When one has been a fixture in the media world for a long time, there comes a time when certain “uncomfortable assignments” are passed towards one’s table.
The facts of the matter are not in dispute, but a sufficiently reputable messenger is required to deliver the message.
There are two issues.
The migration crisis in South Africa has exposed Zimbabwe. Here are some facts which are disturbing.
According to the South African Institute for Security Studies, of the four million migrants in South Africa, the majority, by far are from Zimbabwe.
The exact number is in dispute, but if three million is the accepted number, and say one million of these are expelled, Zimbabwe will have problems in absorbing them, considering the already high levels of unemployment.
In a population of 15 million, this figure suggests that almost every family in Zimbabwe (one in five) has a relative abroad.
But Zimbabwe cannot begin to solve the problem unless the causes are honestly faced.
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Those who are not historians may not remember that the ESAP (Economic Structural Adjustment Program 1990-1995) created a neo-liberal basis for the destruction of the Zimbabwe economy.
To be brief, apart from the mass dismissals of government employees, the neo-liberal proposals by the World Bank was aimed at destroying local industries-in favor of free trade.
Take for example, Bata Shoe Company, Glendale Textile, Whitehead Textile, Lever Brothers, Zambezi Coach Works and Willow-vale Motorworks were now exposed to international competition.
It was the destruction of this industrial base that led Robert Mugabe to propose the land reform program, as a way of regaining support from the growing unemployed.
As it happened, the land reform program, which disposed 4 000 commercial white farmers, and thus left their 400 000 workers unemployed, worsened the situation rather than create employment.
Chamisa has a grudge.
The coup in 2017, which had promised a united front, and had the support of the British government, could have arrested some of the egregious faults of the twin problems of de-industrialisation and bread basket overthrow.
This is where the story is.
Having achieved a popular overthrow of Robert Mugabe, General C. Chiwenga and E.D. Mnangagwa, forgot the promise they had made to both Zapu and the MDC to form a united front government.
This information is tight. I got this from the horse’s mouth. Dumiso Dabnagwa was invited to South Africa for coalition talks.
He told me himself.
My sources in the MDC also confirm this information.
Brother Patrick Chinamasa is blamed for steering Zanu-PF from this agreement.
In simple English, and this is the message I was instructed to pass on-the brothers in the MDC (now defunct CCC) feel terribly betrayed by these three brothers mentioned above.
In particular, Chamisa’s approach to the Supreme Court over the 2019 elections is based on the belief that he won the electoral vote that the army presided over the final count.
The MDC hierarchy believes that the army used a method called the “Lion’s count-” one for rabbit, one for lion, one for baboon, one for lion-in the end, the lion, in all fairness has two votes, the rabbit and baboon have one each.
The Supreme Court found the lion’s integrity beyond reproach.
This principled and beyond reproach methodology was repeated in the election of 2024-Chamisa suffering the same fate.
It so happens that Chamisa has the gift of oratory, perhaps matching that of Martin Luther King, regarded as the finest rhetorician of the 20th century.
Chamisa seems to have an unshakable base among the youth in Zimbabwe-something to be reckoned with.
CAB (3) betrayal.
An impartial observer will come to the conclusion that the whole hullaballoo about CAB (3) was in part engineered in order to side-step the very person, Brother Gudo, who made the overthrow of Robert Mugabe possible.
There is of course the fear that the Supreme Court may not allow the lion’s method of counting votes in future-so the Chamisa people have told me.
But the generality has moved on under a new non-political movement, Sungano RaVanhu.
While this Sungano is sympathetic to Gudo Guru’s general attitude towards the economy and political participation-the Sermon on Kazurus-Chamisa finds himself sitting on the fence.
The clerics, leading Sungano, have learnt from Bishop Abel Muzorewa to keep to one issue and not to stay around after the battle is won.
Chamisa has been speaking in riddles-coming out in favor of Sungano would make a difference.
But, like all geniuses, “the brother is for himself.” The phrase was first used to apply to the American Afro leader Jesse Jackson.
When Martin Luther King died, Brother Jesse, then barely 30 years old, calculated that there were luminaries like the Reverend Joseph Lowery who had been in the wilderness with Dr. King before him, and that at that age, he would be overshadowed.
He created an organization, PUSH, with himself as president for life and run from his home in Chicago.
Chamisa is faced by the proverbial dilemma of choosing to go the Jesse Jackson way, or to join a larger group which might involve luminaries like Gudo Guru of equal value as himself.
Gudo Guru equally faces a similar dilemma. There is a video of an open-air meeting in Gweru in which the governor there presided. An official tried twice to push a glass of water for Gudo’s thirsty throat.
Twice, Gudo moved the suspect chalice away.
In another case, the Wise man, Patrick Chinamasa, brilliantly laid out the hurdles against CAB (3) at the Bulawayo party conference, December 2025.
In fact, the Wise one said, no less than two bills, and two referendums were required and the whole agenda was costly.
The Wise One, later turned into a chameleon and speaks in tongues.
Gudo has an unenviable choice, stay with chameleons and friends who offer him suspect water glasses, or jump the rope. (Afro-English).
*Ken Mufuka is a Zimbabwean patriot.
