live during our own age of revolution. Exactly because it is such an age, all of us face the demand to understand objective reality accurately and objectively, to enable the revolution to decide on the correct strategy, tactics and operations. Respect the truth. In this situation of an inevitable contest about the future of our country, information, facts, the truth themselves become an area of contestation… opponents of change see it as their obligatory task to falsify reality, in their interests. The imperative to understand the critical difference, and in some instances the contradiction becomes ever-more pressing.”

It is equally imperative that the arrogance in differences exhibited by personalities in the civics and those who have crossed the line to the government be done away with in a civilized manner rather than creating vacuums for overzealous personalities to believe that they can come up with remedies.

Everyone be it in government, political parties, civic should never believe in the old myth of young children they saw joining CSOs and mislead themselves that the same people are still kids--- they will be humiliated and fall with a thud.

Well at 28, you are grown up young man its time you start looking for a women to settle down with have children and continue with the struggle with the hopes that your kids will fight a faithful struggle and keep the struggle for democracy, human kind survival, human rights, struggle for education freedoms, against poverty, deprivation among other things as opposed to the struggles for wealth accumulation, and contestation to donor funds alive.

It’s the paradox of life at 28!

Tribute to a fallen friend – Philemon Sajeni, Finance Officer, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Born 1977-Died 2009

By Tabani Moyo

At exactly 1115hours on the 14th of July 2009, his heart, that of a comrade and colleague ceased beating. He had been in agony as the body and spirit departed from each other. “Philemon Sajeni (main pic) is no more!” was the voice of Kumbirai Mafunda, MISA-Zimbabwe Harare Advocacy Chairperson relaying the message of the passing on of my beloved friend.

My pulse ran riot as I contained my tears from pouring. I felt a thick lump developing from my heart as if I was about to be struck by a heart attack. I saw images flying past my sight of a young man, who had given so much, to so many.

It never occurred to me that human life could be that fragile. Here is a man I was sharing lighter moments with on Sunday 12 July at his home in Highfields, a man I spoke to on Monday and by Tuesday, he is dead.

Questions started racing in my mind, what is going to happen to his two young children Anesu and Anotida aged 6 and 2 years respectively? How is the widow going to cope with the sudden and saddening news of a husband who left for hospital in the morning with the expectations that he will come back home in a better state only to be informed that he had been transferred to the mortuary? What is in the mind of his father who lost his beloved wife when Philemon was a toddler when he receives the message that the family’s bread winner is no more? Why is it that I personally didn’t notice that my friend was hinting, when he was telling me that life is short and that I must get married?

Twenty minutes later I broke into tears. A towering brother had departed from mother earth – if heavens are there, they should pave a consoling space for his soul to rest in eternal peace.

I first met ‘Saji’, the name he was referred to by his work mates and friends in 2005 when I joined Crisis Coalition as an Information Intern. He struck me as a very enterprising person and who cherished it when his colleagues prosper. The friendship since then grew during the three year stint I had with the Coalition and strengthened longer after I left the organization.

I always told him he had chosen the wrong field – accounting due to his vast network. He would always laugh dismissively stating that he would be fired for exaggerating issues. His networks would be every journalist’s envy. At numerous points he would advise colleagues in office to vacate immediately as the police would do their routine raids and arrests at the Coalition.

He would frequently tip me off on the cases and human rights activists appearing before courts whenever the police thought they had tortured them enough to let them go. He broke the news to me that Jestina Mukoko who had been detained for almost three months was going to be appearing in court, each time I was always shocked by this young man’s networks and as usual, it gave me the arsenal to break news to my colleagues in the media and the civics.

When the Coalition relocated its offices from Herbert Chitepo to where it is housed today, police raided the offices on the same day and I can hear still hear his voice telling me to jump over the durawall. Of course I used the main gate because it was open while the comrade decided to hide under the office table, something we would discuss in good humour later on.

He enjoyed his Oliver Mutukudzi music on long distance journeys, the last one we travelled together was on our way to the Bulawayo Agenda Ideas Festival in Bulawayo. As usual he was always bubbling with new ideas on how best to stamp a mark of recognition when he is long gone; sadly as fate would have it, the man was not going to live long after our trip to the City of Kings.

Now that you are gone my friend, I am left with black and white photography on the good times we shared and I also remember the hard times that we shared.

On the 17th of July 2009, I saw his face for the last time in form and content. It seemed as if someone was going to wake him up and proceed with the adventures we always found ourselves entangled in.

His face had not changed! He was dressed in unusual attire. His taste for clothing had always been smart casuals rather than the formal wear. When I saw him stuck in that suit, then I knew the gods had made a decree on the fate of a man who had given everyone so much and received so little in return.

Here is a man, who went through thick and thin to assist people on the administrative issues which are always a herculean task for the majority of us, but in return, he was labeled, accused and ridiculed in some words which are not printable.

A convoy of cars, people who loved and who may also have been indifferent joined hands all the way to Mbudzi cemetery where his body was laid to rest. He had bought 10 grave sites in 2007; I remember accompanying him that fateful day when he was telling me that when the day finally arises, he wanted to be laid to rest next to his family members. That was the extent of his clarity of thought, he saw beyond life.

His life was always in a hurry; his achievements clearly show that the person had an urgent meeting with destiny. He managed to build up a wide network of friends which will take some of us a life time. He never grudged anyone forever, but always found a way of speaking his mind and forgives as he went along.

His death came a month after doctors in South Africa had warned of the dangers which his heart was posing to his survival. The South African doctor refused to operate him arguing that the opening in his heart had grown too big to be operated and that his blood pressure was failing. He however remained strong and bolder than ever before, he didn’t show any symptoms that he was slowly losing his grip on earth. He never explained to anyone except his wife. His last words to his wife was that she must persevere and make sure that the children will be send to school against all odds.

But today my friend; you have left a permanent scar in my life. Your fragile life was synonymous to a burning candle in the wind, like dew at dawn – death was rapturous. He suffered cardiac arrest and that was the last we heard of his voice and never again shall it come from the person who used to give me strong and durable counsel.

May the love of the almighty escort you all the way through the gates of peace and eternal life!

One year after the GPA– mapping the new struggle for civil society in Zimbabwe

By Tabani Moyo

Some events are meant to define history!

How else can one comprehend the new wave of divisions within civic organizations in light of the constitution making process? It is as if a cat has been thrown among the pigeons. Movements, covenants, value systems and gluing principles which maintained consensus for decades and eras, are now fractured and weaker than ever before.

This can only be explained by the dangers elevated by the elements of time. Time has eroded the core values of our struggle - the virtues which as a collective we used to cherish and kept us united under the most trying of times.

Over the last ten or so years, civics remained committed and did not compromise on issues of principle much to the annoyance of the regime. Several good friends and comrades died while pursuing the same virtues and principles which were built through countless conferences and conventions.

As civics, our long held belief has been that a people driven constitutional reform exercise must be done in terms of the principles that were outlined in the National Working Peoples convention as well as Section 3 of the Zimbabwe Peoples Charter. And in this that we must remain defiant in the face of the tempting idea of letting our political outlook colour or warp our intellectual perception of things.

Inherent in this argument is the philosophy that whatever actions we are pursuing or intend to pursue, should be executed with clear conscience that we are doing it as the today’s custodians of Zimbabwe for the benefit of future generations. We must not be blinkered and controlled by cross- buffeting winds and remote controls both in terms of ideology and resources that are dangled as carrots and sticks.

The crux of the matter is that since the singing of the GPA and the formation of the inclusive government, the current wave of divisions are unnecessary given the fact that they are not of the institutions’ own making. Equally, they should not be perceived as simply a reaction to the constitutional making process. The problems are as deep as they are wide. They are a reflection of a deep seated ideological and value system crisis, which I insist must be addressed if we are to move forward as a collective.

This can be noted in the historic split of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) into two formations namely, MDC-T and MDC-M. The root cause of the split at face value can be attributed to the Senate elections of 2005, but in essence the causes were deeply entrenched in the lack of value consensus and issues to do with failure to define the party’s ideology. It was also the result of failed cohesion among academics or the so- called intellectual wing and trade unions.

This led to the other group believing that the best way of eroding the then incumbent government was through the courts whilst the radical wing in the mould of labour and student activists impressed on the need to mobilize in the streets.

The travesty of 2005, has struck civil society four years later in 2009. The main difference this time is that the splits are mythical creations built and cemented by a certain crop of personalities deciding how certain actions should be carried out and in what order. Such personality differences have had cascading effects on civic institutions.

It is therefore necessary that consistency of mind, persistency with the cause or purpose and the brazen simplicity of decisions in the face of adversity and successful moments should remain the guiding principle that governs the conduct of civic organizations against all odds.

The mistake happened at the very beginning due to the way we framed the narrative of our journey from the repression under President Mugabe’s rule. It never occurred that one day, the core principles we shared and believed in would stand to divide us. The thinking was that the values of democracy and constitutionalism where clear road signs towards the Promised Land as captured and articulated in the Zimbabwe Peoples Charter.

If the CSOs are to execute their mandated roles of being a watchdog of the government rather than the lapdog, there is an imperative need to borrow from an American phrase – reset the button in our public discourse, because the politics of yesterday will get us nowhere. Typical of any machinery, when you reset, it reverts back to its default status – which will cleanse off the confusion reigning in on the civics and start afresh on a clean slate.

Suffice to note that in the initial proposition I made that the so called splits are mythical still stand. If you cut away the ranting and raving mouth pieces from the sources of proxy wars, one often gets the sense that those fanning the divisions are not always the ones calling the shots; that they are being hypothetical while the organization grinder is lurking from somewhere in the background, pulling the strings. Thereby the personalities battling to outdo each other in the civics are often seen as the elephants in the room.


This is why the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) is experiencing the upheavals and riding in personality driven manifestations of waves in an ocean. If the grinders pulling the strings halt their acts of personality ‘differences’, sanity will prevail at this cog of young and dynamic academic activism. It is therefore notable that the ‘split’ in ZINASU is not hinged on the issues of constitutionalism but the forces of insurgence aimed at weakening the union.

If these forces colliding at the union are to hold their horses, the students will start reorganizing themselves and forge ahead with their academic freedom campaigns with the hope to free the students from the collapse of the education system in Zimbabwe. Above the battle of personalities at ZINASU lies a constituency of suffering students, coming from humble backgrounds, whose main agenda is to attain academic credentials, as the only attainable escape route from the demon of poverty. This can only happen when well meaning colleagues within or without the union are to chip in and facilitate the reign of sanity, rather than employing divisive tactics, which will not help the students to achieve their goals.

The crisis which has been brought by the constitutional making process should therefore be revisited, since it has created some rattling of shock in the civic organizations and the political parties themselves.

The constitution making process should be understood from a point of fact that constitutions are meant to overhaul and redress socio-economic and political imbalances which are deeply embedded in any given fabric of a society. This is mainly so given the fact that constitutions are either written in post conflict periods or in transitions such as was the situation with South Africa, which wrote its constitution under a transition.

For this to happen, there is a need to dispel the mind games being played by the three political parties in government, namely a) Zanu PF seeks to smuggle provisions in the constitutions which shoves away issues of restorative justice must be dealt with in a new constitution and ensure that crimes are swept under the carpet b) the MDCs should be careful of falling in the trap of thinking that its role in government would be drafting a constitution that will liquidate Zanu PF – its role is to abide by its founding values on constitutional making process which allows the peasant, the intellectuals, labour, media, church, women and students among others to play an active role in writing their country’s constitution. The three political parties in short should understand that the constitution making process is not a power contest – no institution or individual(s) can contest for power using the process of making the country’s contract between the governed and those governing unless individually or collectively the parties are not answerable to the people of Zimbabwe.

The MDC as a party of ‘excellence’ and the civic organizations who have all of a sudden found new reason in blindly following where-ever the government is going should be on a constant watch of the terrain which they are treading on. It’s very easy to erode the people’s confidence if organizations and movements are not firm on the covenants and ideals which have been reiterated over and over again.

The wobbling can be understood, given the fact that the MDC and some civic organizations manning the opposition or civic role through the anti-Mugabe crusade and pro-democracy positions not so long ago, found it easy to see things in stark terms: in black and white. No compromise. It’s the beauty of one being powerless, I believe. You don’t have to prove and justify all the things in measurable terms. All you have to do is to yell and hope someone across the barricade will take fright and accede to your demands.

The main danger forthwith in yelling is that of taking a militant pose in making promises to ingratiate your followers for the opposition and the public for the civics. That would be a grave mistake; promises have got political and budgetary consequences. The promises of a people driven constitution which registered Zanu PF’s first millennium defeat by a united CSO and united MDC are now having some political consequences on the MDC and posing serious response problems on the part of the CSOs. It’s neither the time nor the place to keep on yelling on who are the people through countless press conferences and conferences.

It’s time to come up with a constitution that will attempt to correct the ills that are so entrenched and have existed for so long which cannot be done through artificial plastic surgery. Hence the people of Zimbabwe should be given a chance to fully express the grey areas in their lives through factoring their views in an uncensored manner in a new people driven constitution which will surgery the state and the society at large. This will not be achieved when the three political parties have total control of the process from sub-committees to the chairing of the entire committee – those who want to believe that we will find a surgical process through people throwing water missiles at each other at a supposedly all stakeholder meeting should wake up and smell the coffee.

This is why I am opposed to this state led process of writing the constitution. It gives the three parties which are interested in a pending election to write a constitution – such a farce cannot be entertained level headedly as it propels power contests rather that enabling the people of Zimbabwe to express themselves. As said before this should be a revolutionary process of transforming the society. Ours is a society whose constitutional and socio-political ills date back to colonial settlement which need genuine constitutional reform to spare the country from further human rights violations.

The problem of lack of clarity of thought which is being forwarded by the CSOs is particularly from the so called ‘modern’ day civic activists. This is a new crop of cadres facing an identity crisis emanating from the fact that they have been employed in the government but are finding hard to relinquish their roles in the CSO. There is a lot of cross-pollination, whereby a decision made by the CSO coming from these modern activists should tally with the aspirations of the government – Zimbabwe deserves better!

This has led to adverse moments for the civic organizations, presenting it with confusion never witnessed before, which I can liken to ‘young adults’ who leave home to build a life of their own, but are not quite confident enough to take along their belongings. It is critical to make sure that the movement shakes off such confusion. When such a self introspection has been done, the kaleidoscope would have been shaken, the pieces would be influx, but very soon they will settle again, but my argument remains, before they do, there is a need to reorder and realign the movement.

Taking lessons from South Africa, they drew the Freedom Charter in 1955 and it was done by people of principle and virtue, who gave future generations a constitutional architectural design as a model of a society and the governance which over decades has inspired and guided revolutionary activities at all convincible levels of their political, military and constitutional struggles.
In 1994, April the 27th the charter survived the test of time and remained the colossal at which the South African constitution was premised on. It was to become a life time value system and covenant upon which the people of South Africa’s struggles were to be found, but such bonds only work when the leadership, the CSOs and any other pro-democracy forces are of a strong principle hold.

In this country, the so called civic leadership will attend conventions, all stakeholders meetings and come up with binding documents which are supposed to be creating the bind but less than a decade, in this struggle post the movement’s formation, the modern day activists have reined in a circle of confusion. Given such a scenario, it’s high time to re-set the buttons and start on a clean sheet.

The progression of Zimbabwe coming in the form of providing leadership to its people leading to the attainment of better lives and a return to the rule of law should remain our bible. The quarrels and perceived splits are only but buttressing individual egos at the expense of the people of Zimbabwe’s desire for a better country where all men and women have got equal access to opportunities and the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Tabani Moyo is a free thinker, who writes on issues affecting his country. He writes from Gokwe and can be contacted on rebeljournalist@yahoo.com or moyojz@gmail.com