THAT THING’: The missing link in our politics

WHERE is Evan Mawarire? Is he an elections monitor in the upcoming US elections that will see Trump pacing his racist neck into the white house? Is he even still in America? What happened to the hearts he broke when he eloped and left his family behind?

There once was a boycott of the national pledge, today our children pompously recite it. I am definite that the frenzy of #This . . . has slowly cremated itself, its disciples should only wait for its obituary which I will consecrate some few weeks to. All these are events and individuals who are part of the “Zimbabwean idea” who negligently lose trail of behaviour and nature whips them into direction. I once wrote about how fast reactionaries are quickly forgotten. It’s a behavioural cycle in Zimbabwe; we forget your opportunistic ideas, you make noise when you have not thought through your actions and a few weeks, months down the year we remind you of your past failed revolt.

Legends are ideologically stubborn, they do not sway from their values however, challenged or ridiculous they seem, I am not one in the making, but I am a disciple of my own ideas, a stern observer, inquisitive listener and a pliant writer, I write what I think, if you do not agree with me, engage me, in any way its mandatory that we do not agree. Our biggest enemy is the person who cannot think for himself but believes that Western investment is the answer to all our problems, removing Zanu-PF from the throne will erase the drought splurge and repetition of failed opposition coalitions will surely change 2018 anticipation Alas! 2018 will tell. When already ZimPF has Matabele leadership squabbles, MDCs A-Z have no alternative and are splitting every half year, Nera is ridiculed for its boycott of Norton, and a looming debate of pro-Matabele politics is gaining momentum in the region (I will get back to that some other time). All these are indicators of what will happen in 2018. Asambeni bo!

Where is the power? Because we now have forgotten about what I promised you that you will speedily forget, let’s get back on track and discuss political strategy because that is where all the power and money is. It will be grave if we assume that elections are determined by politically active or affiliated citizens only. The year 2018 is different from all years. This is the year when most young voters will cast their first ballot compared to any other electoral year in Zimbabwe. I am talking about everyone born in the year 19952000 who were not eligible to vote in 2013 but born in an epoch where our politics, economy and society is fragmented. These are the people born during the momentum of opposition politics in Zimbabwe and have been indoctrinated to be opposition because all their woes are attributed to the ruling party. Uninformed political proselytisation became subject of socialisation of both the urban and rural adolescents and the party has not done much to attract this kind of voter. In fact, the ruling party has not invested in the KEY voter, and this is the electorate that holds the keys to the state house.

How does the KEY voter think? A random discussion with a first year university student informs you of their political perception on any dispensation in Zimbabwe. They are full of anger, they feel robbed, raped and dislodged. The most disappointing part is they do not know the reason of their anger, they have no explanation or description of who robbed and raped them, but all they display are heartfelt emotions that are easily swept any direction; misdirected feelings. Such an emotional person is costly to all attempts of defending the goals of Chimurenga. Because of their feelings which have no epicentre but cultivated by parents who have a disgruntled political view, they are vulnerable to opposition buttering. This is a large chunk of an electorate that is eagerly waiting to cast their first vote in 2018. The media exposure they have been subjected to repetitively nudge the importance of casting a vote, but does not inform them how to make a voting decision. With the American elections that have been overstocked on international news, they feel incentivised to also vote, but the question is, for who? An uninformed citizen is dangerous to himself and any decision they make is highly drastic hence I feel it is the role of the ruling party to start investing in this KEY voter.

I discovered that mentioning of the name Zanu-PF to these young minds is associated with fear, failure and inaccessibility. Truth be told, that is the common discourse that these children have been indoctrinated with and it needs redressing while there is still time. It is some of the reasons why this group is blankly emotional. They have no access to the truth and what they are left with is an unchallenged line of thinking, which is the sole mandate of Zanu-PF to assist in unlearning. To them, the idea of Zanu-PF has no link with protecting the gains of Umvukela, if they are from Matabeleland; Zanu-PF and development cannot be put in one sentence, if one is from Harare; Zanu-PF and vending are synonyms worse of all, if you set foot in Hillbrow, South Africa, the biggest failure in a foreign land will attribute his lack of thinking to the party — all blame is on the party, yet it’s entirely not true.

The degree of development in Bulawayo may vary but let’s not forget that our poverty in the city has for 16 years been a result of the likes of suspended Deputy Mayor and his MDC-T cabal who have syphoned council property and finances and less focused on rebuilding and rebranding the city. It is not Zanu-PF’s fault that you chose to go and not think in Hillbrow that you are even failing in that city of gold, the party is not responsible for what and how you should think. But all these are our important special cases who need to unlearn some things and the party still has not reached to this and new voter, and this is the voter who will cost Umhlangano. When you attend a rally, it’s the same faces you saw in 2013, now a bit older, if its new faces, it will be our grannies who have lost hope in opposition and little or none young vibrant members have joined the party. A side note, this ZITF, I witnessed a couple of my friends buying Zanu-PF cards, I asked them why they made that choice, listen to their response “in 2008 when we would queue for mealie meal, we would be asked for party cards, so we need to be secure this time around”. I was disturbed by this response because these are members who do not translate into party voters. Their reason of joining the party is far from the intentions of cadres who want to serve the country and protect its ideological interests. Let me be a bit scholarly in briefly explaining this political strategy. Among a plethora of models that describe voting behaviour, I want to attach my friends’ decision and how the party may harness

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My personal approach is that it is a multifaceted, multi-dimensional issue. Firstly I have always believed that; to him much is given, a lot is expected. To some degree I believe the attack may be justified in that my perceived professional standing fell below the expected standard. Concerning the two transactions that were penned out in the newspapers I think from a professional stand point and morally I could have done much to mitigate thoseh issues because those were just personal issuese that boomeranged because they were done through a professional entity, this being Cheda and Partners.

The second dimension is that whenever there is a key people will obviously go for the jugular. The moment those two transactions happened and the other transaction that related to Mr Mlamuli Ncube concerningn some properties came into the fore, in my viewe I think the competition came in. You will notice e that the way that the legal fraternity is regulated is basically that its fellow lawyers do the regulation — this being the competition. So I believe all that t happened played into the hands of competition.

The third dimensionim is that the moment I joined politics, I becameam easy prey for people to find fault because how d do you justify the making of noise of just two to threere transactions that related to me or Cheda and Partnersa when the law firm handled over 7 000 casesa successfully. The hullaballoo of the couple of t transactions is incomparable to the millions of dollarso that we were handling as an enterprise. For corporates I will tell you that we were handling transactions for over 13 banks, many statutoryy bodies including NSSA and a lot of other entities a and transactions were going through but nothing wa was mentioned about that.

In my viewi they were socio-economic considerationss from people who really wanted to see the firm rm going down, specifically fellow lawyers who went for the jugular when they saw the opportunity to do so. Also I think a lot of things were expected from me and my conduct was deemed to fall beyond expected standards.

VD: In termsr of your person how did this entire scandall affect you?

SM: To be truthful this was one of the most devastating thingsh that happened in my life. For 15 years of my life after finishing college, all that I knew and that I had ever known was Cheda and Partners. All that I knew was practising law, all that I knew was going to court, all that I knew was defending people’so rights. My approach to practice was basically the support to the underdog.

Honestly the firm that I had ever known, in fact the employer t that I know is Cheda and Partners. So this had a direct effect on me because now I was waking up p and there was no court to attend, no clients to a attend to, it therefore took a toll not only on me personallye but also psychologically. It also took a heavye toll on me financially because that was my o only other source of income outside my mining activities.t

VD: Still on n your legal practice, I know you handled a lott of cases, which were the major highlights of your career?

SM: There are several cases which come to mind but one case in point is the treason trial, where I was basically one of the instructing lawyers. I came face to face with a treason murder arising from the distribution of fliers. That matter really exposed me to criminal practice as far as constitutional matters are concerned, it really brought a lot of issues and took a number of interesting turns.

The second matter which comes to mind is one involving the Apolostic Faith Mission (AFM) church which is otherwise known as Sengwayo, after its founder. The church was founded in the 1950s and by then the Rhodesian government was not allowing blacks to establish independent churches, they had to be appendages of foreign churches so they became an appendage of an American church; the United States-based AFM of Portland Oregon. In 2004 the Americans then came to the country suddenly and now wanted to remove the overseer of the church, Reverend Richard Sibanda. It was a difficult case but my approach was to block the deposition of the overseer. For over nine years that matter was in and out of court, with the opposing side changing lawyers continuously but I remained the overseer’s legal representative.

The third matter which comes to mind is when I got a court interdict that barred the then Education Minister David Coltart from preventing pupils who had failed to register for exams in time to write their examinations. There are honestly a lot of cases but those three come to mind right now.

VD: When the tribunal finally announced your de-registration, you did not challenge the decision, it is clear you expected such a verdict to come through, how was the waiting, how did it feel when you were finally told you could not practice law in the country ever again?

SM: The wait was really devastating; I can compare that to a person who is on death row, where you know that one day you are going for execution. So you might realise that the wait was painful but I knew it was coming. However, when it finally came you cannot imagine the relief that I had, in fact the relief I felt was so satisfying that I think it was worth the wait, a wait which was painful not only for me but my immediate family and my entire family.

VD: But since it is now in the open that you are no longer allowed to operate as a lawyer, do people still come to you seeking some form of legal advice?

SM: Obviously I am now guided by the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act which says now that I am de-registered I cannot institute legal proceedings but what I am doing, which is within my right is being a business consultant and a legal advisor.

Business consultant in the sense that I have done a lot of business courses, I have structured a number of business deals and as long as I operate within the parameters of the Legal Practitioners Act that I don’t draft court matters, take matters to court I am therefore still within my rights. Basically I am an unregistered legal practitioner but I am also a legal practitioner by training so that can never be taken away from me by anyone.

VD: I know, in the previous elections we saw another side of you when you entered into active politics under the MDC banner contesting for the Magwegwe constituency but on a losing note, now that in 2018 we will be having elections, are we going to see you entering politics?

SM: Politics is a dog eat dog terrain. In the first place I don’t think my entering into politics was well considered, it was more academic and theoretical, now with the benefit of hindsight I should have taken more time to go into politics because it comes with socio-economic ramifications for my family and even my businesses.

My businesses honestly suffered when I entered politics. I am confident that had I not entered politics Cheda and Partners would still be in existence. So with the benefit of hindsight and information that I know now I remain politically active but as far as the ballot paper is concerned count me out as I won’t be entering in the foreseeable future, there are certainly better priorities than contesting.

VD: I know at one point you entered the media industry as a publisher of a regional newspaper the now defunct The Southern Star, could we see you taking this avenue once more?

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