I HAVE neither had the time nor the inclination to comment on the myriad eyebrow-raising issues that have made headlines in recent weeks, suffice to say, it seems the silly season is here to stay.
I, however, do feel obligated to devote my first article of the year to addressing the rather duplicitous claims made by ambassador Jacqueline Zwambila in her bid to remain in Australia because that sort of self-serving opportunism masquerading as political activism should not go unchallenged.
I do not begrudge Zwambila her good fortune — political and personal — that has allowed her to spend the last four years in Australia where she has been spared the drudgery of the average Zimbabwean existence punctuated by power cuts and water shortages, among other inconveniences that have become normative for the urban dweller.
Good for her and for the many other Zimbabwean political activists who have found refuge elsewhere; we must all find what comfort we can in these hard and trying times. What I detest about Zwambila’s asylum bid is the shameless hyperbole around her personal security concerns should she return to Zimbabwe.
I would think in the pecking order of the opposition, Zwambila is relatively small-to-medium fish compared to the other occupants of the MDC-T’s top echelons who live in the country and carry on with their political crusade for change while bearing the hardships of Zimbabwe with their supporters.
Zwambila identifies as an MDC-T activist among other political labels she wears and it is this identification as an activist and the idea of needing to stay in Australia to continue with her activism in peace and safety that I found to be peculiar.
This is because I remembered another MDC-T activist whose circumstances were far removed from those of Zwambila, whose fortunes were less enviable and whose death hit me very hard because she was my age mate.
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Rebecca Mafikeni was an MDC-T activist who died at the age of 29 having been incarcerated on charges of allegedly murdering a cop, Petros Mutedza, in May 2011 in a case that has come to be known as the “Glen View 29”.
Media reports about her life and death stated that she joined the MDC as a teenager while doing Form 2 and her commitment and dedication to the cause of the MDC has been lauded — may her soul rest in peace.
I think one can find in Zwambila’s activism and the activism of the late Mafikeni a teachable moment. The lesson is that activism requires dedication.
What I find tragic about the death of Mafikeni was that her political affiliation had a great bearing on her circumstances and incarceration rather than any considerations of justice.
But I would like to think that one of the reasons why she died was because she was a pawn on the political chessboard, dispensable and easily replaced by a dozen eager, zealous and idealistic youth who think politics is something worth living for while seasoned and mature cadrés like Zwambila know that it can just a be a means to a personal end — like the granting of asylum in a comfortable foreign land where activism often takes the form of sitting before a keyboard and venting.
Why is it the young die for such causes? The MDC-T leader has several children and none of them have died for the MDC nor suffered any hardship for supporting their father’s political cause (to my knowledge and I stand to be corrected) seeing as most of them are reportedly safely tucked away in foreign lands to begin with.
I am sure Morgan Tsvangirai would rather die than let any of his children die for politics. Yet Rebecca Mafikeni died and party officials and supporters gathered to mourn and venerate her — a 29-year-old whose political convictions made her a target and who might have met with a more fortunate fate had she been the daughter of a higher ranking MDC official or the child of someone “important”, someone important like Zwambila, for whom the party bends over backwards to issue a statement all, but endorsing her asylum bid even though the grounds of her appeal for said asylum have more holes than a sieve.
Like I said, I do not begrudge Zwambila her good fortune — political or personal — for everyone desires to live well, in comfort and safety as Chinua Achebe once noted, who in their right minds would spit out a juicy morsel that the gods have placed in their mouths?
I am not writing to demand that Zwambila spit out her juicy morsel of opportunity to live in the first world in greater comfort than what Zimbabwe has to offer for the “average Joe”, but it would be nice to be spared the yarn she is spinning while she is at it.
If Zimbabwe is good enough for the low-activists in the calibre of the late Mafikeni, then it should be good enough for the high-level activism of Zwambila, besides what better way of agitating for change than doing it from within, speaking from lived experience and sticking it out with fellow comrades in the rank and file of the MDC who are in the trenches?
Zwambila’s safety cannot be guaranteed according to the MDC-T leadership, but what is Zwambila doing or saying that is so different from what the rest of her comrades are saying?
Please spare us this elitist activism that costs you nothing but broadband when you have legions of young people who have bought into the political jihad for democracy that you declared in this country and sacrificed life and limb. But that’s just me.
And I could be wrong. We can always agree to disagree.
Delta Milayo Ndou is a journalist, writer, activist and blogger
