Time to redeem ourselves: Malinga
joshua malinga

Cde Malinga

The Chronicle’s Political Editor Nduduzo Tshuma this week sat down for an interview with Zanu-PF Politburo member and former Bulawayo mayor Cde Joshua Malinga. Their chat touched on a number of issues, ranging from the forthcoming June 10 by-elections, the state of the party in Bulawayo to de-industrialisation. Here are highlights of their discussion:

Tshuma: There are five vacant parliamentary seats that the party is contesting and as you know, Zanu-PF has not won a seat since 2000 in Bulawayo. What’s the prospect of the party regaining those constituencies?

Malinga: I want to be honest. I don’t know why people in Bulawayo would be the only ones, remember Bulawayo was the nerve centre for people in Matabeleland and also for the whole country, I don’t understand why they would not vote for progress and development. It’s true that if you don’t vote for the ruling party, you’ve no direct benefit because you’re not properly represented, you don’t have an authorised voice to represent you.

It’s the same with everybody, disabled people, black or white people. An authentic voice at the decision-making level is needed. I can’t understand why people in a city like Bulawayo would not understand the benefit of voting for a party that liberated Zimbabweans, a party that may lead or that may rule this country for a long period of time.

Tshuma: There have been claims that perhaps the Bulawayo leadership is partly to blame for the dismal performance in previous elections as they spend most of the time fighting each other instead of organising party structures?

Malinga: Unfortunately, I agree. I think we’ve no cohesion. I think it’s not only Bulawayo. Every leader in Matabeleland South has a house here, most of them spend more time in Bulawayo than in their constituencies. Everybody in Matabeleland North has a house here or a business or a family in Bulawayo. It’s a problem we share in common within the Matabeleland region.

We don’t have cohesion, we don’t support each other, we attack each other, we are jealous of each other and we don’t know that if you keep others down, you also remain down. You don’t succeed by oppressing other people or keeping other people down. For every action in science there is an equal or opposite reaction, if you keep other people down, you remain down. You can’t develop if you exclude other people.

Tshuma: So with such issues affecting Bulawayo and Matabeleland region at large, what do you think are the chances of Bulawayo regaining those seats in the coming election?

Malinga: I think this is a one-off opportunity for us to redeem ourselves as a leadership. I think we need to throw everything into this in order to win. Bulawayo is not going to be built by people outside Bulawayo, it’s going to be built and developed by Bulawayo residents themselves and politics is a vehicle of development. You’re either in it or out of it and then you don’t develop. I’m calling on all voters including disabled people to vote for progress.

Tshuma: There was a meeting where the Zanu-PF leadership was encouraged to work closely with the youth if they entertained winning back seats. Is there discord between the leadership and the youth?

Malinga: I think it’s obvious that powerless people or poor people don’t work together. For historic reasons, you know that the region, including the Midlands, had political problems from 1980 up to 1990 — ten years of destabilisation. It’s not an easy thing, it destroys a nation almost. I think it’s also important that national leadership understands that the Bulawayo problem is not for Bulawayo only, it’s our problem together because we were all involved in that destabilisation directly or indirectly, rightly or wrongly.

Tshuma: Coming to Bulawayo’s industries, you once served as executive mayor in the city when industry was performing better than what it is doing now. What strategies do you think should be employed to bring the city back to its glory days?

Malinga: I think it is known to everyone that the country is under sanctions and political siege and Bulawayo is not an island. Yes, we see sprawling buildings in Harare and so on but maybe our approach is to revive everything that was there. Perhaps we need to bring in new industries and new technology but as a former mayor, I think we should also, I don’t know whether I should say change, but what I’m trying to say is where does Bulawayo get resources or money? People in this country are heavily taxed, they are taxed to the bone by treasury and we also want Bulawayo to tax them?

I think we need to understand that local authorities are an arm of central government and they’re the frontliners in development. They’re near the people and there should be a share of resources with the national fiscus. Bulawayo should be treated like a ministry, that’s what progressive countries are doing. They must be allocated resources.

Taxation or supplementary charges by the government should be, for instance you don’t tax people for being alive, you tax people for utilities like water and electricity and you tax them on how they’ve used but not to tax them for registering to look for a house.

Houses are very important and to house other people, it’s a contribution to the government so I think there should be a direct allocation from the ministry of finance to local authorities. During our time there was money, there were no sanctions and the industry was booming.

Tshuma: Could you share your views on family planning vis-a-vis the development of the country?

Malinga: I think the greatest mistake we made at Independence was to accept family planning as something important for this country. It was really baseless. It became a national policy, an important issue, but listen, the more people we have the more we develop. Look at China, they build a city of the size of Cape Town every three months. Look at the UK, it is five times smaller than Zimbabwe in size, but British people have populated the whole world. The more we are, the more we develop.

We’ve resources, we’re not like some western countries that don’t have resources and survive by exploiting other people. We’ve everything here. Our problem is not the population but our problem is that we don’t give sufficient debate to issues that affect us. Of course when you’re fighting the world like our President [Robert Mugabe] is doing, liberating all poor black people across Africa, we’ve to have those problems from those who survive by exploiting other people.

Tshuma: You are the secretary for the disabled in the Zanu-PF Politburo. Do you think enough is being done to cater for the needs of people living with disabilities?

Malinga: My forte and passion is that you can’t liberate any country, anybody, if that form of democracy does not reach disabled people. Disabled people are the poorest people and you can’t claim to be democratic if that system leaves behind the disabled. I’ve committed my whole life to service the interests of the disabled and I’m very grateful that the President appointed me so that I champion the rights of the disabled.

Disabled people anywhere in the world aren’t equal to other citizens. In the western world, they’re fighting for standards, in the developing countries like Zimbabwe we’re fighting for basic human rights. Designers and planners of services in communities design and plan the environment without us in mind. Disabled people should go to the same schools and the same places as everyone. All we need is access, to access all community services and facilities and adopt universal design principle.

Disability is not my condition, disability is in the mind of those who design society. Disabled people can go to the same schools as able bodied children but they’re denied by the people’s ignorance. You know as human beings we’re funny, can you imagine people really believing in the story that a pastor can take me out of a wheel chair? It’s all lies. Who do you know who has been assisted by these pastors? Do you know any?

Tshuma: Are you’re saying some pastors are exploiting disabled people to gain popularity?

Malinga: Yes. And they can rape. You see a person springing from a wheel chair, but no-one knows where they live.

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