The day I met Samia Nkrumah, I was awestruck – by her humility, her grace and the dignity with which she carried herself.

It was a moment I proudly splashed on my Facebook, and squeezed into the 120 characters of a tweet.

I was convinced at that moment that I was well on my way to greatness, for in some journeys – there has to be some turning point – and that was it for me.

Having been identified among some of Africa’s most extraordinary emerging women leaders; the enormity of it had not yet sunk in and I arrived in Accra for the 3 week fellowship training feeling considerably daunted.

From over 800 applicants from all over the continent and the African diaspora, I was picked in the final 25 and with this selection came the honour of being a MILEAD Fellow by the Moremi Initiative for women’s leadership and development in Africa.

I set foot on West African soil determined to make the most of the experience.

My arrival coincided with the opening ceremony for the fellowship and in attendance was none other than Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Ghana, Mrs Pavelyn Musaka, the South African ambassador to Ghana, Mrs Jessica Ndhlovu and the Nigerian ambassador to Ghana, Alhaji Issifu Baba Kamara.

And they treated us as equals and deferred to our opinions as if we were their peers – and it was refreshing to not be patronized but to be engaged with as a group of leaders who have what it takes to impact the world positively.

It was also humbling to note that the Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Ms Joyce Aryee took time from her parliamentary session to share some insights on what it takes to be a leader in Africa, more-so a woman leader.

“They will tell you it cannot be done, well I am here today to tell you that not only can it be done, it is has been done and it is still being done. You owe it to yourselves to never give up and never ever walk away from a fellow sister in need. In this journey to becoming the next generation of African women leaders, you will need to help, support, encourage and work with each other,” she said adding that she had been called names and insulted in the media during smear campaigns so she had learned to just be tough.

Since the leadership institute commenced, I have had the honour of visiting Ghana’s parliament which occasioned my encounter with Samia.

Then the opportunity to meet with Betty Mould-Iddrisu who is Ghana’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, the first woman to ever hold these posts since Ghana’s independence in 1957.

“I will tell you one thing. You must work hard and you must never, never forget where you come from. Never forget. Never let yourself forget,” she stressed urging us to be humble even as we pursue our most lofty ambitions.

We were inspired.

Soon after this meeting, we were shuttled to the Accra Holiday Inn Hotel where we had the honour of spending an hour with Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, a member of the Council of Elders, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the founder of Realizing Rights.

She shared her experiences on working in Africa and some of the most pressing problems faced by the continent.

“If we can isolate one of the most pressing challenges in Africa, it would be the use of religion and tradition to oppress women. The efforts to realize gender equality and to elevate the status of women are significantly hampered by this,” said Mary Robinson.

It was an enlightening session, coming hot on the heels of a group outing that saw us visiting the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) headquarters where we were hosted by some of the most successful women in funding on the continent.

AWDF has over the past decade funded women’s organisations all over the continent and propelled the women’s movement by facilitating the necessary financial resources to ensure that organisations continue the all important work of elevating the status of African women. And I find myself increasingly recalling the sentiments of Bernard of Chartres who used to say that, “we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.” For a great deal has been achieved by those women leaders who have gone ahead of us and with each generation the load becomes lighter but the complexity of the challenges we are up against remains.

May we be found worthy of the mantle of leadership when the day comes to pass on the torch?

As state witness
I told the court
that the one saying
they had been beaten
Had done the beating
in Uzumba
I have never been
to Uzumba
They said if I didn’t
say what they told me
I would get more than
broken ribs.
Don’t call me a coward
One held my hand
the other held my other hand
A third crushed a log
into my ribs
A forth crushed my testicles
for good measure
As state witness
I told the court
that the one saying
their buttocks had been burnt
their homes had been burnt
and their wives raped
Were the ones
who had actually done those
horrible things.

- Copyright Mgcini Nyoni

Recently the Prime Minister announced a cabinet reshuffle. He said the main reason for doing so was to regain the people’s confidence in the new administration amongst the electorate by addressing weaknesses in the party. Ministerial reshuffles are not anything new on the political front. This move might serve to confirm three basic points, 1. That rumours of fissures in the MDC party are real. 2. The MDC has not performed per expectation in the GNU. 3. The party is not hesitant when it comes to addressing serious issues.

The prime Minister did not talk about the reshuffle as firing anybody – he chose to call it a redeployment of the people: “…within the party to strengthen and add momentum to party programmes.” However Fidelis Mhashu, one of the axed ministers, speaking on ZTV expressed surprise at the reshuffle and said that he was shortchanged and he feels demoted.

Putting politics aside, the axing of Engeer Mudzuri is worrisome. Unless the party does something to paint him white, his career has been tarnished. Before assuming the ministerial post, Engineer Mudzuri was also uprooted from his Mayoral post that he had democratically occupied. It was Chombo’s axe that saw Mudzuri controversially replaced by a commission led by Sekesayi Makwavarara at the helm of the town house. The move was interpreted by many as a more politically inclined issue than a professional performance one. As a result Mudzuri was an MDC hero, who through the firing from the council office, had proved to be a real threat to the ZANU PF bigwig Chombo, the then Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.

Complaining on the suspension of Mudzuri the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said:

“The arbitrary suspension of Mudzuri represents a double standard in the application of authority by the Minister of Local Government. While other local authorities continue to suffer under poor service delivery, similar action has not been adopted. Indeed, the whole country is a victim of mismanagement and poor service delivery, and yet not a single member of the executive has been fired. Hospitals are largely dysfunctional, as are schools, colleges and universities. There are rampant food, fuel and foreign currency shortages. Surely if service delivery were so important, the entire government would have been fired by now”

Now that Mudzuri has failed to escape the first axe of his trusted Master, Morgan Tsvangirai, does this confirm that Chombo was right when he said Mudzuri is incompetent? The two consecutive firings are a bad mark on the engineer’s curriculum vitae. The MDC has to take appeasement action towards its Party’s National Organizer, otherwise his professional sheet will not be clean.

Rejoice Ngwenya on civil society, free media, party politics and political vuvuzelas . . .

The vivacious Violet Gonda is a Zimbabwean journalist of persona non grata in her country simply because of being a rare breed of courageous radio broadcasters willing to take on a rogue state. Such is the paranoia in Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF regime that broadcast laws that deliberately prevent alternative opinion are entrenched in the legislative DNA. The positive spinoff of this scenario has been a proliferation  of shortwave and internet broadcast stations spanning the globe, the most popular being VOA Studio 7 news based in Washington DC, Voice of the People in Botswana and Violet’s own SW Africa radio in England.

On many occasions, Zimbabweans and gullible Africans have been made to believe that vice and toxic rumour is embedded in such alternative viewpoint. In more ways than one, it is for this reason that ZANU-PF refuses to take the Global Political Agreement forward, claiming as long as Morgan Tsvangirayi’s MDC does not influence closure of such stations, Mugabe will refuse to cooperate. Bulls eat grass, but the fresh results of their digestion are unpleasant to the eye. Had there been a more family-friendly term to describe the product of this biological process, I would have had no problem labelling ZANU-PF opinion.

Ironically, Violet Gonda and her friends do not want to live in forced exile, because of family commitments back in Zimbabwe. But as long as they face arrest, and as long as the broadcast regulations outlaw alternative opinion, we Zimbabweans at home will continue to tune in to VOA Studio 7, Voice of the People and SW Radio for REAL news. What we know is that MDC have no chance in hell to influence closure of these stations. That makes me feel good!

But it is not all diamond that glitters from these alternative airwaves – at least according to MDC Professor Mutambara’s sympathisers. There is consensus amongst his supporters that most if not all external broadcasters have taken a position to support Tsvangirayi’s formation at the expense of all other progressive forces of democracy. Their argument is that in the haste to rid Zimbabwe of the curse of authoritarian dictatorship, these broadcasters paint anything or anyone who takes a side that opposes Tsvangirayi as anti struggle.

They continue that MDC Tsvangirayi failures are not sufficiently interrogated, while only the opinion of analysts who have something negative to say about Mutambara are given undue prominence. For example, the best news item that can ever emerge from rural Matebeleland is when councillors from Mutambara defect to Tsvangirayi’s party. Such news, Mutambara’s people argue, takes precedence over the antics of Theresa Makone, Tsvangirayi’s new home affairs boss who is related to Mugabe’s political hit man, Didymus Mutasa. The two are currently on the front page for attempting to sprout habitual ZANU-PF property rights violators form prison. ZANU-PF, who term alternative studios ‘pirate radio stations’, amplify Tsvangirayi’s internal party struggles, reminding readers that Ms Makone is the same woman whose husband ‘controls’ Tsvangirayi via what they call MDC’s ‘kitchen cabinet’. At one time, Ms Makone was accused of displacing the MDC women’s assembly leader in order to exert more influence on the party’s strategy. And all this – Mutambara’s people argue – does not receive airplay on ‘pirate’ radio stations.

As a regular contributor to these useful and value-adding radio stations, I attempt to present balanced opinions. Freelance analysts like me do not influence editorial policy, but we need to pitch our commentary from an objective perspective. I have no sacred cows. More importantly, Violet Gonda would not be able to influence what I say, but she would be in a position to decide what to publish depending on her editorial slant. For example, in one of SW Africa Radio Friday night programs called Hot Seat, Tony Reeler, director of Research and Advocacy Unit [RAU] commenting on Professor Arthur Mutambara’s position in government, tells Ms Gonda: “So he’s there by grace and favour of the Agreement but not by any other ground.”

A more mundane interpretation of this cryptic statement is that Mutambara is not in the coalition government by virtue of electoral credibility, but that he is the president of a [MDC] minority party with few seats in a remote part of Zimbabwe. Obviously with Zimbabwe’s first past the post electoral system, it would have been unthinkable to have the professor in government. Herein lies the need for progressive ‘pirate’ analysts to offer objective radio commentary.

My angle would be that the GPA brought into government hundreds of worthless politicians from all three sides. Morgan Tsvangirayi himself has on several occasions expelled councillors and recently reshuffled ministers. Accusations of corruption, underhand deals and inefficiency have plagued his party, while neutrals argue that even himself as Prime Minister, is guilty of soft-padding Mugabe in international foras. Observers insist that incomes, infrastructure and public facilities are only marginally better than before the coalition, while power blackouts hound an industry struggling to emerge from recession. The human rights sector is disastrous, with no single conviction of ZANU-PF zealots who murdered, maimed and raped innocent citizens in June 2008. His critics argue he has failed to reign in on rogue elements raiding commercial farms including those properties protected under regional bilateral agreements. Therefore to diminish Mutambara’s role in government without a rub off on Tsvangirayi’s personal political reputation is an impossible feat.

Mr Reeler himself is a product of a decade old struggle against dictatorship, a flag bearer of a contingent of brave human rights defenders that have survived determined ZANU-PF antagonism and intimidation. In this noble group of principled citizens one finds peace campaigner Jestina Mukoko, lawyer Irene Petras, constitutional expert Lovemore Madhuku and countless other civil society activists. But unlike Arthur Mutambara who has risen from mere student activism to national leadership, I and Reeler have little other than political vuvuzelas to show for our rhetoric.  My point is simple. This is no time to denigrate each others’ value propositions. If civil society was half as effective as its loud voice, Mugabe would have abandoned ship in 2002.

To provide Kenyans with a fair constitution, a panel of experts used 47,793 words. To derail it, someone secretly added two. The attempted sabotage occurred at the official government printer, which was producing copies of the proposed constitution ahead of a national vote on the law in August. The document had been praised for guaranteeing basic freedoms. But in a move that has caused public outrage and prompted an inquiry involving the attorney general and intelligence chiefs, someone at the printing plant was able to add the words “national security” to a key clause on fundamental rights. Nearly 2,000 copies of the altered constitution had been published by the time it was discovered. “It was an outrageous act, unbelievable,” said Otiende Amolo, a Kenyan  member of the committee that drafted the new laws. “The addition of those words meant that all rights could be abrogated in favour of whatever was deemed ‘national security’.” Though President Mwai Kibaki  has ordered a police investigation, the saboteur, widely assumed to be an individual or group opposed to the proposed constitution, has yet to be publicly identified.
- Xan Rice, The Guardian Weekly

Any honest analysis of the MDC post September 15, 2008 would indicate that apart from unsuccessfully declaring unilateral appointments by Mugabe as ‘null and void’ the MDC as we have known it over the years: courageous, confrontational, uncompromising and proactive has become alarmingly ineffective and compromised. Indeed, there might just well be some justification for the view that many in the MDC have become ‘comfortable’ in government and are more focused on enjoying the privileges of office than on challenging Mugabe and ZANU PF.
- Psychology Maziwisa