Deal Ushers New Direction in Zimbabwe

By Vusi Moloi © 2008

Zimbabwe entered a new era on Monday when it sealed a historic power sharing deal that will see Mr. Robert Mugabe retain his Presidency while Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai becomes the new Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Council of Ministers, a newly created body that oversees the cabinet. Moreover, the opposition will have a slight majority in the cabinet positions since the ruling Zanu-PF will have 15 cabinet posts while the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) along with another splinter group will control 16 cabinet posts. Mr. Tsvangirai will also be the Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet. The positions of Vice-Presidents will shared among the ruling party and the opposition.

This historic deal ushers a new era that inspires optimism in what was once an affluent country of Zimbabwe. The compliance mechanisms, Mr. Mbeki's policy, land question, writing own constitution, urgency of the economy and committing to political stability feature strongly in this earth-shaking agreement.

JOMIC to Ensure Compliance

A Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) will ensure compliance with the letter and spirit of the agreement. The African Union, SADC and the Facilitator will be the guarantors and underwriters of the agreement.

Historic Deal

This historic deal was architected under the skilled guiding hand of South Africa’s President Mr. Thabo Mbeki. Mr. Mbeki commands superior skills in brokering deals having acquired much of this expertise during his many exiled years as the Chief of the International Affairs of the then banned ANC (African National Congress). This agreement represents welcome news to Zimbabwe’s youth by establishing a National Youth Training Programme that
“inculcates the values of patriotism, discipline, tolerance, non-violence, openness, democracy, equality, justice and respect.”

The most feared Ministry of State Security will be scrapped under the new deal. While Mr. Mugabe retains control of the armed forces, Mr. Tsvangirai will likely control the police forces through the Home Affairs which is in charge of the police. Mr. Tsvangirai is also likely to take command of the financial and economic affairs of the new government of national unity giving him a groundbreaking opportunity to architect an ambitious programme of rapid economic recovery.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by its architect Mr. Mbeki and his impressive team along with many African leaders of the African Union, the European Union and others who commended the Zimbabwean leaders for braving a new chapter in a gutsy political agreement. Mr. Tsvangarai put it well when he observed that he was doing this on the basis of trust.

Mr. Mbeki’s Policy Vindicated

This historic achievement goes a long way to vindicate the intrepid policy of Mr. Mbeki who resisted endless pressure and mockery by many Western leaders who wanted South Africa to muscle its way and prescribe solutions to Zimbabwe. Mr. Mbeki has demonstrated that Africans are capable of solving their own problems and that dictatorship of terms by Western countries is at the tail end of its reign. Africans can safely ignore the typical domineering West and still chart an independent path in the great struggle for African freedom and advancement. Although European countries hailed the agreement as historic, their subsequent prescription that they wanted to see progress before lifting sanctions or providing economic assistance showed a classic case of not treating Africa as an equal and honourable partner and thus not deserving of the benefit of doubt. This breakthrough unequivocally reestablishes Mr. Mbeki as a skill technician in defying the forces of reaction by brokering an otherwise intractable deal.

Question of the Land

Both leaders issued a joint statement in which they called upon their former colonial master Britain to compensate Zimbabwe for the land. The document goes further into the question of the land by acknowledging the centrality of the land question. In fact it says "recognizing that colonial racist ownership patterns established during the colonial conquest of Zimbabwe and largely maintained in the post independence period were not only unsustainable but against the national interest, equity and justice". The document underscores the fact that "equity, productivity and justice" are not attainable without land distribution which lies at the core of the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe.

In an analytical article Why the West is Less Influential in Zimbabwe I detailed the issues surrounding the land and the fact that Britain reneged on the agreement with the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair absolving his administration of any responsibilities towards Zimbabwe on the land question. The broken promises by both England and USA on this question angered and continue to anger Mr. Mugabe and his people with the result that Mr. Mugabe has developed a fiery rhetoric on this issue.

Distributing Land and Writing Own Constitution

In hindsight, if both Mr. Joshua Nkomo and Mr. Robert Mugabe had refused to sign the Lancaster Agreement and instead opted for a protracted armed rebellion against the UDI colonial administration of Ian Smith, Zimbabwe would probably have been in a better position where, like the Chinese under chairman Mao, would have been able to write their own constitution and distribute their own land. Almost 30 years after Margaret Thatcher’s Lancaster Agreement, the people of Zimbabwe have yet to write their own constitution.

In fact this agreement makes a persuasive case for the people to write their own constitution “Acknowledging that it is the fundamental right and duty of the Zimbabwean people to make a constitution by themselves…Aware that the process of making this constitution must be owned and driven by the people and must be inclusive and democratic…Determined to create conditions for our people to write a constitution for themselves."

To achieve this urgent objective a new body Select Committee of Parliament, among other terms of reference, will oversee the completion of a draft constitution that was agreed to by all parties at Kariba on September 30th 2007.

The Urgency of the Economy

The economy is an urgent matter and the new body National Economic Council will be established with a composition of the private sector, government agencies and academia for purposes of championing Zimbabwe's economic recovery as well as endorsing the SADC resolution on the economy. Given the celebrated work ethic of the Zimbabwe people, Zimbabwe will go on to reclaim herself from the ravages of economic downturn after a deeply cut wound of backstabing by the colonial master Britain on the land question.

Political Stability

The agreement commits all parties to the "promotion of equality, national healing, cohesion and unity". The government will also make plans to attract the Zimbabweans in Diaspora. Could this mean the Zimbabweans living abroad would be allowed to have dual citizenship?


About Vusi Moloi

Vusi Moloi is a published author of A Goodbye To My Little Troubles and is also working on a documentary The Eyes of an Exile. A Goodbye To My Little Troubles is previewable online via Google Books.

Msholozi Shrugs Off the Sting of the Scorpions - Part I

By Vusi Moloi © 2008

Msholozi Shrugs Off the Sting of the Scorpions - Part II

The reigning President of South Africa’s ruling party ANC Mr. Jacob Zuma is now a free man. The charges brought against him by the unrelenting Scorpions on December 28 last year, were thrown out of court yesterday in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in the KwaZulu Natal Province. In his ruling, Judge Chris Nicholson dismissed with costs the charges against Mr. Jacob Zuma clearing the way for him to become the next President of South Africa in 2009. Now the NPA has to pay Mr. Zuma’s legal bills.

The unconquerable Msholozi who has shown the rare ability of recovering from setback was hugged by his loyal supporter the billionaire business man Mr. Tokyo Sexwale and many other supporters inside the court room. The crowd outside the court burst into Msholozi’s signature song Umshini Wami meaning “bring back my political machine”. Mr. Robert McBride, another hero of the South African liberation, was also in the court room. Mr. McBride’s mother was one of the women who attended the Women’s Liberation Conference of 1987 organized by the Federation of Transvaal Women at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. This writer rendered his revolutionary poetry at that conference.

The rejection of the NPA’s decision to charge Mr. Zuma sent jubilations among the ranks of the ANC (African National Congress), COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions), the ANC Youth League and the SACP (South African Communist Party) among others.

Interestingly, the court appearances of Msholozi have served more to buttress his professed innocence and fortify his unstoppable bid for the Presidency of the Republic of South Africa. With each court appearance, Mr. Zuma has mobilized and gained more cadres on the ground effectively silencing his incredulous critics along with their doomsday predictions. Some saw Msholozi’s charges as a form of vindictive trial designed to thwart Mr. Zuma’s rightful succession to the highest throne of the land in the 2009 General Elections.

The media that defamed Mr. Zuma during his ordeal may be facing libel or tough action from his supporters. This is already taking place in some cases where the media is being pressed for apology.

The Great Msholozi

By Vusi Moloi © 2008

Schooled in the struggle’s page
Irrevocable cadre at young age
A natural leader by convocation
Mechanisms of natural selection
Instructed in the university of life
Like a humble soldier to serve them
Chanting Umshini Wami anthem

Adversarial elements bellicose
Unleashed to induce comatose
To chip away at his rare calibre
To resist with a chanting timbre
A forcible foray uncalled for
Deliberate attempts to misconstrue
His song of economic emancipation
The great Msholozi threatens
Systems of economic apartheid
With a spine-tingling Umshini Wami
To reclaim the political machine

It's honouring to pay deserved tribute
To the unconquerable Msholozi
To remain true to his people
To emancipate from economic apartheid
A beautiful tribute to humble beginnings
An insignia of a venerable servitor
The great Msholozi whose time has come


Contextual Commentary

The indomitable African mongoose eventually destroys his formidable adversary. The hard earned victory comes as a result of a painstaking analysis and mastery of the slick movements of a fearsome cobra. In a daring exercise, like a lightening barrage, the African mongoose stakes his claim to the crown by preempting the cobra’s resourceful attempts to inflict a lethal blow. It is this kind of meticulous attention to detail that earns him the ultimate victory on shifting grounds.
From The Indomitable Mongoose by Vusi Moloi © 2008, Canada.

Teza Film Review

By Vusi Moloi © 2008

I had never been to the AMC theatre on Yong and Dundas. The movie Teza was slotted for 5:30PM on Wednesday September 10 in the great City of downtown Toronto. I arrived here early and perched myself comfortably on the top row seat. Shortly thereafter, a sharp looking African descendent with a touch of sophistication took to the stage. He introduced himself as Mr. Cameron Bailey the Co-Director of the Toronto International Film Festival or TIFF for short.

TIFF is the biggest film festival in North America and ranks only second to Cannes Film Festival in the entire world. It’s truly a great honour to be counted among those attending TIFF. Mr. Bailey thanked everyone that had come and spoke enthusiastically about the award winning movie Teza. The audience became infected with Mr. Bailey’s fervour as he introduced the internationally celebrated Ethiopian film maker of Teza Mr. Haile Gerima.

It was a special privilege to have Mr. Gerima in front of us. He thanked the audience and spoke briefly about Teza. He considered himself an outsider telling stories from the point of view of the outsiders. He expressed a powerful concept that, through the film medium, he had created a territorial space of freedom where he could express himself freely along with his people without interference from the outside. As a corollary, he was able to accept the outcome of such a freedom because any imperfections were his and not somebody else’s to attribute to. As Mr. Gerima was leaving the stage, Mr. Bailey quickly brought him back to say that even though Mr. Gerima was making reference to imperfections in his film, in fact Teza had won five awards at the Venice Film Festival to which the audience responded with a strong round of applause.

The philosophical idea of creating his own space that allowed him the unfettered autonomy or license to fashion his own destiny unimpeded resonated with me. As a published author of A Goodbye To My Little Troubles I have tasted this kind metaphorical freedom and I have since embraced it without letting go.

The highly regarded Mr. Gerima is a Professor of Film Directing and Scripting at the prestigious Howard University of the USA in Washington DC yet his humility is refreshing and only tends to increase his stature.

The lights dimmed and the glorious appearing of Teza on the silver screen arrested our attention. It was a powerful and moving movie. I will not go into details here so that you can go out there and watch Teza. More people need to go out to support African films. In brief this is about a German trained Dr. Anberber who returns to his homeland of Ethiopia in order to serve his people. He finds a different world from the one he had left long ago. This irreconcilable contradiction of his childhood idealism and the harsh realities of modernity under the iron fisted and communist President Mengistu and the war that ravaged a beautiful country came as a stunning shocker. Abeye Tedla who plays Dr. Anberber renders a poignantly brilliant performance along with exceptional performances of other credible actors like Evelyn Arthur Johnson, Veronika Avraham and Aaron Arefe among others. The film underscores the relevant issues of identity crisis and the great struggle for African freedom.

At the end of the film, the director came to the front to join the audience. He was treated to a long standing ovation and most enthusiastic applause I have ever witnessed. It was such a heartfelt moment and a well deserved tribute to Mr. Gerima who has become a legend in his own right. Moreover Mr. Gerima was seemingly humbled by such outpouring of love as he repeatedly bowed solemnly to acknowledge his enamoured audience. He allowed the audience to pose questions and this writer asked about the part of the movie where a mixed heritage boy whose mother (played by Veronika Avraham) is German and his doctor father (played by Aaron Arefe) is Ethiopian. The boy struggles with his harsh experiences of racism while his father is in Ethiopia. The boy wishes for his father to come to Germany to rescue him from the clutches of a Eurocentric society that he finds racially inhospitable. I pointed out that this was a powerful story that resonates with many of us whose children are born in Canada but are not accepted as well as other children of an Anglo Saxon background.

Often these children, from time to time, come home with tears on account of the manner in which they were unfairly treated by some teacher or affronted by their peers at school by reason of their African heritage. I asked him as to what motivated him to include this story.

Mr. Gerima replied that he had met a girl who was crying and she said to him “speak for me” and this motivated him to add this part of the movie story. We met the director outside the theatre to thank him one more time. He was quick to shake my hand and I shall forever cherish this honourable moment with an internationally celebrated Film Director Mr. Haile Gerima and a proud son of the African soil.

About Vusi Moloi

Vusi Moloi is a published author of A Goodbye To My Little Troubles and is also working on a documentary The Eyes of an Exile. A Goodbye To My Little Troubles is previewable online via Google Books.

Zimbabwe Headed for a Political Breakthrough

by Vusi Moloi

There are unconfirmed reports that Zimbabwe is headed for a political breakthrough in the resolution of the current impasse. The South African President Mr. Thabo Mbeki is mediating a political solution that will see the major opposition party MDC of Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai and the ruling ZANU-PF of President Mr. Robert Mugabe commit to a power sharing deal that allows the country to rise from its current state of stagnation. If this long awaited settlement materializes, it will strengthen the hand of Mr. Thabo Mbeki with respect to his SADC mandate of brokering a credible solution to Zimbabwe’s crisis. Southern African has a vested interest in the survival and prosperity of Zimbabwe.

It has always been suggested by African experts that only an African oriented solution will bring about a credible dispensation that empowers the people of Zimbabwe to get on with their lives un-encumbered by any dark cloud hanging over their head. In the analytical article Why the West Is Less Influential in Zimbabwe published on this blog, it was pointed out that the people of Zimbabwe felt backstabbed when Britain reneged on its commitments under the Lancaster Agreement. It’s not known if Britain has since taken any credible steps or made good faith attempts to remedy the situation.

Should Zimbabwe make the necessary breakthrough this week, it will usher a new phase that may see Zimbabwe on the road to a more serious work of rebuilding a country long battered by instability and Western sanctions. The people of Zimbabwe are reported to be eager to work hard for a prosperous future of their beautiful homeland. The people of Zimbabwe are well known to be among the most dedicated and hardworking.