“in Africa, those with power have no ideas and those with ideas have no power. This is what impedes development in Africa…”
By Nomazulu Thata | The Shona adage goes like this: Ave madziva ave mazambuko, musoro we gudo chave chinokoro. I cannot agree more. Indeed the great VP Phelekezela Mphoko is now a shadow of himself in the city of Kings and Queens: Bulawayo. Who ever thought in his/her imagination that this time around this once powerful man will the following year be politically a dust bin? This is African politics, very unpredictable and convoluted.
His fall was as unpredictable as his sudden rise to power. Even to date it is not clear how former VP Mphoko surpassed other contenders in the chase game to land in the presidency: what criteria was used to give Mphoko the VP post? Either than being a bootlicker of former President Robert Mugabe, being a CIO agent, absconding from Zapu camps in Zambia in the 1970s, settling in Mozambique, marrying a Mozambican woman to get residence a permit when he quit the liberation war altogether, VP Mphoko had nothing in his name to deserve the position he got clandestinely and nicodemously behind the back of his Zapu PF counterparts. This is African politics per-se, a trade like no other.
The Kenyan Professor, PLO Lumumba said, “in Africa, those with power have no ideas and those with ideas have no power. This is what impedes development in Africa. In Europe, politicians chase each other with sound ideas and sell those ideas to the electorate for them to get elected and hold political offices. Within hours of election day, the election results will be out and by the end of the day, the whole nation will have known who won those elections: that is not the case in African elections:” the good professor said.
If indeed African politics during the election time was a game of ideas, Dr. Nkosana Moyo would have resoundingly won the elections. He stands out as one presidential candidate who had clear vision of what is to be done to revive the rotten economic and social mess Zimbabwe finds itself in today. Nkosana Moyo came distant last in the July council parliament and presidential elections, but for goodness sake he had good well thought through and genuine ideas.
Corruption is a cancer and is rampant in Zimbabwe and indeed in the Sub-Sahara African countries. The culture of patronage since the inception of our independence in 1980 destroyed Zimbabwe economically, socially and otherwise to it to be called a pariah state. What value adding was VP Phelekezela Mphoko bringing to develop Zimbabwe either than absolute loyalty and obedience he pledged to Robert Zanu PF? VP Mphoko did what he promised Mugabe personally: he exonerated Mugabe and all them all of genocide atrocities of the early 1980s perpetrated by the ZanuPF elite. Having promised the former president Robert Mugabe that he was capable of dealing with any “Mathebele malcontents” that raise their voices about the past genocide atrocities, Gugurahundi is a western conspiracy: that alone he was honoured with a high civil servants post of vice presidency, was able or permitted to squat at the best hotel in Harare Sheraton for more than 24 months at the paltry tax payer’s pockets. He was highly insensitive of the suffering of the masses in Zimbabwe.
VP Phelekezela Mphoko had become so powerful; he could disregard the Zimbabwe police authority and break into the police cells to release the Chief Executives: Moses Juma and Davison Norupiri from police cells. The two had been arrested on serious charges of theft by defrauding the parastatal of about 1, 3 million US dollars. He illegally used his power to set them free by the wink of his eye, compromising the National Prosecuting Authority and the Judiciary powers: disregarding the fact that the two faced serious crimes of theft. VP Mphoko claimed to be higher than Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission ZACC; the commission had no power to question the “authority” and office of the VP, his Excellency Phelekezela Mphoko.
Where is His Excellency VP Phelekezela Mphoko today? He is in the dungeons of unpredictable Zimbabwean politics, haunted by the very comrades who were once his cabal in the echelons of power. God forbid, he never saw that coming, that he could overnight become a fugitive, from a state visit he landed in Botswana seeking refuge after the dethronement of President Robert Mugabe: the coup, but not a coup of November 2017. President Khama sent him packing within days to face the new dispensation of Mnangagwa government that would have none of him in the new government.
Phelekezela Mphoko was indeed appointed as Vice President of the Republic of Zimbabwe in 2014. His name will go down in the Zimbabwe history as having set foot in the presidency of the Republic. He was once addressed as His Excellency the acting President if Mugabe was out of the country. But the former VP Mphoko’s political history is challenging to follow. After independence Mphoko family came back from Mozambique where he was holed up for the rest of the struggle for independence. To get some cake in the ruling elite of the newly independent Zimbabwe, he joined the notorious secret agent service called CIO that was responsible for purging of Zapu PF members of Shona speaking and the peoples of Mathebeleland as a whole.
Dissenting voices talked loud about his nomination as VP. His presidency was created to counter balance the tribal powers in the ruling Zanu PF leadership. Those voices were dissatisfied about Mphoko becoming VP ahead of the late Khutshwekaya Ndlovu who was by any standards more senior that Mphoko. Mphoko was no match to Khutshwekaya Ndlovu when it came to capacity and intellect.
Some series of articles were written by some woman supposedly in the UK: (she lives in Germany) this woman was none either than Nomazulu Thata. The fight started between VP Mphoko and Nomazulu Thata, a woman who dared to call the most honourable VP in the land, “a member of Mugabe’s notorious secret army, a CIO, a political malcontent, an ex-Zipra soldier who absconded in the middle of the liberation in the 1970s. The residents of Bulawayo should never attend his come-together gathering at Davis Hall in Bulawayo”: she wrote in her articles. The VP was incensed about those articles; he wrote back, threatened this woman with legal action. He was going to sue her with unspecified sum of money as his name is indeed worth those millions!
When this woman continued to write articles critiquing the VP Mphoko’s post, she questioned his stay at the Sheraton hotel at the expense of the tax payer, the honourable VP decided to ignore the woman, his position was too big to give her audience, a woman for that matter supposedly squatted in Europe in the first place: UK or Germany nobody knows, he did not care to know. Mphoko was immersed, engrossed in the looting spree, how much privilege and money can he get and enjoy with his family while it lasted? That trick to ignore her worked well, indeed the Thata woman stopped writing those “defaming” articles about Mphoko when she realized there was no further response from the honourable Vice President. Mphoko: he opined and realized that it did not make any difference at all if this woman wrote those cheeky articles about him. Her writing about him did not hinder his looting of state treasury and abuse of power. His Excellency Mphoko and the entire family continued to enjoy the bubble: unlimited abuse of power and money from the state treassury as long as it lasted.
Where Mphoko is today is a very important question all of us who want to enter into politics should take heed of. We should ask ourselves what we really want to achieve if we were part of the ruling elite. What is politics for me? Is it to serve my immediate family needs as was the case with former VP Mphoko? Is politics some kind of employment for me as a person? Do I have the qualities to serve the nation have I got leadership qualities to execute political office? What drives one to enter politics? What change do I want to see if I entered the competition of ideas? Do I have the good ideas to bring change to the most disadvantaged? What values and principles do I have as a person first and foremost to advocate for change at national level?
Professor PLO Lumumba of Kenya is calling upon the young generation to rescue its own Africa, some paradigms shift is demanded of them young people to see politics not as some employment but a big responsibility to serve the nation and nations. The youthful Julius Malema’s EFF of South Africa is on the right path, he has the calling for higher office. Julius Malema is a selfless and fearless leader: how many young Julius Malemas do we have in Zimbabwe? He has gained respect even outside Africa. We have had and seen enough of selfish African politicians. A politics of patronage cannot be a buzzword for African politics. Our children deserve better.
This woman called Nomazulu Thata wishes to bump into former VP Phelekezela Mphoko in the streets of Bulawayo now without any presidential security details around him, but all the same he will be safe with her, apart from writing articles, her weapon is her simple fearless pen worth five cents in German shops and nothing else, she is otherwise harmless specie in the global ecosystems. The Shona adage goes again: chisinga peri chinoshura veduwe! Musoro wegudo chave chinokoro zvemene. In German I would have said: wir sind alle gleich im Sinne des worte, die lexte Hemd hat keine tasche!