TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE
May 28, 2009

The MDC is proposing setting up little countries within Zimbabwe, ”each with a budget and local parliament of its own”.
They are calling them five “regional governments, each with their own prime minister, cabinet ministers and a parliament”.
All they are saying is that they want to parcel out Zimbabwe into tiny little countries based on tribes not nationality. They want to create Bantustans instead of promoting unity.

The MDC has not yet even attained real power to make meaningful changes; they don’t even know who they are within this government and they already want to cut up the country in a disgraceful attempt to create what can only be a federal state, but created along tribal lines.
And who said the South African example is best for Zimbabwe?

My misgivings are centered on the fact that the country is being divided along tribal lines and that is totally unacceptable.
Zimbabwe is one country and shall remain so. Parliaments and MPs for several tribes within such a small country? Why? Convince me.

But why parcel out Zimbabwe to tribes, big or small? What kind of solution is this?
If we accept that Mugabe and ZANU-PF played a tribal card and underdeveloped Matabeleland, why not correct the anomaly instead of parceling out the country to tribes. All tribes in Zimbabwe are small and our population definitely does not demand such action.
Is the MDC so much out of ideas or are they fearful of dealing with Mugabe’s tribal legacy that they’d rather create little nations within our country than deal with the problem at hand?

This is a pretty serious step for a couple of political parties, with self interest, to take on their own without involving the people.
I am greatly shaken to read that “the MDC would be championing the proposals when the country draws-up a new constitution, a process which is already underway and could last two years”.
Why two years? Why is the MDC and ZANU-PF the only ones dealing with the rewriting of the Constitution at the exclusion of civil society and other stakeholders?
There is a lot of debate and consultations needed before undertaking such a potentially destructive step.

On paper, we have been “independent” for 29 years, the same amount of time it took Robert Mugabe to destroy our country.
Here we are, more than a quarter of a century later, and we wobble around like newly born fawns.
We can hardly stand on our own two feet as a nation and yet, instead of appreciating our country, instead of appreciating that for the first time, we have cornered the man who destroyed our nation, we start clamouring for the sub-division of our nation before we can even nurse it back to health.

We are one country and the acrimony among successive politicians should not be used to break up our country.
Further to that, if we should go that route of emphasising Mashonalnd, Matabeleland, Manicaland, etc, we dare not leave the other tribes out. They have as much say and deserve as much as the so-called big tribes deserve.
If this foolish idea is allowed to welter, we are planting seeds of civil war in an innocent country that does not deserve such tribal upheaval.

Why should the Karangas, Ndebeles, Zezurus and Manicas be allowed to “rule” themselves when all of them found Zimbabwe as it is today? What about the “smaller” tribes?
The criteria apparently being one’s tribal affiliation, what happens if a citizen of Matabeleland should “stray” into the Republic of Mashonaland West? Will he not be discriminated against?
And will a citizen of Manicaland who strays into the Republic of Matabeleland be allowed to live there and buy land and a small plot to farm?

Are we going to take into consideration the history of all the tribes concerned? We should do that because tribal history will declare that Zimbabwe cannot be subdivided to please tribes over the existence and survival of the nation.
Or are we going to say that as long as you are here you can have your piece of the country?
Sipepa Nkomo’s misguided and extremely dangerous suggestion reminds me of that blessed woman who, kneeling before King Solomon for arbitration, decided to let the other woman keep her child in one piece rather than have the child cut in half.
Oh, King Solomon, where are you?

At its formation, the MDC had support from various groupings and it is not easy for them to please all those who supported them in their infancy.
The MDC received a lot of support from students, farmers, the white community, the poor, the workers and other interest groupings around. There is no way it can possibly repay all of them without messing up the country further.
The MDC better look for other ways of appeasing its supporters. Dividing Zimbabwe up is not the answer and this will stimulate tribal hostilities because some people will be left out and become tribal outcasts in the country of their birth.
The MDC should deal with more pressing issues right now and then approach civil society about issues of such national importance.
The MDC, including Prime Minister Tsvangirai, are not our masters nor are they the owners of this country. They do not have the authority to subdivide and handover chunks of the country to a few tribes within.
 
They MDC has yet to become a full-fledged government and yet they already want to break the nation into little Bantustans.
If not handled properly, this might spell the end of Zimbabwe as a nation and real tribal wars might be ignited.

We all had decades and decades to study and note the askew policies successive governments implemented.
Matabeleland, by virtue of its geography, suffered under these careless, successive governments. Is the MDC unable to balance the scales and only think that breaking up the nation is the solution?
What about the people of Chivi? What will the people of Maranda and Mwenezi demand? Chisumbanje? Chiredzi? Binga?
Such areas join Matebeleland in being perennially sidelined.

But look at Mashonaland West?

After 12 years away from home, I returned to Zimbabwe in January 1984.
I did my rounds and visited my folks in Zvishavane and Mwenezi. I also visited my sister and her family in Bulawayo, stopping over in Gwatemba for some of my relatives to prove that I was indeed back and was still in one piece.
What I saw is pretty much the same as things were before I slipped out of the country in late 1972.

In February 1984, I started work as a television news reporter.
One of my earliest assignments was to cover a youthful cabinet minister called Simba Makoni when he “officially opened a model home” at Mrewa Growth Point.
The contrast hit me unashamedly.
It was like I was in another country. This Mashonaland Central area was so well developed and had so many of the conveniences and infrastructure that one can still not find in Matabeleland, Chivi and other places in the southern parts of our nation.

And we cannot escape the disparity.
In spite of the geography and the rain patterns of the area, it was, nevertheless, a deliberate disparity.
I found the same when I visited my aunt at Chirarwe School in the Bonda Mission area of Rusape.
If, indeed, these areas were “naturally endowed”, it was the more reason resources should have been concentrated on those areas that were “lagging” behind.

The solution does not lie in dismantling the nation but in correcting those imbalances perpetrated by governments who found comfort in dividing and ruling our people.
The heart of the matter is that the nation and country of Zimbabwe cannot be sacrificed to pay personal debts and to appease egoistical tribes in the likes of the Karanga, Ndebele, Zezuru or Manica.
There are many many more other tribes other than these.
What do you say? Send me your comments at tano@swradioafrica.com

Zimbabwe belongs to the people and must remain one, not to be divided into little Bantustans that don’t mean anything but help to polarize the citizens.
These little “regional parliaments with their own Prime Minister and parliament” are nothing but ego trips for leaders who fail to correct the wrongs of the past and now seek comfort in dividing our country along tribal lines for they own selfish purposes.
Our political leaders must find better solutions.
The MDC must abandon and forget this idea because Zimbabwe belongs to all and none has a bigger grip or claim to it than any other.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Thursday, May 28, 2009.