×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

From Smith to Mugabe, Msipa spoke truth to power

Opinion & Analysis
Cephas George Msipa, who died this week, was a rare jewel in today’s highly polarised Zimbabwe: He was genuinely liked and deeply respected across the political divide.

Cephas George Msipa, who died this week, was a rare jewel in today’s highly polarised Zimbabwe: He was genuinely liked and deeply respected across the political divide.

echoes: CONWAY TUTANI

The strong inference from that is that Msipa, who was 85, spoke for both those inside and outside Zanu PF, making him truly a national hero, who will befittingly be laid to rest at the National Heroes’ Acre tomorrow.

There was open acknowledgement — begrudging, as it seemed — of his immense contribution in the struggle for independence, while the opposition had openly embraced him, as he was sounding more and more like the voice of not only the downtrodden, but the nation at large.

I got to know about this gentle giant substantively — not that extensively because I only met him closely on about 10 occasions and most of the time fleetingly — after I befriended his late “kid brother”, Jabulani (“Jabu”) Msipa, in the mid 1970s when we were both students at the then University of Rhodesia.

Through Jabu, who was the last born in a family of 10, with Cephas being the first born, I also got to know Cephas’ children, including Masimba Cephas Jnr, Chris (who were in their teens and not that much younger than their uncle Jabu), Charles and Elijah, and Cephas’ late self-effacing, gracious, polite, but cheerful wife, Charlotte Sithabile. Jabu, now working as a human resources practitioner, now and then took me along with other two friends when we visited them at their Harare home in 1979, when Cephas was being held in political detention by the racist Rhodesian regime.

What struck me was that Msipa’s family was very much functional — not dysfunctional — despite him not being there. The young family was operating as normally and as happily as possible in the circumstances and could relate to others well. The children had matured beyond their age. One could see that this was due, in no small measure, to the strength of character and influence of Msipa even from inside prison, which had rubbed off onto his family. Yes, you can imprison the body, but not the mind.

It dawned on me that only people with firm unshakable self-belief and optimism, in the face of adversity, like Msipa, could remove the seemingly invincible Rhodesian regime; that it took as much in the mind as in the doing to bring about Zimbabwe. Msipa could navigate — even though the term what not used then — between his family responsibilities and political cause, making a potentially disastrous situation much manageable for his growing family. I was privileged to see that “live”. It was quite enlightening and fascinating to watch that from the “ringside”.

But, sadly, many other fellow political detainees’ marriages crumbled and the children, without parental guidance, descended into drug addiction, alcoholism and other self-destructive behaviours taking them to early graves because of maladjustment; in other words, neurosis caused by failure to cope with life’s challenges and difficulties because of the absence of family support pillars, especially parents, and systems like Msipa’s extended family comprising his brothers and sisters, who became surrogate parents to his children.

That’s why Msipa’s children did not become orphans of the struggle and stand tall and proud today, as they serve and contribute to the nation in various important ways. They have largely been able to cope with both highs and lows that life has thrown at them.

Msipa brought his considerateness along with forthrightness to politics. The increasing authoritativeness of his voice was unmistakable and rattling to those in the corridors of power. Without reducing his death to a point-scoring political charade, as Msipa’s voice was gaining more currency among the opposition, he was more and more being despised among the Zanu PF establishment. All this because he was honest to a fault. This means that someone’s honesty can even hurt them but they still remain so. He was prepared to inconvenience himself or cost himself money and opportunity in order to be helpful, loyal and transparent.

This put Msipa on a collision course with the devious, exploitative, cajoling, manipulative, lying, cheating “Robin Hood” types in Zanu PF and government, doing that for selfish personal gain, not in service of the people. He chose to do good over bad. This is unlike Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo, who, despite his intelligence, has chosen to go on the wrong path.

Never one shy to give an opinion which other people may not like or are frightened to express, in October 2014, Msipa stuck out his neck, saying President Robert Mugabe ought to explain the motives behind First Lady Grace Mugabe’s onslaught on then Vice-President Joice Mujuru, pointing out to the unfairness and dirtiness of it all. Msipa did not say things to impress, unlike shameless self-promoters like Moyo.

Msipa was not a person to easily impose on or take advantage of. He was his own man. He maintained the integrity of his own mind by not allowing himself to be subsumed by conformism. Were Msipa a conformist, he wouldn’t have joined the revolution to overthrow the white Rhodesian racist system. And he wouldn’t have come out in defence of Mujuru when she was being unjustly hounded out of Zanu PF mobocracy-style.

Msipa was also not swayed by mobocrisy. Mobocrisy is that hypocrisy seen in a large group of people adhering to organisations like a religion or political party. The larger the group of people in the organisation, the higher the mobocrisy. With mobocrisy, the collective group of people tends to paint a rosy picture, pretending everything is fine and refusing to see the truth — like the undelivered promised 2,2 million jobs and the grand corruption — not sanctions — being driven from the very top of government, with people like Moyo insultingly trying to explain away his theft of about $400 000 from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund as in aid of corporate social responsibility when the money trail leads to his own pocket.

Corruption will never be curbed in a country where the so-called leaders are criminals. The dire plight of many Zimbabweans today is a logical consequence of 36 years of systematic looting and destruction. But Msipa showed that you can both be in Zanu PF and against corruption.

If we had more people in leadership positions, who speak truth to power — like Msipa did from Ian Smith to Mugabe — Zimbabwe would have been long out of the woods and we would be talking a different story of peace, democracy and prosperity.

What Zimbabwe needs at this juncture are more people who speak what they believe to be true, even if it might offend or is critical of those in authority with the power to retaliate. We need people who stand up and say enough is enough in spite of the negative consequences that might arise — not to keep quiet or say nice things in order to avoid reprisal by the people in power.

Only with that can we truly honour Msipa’s legacy.

May he rest in well-deserved peace.

Conway Nkumbuzo Tutani is a Harare-based columnist. Email: [email protected]