The agony of bio-political mortality . . . From ‘Morgan is more’ to Morgan is no more!
WHENEVER the name Johnson Mkandla is mentioned, many associate it with the handling of either criminal or civil cases at the Bulawayo Magistrates Courts housed at the Tredgold Building in Bulawayo.
Some are not aware that the former regional magistrate spent some years in Rhodesian prisons for his activities in the struggle for the country’s independence.
Although Cde Mkandla had started his political activities in the 1960s that saw him being expelled as a teacher in Lupane District, it was in 1974 that he found himself facing the death penalty after his arrest for recruiting “terrorists” and being found in possession of arms of war. In that riveting trial that took more than six months before Rhodesian Chief Justice Sir Hugh Beadle, Cde Mkandla was charged together with now Vice-President of Zimbabwe, Cde Kembo Mohadi, Cdes Solomon Mathenjwa Moyo, Leonard Solomon Nkomo and Elkana Sibanda. He gives us an account of the events that led to his arrest, trial and time in prison in an interview with our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda. Below are excerpts of the interview:
MS: Before we get into your political activities readers might want to know who is Johnson Mthenjwa Mkandla.
Cde Mkandla: I was born on 15 August in 1939 at Fort Rixon to Jabezi Mkandla and Maria Mkandla. I am married to Mildred, uMaMoyo with four sons and a daughter. As for my schooling I attended St Chards in Fort Rixon, St Georges in Lupane and later on went to Empandeni Mission in Mangwe District and Lupane Mission. I later on did my secondary education at Inyathi Mission and I also continued with my schooling while in detention at Gonakundzingwa, Wha Wha and Conemara. Also, while in detention I read Political Science, Sociology and English. After the attainment of independence I then went to the Law School at the University of Zimbabwe to read for a law degree after which I worked in the civil service as a magistrate. I left the bench when I was a regional magistrate.
MS: When did you start your political activities?
Cde Mkandla: I started at an early age by being active in the National Democratic Party (NDP), the People’s Caretaker Council (PCC), the African National Council and ZAPU. It was through those political Obituary IT SOUNDED like a read from the scriptures but in a painful, sad and heartbreaking mortality-propelled, hence inevitable development, on 14 February, when the rest of the world was celebrating the existence of love, the sad realities of mortality showed no love as the physical being of Morgan Richard Tsvangirai ceased to exist as he breathed his last at a South African health facility.
The father of opposition who arguably took opposition politics farther and farther, crossed over to some world yet to be known by the rest. Added to signalling the end of a troubled political career devoid of any glamorous accolades, the sad development also shattered his almost 19 year- old dream of reaching some political Canaan, and just 24 days before celebrating his 66th birthday.
In an apparent reversal of the Biblical creation theory, arguably the only opposition leader Zimbabwe had known since 1999, was returned to dust in his native Buhera on Tuesday, evidently with a trail of unfulfilled dreams haunting and unfairly burdening an already broken, if not a totally tattered heart, in a huge send-off ceremony also attended by his Kenyan doppelganger, Raila Odinga.
With broken hearts, many are still trying to come to terms with the inevitable reality that the once “more” Morgan is indeed no activities that I was expelled from teaching in 1966 by the Rhodesian government. I was teaching in Lupane District at that time and the regime felt I was a bad influence to the school children and their communities. Others who were expelled at the same time as myself were the late Vice-President John Landa Nkomo who was teaching here in Bulawayo at a school which I can’t remember but is in Tshabalala, the late national hero, Sydney Donald Malunga who was at Fatima Mission in Lupane, Jacob in Kezi and Mzaca Nkomo. After some time I then got a job as a sales manager at Mirtle’s Radio and Television here in Bulawayo. In fact I worked together with Sydney Malunga who was also the sales manager for another branch. We continued with our political activities despite what we had been subjected to before. It was period of great sacrifice during those days.
MS: What position or positions did you hold?
Cde Mkandla: I rose through the ranks in Zapu and became the party’s regional chairman for Matabeleland that covered all Matabeleland districts from Beitbridge to Victoria Falls. That is when I was given the most dangerous task of working with the guerillas who had been sent to the country to lay the groundwork for bigger operations and also to recruit people to go and join the armed struggle in Zambia. Those guerillas we were working under the intelligence department under Dumiso Dabengwa, which in the later stages of the armed struggle was transformed to the National Security Organisation (NSO). Those boys were given dangerous missions of living among the masses while at the same time carrying on with their operations.
MS: Take us through that period. What really happened?
Cde Mkandla: In my executive that role of working closely with the guerillas was given more! Added to eagerly awaiting the High Court’s decision regarding the re-writing of the disputed November 2017 English Paper 2 a development which also saw the Zimsec top brass “packing”, 14 February was the very day neighbouring South Africa reached an Asante Sana moment, following the resignation of former president Jacob Zuma.
As if that was not enough, the same day also saw the Tanzanian opposition leader, Daniel John being “murdered”. Many were left perplexed, wondering and inquisitive: Valentino, Valentino, where is thy love?
Borrowing from self-exiled Prof Jonathan Moyo, all earthly things great or small, beautiful or ugly, good or bad, sad or happy, foolish or wise must finally come to an end.
It is as well from this sobering reality that the once influential opposition leader had to respond to the sad yet inevitable realities of mortality after close to two decades of exerting all effort, including muscular in opposition politics.
Regardless of being considered by many as having misplaced priorities and ideologies, Zimbabwe has arguably lost a gallant son and a fighter. Grossly misinformed, consequently creating passive and docile discourses around the Zimbabweans’ level of resistance, including fighters like Mr Tsvangirai in 2005, David Blair of The Telegraph got it wrong:
“…Any outsider with goodwill towards this beautiful country is led to some profoundly disturbing conclusions. The entire Zimbabwean nation seems to have given up opposing Mugabe. Put bluntly, they are now waiting for God to remove him. The MDC’s failure to offer any protest or resistance reflects the popular mood.” to me, Joseph Malunga and Cephas Nkomo who was the treasurer. Other members of the executive were not in the picture and those included Paul Themba Nyathi who then was the regional secretary. Even senior party cadres like Sydney Malunga who was the national executive of the party were not aware. Those guerillas were intelligence officers who had been deployed into the country like I had said above to come and recruit and spy on the operations of the enemy. Our role was to take care of their needs such as food, shelter and clothes. We were to provide them with the cover. However, they were not based here in Bulawayo only but were scattered around the region and I believe in some other parts of the country. Those were the events that led to my arrest by the Rhodesian government. MS: So when were you arrested? Cde Mkandla: The actual date that I got arrested I don’t recall but it was in 1974. We were facing charges of possession of arms of war and recruitment of terrorists as the regime would put it which was a serious offence as if one was found guilty he or she would be sent to the gallows. I found myself facing the death penalty and we were five of us. It was me, the current Vice-President Honourable Kembo Mohadi who was one of the intelligence officers who was in the country for operations, Elkana Sibanda another guerilla working together with Cde Mohadi, Leonard Solomon Nkomo who was in my executive and Solomon Mathenjwa Moyo from Lupane who was taking care of the needs of Mohadi’s unit in that part of the country.
Next week Cde Mkandla will take us through his arrest, trial and how he and his co-accused who included Cde Mohadi escaped the hangman’s noose. Don’t miss your Sunday News copy for that riveting trial.
On the contrary, to people of more research, this was far from the truth.
Having risen to prominence during his days with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, in political cycles, the Buhera-born political charmer will to some sects go down memory lane as the icon who redefined opposition politics, shaking former President Mugabe, and in the process, constantly sending him and the ruling Zanu-PF party on some reality check and compromises.
Tsvangirai fought his political battles, advancing his ideals to the last breath. He redefined opposition politics when he still walked the face of the earth. He taught many, including the ruling Zanu-PF party, especially when he came close to taking over from long rival and former President Mugabe in 2008, amassing 47,9 percent against Cde Mugabe’s 43,2.
It was all thanks to the legal requirement that says a presidential candidate must amass 50 percent plus one vote for him or her to be declared a winner. Sadly for some, he will vehemently refuse to depart from memory as the potential leader who among other errors of commission shot himself on the foot by surrounding himself with political opportunists, some disguised as advisors who found joy and missed no opportunity to ill-advise him.
Just like everyone else including this writer, Morgan had his own flaws.
“We say to you Mugabe, if you don’t want to go peacefully, we will remove you violently”, a then politically immature and seemingly violent Tsvangirai once declared at the turn of the new millennium.
These and other utterances, coupled with his calling for economic sanctions went a long way in promoting political violence and seeing a manifestation of economic and social strife among the generality of Zimbabweans.
Consequently, disgust and disdain defined his being. He became the villainous face to many, a resented and ridiculed symbol of the far from free and fair scorched earth policy politics, felt even in his hinterland Buhera.
On a lighter note, however, this writer is pleased to note that Morgan leaves behind a legacy of maturity, arguably earned during his tenure as Prime Minister during the GNU as he rubbed shoulders with mature statesmen, among them, former President Mugabe.
The sad departure of the former Prime Minister has been viewed by several analysts as just having ushered the demise of opposition politics in Zimbabwe, particularly that of the already bleeding MDC movement in its totality.
Borrowing the robes of a prophet, I foresee the beleaguered and in disarray opposition movement staging nothing short of a “friendly” contestation during the forthcoming, much awaited 2018 harmonised elections.
Tsvangirai was arguably a strong leader, having endured the pain of leading an ever grumbling opposition, well known for being possessed with demons of scattering, tormented by a cancer of splitting and splintering as it went through a dry desert in its purported search for “democracy” in a very undemocratic way. The long and winding journey has been characterised with drowning in the electoral red sea, sinking glitteringly red in its traditional red regalia donned since 2000.
Leaving behind a vengeful mother seemingly far from forgiving, the departed Morgan may have failed to have ascended to the helm of earthly politics as he arguably breathed his last still gazing at the State House with lustful eyes, but who knows? Probably his maker has something in store for him.
Kwaz i se kuzobongwa lamaQhawe, aphiwe imiqhele, abuse njalonjalo le Nkosi yamaKhosi. (For unto them that overcometh, a crown of life shall be; they with the king of glory shall reign eternally).
Probably now under an epitaph inscribed “A resting traveller who died on a political journey to nowhere!” may his resilient and enduring political spirit finally find some rest!
Fare thee well gallant son of the soil.