Nomusa Garikayi | There are lies that are believable because they have some sprinkling of truth to them. Then there are damn lies where everything is so far-fetched that no one can possibly believe them. Vice President, Phelekezela Mphoko’s recent allegation against MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, falls into the latter category of lies.

“Tsvangirai was around here recently and said as MDC-T, they want to fix the Gukurahundi issue and also said Zanu-PF has failed and he can do it. Let us not forget that when the late Nkomo’s car was shot at he (Tsvangirai) was at the fore-front, when an officer-in-charge was killed in Tsholotsho he was there too. The same person wants to address the Gukuraundi issue now,” said VP Mphoko.

The whole allegation is based on the assertion that Tsvangirai was a Zanu PF commissar during the Gukurahundi period.

Tsvangirai is corrupt and incompetent, his political track record speaks volumes on the matter. However, there is nothing in Tsvangirai’s political record to suggest that he was involved in the Gukurahundi massacre; indeed, his track record as a blundering fool would suggest he was not involved considering the sickening extend of the murders! The allegations are so far-fetched one must dismiss them with the contempt they rightly deserve.

Tsvangirai never rose to the rank Zanu PF political commissar at provincial much less at national level because he would have been in the party’s politburo or central committee level, which he was not. So, he was a Zanu PF commissar at village or cell level in Bindura or his rural home Buhera – far, far away from Matebeleland and the Midlands were the Gukurahundi massacres took place.

The question then arises; why would Mugabe; with a whole battalion of North Korean trained murderers plus thousands of other Zanu PF murderous thugs like Perence Shiri and Emmerson Mnangagwa ready and willing to do his dirty bidding; seek the services of a blundering low ranking party member like Tsvangirai to carry out what would have been the most audacious and high profile murder of the day – the shooting PF Zapu Leader, Joshua Nkomo? Most people know Tsvangirai was trying to make a name for himself as Secretary General of ZCTU by grovelling to Mugabe!

Professor Jonathan Moyo, the most notorious political turn-coat in Zimbabwean politics, not one to be left out of any political intrigue and controversy, has supported VP Mphoko’s stupid allegation for mileage.

“This disclosure on Mr Tsvangirai’s Gukurahundi CV is new and very serious. It must be investigated!” piped in the Professor.

I am sure Professor Jonathan Moyo has heard of the Chihambakwe Commission report on the Gukurahundi massacre; the Professor should demand that the report must now be made public. The report will certainly be the logical starting point of the investigation he is calling for!

Both Professor Moyo and VP Mphoko, who were in the intelligence services during the massacres, know many of the people in Zanu PF who played the key roles in the Gukurahundi intimidations, beatings, rapes and cold-blooded murders of defenceless civilians – far bigger roles than someone like Tsvangirai played. These gentlemen are jazzing up Tsvangirai’s alleged role not out of seeking the truth about the Gukurahundi massacre, but rather to soil as many other people’s names with Mugabe and Zanu PF’s cardinal sin.

Indeed, if the truth of the Gukurahundi days was ever told, it will not be surprising that both Professor Moyo and VP Mphoko were more complacent in the murder of the innocent people in Matebeleland, for example, than Tsvangirai, the man they are pointing the accusing finger at!

President Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs were responsible for the Gukurahundi massacres, it was the most significant step in the establishment of the de facto one-party dictatorship the nation has suffered under since signing of the unity accord with PF Zapu in 1987. Tsvangirai has his faults but to accuse him of playing a role in the massacre is nonsense. We cannot accuse the skunk of fouling the air when we can see and smell rotten fish.