Why Supporting the MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube is a Wise Decision

The following is excerpted material from an article originally written by Tshepo Mabalane Mabalane titled "Even Mbuya Nehanda and King Lobengula were never going to vote for Zanu-PF". I Mabalane a standing ovation for this incisive and highly informative article. The excerpts read:

After reading and following the MDC-Green (the MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube) in the past 6 months, it is clear that they want to recapture the Benjamin Burombo, Masotsha Ndlovu, Jairos Jiri and Tafi Moyo kind of nationalism and its citizenship which was based on equality [the named individuals were some of the earliest nationalists of Zimbabwe]. But the MDC Green party finds some of our people caught up in sentiments than to reason in their decision-making processes.

Four things count against him [Professor Ncube] and his attempt to remould the Zimbabwe from the decay that we know it to be today into a sane and progressive prosperous society.

First, he pushes principle and order, but Zimbabwe thrives on anarchy, and a lot of people are benefiting including civil society. When order is attained, like when the AIDS cure is found the well runs dry for many people.

Second, he refuses to be confined to the Nkomo country [meaning Matebeleland by the characterization of Mugabe in the early 80s], he is a national leader. We see him in Mutoko and Mabvuku drawing huge crowds only for the army to disrespect people's individual rights and their freedom of choice and association. The slogan grows Welsh Kwese Kwese, Kwese Kwese Welsh. That means he upsets the idea that there is a Mugabe or Nkomo country. Zanu-PF and MDC-T want it to exist for the simple reason that they can continue to have it easy by appealing to sentiment than reason.

Zanu and MDC-T are not the only obstacles, Mthwakazi independence groups now, due to discrimination and oppression don't want devolution they want a separate state because they believe Nkomo country exists.  They cannot be wished away, because these are not laymen, these are roses that grew from concrete, if they unite they surely will appeal to sentiment and the situation will not be ideal for anyone.

Here we are talking of people who know the way to the courts and this time it will not be phony dissidents created by a government that want to chastise a people. Some in this group are also not keen on MDC-Green because they believe Ncube is reversing the secession gains that they feel they have made because he advocates devolution and is a national leader for a Zimbabwe nation which to them doesn't exist. Therefore the problem for Welshman is that he upsets the idea of both a

Nkomo and a Mugabe country. This is a divisive form of citizenship that not even an illiterate Nehanda would have accepted.

Third, top leadership in his party represents a re-birth, a regeneration. But for a country that thrives on primordial settings it is a challenge. Take a look at top five in the MDC Green party, Welshman Ncube, Dave Coltart, Priscilla Misihairabwi Edwin Mshoriwa and Goodrich Chimbaira.  Welshman is minority according to ascribed ethnicity and comes from the Middlands, by and large an insignificant region because it has always seen different ethnicities living peacefully side by side; and he is conversant in Shona, Ndebele and Kalanga without qualms. Coltart is white, the narrative in Zimbabwe has always been anti-white and racist. Misihairabwi, is female in a patriarchal Zimbabwe if not mysoginist Zimbabwe where a Prime Minister or feminist groups do not see any crime in sleeping with and impregnating many women of all ages willy-nilly by a national leader. Mshoriwa and Chimbaira are relatively young, in a gerontocracy that Zimbabwe and therefore out.

Whichever one looks at it, this is one party that can break all records and show an inclusive citizenship. It is the only party that has the greatest chance of having a principled white or Ndebele or female or youthful as leader of Zimbabwe.

Fourth and finally, external funders have never wanted a party that is based on principle. African leaders should be dull, instruments or a conduit to African resources. African leaders must be chaotic and exhibit Stone Age behaviours.

MDC-Green fails to meet those paradigms. As a result mentioning the party or its leader excites anger and insults many westerners. And of course principle attracts enemies.  It is clear to everyone that a radical project that the MDC-Green is, removes these inequalities will ensure the coming in of a truly Zimbabwean nation premised upon political equality and undifferentiated rights of equal citizenship.

I am therefore not apologetic that, I will be part of the group of the group that will at least remove a brick from the Berlin wall. I will not be one who stands akimbo and wishes it away without realising that by their passivity are complicit to the standing of the wall.

Again I will not be one who wants to pull down the Berlin Wall and replace it with a fence for the sake of change (MDC-T). I have never believed in false revolutions of removing people out of office so that they can be removed later. I think it is traumatic to vote for leaders who think refined diesel comes out of a rock or those who cannot tell that 31 is less than 33.

That is not a reflection of the leaders but the DNA of the voters. These voters create and like leaders that partake in decision making processes that lack exposure to rigorous debate and the full airing of alternatives. Those that have alternative views face imminent death or are labeled sellouts or divisive figures. We are reduced to Schadenfreudes people that derive pleasure form the misfortune of others brought upon them owing to their ethnicity or region where they were born.

In conclusion, we do not have to have read or be fans of Franz Fanon to accept the truth that every people are faced with the challenge of discovery, the mission of their generation, either to betray it or deliver on it. What is our mission as a youth in Zimbabwe? The rejection of a failed and divisive leadership. The mission to stand up for shared citizenship, to stand up for everyone including minorities, child, woman, youth, handicapped, Kalanga, Karanga. Tonga, Nambya, Nguni, white, Zezuru, Manyika, Ndau, Shangani, Tsonga, Venda, Korekore, Lozi, Lemba, Nyanja or Sotho.

Ndzimu-unami Emmanuel Moyo waMakulukusa is the author of two books, The Rebirth of Bukalanga and The Case for a Federal Republic of Zimbabwe. He can be contacted on ndzimuunami@gmail.com.