By Nomazulu Thata | We always realize extremely late that we the general populace is taken for a ride by people without any conscience, unscrupulous chancers in politics who masquerade as genuine revolutionaries and yet they are lining their pockets at our expense.

We are a desperate nation that seeks leadership to our chronic economic and political demise. We can believe anything we are told and hang on to it, do not even question genuinely their words and promises. Albert Matapo is not the only one to dupe us into thinking he has the means to redeem us from Zanu PF, there are several of them, but I will mention one: Pastor Evan Mawarire.

We learnt until extremely late last year 2020 that the man of God Pastor Evan Mawarire was an underhand, an implant of killer, a thug Mnangagwa. He was assigned to dub us and G-40 to thinking he was new crop intended to bring change in Zimbabwe through a revolution. This flag made history in Zimbabwe, Africa and abroad. We bought flags and surrendered our allegiance to the man of God: The right honourable Pasto Mawarire. He was dynamic, he was eloquent in speech and convincing us that he was the man of the moment: we went wild. When he was incarcerated, we went into overdrive, bought flags to identify ourselves with his cause wrote letters to Bremen amnesty international pleading with them to be active and voice their concern about ruthless government of then President Robert Mugabe that is silencing dissenting voices. 

The Right Justice Priscilla Chigumba tried the case of Pastor Evans Mawarire and was set free on the first sitting. That should have raised a red flag, it did not. Pastor Mawarire was threatened by the powers that be that his pregnant wife was going to be raped. (If at all was true) Mawarire fled to South Africa enroute America. It should have dawned on us how he broke down; wept bitterly in one interview he made in South Africa. He was asked why he was fleeing leaving Zimbabwe at a time the people needed his leadership most. He was giving his back to the electorate who stood by him thick and thin at the Rotten Row court. We had no clues whatsoever why he wept so bitterly. His conscience was compelling and pelting him perhaps that what he was doing was wrong. Even Judas Iscariot, it is said, wept when he had realized the seriousness of selling Jesus Christ with 30 pieces of silver.

That interview he made in South Africa did not open our eyes either to realize that this man is fake, a big sell-out. We supported him all the same convinced that he was the right person to lead us to Canaan. When he arrived in USA, he was given asylum without an iota of doubt that he was seeking refugee from a brutal regime of Robert Mugabe. He had been written about in several international news media as the hero of the moment. The nation in the opposition pedestalized him as saviour. At last we had a courageous man who could stand against the Zanu PF.

Again in no time, hardly half a year had gone by, Mawarire was back in Zimbabwe. A pseudo (state managed) arrest was made at the airport upon his arrival. Mawarire had gained a lot of weight, fish and chip and ice cream and fast foods of America were visible in his body, a different man from the previous times. He was right, before #This flag, Mawarire and his family languished in poverty. Now it was eating time. Politics of the stomach.

We started to talk because things were not adding up to full total. Why is he back, risking arrest? What do those relaxed smiles in handcuffs at the back of an open police van mean? He was packaged in a land-rover that showed Mawarire, Mahere and all other well-wishers with big smiles all over their faces. He did not mind his arrest to our surprise. His interviews even with international journalists did not make sense anymore. Many questions were asked but we did not come out with tangle suspicion that this man is taking us for a ride. But his coming back sold him out, we did not put the jigsaw together and say what exactly it was between the lines. This problem remained in the air, unable to decipher the truth, to link the dots together about Pastor Evans Mawarire.

Evan Mawarire had chances that he played down when he arrived back from USA, curiously. Mawarire was approached by Nkosana Moyo, a presidential candidate who wanted him to be part of his 2018 elections campaign management. Whatever were reasons, we did not get it why it was not possible for Mawarire to team up with established opposition parties but preferred to go it alone and he becomes an independent, as councillor in Harare. According to me Mawarire fell from grace: from a presidential material to a mere councillor? Again that did not add to full total, not so long ago, Mawarire had the entire nation behind him.

Zimbabweans had a identified a leader in him. Little did the nation know that their prayers at Rotten Row High Court: “Herodi sunungura Mawarire: please free Mawarire” were the songs sung as vigil that saw him released. In retrospect, if Justice Chigumba was presiding over Mawarire’s case in court, no doubt, he was set free. As we now know Priscilla Chigumba is an implant of Mnangagwa with dubious connections. Zimbabwe is a dirty place to mingle in politics.

There is lot that we can say about the man of God who sold the nation for his stomach; to nurture his family. When the international press asked him the reasons why he came up with such a forceful movement: #This Flag, so powerful, so effective, a movement feared by Zanu PF. He spoke about his situation at home, that he was no longer able to feed his family with his merger salary of a pastor. As a young growing up child, he had witnessed independence that ushered a new dawn to the coming generation. He saw #flag of Zimbabwe in 1980 that had many aspirations for the future generations of this country. But here he was, immersed in poverty that is a threat to his children, he cannot adequately provide for them. Pastor Evan Mawarire spoke the truth in that interview: a truth that fell short of one piece of a jigsaw: he had to sell out to Mnangagwa to remove himself alone from poverty and not the nation.

Let me come back to the title of my article: Where is Albert Matapo? We Zimbabweans have this problem and habit of believing any social media without questioning the objectivity of their news. I have been listening to Gambakwe media for a while, a social media that gives us unfettered: unregulated, unchecked, unscrutinised news about Zimbabwe. In most cases it is news we want to hear and not the objectivity of it. It is in these U-Tube videos where I got to know Comrade Albert Matapo talking to the owner of Gambakwe media. Again I am one of those who believed that Mr. Matapo had answers to Zimbabwe political situation. He can explain his revolution amazingly easy to understand and comprehend the processes he was going to take to liberate Zimbabwe. For that reason this is exactly what we gullible want to hear: simple -to-understand solutions. The desperation in us as a nation make us listen and believe the stupidity of the last order.

Among other things that Albert Matapo spoke about is his comfort with the Zimbabwean army. He was going to lead the revolution and he is backed by the international community and of course the army. Zimbabweans will be free at last, freed from the bloodless revolution he was masterminding with the persons supposedly in the army. Matapo was organising his revolution inside Zimbabwe, collecting signatures from Zimbabweans to support his cause. He managed to mobilize people to work underground for him. He once travelled to South Africa and told us that he wanted to be near Zimbabwe for a while to coordinate with his people on the ground in collecting signatures.

When he returned to Sweden where he is currently domiciled, a man from Matabeleland North in Dete was caught by police in position of 4000 signatures from Matabeleland North residents. I am one of those people from Matabeleland who has said it loud that we did not need to take part in national demonstrations and signature collections. To unseat Zanu PF must be done by the people of Mashonaland who voted for Zanu PF in 1980. U Mafukufuku Dr. Joshua Nkomo told Zimbabweans to vote nontribal. Never give your vote to tribalists. Zanu PF is a tribal party please do not vote for it. We are stuck with Zanu: Matabeleland and Mashonaland put together. We now suffer the same atrocities from the Zanu PF regime.

I had hoped that the Mthwakazi parties were going to follow this story of a man from Dete who was incarcerated by the police in possession of 4000 signatures. The whole exercise has connotations of tribal betrayal. I have never heard one single incident where someone from Mashonaland was caught collecting signatures from the public for Albert Matapo. I will be excused if I said Albert Matapo is an army implant set to put the people of Matabeleland at the mercy of Zanu PF army. Gukurahundi is not a myth. Albert Matapo is well connected in the army in as much as Pastor Evan Mawarire was an implant from Mnangagwa Lacoste back then. I ask Albert Matapo to explain the to give us a satisfactory explanation of the whereabouts of the Dete man in question. Is he in prison? Where is he?

It is easy to recognize an informant; easy to identify someone who is not genuine with his words and actions: Albert Matapo is not truthful. I confess one thing: I once phoned Albert Matapo in Sweden and told him that I liked his movement. I asked why he is not making an alliance with political parties such as Nkosana Moyo’s APA party because Nkosana has a workable manifesto and constitution better than all other political manifestos put together. He declined this alliance, wanted to go it alone. That should have raised my eyebrows but did not then, only now.

It was year-in, year-out, continuous, and unending promises of independence from Zanu PF Mnangagwa by the end of the year rang hollow. The same Gambakwe media asked Matapo again, when is independence for Zimbabwe coming; it is 3 years down the line, and we are told the same liars: Freedom is coming tomorrow!!! There is no video conference with Gambakwe media because he has exhausted all the trick and liars, he could tell us.

Rumours are flying around that Advocate Mahere is a Zanu PF implant. I have never written one article challenging those that say Mahere is a Zanu PF implant inside MDC-Alliance. If the presidium in MDC-Alliance are comfortable Fadzai, who am I to challenge their wisdom. My appreciation for Fadzai Mahere is her gifted and talented aspect of a woman, something we older generation should embrace. However, we are a lot wiser now. Taneta nekuitiswa veduwe.