MUSONZA ASKS BRIAN AND BRIGGS, "WHY COALITIONS NOW??"

You don't get, it do you Briggs and Brian? Why coalitions now? Where have you been? Let's stop abusing unity and vision for our own political agenda. Zimbabweans are united and have been united for many years and moons, but unfortunately they cannot exercise those choices that could shape their destiny due to the dictatorship currently prevailing, and have been let down by the conniving beneficiaries of this tyranny amongst the rich and influential.

Unity is not the problem in our country, class is. For many years, since the beginning of our problems, the middle and upper class have helped create the current situation by passively not getting involved in the politics of things. I know quite a lot who gleefully gloat and boast kuti, "I have never been to a polling booth", as if its a legendary badge of honour. That's why I don't buy into so called agents of change. Change should be owned by its subjects and not self appointed individuals.

For all the years, while poor folks have been clobbered, tear-gassed, and butchered by Zanu PF thugs in the slums; 2, 3 story houses have been sprouting in the North Western suburbs of Harare, food has been available, or they could just travel to South Africa or Botswana to buy some. Come election day, they don't feel part of it.

Some of them through Zanu PF patronage have built large corporate empires, using my contributions at NSSA, as the cash cow, Pension Funds have been used to built them modern classy Offices, while the poor redundant worker is send packing into no man's land without any help at all. Most of the companies at the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange owned by this breed of neo liberals, who are now propping up the Simba Makoni agenda, have been financed and capitalised through NSSA. You don't simply get access to NSSA without Zanu PF connection, can you? Credit to them they have been enterprising, but what have they given back to the poor communities? Why have they been not able to influence political change, then?

In my working life as an Accounting professional in both government and private sector, I have seen enough of this rogue band of this lot.

Yes, they fear a labour-based movement would deal them a blow to their cynical business practices. Hence, the likes of Trevor Ncube calls them "mediocre". Why do you want unity from mediocre people?

Now, the middle and upper-class feel they now want to dislodge their leader, and they gang up with other loose intellectuals and decide to call for unity to remove one Robert Mugabe when all the years, they have been ignoring those calls. This is annoying, to say the least.

At the recently held George Soros sponsored rogue World Economic Forum session in South Africa, Simba Makoni, Ibbo Mandaza, and Arthur Mutamabara where the key speakers from Zimbabwe, amongst the cream of global neo liberals, and those 3 are now leading a regrouping of same rogue businessmen and middle-upper class, spiced up by a gang of intellectuals now calling for unity. Where were you all these years?

If anyone thinks kuti this is the right strategy for "Zimbabwe's Reconstruction" as Brian calls it, then you're lost. An example cannot be further than across the Limpopo, in South Africa where Thabo Mbeki, the co-author of this Zimbabwean strategy, led a government of business driven agenda, but events on the ground shows a spectacular failure as most of the proceeds from national growth were repatriated outside through corporate dividends declared in boardrooms while the government is discouraged to put money into social investment, and energy leading now massive power-cuts, threatening the stability of what was once the gem of Africa. ANC as a party have had to reclaim their authority from these people to salvage a situation.

So, please while you support your Simba Makoni, stop abusing unity which you have passively discarded all these years. The Simba Makoni project is a business driven agenda and will remain so and we will oppose it even if he triumphs on March 29.

Credit, to those who have refused to join so called coalitions because they acknowledge they are accountable only to a grass-roots constituency that lives on beyond Tsvangirai or March 29 elections, and not to the whims of invisible external forces whose eyes are daily fixed on the Dow Jones, Dax, LSE, JNBE, and NIKKEI.
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From Brian Kagoro:
Colleagues

I am surprised by some sentiments that I am reading on this platform. If we are to include or exclude each other on the basis of when one joined the fight ,then very few people in the present democratic opposition -let alone civil society -would have the right to speak? Those of us who can claim to have founded NCA, Crisis Coalition;NGO-Human Rights Forum;etc were also late entrants into the game.When we arrived on the scene there were others who had Founded Women's Action Group(1983); ZimRights(1990);ZINASU(1986). Whilst we pride ourselves in the contributions we have and continue to make...we are mindful that others preceeded us on this path. This humbles us and teaches us to accept those who joined much later and those who are joining even now. Many of you might not remember that the year that Raymond Majongwe was leader of the UZ-SRC my good friend Morgan Tsvangirayi and his leadership banned the UZ Students Union from addressing and participating in May 1st activities for having booed Nathan Shamuyarira for suggesting that workers were lazy in 1992. You may not know that I had to plead with Morgan and Izidore Zindoga for Learnmore Jongwe to be allowed to address the May 1st celebrations in 1997/8. That as part of the pact we had to ensure that Jongwe's speech was well manicured to avoid any offense(this task was assigned to Deprose Muchena copied into this e-group). There are those who may not know that the much celebrated advisor to the MDC presidency- Professor Elphas Mukonoweshuro- was most rabidly oppossed to student activism as late as 1993. In fact that him and Professor Welshman Ncube were members of the UZ Student Disciplinary Committee which routinely expelled student leaders. The Professor Gordon Chavunduka was once the UZ SRC and ZINASU's arch rival. But when we were ready to form the NCA we accept the membership and leadership of these colleagues. Even former student leaders like myself who had been brutalized by the state machinery and victimized by the UZ Administration accepted the need to build an inclussive democratic movement. I am grateful for the insights and wisdom and experience that Mukonoweshuro; Welshman Ncube and Gordon Chavunduka have brought into the broader democratic movement. That movement has some white elements who were rabidly racist; it has former army officers; retired police officers and many who were in Zanu PF. As we say in shona "ZVIPOPI ZVINOSVINURA NGUVA YAKASIYANA". In other words, puppies born on the same day will only gain their full sight(perception/vision) at different times. Should those who were not fighting Zanu PF like Mutambara did in 1989 be disqualified? Should those who were demonstrating aginst ESAP like Morgan Tsvangirayi did in 1992 shut up? Should those who were not expelled from the UZ like Tawandah Mutasa and Paul Rumema Chimhosva were in 1992 not speak? Some might ask ......where were you in 1988; in 1989; in 1991; or 1997 when we founded the NCA ? I say it doesn't really matter....it matters though that you are on the right side today and now! This Zimbabwe belongs to all of us and we can only build it if we learn how to include each other and build strategic alliances. For those who might not remember ....as we protested against the levies in 1998...workers built strategic alliances with their bosses(unthinkable for any purist!). Friends ,the task at hand is so big that no small group of brilliant revolutionaries or sycophants can accomplish it alone. We need to build coalitions and we need alliances. This does not mean that we are blind to our ideological differences....we are just alive to our strategic needs. Let me repeat .....I have been with the democratic forces and actors in Zimbabwe since 1989 and I can confirm and certify that I am yet to meet a saint amongst us! We are not in a beauty contest....this is real politics!

Brian
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From B Musonza:

The issue is not about Morgan Tsvangirai, or personalities Brian. It is about class and a business driven agenda for the way forward, as a matter of ideological perspective. I have never been to the UZ as a student. I only got to a University here in the Diaspora and so I cannot pontificate stuff I do not know. I am only learning about the infighting, power games in those Student organisations we thought were fighting for the poor, from you.

To sum it up, I think there was too much NGO money causing the malfunction of our civic society.

My message is plain clear, lets not force coalitions and forget the importance of ideological differences amongst all stakeholders for the sake of removal of Mugabe. Remember, what we see in Kenya is all as a result of plastic coalitions. Let people preach their message, based on what they believe in and not this unity or coalitions mantra. This is only transitional politics and let us built our ideological bases that live beyond Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Makoni so that, in our ethnic groups we belong to these bases and not tribal groupings. If we destroy MDC because we hate Tsvangirai, then we all go on a Makoni wave, no credible opposition what have we achieved? Let us be united in what we believe in, and not out of desperation.

During your student activism, you were my hero and still now you are, Brian. I am not an active member of MDC, remember.
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