In the journey for the search of that elusive truth the papers provided acres of space to most senior politicians in the region from across the political divide. The politicians from the MDC formations, Zanu-PF and Zapu and other political organisations were given an opportunity to define what they thought was the Matabeleland question and what should be done to solve it.
There were many suggestions around what should be done. Some of the suggestions were brilliant, others mediocre, strange and awkward and not useful yet important in that those who spoke seemed genuine to the cause of Matabeleland. It is not my intention to rank or judge the numerous suggestions, I respect all of them and I learnt a lot from the submissions and some of them have assisted me shape my arguments in this debate. After all I will be disrespectful and be punished by the ancestors if I were to undermine the historic thinking of veterans like Joshua Malinga, Dumiso Dabengwa, John Nkomo, the thought-provoking submissions of the likes of Sipepa Nkomo, the militancy of the likes of Moses Mzila Ndlovu and the brilliant, strategic and visionary thinking of the likes of Professor Welshman Ncube.
Before I get into the merits of this argument, I wish to begin by saying that Matabeleland suffers from inability to utilise the advantage of its abundant resources especially the talent that it has. Matabeleland has so much brilliant brains that are not being utilised because they are being rejected by its own very people. Matabeleland suffers from lack of confidence in its own abilities and does not think it can be a complete unit on its own unless it is leaning on the shoulders of a person from Mashonaland or other provinces. Matabeleland has so much talent in the field of arts and will not celebrate and promote these artistes unless they have made an impact either in Harare or South Africa. Matabeleland has brilliant sports people, outstanding footballers that it does not celebrate but will always blame for all sorts of wrong things and they brand them sell-outs when they are given accolades when they play for sides on the other side of the Shangani River.
Matabeleland has academics that they will not recognise or respect but only begin to talk about them when they are hired by international organisations and are bombarded with assignments that they would have no time for Matabeleland and then begin to brand them sell-outs. Matabeleland has brilliant business people that they would not support only to blame them when they relocate their businesses somewhere else and they begin to blame them for not supporting the region when they prosper somewhere else. The region has beautiful languages and culture that it does not promote, it has talented farmers that it discards and has beautiful women that it does not value and only blame them when they marry across the ethnic divide. The region has many ministers who work against the region. Most importantly, Matabeleland has brilliant politicians that have the brains to push the region forward but they would not vote for them instead preferring to settle for political Lilliputs who when they get to the parliament are dwarfed and thus the region suffers from ceremonial representation.
The region suffers from inertia and inability to recover from the dark cloud of Gukurahundi. It suffers from inability to psychologically recover from the trauma of all its marginalisation. Simply put, the region suffers from psychotic inertia and should move out of that slumber if it is to make a meaningful contribution to its own region. While it is true that there has been a deliberate systematic marginalisation of the region by the powers that be, it has been the psychological effect of this marginalisation that has killed the creativity of the people from the region. The psychotic effect has made the people lose self-confidence and make them think they are an incomplete fraction without leaning on the shoulders of people from the other side of the country. This psychological assault is the one that makes people from this region shun even the best of their own politicians preferring to vote for professional infants underwritten by the strange thinking that for one to make it they should belong to a party with a national outlook and the definition of the national outlook is that it should be led by someone from the other side of Shangani River.
So effective has this psychological assault been that many people from Matabeleland would, before committing their support to you, want to know your national outlook as defined by having more people in your ranks who come from the other side of town. The lack of self-confidence has made the region shun its best brains in most sectors that have bearing in the development of the region. It is therefore a fair judgment to say that the inability by the region to recover from the psychological assaults of yester-years have been the biggest contributor to its failure to move ahead and that the solution lies in the recognition that we can do it if we apply our minds as a collective on how best we can harness and utilise the abundant skills we have in every sector of the region especially on the political front.
If there is anything that the region should never do again is to surrender the future of the region to clueless people who have no idea or framework of what to do to solve the Matabeleland question. The tragedy is that some people want to treat politics or elections as ordinary child’s play yet it is a specialised area that requires serious application of the mind. In the same manner that you cannot entrust an ordinary person to do a heart surgery or a layman to handle your legal matters you should not entrust politically bankrupt people to represent you in parliament or council because this is like giving an ordinary person to do on you such a complicated thing like a heart surgery. The people that you choose to be your public representatives for those five years will literally carry your life in their own hands and if they are just Mickey Mice you can imagine what that would do to your life. It is unfortunately true that some people want to dismiss the fact that the cornerstone of any public officer is competency and capacity to deal with challenges. The crop of what we have as our representatives lack both the interest to represent us as well as the requisite capacity.
True, some of them endured longer than others in the trenches but that is not enough of a qualification for a complicated task like representing the people especially from a region like ours whose problems are unique and require more than just the fighting spirit but exquisite capacity which unfortunately the crop of our MPs do not possess. The Matabeleland question thus cannot be solved with the stewardship of mediocrity that is exemplified by the majority of MPs in the regional capital Bulawayo. If the MPs who represent Bulawayo are a group of mediocre and clueless individuals it would be folly to think that the region can move forward. Anyone thinking that the region will move forward when its capital is in the hands of clueless MPs is fooling themselves because the capital should drive the whole region but unfortunately the capital itself is under siege from poverty of ideas and can be best described as a political orphanage.
It is not out of malice or what is normally referred to as politicking that I say these things. It is also not out of hatred of these MPs because a number of them are my friends and I have told them this. It is for this reason that I dare and challenge any of the MPs into a discussion in this paper or discussion in any public platform on their vision of the region and how to solve the Matabeleland question. I can bet these clueless MPs will run for dear life because they have nothing to offer the region and therefore not worth another term in office if the region is to move ahead. As part of the thinking around a common solution, Matabeleland has spoken for devolution of power with one voice. Devolution of power will certainly provide the required framework for empowerment of the region but it will be useless to have devolution with poor representation.
I have no doubt that with the calibre of drafters seconded to Copac by the Prof Ncube-led MDC; devolution of power will be the cornerstone of the new constitution. But devolution will have no meaning for Matabeleland if there is no strong parliamentary representation from the region. The calibre that we have as parliamentarians now are not the kind that can drive the region forward even if there is devolution of power.
It is my conclusion that the only solution to the Matabeleland problem is a political one. It lies in the region making a conscious decision of voting into parliament and councils those people who demonstrate an understanding of the uniqueness of the region and have shown a keen interest in fighting for the region to be this great giant that it should be.
A solution in the political front is the right formula to providing a floodgate of solutions in all other fronts. It is in this regard that I accuse the people of the region of inflicting self-pain by voting for mediocrity and leaving out talented people with the capacity of moving the region forward. The region can recover but can only do so if the political representation is made up of the abundant, outstanding political talent that the region rejected in the previous elections.
*Qhubani Moyo is the national organising secretary of the MDC formation led by Professor Welshman Ncube. He is contactable on qmoyo2000@yahoo.co.uk.