Raymond Majongwe: From a Legion experience to a Bartimaeus moment
THE gospel of Luke is filthy rich with incidences of deliverance and restoration. In one of these, it narrates the experience of a demon possessed man called Legion.
He represented many. The Bible says he lived in the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. He had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out, cut and bruise himself with stones and other objects. He had become so rebellious.
The ever attentive Jesus freed him from torment and cast out the demons, allowing them to go into the swine as per their request. The swine drowned. When the terrified swine tenders returned from spreading the message regarding what had happened, they were further astounded and shocked to see the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting next to Jesus, dressed and in his right mind and they were afraid.
In similar fashion with the biblical Legion, yet in total contrast with his namesake, “Ray” in the American sitcom, Everybody loves Raymond, the name Raymond Majongwe had come synonymous with rebellion and waywardness. He had belted out divisive tunes day and night from the opposition tombs, that graveyard which has always existed hand in glove with stagnancy and lifelessness.
A protest singer in some day and teacher on another, he had drawn inspiration and even shared the stage with Thomas Mapfumo aka Gandanga in the United Kingdom. Together with his peers, their newly-found hobby of vilifying a constitutionally elected government propelled them to rebellion. Masquerading as the voice of the voiceless, he indeed spoke what he liked, leaving many wondering what could be living inside this Secretary-General of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) who is also a leading member of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the very organisation which gave us the now faded Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC-T fame.
Catapulting from innocent civil servants and thriving on visibility, he had over the years scoffed at and ridiculed national developmental initiatives, being actively involved in strikes and other activities which, added to disturbing order and national security, crippled the economy all the more.
He had mounted rebellion against the Government at the expense of the civil servants, a lot he turned into a cash-cow. Not so long ago, in what many interpreted as selfishness, he and his kind denied civil servants the opportunity to possess residential stands, yet he himself is a proud owner of a house in Harare’s affluent area. What then did he mean when he sang Ndeyedu Tese? But he has today come back to his senses and is in his right mind, belting out nothing besides reality. Many look in awe, disbelief and shock. It is really hard to believe that Majongwe has been delivered from the pessimistic world and is clad in a clean robe of consciousness. Raymond Majongwe? Ah! And the Bartimaeus moment Evidently tired of living in the tombs and in the dark, scales have finally fallen from Majongwe’s eyes. Nothing meaningful happens in the opposition tombs besides perpetual wails signalling news of political demise. The word “stagnancy”, aptly describes the situation. Nothing flows. It hasn’t taken much besides accepting reality that Majongwe has gotten frank with himself and his likeminds, telling them straight to their face that President Mugabe and the unmatchable ruling Zanu-PF party will romp to victory in 2018 for the sole reason that the opposition have been a disappointment. Thanks to the ruling party’s unparalleled efforts at reaching out to the people regardless of the difficult circumstances with contentious and very debat abl e roo t causes which some deliberately choose to overlook. The redeemed Majongwe is now viewing the world from the same angle with individuals of good qualities and moral standing too.
It would be gross academic selfishness staged in unfairness not to concur with Majongwe. His claims hold some grain of truth and are founded on a very solid base. The opposition have indeed failed to lay bare their vision, they have concentrated on regime change and thrust muscular attendance on trivial issues like lowering to appalling ways, wasting time concentrating on President Mugabe “falling”, oblivious of the falling and dwindling numbers in their support base. Which is what I call falling.
“(President) Mugabe will run this country whether you want it or not because of naivety and ideological bankruptcy that characterises the people of this generation, there are those that call themselves political parties and yet they are masters of pretence and political maggots in this country”, said the just redeemed Majongwe.
Surprisingly, some of us have been crucified and vilified for putting the same observations in black and white, over and over again. Our founded facts have been unjustly overlooked and dismissed as propaganda, disgustingly by individuals of less research and weights in any academic scale, how disdaining! Individuals who shiver, quiver, scatter and scurry for cover each time they receive an invite to some academic research.
They lackadaisically perambulate, screaming and crying in the opposition tombs, bruising their reputation and laying bare their intellectual deficiencies regardless of the cold and the haunting ghosts. In blinkers, they see nothing beyond temporary, paltry and very meagre donor cents.
All the same, in this our Afro-political mood, we commend Majongwe for saying the truth and for letting conscience take its toll. We believe he is a free man now, and that he will not go back to the tombs. Hoping the swine have been drowned, we welcome Majongwe with both hands to the world of consciousness!
On 26 February, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1970 condemning Gaddafi’s crackdown, putting in place an asset freeze and travel embargo of top officials, and referring the regime’s actions to the International Criminal Court. France and Britain pushed for further action against Gaddafi. French President Nicholas Sarkozy, whose presidency had been funded by Gaddafi, led from the front in the campaign to intervene more forcefully in Libya. The primary aim was to get the UN to declare a no-fly zone to protect the rebels under heavy bombardment from Gaddafi’s air-force. The Anglo-French initiative with American support received the backing of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and on 17 March, the Security Council passed Resolution 1973 with ten votes in favour while five members; Russia, China, India, Brazil and Germany abstained from the vote. Sincerely, as soon as the resolution was passed, Gaddafi proposed a ceasefire but this was ignored as insincere.
Making sense of the abstentions To my knowledge, India decided to abstain from the vote since the report of the Secretary General’s Envoy on Libyan situation had not yet been received and therefore the resolution was based on very little clear information, including a lack of certainty regarding who was going to enforce the measures. India stated that it was in favour of giving priority to political efforts than military efforts in finding a solution in Libya. Brazil felt that the resolution went beyond the goal of enforcing the no fly zone. The Brazilians argued that the use of force as provided for in the resolution will not achieve the immediate end of violence and the protection of civilians, and may have the unintended effect of exacerbating the current tensions on the ground. Russians criticised that the work on the resolution was not in keeping with Security Council practice, with many questions having remained unanswered, including how the resolution would be enforced and by whom, and what the limits of engagement would be. China, while explaining its abstention stressed the importance of respecting the UN Charter and solving the crisis through peaceful means. The Chinese felt that their delegation had asked specific questions that failed to be answered and, therefore, it had serious difficulty with the resolution. Germany felt that the intervention posed great risks and there was the likelihood of large-scale loss of life. Germany warned that the implementation of the resolution may lead to a protracted military conflict that could draw in the wider region. All this was ignored even by South Africa, an African country, last to be independent and celebrates Africa Day like many of us. The African Union and South Africa’s
Political Somersaults The African Union kept a low profile in the initial phases of the crisis. It’s suffice to realise that many African leaders have been known to have received generous financial support from Gaddafi. South Africa, which voted in favour of the UN resolution after