Either Trevor and Benjani are foreigners, or both Zimbabwean!

By Daniel Fortune Molokele

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/fortune84.15789.html

Last updated: 01/08/2007 18:07:51

THE news that the Robert Mugabe led regime in Zimbabwe has decided to
rescind Trevor Ncube's passport has been received by many concerned
Zimbabweans both at home and abroad with a profound sense chagrin and
exasperation.

Honestly, just when many thought the regime had reached its worst limits, it
buries itself deeper in buffoonery.

Is it not rather sad and tragic that while many Zimbabweans are busy
struggling to get over the disappointment of yet another bleak festive
season, their so-called elected government is in the meantime busy
conspiring against one of the nation's self made successes?

January is one of the worst months for most of the families in the country
who also have to contend with annual side-effects of the much dreaded
January disease.
This is a reference to the socio-economic challenges that arise out of the
requisite payment of school fees and uniforms and other paraphernalia that
are concomitant with the process of educating one's children.

What is evident is that whilst the majority of the people are actively
engaged in a desperate battle for socio-economic survival, the ruling party
is also busy fighting for its own political survival. It is now common cause
to all discerning Zimbabweans that the much vaunted annual conference for
the party that was held in Goromonzi last month was never about coming up
with viable and sustainable solutions aimed at resolving the perennial
crisis in Zimbabwe.

As it turned out, the conference ended up being a simple platform to expose
Zanu-PF as a house smouldering under the internecine fires of factionalism.
The party is now so hopelessly divided over the succession debate, so much
that the only common ground that is uniting it is the fear of life after
they lose their grip on power. Evidently, what is now uniting the party is a
common desire to postpone their imminent doom as a dominant political force
in Zimbabwe.

No one in their right sense of mind can doubt that the party no longer has
the political will and vision to salvage anything that is left of the
African jewel that the country once was. The party has long lost its mass
appeal and has now been forced to rely almost entirely on a strategy of mass
intimidation of the long suffering people of Zimbabwe. Honestly it is now a
well established scientific fact that fear has become synonymous with the
dominant political psyche among the Zimbabwean majorities. Empirical
research from such studies as the Afro-Barometer Report has already
confirmed that political reality.

It therefore appears that the party has now resolved to continue its process
of muzzling public debate on its political failings by shutting down what is
perhaps the only remaining bastion of media freedom in the country. The
Independent Newspapers Group, of which Ncube is the head, is recognised as
the sole alternative media platform in a country that is much dominated by
the government controlled media stables such as the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holdings and Zimpapers.

Since the government closure of the popular Daily News in September 2003,
the only reliable source of critical media in the country has primarily been
the group's two weekly publications. That is, the Independent (Fridays) and
the Standard on Sundays. It is also common cause that the group has also
attempted to start its own daily newspaper. However, as one would
anticipate, the government controlled Media and information Commission has
up to now deliberately frustrated the group's efforts.
Be that as it may, it is one thing for the government to deny Ncube that
business opportunity of establishing a daily publication or let alone to
shut down his two weeklies for whatever reason. But to go as far as claiming
that he is a foreigner is totally absurd to say the least. A Zambian for
that matter! Zanu-PF should stop embarrassing us and come up with a much
more subtle way to get rid of Trevor Ncube! Surely a party with a lot of
leaders who claim to have earned their PhDs can do much better than this
hopeless sham of an excuse!

How on earth anyone within the party leadership failed to realise that the
current Captain of the Zimbabwe national soccer team has parents of Malawian
origin still beats me! Surely Trevor has a stronger case than Benjani who
was once courted by the Malawians to play for their national soccer team.
Honestly, Zanu-PF cannot have its cake and eat it. Either Trevor or Benjani
are foreigners or they are both Zimbabweans. Period.

My take on that is that the average Zimbabwe does not have the time and
energy to bother about this debate altogether. These two are entitled to
their Zimbabwean nationality by the mere fact of nature. Their nationality
is not a mere legal debate but a biological reality that no one in their
right sense of mind can ever dare to challenge.

Surely one does not need to pass five 'O' Level subjects to see that this
whole idea of Trevor Ncube being blended as a foreigner is utter hogwash and
hot air. It is obviously a case of a jackal telling its cute cub that it
looks like a goat before pouncing on it as a desperate act of maternal
cannibalism.

The fact is that Trevor Ncube is a Zimbabwean. Period. Ever since he was
born in Bulawayo and right through his childhood up to his University of
Zimbabwe days where he was elected the SRC Vice President at one stage;
Ncube has always been considered a Zimbabwean. He does not need a High Court
order to confirm his national identity. Neither does he need a Politburo
meeting to resolve that simple fact.

It is obviously an overwhelming sign of a serious problem of paralysis of
analysis that has surely crippled the party. Surely, Zanu-PF should have
come up with a better ruse to 'deal' with the perceived threats of Trevor
Ncube to their political survival.

Indeed, if this latest act of legal chicanery is anything to go by, then the
party is much more intellectually bankrupt than we have all assumed up to
now. It is now evident that the Reserve Bank with all its desperately
confused monetary policies and worthless bearer cheques is actually less
hopeless than Zanu-PF.
No wonder why the country is now on its knees today. The problem could
actually be more about the intellectual stagnation and sterility on the part
of the party's now senile leaders.

Daniel Molokele is a Zimbabwean Human Rights Lawyer who is based in
Johannesburg.

He can be contacted at www.zimvirtualnation@yahoo.com