It was on the night of February 21 1994 when I sat listening to President Robert Mugabe’s speech on the occasion of his birthday.
Develop me with Tapiwa Gomo
As a teenager, every well-crafted phrase was a source of inspiration. The catch-phrase for that day was, “leadership is not what a leader wants done, but what people want done” by the President.
Just like most teenagers during our time for such phrases, it was not about the meaning of phrases, but their phonetic value when used among peers.
But as I grew older, I started realising that words and phrases, especially when used by politicians, do not always mean what they say. In fact, the real meaning of words can be far from the thoughts of those who say them.
So sometimes what is said is not always what is meant and what is meant is not always said.
With all indications pointing towards the referendum and elections, political rhetoric is beginning to take centre stage.
The word “people” will predicate every statement by political aspirants. As elections draw nearer, we will hear more lies about how certain politicians are standing for political office because people approached them to do so.
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This implies that there is one group called “people” which can’t lead or represent itself and, therefore, needs to approach someone supposedly uninterested to represent them.
And then, the uninterested person decides to reluctantly respect the wishes of the “people” and represent them.
If this is the case, then why then do people have to lose lives? They make it look like they are volunteering or doing people a special favour.
Now as elections beckon, acts of political violence are already hogging the headlines.
Sadly the victims of these heinous acts are the “people” including youths like Christpowers Maisiri.
Their crime is simple — expressing a view that threatens those who were purportedly approached to represent people. The sense of humanity is lost in the quest and love for power.
What baffles the mind is the way the case has been handled by the media both (social and traditional), including politicians. While the family was still grieving, the horrendous pictures of the charred body of Christpowers were disgracefully all over the Internet.
I am sure no one would want to see images of their child’s charred dead body on people’s Facebook pages, but sadly the Maisiri family had to endure that pain.
Are people that desperate to expose politicians who kill those who oppose them?
The strong reaction to the incident is not just about political violence per se and certainly not a show of solidarity to the forces that brought about pain and suffering to the Maisiri family and Zimbabweans at large.
People want respect for humanity and justice for the innocent boy whose death touched on their sensibilities. Surely, if a person ceases to respect human life, then that person should not be a leader.
If leadership, as the President said in 1994, is about what people want, then surely, he should be demanding action against those who infringe that principle.
Similarly, politicians from the other side have seized the opportunity to blame the other side for perpetrating violence and are now seeking to exploit this incident in ways totally at odds with the principle of humanity.
This may be a difficult argument, but I can see several views. First of all, there is an invertible argument of comforting the bereaved family.
There is no doubt that the Maisiri family needed support during this trying time, but I don’t think they envisage their son’s funeral to be a campaign platform.
This was an opportunity for MDC-T to demonstrate their difference from Zanu PF by not bringing their podium to the funeral. Justice is not about politicians cashing in on the death of the innocent.
One minister is reported to have laminated pictures of Christpowers’ charred body as evidence to back up his case on the brutality of politically-motivated violence to the President.
Perhaps that would be the morally right thing to do, to prompt the President to say something and create debate in Cabinet.
However, what we thought was a noble move became contaminated when it leaked into the media. The dimensions of the case shifted from a criminal case to just politicking with parties seeking tp protect their images.
Further damaging the case is the announcement by the police that the Maisiri investigation did not have enough evidence to determine whether it was politically-motivated.
“At the moment we cannot point fingers at anyone. This emanates from our preliminary investigations so far which indicate that no foul play had taken place,” deputy national police spokesman Chief Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka said.
What was supposed to be serious issue has now turned into a political circus with politicians from different divides seeking mileage out of the death of an innocent boy.
Is this what people want or what leaders want? Tapiwa Gomo is a development consultant based in Pretoria, South Africa
