Cecil John Rhodes' colonial venture in Zimbabwe succeeded where Robert Gabriel Mugabe's post-colonial venture has dismally failed. Within a couple of years, the Rhodesian had a railway line stretching from Beira into the hinterland and another one jutting northwards out of South Africa. Cities and towns were sprouting up right across the land like mushrooms after a overnight thunderstorm. At breakneck speed, telegraph lines were crisscrossing the length and breadth of the same land. Though I do not agree with the Western concept of law and order, the Rhodesian had that institution firmly in place in short order, too. Rhodes, put simply, was a real Devil with leadership and a plan. The colonial project of establishing a Western-style and fully functional nation was in full motion right from inception.
The stark difference between Rhodes and Mugabe is a result of two seemingly simple but very important factors. Rhodes' venture had a serious leadership structure in addition to a very solid and actionable plan. Compare and contrast that with what we got from Mugabe and his crew of returning exiles, some of whom may have been fugitives running away from being held accountable for the crimes they had committed in Ian Smith's Rhodesia --- to paraphrase Liberation War heroin, who Fay Chung recently told Trevor Ncube that not everyone who was in exile had left Rhodesia with noble intentions.
Beyond his admirable eloquence, Mugabe came back from exile with neither a serious leadership structure nor an actionable long-term plan. After initially and successfully riding on the ZANU plans laid by honest men armed with rare natural leadership talent and unique vision, Chitepo and Sithole, time eventually came when the circumstances demanded leadership from Mugabe and his personal ZANU(PF) brand. Time, at the end, was very unkind to Mugabe. It exposed him as a man of very limited leadership abilities. When he tried to intervene, it was too late. Old age had caught up with him. He belatedly sought counsel outside of the circle of his treacherous and disingenuous praise singers. By that time, his henchmen and enforcers of his despotism had badly encircled him, thus holding him hostage till the publicly humiliating ouster from the councils of state, an ignominious and bitter death in exile and a raucous and apparently undignified funeral.
The results of Mugabe's lack of leadership are openly on display. Look at Mnangagwa, who Mugabe gave the patently false impression that he, Mnangagwa, had leadership qualities. Where Mugabe had charisma and charm, both of which he cleverly used to coverup his very limited leadership skills, Mnangagwa is a bumbling and inarticulate caricature. I find it quite ironic that his minions thought it was a wise idea to hire a washed-up Congolese singer to compose and sing a song in which he presumably praises Mnangagwa as number one and, yet, the song has the title of two Brazilian cartoon characters. Patiti and Patata are two clowns in a television cartoon show meant to entertain Brazilian infants.
To Mugabe's credit, I must admit, documents now being disclosed by the British Government reveal him privately accepting that he had limited abilities to lead a badly wounded nation emerging out of blood-soaked war. He asked Margaret Thatcher for a governor with whom he, Mugabe, expected to help lead the country in a transition period of five years. This was not an unprecedented request. It had been tried and tested as close to home as Zambia and far afield as Kenya.
I bring this history up as a reminder to Nelson Chamisa and Saviour Tyson Tyson Kasukuwere, both of whom are my Chirandu kith and kin. You have aspirations to occupy the highest office in the land. It is a right that you, as Zimbabweans, are fully entitled to. That right, however, comes with serious obligations and responsibilities. You seek to lead a country much unlike what Mugabe inherited from Ian Smith, or even what Rhodes built from 1890 onwards. Zimbabwe is a nation that is physically tattered and torn. It is a ruin. The people whom you seek to lead carry physical wounds and scars. Your compatriots have psychological trauma after decades on unyielding brutality and military siege. Before reviving and rebuilding the nation, you will have to clean up the mess that Mugabe created and that Mnangagwa is undeniably and happily piling up right now --- muchatoita vanamatanyera mogonhuhwa kunge zvimbuzi zvinoshandiswa nejekerere.
YOU MUST HAVE A SERIOUS LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE AND A VERY SOLID SLATE OF ACTION PLANS, IMMEDIATELY ACTION AND CONTINGENT. Zvekufunga kuti munongowunganidza fast-talking lawyers with curious but very native lilt to their voices or imitating Mugabe's charming-but-worthless eloquence before a crowd of cheering masses, uuuuuum, vaera Moyo, hazvizi kuzoshanda panguva yatiri uye basa riri pamberi apa. Inini zvangu ndiri Murozvi saka ndinongotaura sezvazviri. Ndakurumai nzeve nokuti ndiriwenyu.
Kana ndatadza ndiudzei nditi sorry, to quote the favourite disclaimer of one of my uterine MaMoyo sisters.
All the best of luck to both of you. I wish you well; I really do.
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