Joice Mujuru: What next?

I do not think Joice Mujuru has got the stomach to take the fight to Robert Mugabe. She is not in the mould of Edgar Tekere or her late husband, General Solomon Mujuru.

For much of her career Mujuru was a junior minister. Her rise to the vice presidency took many by surprise. The rumour mill churned out that it was her husband, the late general who leaned on Mugabe to promote her.

Solomon was widely reputed to be the king-maker in Zanu-PF. He was one of the main people responsible for propping Mugabe in the leadership of the party when an internal rebellion almost removed him, during the 1970s.

It was the general's clout that also kept his wife in positions of power. I am convinced one of the reasons why Mugabe treated Joice Mujuru the way he did is because the general is no longer there.

The Harare rumour mill has been awash with speculation that the general's death was not accidental as claimed. Surely the subsequent fate of his wife gives the rumour mongers another dot to connect.

Suggestions that Joice Mujuru join hands with the MDC are totally unworkable. In my books it amounts to nonsense. In what capacity is she going to join the MDC? As its leader or one of Tsvangirai's bum lickers?

Tsvangirai has already shown the handiende (I won't go) spirit. There is as much chance as a snowflake's in hell of him stepping aside to let someone else lead his faction of the MDC.

Even if she defects, I do not think she will take any significant support from Zanu-PF to the MDC. Remember the core of the former's support base is liberation war veterans who believe they suffered in the bush largely because the British refused to be tough with their kith and kin, Ian Smith.

They will always view a party funded by the Westminister Foundation and, they believe, hatched in Western capitals, with suspicion.

Moreover the notion that Mujuru join hands with the MDC is one founded on the extremely shallow presumption that all that is needed is an anti-Mugabe platform. That shallow platform is the main reason why the Zimbabwe opposition has had little success. It is a platform that relies on Mugabe's own blunders to make an impact.

What is needed is a platform that defines core values and principles that can resonate with the people of Zimbabwe. One of those values is anti-corruption and many Zimbabweans believe that some of the mud that has been smeared on Mujuru deserves to stick. She can hardly be a poster-girl for an anti-corruption drive.

It is much better for Joice to remain an ordinary member of Zanu-PF than for her to move over and become a junior member of the MDC. Moving from licking Mugabe's bum to licking Tsvangirai's bum can hardly be called an improvement by anyone in their right senses.

Mind you the political landscape of Zimbabwe is not full of people who are fighting for principled causes. It is full of people who are hunting for opportunities, especially the opportunity to become filthy rich through lavishing off state funds.

I can guarantee you not one of them will be prepared step down a rung on the ladder to opportunity to make room for someone else. Noone in the various MDCes will step out of their top position and hand it over to Mujuru. Maybe Welshman Ncube but I don't think he will want to repeat the same mistake he made with Mutambara.

Can she strike out on her own? Can she form her own party? I doubt very much that she can stand on her own. Her position in Zanu-PF was mainly due to the political acumen and skill of her husband.

Apart from her war record as Teurai Ropa, the only other thing Zimbabweans remember her for is her piqued onslaught against Strive Masiiwa when he was trying to form what is now one of Africa's leading companies, Econet.

I do not think she has the acumen and skill to fight for her own political space. I agree she has got a good launching pedestal, but I don't think she has the wings to fly. If she leaves Zanu-PF chances are that she will just be another Simba Makoni.

Joice Mujuru's political career may be over.

My Hearfelt Condolences to Zimbabweans

The people of Zimbabwe, I would like to extend my heartfelt condolences to you. Your liberation party is no more. Zanu-PF is no more.

The party lives in name only. The foundations upon which it was built, have been dug up and thrown into the river.

The Zanu-PF that I know, was built of a platform of selfless sacrifice. People, who knew the only guaranteed outcome of joining the liberation war was hardship, gave themselves and their entire lives to the cause of freedom in the name of the party.

I have never considered the vice president to be particularly brilliant or particularly suitable to lead the country. To me she is the least worst of bad choices. However noone in their right senses can deny that she made great personal sacrifices in the years leading to liberation.

In the current situation, I am like a goat asked to choose between the teeth of a hyena and those of a leopard. As far as I am concerned, the person leading the charge against the vice president is even less brilliant and less suitable. Moreover she has not made personal sacrifices to the extend the VP has done.

People like Didymus Mutasa and Sydney Sekeremayi have been synonymous with Zanu-PF since it started ruling the country. One of the few political meetings I ever attended was a rally at Mahusekwa growth point addressed by the Sekeramayi and the late Enerst Kadungure. One of them was wearing a light blue Safari suit and the other a cream Safari suit. That was in 1980 when I was in grade five at St Nicholas.

Zanu-PF has survived many things. It survived Ian Smith, it survived the MDC, but there will be no surviving Grace. I have never witnessed such toxic divisiveness in the history of any party. Long serving cadres of the party have been viciously and ruthlessly attacked, in a manner that seems to have taken them by surprise.

Like battery acid applied to fabric, she has eaten away a huge chunk of the party's unity. I will be surprised if people in Zanu-PF can return to fully trusting each other. In the run up to the supposedly elective congress of Zanu-PF, the party's constitution was torn to smithereens. So much that this whole charade should never ever be called an elective congress but a manipulative congress.

The Mugabe family effectively appointed themselves accuser, judge, jury and executioner for many in Zanu-PF. People have been suspended, expelled, threatened and even arrested simply because of untested allegations from the Mugabe family.

Some Zanu-PF stalwarts like Emmerson Mnangagwa may think they are gaining from this. I am not privy to what exactly is going on in Zanu-PF corridors but I have my doubts that the minister of defence is the ultimate beneficiary of the ongoing purges.

When a lion hunts, it selects its prey and separates it from the rest of the herd. I pointedly do not think Mnangagwa is the lion here. He just another member of a herd that is being carefully sectorized in preparation for the kill.

He might appear to be ascending now, but three years is eternity in politics. Especially when past and present manipulations have shown that there are no guarantees whatsoever to be had.

One thing that is clear is that Mugabe is no longer in full control. It was sad to see him being handed notes and ordered around live on TV. In his own words 'kana nekumba ndoo zvandinoitwa'. What more of a plea for rest do you want from him? At his age Mugabe should be left to rest in peace. He has marched his mile. Let others march on.

Of course crowds have been used unwisely to humiliate long standing Zanu-PF cadres. I do not know if politicians know that there is a difference in meaning between the words 'rent' and 'loyal'. Rented crowds are never loyal crowds.

When the Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudzayi was arrested, accused of informing on Zanu-PF inner happenings, I pointed out that he was just a tuft of grass kicked up as bulls prepared for a fight.

The just ended wrongly named elective congress of Zanu-PF is by no means the end of the bullfight. One of the bulls may have been charged across the stomach but I have no doubt that it is going to turn around and charge back.

It is my well considered opinion that the next six months to one year are going to be crucial in determining which direction Zanu-PF as a party is going to go.

Whatever happens, the party will never ever be the same again. Broken trust can never be mended. It is like the shattered smithereens of safety glass.

Will true democracy ever take hold in Zimbabwe?

I know Zimbabwe's democracy has been teetering and staggering for a long time. However as of this moment I believe, it is not in intensive care, but in the mortuary.

While Zimbabweans leaders go through the mechanics of democracy, they do everything to make sure the spirit of democracy is defeated. The way the ruling party and the opposition have conducted their internal elections makes it blatantly obvious that none has the democratic spirit at heart.

I do not know if people have noticed the congruency of methods how Tsvangirai eliminated his challengers before the MDC congress and How Mugabe is eliminating his own before the Zanu-PF congress.

Tsvangirai was declared the only presidential candidate long before the MDC congress. Mugabe has similarly been declared the only presidential candidate. Any suggestion that the leader be challenged is treated as treasonous disloyalty warranting severe penalty including expulsion from the party.

The reason why democracy is dead in Zimbabwe is not just Robert Mugabe, but the political culture. Leaders give themselves absolute power like chiefs and village heads. Once a chief always a chief, is the mentality. As they say you can take the African out of the village......

Challengers, perceived, real or potential - are harassed, haunted and intimidated, often violently. Rather than waiting for the elective day for the outcome of the democratic process no stone is left unturned in the effort to make sure the outcome is pre-determined.

Steps are taken to ensure that there is no viable alternative on the elective day. The brave are eliminated while the remainder are cowed into singing praise tunes for one person. What is the purpose of holding an elective congress, if you already know who you want to be leaders?

For a long time I had hoped that since the systems for democracy are in place, Zimbabwe's democracy would grow. My hopes are in vain. Despite the gains brought by the liberation war, democracy is in serious regression in Zimbabwe. A leadership culture that fosters democracy is simply absent from the body politic of the country.

I have been watching the unfolding Zanu-PF leadership tussle with keen interest. What depresses me is that the debate has not gone beyond personal attacks and insults. None of the contestants has presented a coherent case on how they see the future of their party and our country. To me that is a sign that leaders are not thinking beyond themselves.

Claims are now surfacing that some have been visiting witch-doctors and prophets to enhance they chances of landing leadership. That should not surprise anyone. African leaders are well known for seeking supernatural intervention to guarantee their ambitions. Nigeria's TB Joshua had been a very popular destination until his building collapsed. Morgan Tsvangirai and Malawi's Joyce Banda visited him several times.

Perhaps an indication of the levels of selfishness is that none of these leaders ever visits prophets and n'angas to ask for better fortunes for their country. It is always about better fortunes for themselves.

There are a number of serious developmental issues dogging Zimbabwe. These are not being debated. Not once have I heard anyone mention the poor state of national roads, the potholed urban roads, the collapsing health system or the persistent blackouts. These issues were not discussed in the Zanu-PF leadership tussle nor in the preceding MDC leadership tussle.

This suggests that those seeking leadership in the country do not have any ideas on how they want to solve these things.

Maybe I have been too optimistic. What sort of ideas should anyone seriously expect from people who believe that diesel will just flow out of a rock to solve their energy supply problems. People clearly do not know that they need to have meaningful ideas on how to develop a country apart from visiting a witchdoctor or a prophet and then hope that everything else will just fall into place after that.

I also doubt that such people have got any idea on why democracy is crucial and how to foster it in a country.

Whither Zanu-PF

Senility is not a step function, but a gradually rising slope. When you grow senile, you do not go to bed one evening perfectly normal and lucid, then wake up the following morning a completely incoherent and blabbering wreck.

There may be a lot more in common between the Malawi Congress Party and Zanu-PF apart from that both use the cockerel (jongwe) as their party symbol.

Senility is a gradual process. A person who was once visionary, lucid, decisive and forceful, go through a period where these qualities gradually deteriorate. Some of the qualities may deteriorate faster than the others leading to scenarios where the remaining qualities are misapplied.

Usually the vision and wisdom suffers but the forcefulness remains to be misapplied.

People who are at a distance from the sufferer of senility may not notice it until much later and it has become quite pronounced. Those very close to the sufferer pick it up much earlier because of the constant social contact with the person.

One common consequence is that those close to the person often take advantage of the situation. If the person has authority they usurp his authority and try and use it in their own interest.

Take the example of Malawi. After declaring himself life President Kamuzu Banda grew senile while in power. In the later years of his rule it was an open secret that his 'special hostess' Cecilia Kadzamira and her uncle John Tembo were the ones calling the shots in Malawi.

It is claimed by some that the senile Banda was, during his last days in power, calling members of his cabinet his children. One man told me that he even demanded that they kneel before him like children culturally do in front of their fathers. We call it kuchonjomara in Shona.

Those far away from the halls of power in Malawi thought that Banda was his ruthless self.

The events leading up to the Zanu-PF congress have convinced me that Zimbabwe is going the same route. We now have a leader growing senile, tweaked by close courtiers, while those at some social distance are still hoping for the old willy fox to show its decisiveness and vision and forge a clear direction for Zanu-PF.

Yet the truth is that the old fox is too tired to hold the reigns firmly anymore and Zanu-PF is effectively rudderless. With no clearly succession plan, and many senior leaders seemingly scared of voicing an opinion independent of Mugabe, the party has been hijacked by mafikizolos. Of course they claim to be doing Mugabe's biding yet the truth may be that they are using his few remaining moments of decisiveness to push their own agendas.

Knowing that they would stand no chance in a fair democratic process, the courtiers are hauling themselves up the leadership ladder as fast as they can using Mugabe's name and authority. By the time people realise that Mugabe is too senile to lead, they will hopefully be secure enough in leadership positions to fend off challenges.

After Kamuzu Banda's demise the Malawi Congress Party has been slowly sinking into oblivion. Will Zanu-PF face the same fate?

Zanu-PF and Malawi Congress Party belong to the crop of parties that emerged out of the need to rid Africa of colonial shackles and nefarious cuckoo brained racist policies. Such parties have traditionally enjoyed immense support from the black electorate in the years soon after independence.

However nearly all of these parties that failed to ensure leadership transformation within themselves have lost power. Kenneth Kaunda's United National Independence Party, disappeared from the Zambian political scene, after keeping him at the helm until he lost national power. The Malawi Congress Party also never recovered from keeping Banda too long at the helm.

Only those  revolutionary parties that ensured leadership change from within are still enjoying secure rule. Chama Chama Pinduzi in Tanzania have never been threatened by loss of political power after Julius Nyerere handed over power. FRELIMO in Mozambique are also still ruling securely. The first change of power within Frelimo was due to tragic circumstances but subsequent changes have been smooth.

SWAPO in Namibia also still enjoys national support. Sam Nujoma handed over power decades ago. The ANC also appears to be securely in power despite being rocked by infighting and splits. Two current political parties, COPE and the EFF, are a direct result of splits in the ANC leadership. Both of them were born out of the divisive leadership style of one man, Jacob Zuma, but it looks like the ANC will survive the Jacob Zuma phase.

What will happen to Zanu-PF? So far they have been extremely lucky. Their main opponents, Western capitalists chose the wrong man to lead the push against Mugabe. Had it not been for Tsvangirayi's simple lack of vision, charisma, leadership presence and intuition necessary in statecraft, Zanu-PF would have lost power to him by now.

My personal view is that it is Zanu-PF's failure to renew their leadership from within which will be their main undoing. Zanu-PF, like the Malawi Congress Party, will most likely retain a core base of supporters. They will hang around the political scene for some time.

That is if they do not become the first liberation movement to loose power because of infighting. Already they are making the mistake of mistreating some very well known liberation war fighters like Joice 'Teurai Ropa' Mujuru and Rugare Gumbo.

African culture values long term contribution to a cause. It is very unlikely that the electorate will be happy to see Johhny-Come-Lately's run away with all the glory in Zanu-PF.

I am willing to bet that if Zanu-PF pushes come-from-nowhere people like Grace Mugabe into leadership roles at the expense of long-standing liberation cadres, it will definitely decisively loose the next election.

I think the next six months to one year, not the rubberstamp congress taking place now, will be crucial to determining the fate of Zanu-PF. The attack on Mugabe's potential challengers was cunningly timed to give them little time to regroup. However it does not mean they will not regroup.

Mugabe is badly panicked

You can tell that Mugabe is badly panicked when he starts eviscerating the party he leads, just in order to stay at its helm.

The last time that he was this badly panicked was when he had to face Edgar Tekere's ZUM in 1990. That is the only time I ever saw him shed his British gentleman demeanour and campaign in a t-shirt from the back of a pick-up truck.

Mugabe seems to have turned against some of his staunchest backers. People who have stood by him through thick and thin for decades like Didymus Mutasa and Joice Mujuru herself, are now under threat of being expelled from the party they helped build.

That he is having to depend on mafikizolos some with breast milk still smelling on their noses like Kasukuwere and Jonso Moyo, shows that he has probably lost the core of liberation cadre.

My own personal opinion is that without the liberation cadres there is no Zanu-PF to talk about. They are the people who faced mortal danger to put ZanuPF where it is. It would be extremely unwise to nepotistically substitute them with family and friends.

I am not sure what Mugabe hopes to achieve by eviscerating Zanu-PF at this late stage in his life. It cannot be longevity for Zanu-PF because without the steadying hand of the liberation cadre that elevated Mugabe himself, it is difficult to see Zanu-PF lasting long.

There is no other liberation party, that has vultures circling around the way Zanu-PF has. It is a party that broke a racist stranglehold on a country through armed force and to this day those it deposed remain bitterly opposed to the party. Many of them have got influence in the corridors of powerful Western governments. One wrong step and the vulture will swoop in lightning fast.

I am left wondering whether ZANU should be renamed GANU (Gushungo African National Union). Last time I checked Zanu-PF was a properly constituted political party with a constitution and proper procedures for things such as disciplinary action. It was definitely not a Vharazipi Village kind of entity.

However the way Rugare Gumbo an others have been ejected has left me wondering whether comedy has finally found its way into mainstream politics. Otherwise how does one explain the sabhuku-type decrees that are taking place?

What has been termed a Mujuru vs Mnangagwa factional struggle is morphing into a Gushungo clan vs the rest factional struggle. If those who are in the so called Mnangagwa faction think that Mugabe is helping them by attacking Joice Mujuru they are wrong.

Mugabe attacks the biggest threat. The Mnangagwa faction were that threat in 2005 when they were downed in spectacular fashion. Now it is the other faction's turn. However the Mnangwagwa faction will be the targets again once Mujuru is done with.

I do not know if people have noticed that the attacks are cunningly timed to give opponents little time to regroup. Mugabe has been quiet and seeming uninterested all along. Just a few weeks back he defended Didymus Mutasa and seemed to blame Oppah Muchinguri for starting the strife.

Only for him to barge out of the pen now, horns flailing tossing perceived opponents left, right and centre. It would be  a miracle if the cunning mudhara's opponents can regroup in the two weeks left, enough for them to challenge him at the congress.

I would be surprised if Mugabe can succeed in converting Zanu-PF to a personal dynastic vehicle. The Zanu-PF that I know was watered by the blood of liberation war fighters. Unlike the MDC it can never be claimed as a personal brand by one individual. Especially an individual who was in jail when the foundations of the party were laid. Laid on a bedrock of people who remained dedicated when faced hunger, hardship, suffering, sleeping in the bush and facing cruel attacks by a well armed enemy.

None is a better symbol of that suffering and dedication than Comrade Teurai Ropa. A brave woman who soldiered through the hardship of war to be where she is. She is not a woman who eloped into a bedroom that had been warmed and feathered by someone else.

It remains clear that Mugabe may have overstayed his welcome in Zanu-PF. While he may have succeeded in keeping discussion on the issue of succession tightly bottled up, it cannot be for much longer. I am willing to bet that if just one person is brave enough to nominate a challenger to Mugabe at the Zanu-PF congress, that challenger will have a good chance of winning unless intimidation and threats are used against voters.

Of Grace's Mouth and Jonathan's Hand

Allowing Grace's entry into mainstream politics was a serious blunder for Zanu-PF. She is obviously a Tsvangirai type of leader - the type that speaks first and still does not think afterwards! If she thought afterwards she would not speak again.

Her virulent and vitriolic charge at the Vice President has definitely thrown some chilli powder into the eyes of the party. Even if her words are washed away, the party will be itching and inflamed for a long time afterwards.

Grace's behaviour in refusing to shake the vice president's hand in public is juvenile beyond belief. The immaturity she displayed makes it clear she is not leadership material.

In the few weeks she has been on the campaign trail, she has done much more damage to Zanu-PF than opposition parties and powerful states have struggled to do in decades.

Questions are starting to be raised about Zanu-PF's future such as in this article. Clearly many international observers have some to the conclusion that Grace has irreparably damaged Zanu-PF.

Grace's onslaught on the vice president has been heavily supported by the state media, particularly the Herald newspaper. Everyone knows that the state media is puppet managed by the minister of information Jonathan Moyo.

It is perhaps educating that he was expelled from Zanu-PF in 2008 for stirring factional politics, in what was dubbed the Tsholotsho debacle. He is a veteran factionalist. No sooner had he been allowed back into cabinet than was he reprimanded for fanning factionalism by the president. That was in February this year. He clearly does not learn very well as he seems deeply entwined in the latest round of factionalism.

It is no secret that Zanu-PF is a party very proud of its liberation war credentials. It is also no secret that the people who fought in the liberation war form the hard core of Zanu-PF's support base. Liberation war veterans are very well respected by Zimbabwean society.

Grace and the person thought to be the mastermind of her tirades, Jonathan Moyo, are not liberation war veterans. On the other hand the object of their attacks, Joice Mujuru, is one of the most famous liberation war fighters. Everyone knows her liberation war name, Teurai Ropa.

Teurai Ropa, along with the names Josiah Tongogara and Rex Nhongo were among the most well known on the ZANLA side, matched by Lookout Masuku and Dumiso Dabengwa on the ZIPRA side.

Joice Mujuru is well respected not just because of who she was married to but in her own right as a liberation war fighter. On the other hand the person leading the attack against her, has little credentials apart from which bedroom she sleeps in.

Even in that marriage, in the minds of many Zimbabweans, she plays distant second fiddle to Robert Mugabe's well respected first wife, Sally. It does not help that she went through several partnerships before settling down with the president, something frowned upon by Zimbabwe's highly conservative society. It is common to hear Zimbabweans making snide remarks about multiple totems when a woman has such a history.

Grace's foray into politics has also revealed an immature and divisive streak. Her rallies have mostly been about scolding and insulting party supporters and officials.

She infamously accused Ndebele men of being good only at making babies. Judging by the reaction on internet fora, this did not go down well with the party's support base, not just in Matebeleland but countrywide.

It is clear that her main concern is herself and not the people. Yet politics is a cooperative venture where the leader should strive to encourage and build teamwork, rather than sow divisions by attacking members of the team.

As we say in Shona, it remains to be seen where the snort-apple and the knob-kerrie will eventually fall. However I am willing to wager the bottom dollar in my pocket that Grace will not have a successful political career purely because of her own short comings. I am also willing to wager a cow's head that Musoro Damba is on his way out of Zanu-PF again.

Grace Mugabe: The stick prodding a wasps' nest.

For some people divisiveness is a talent. His Excellency President Mugabe's wife, Amai Grace (or should it be Dr Grace) Mugabe is one of such people.

Powerful first world intelligence agencies spend decades trying to pry open what they perceived to be chinks in Zanu-PF. They had little success. Now in a couple of weeks, the first lady has clearly managed to rip Zanu-PF into two chunks. I bow my head to her. Her talent at divisiveness is unmatched.

She even put on a rather juvenile show of not shaking Mai Mujuru's hand when the first family left for the Vatican.

It is clear that Amai is fighting other people's battles. She is being used as the stick that prods the wasps' nest. What I am still struggling to figure out is whose battles.

At face value one could say that Emmerson Mnangagwa has often been cited as the 'other' faction leader so Amai must be in bed with Mnangagwa.

However from the way things have been going, I am now wondering whether Mnangagwa himself is not just another stick being used by some hidden hand to prod the dreaded wasps nest.

It is clear that Amai's chief handler has been Oppah Muchinguri. It is no secret that Oppah and Joice Mujuru shared camps - and probably competed for men too - during the liberation war. Oppah's involvement and past 'competition' most likely explains the jealous tinge to Amai's ranting against the vice president.

Amai herself was not involved in the liberation war. Her only claim to political legitimacy in Zanu-PF is who she had sex with long after the liberation war. It is definitely not liberation war credentials.

Then there is the role the living ghost, Jonathan Moyo, seems to be playing in directing the state media to provide negative for the Vice President.

That Moyo is a schemer is an open secret. He was the chief mover in the Tsholotsho putcsh, which he convened to try and engineer the ouster of Robert Mugabe.

Remember as well, that Moyo minted his political career as a critic of Zanu-PF. During his heyday as a columnist for the Financial Gazette he was the most virulent critic of Zanu-PF. This was at a time when Westerners were still showering knighthoods and honorary degrees on Mugabe.

One wonders whether his is not a mission to destroy Zanu-PF. After having failed to make any dents from outside, he seems to be making an effort from inside now, turning Zanu-PF stalwarts against each other - in classical divide and destroy manoeuvre.

I do not think Zanu-PF is about to implode. However I do think Amai Grace his been hung out on a very delicate branch.

The bullfight begins!

Some people are simply talented at what they do. That includes being naturally divisive.

Rich and powerful western intelligence agencies, spend decades trying to divide Zanu-PF. First there was talk of Karanga vs Zezuru factions. Of course these words mean the same thing, the tradition of worshipping Mwari through a serious of ancestral spirit mediums is called chiKaranga or chiZezuru which is why people who speak chiKaranga in Botswana are called maZezuru.

These factions were supposed to be headed by Mujuru and Mnangagwa without any explanation on the fact that the former was a muKorekore not a muZezuru.

These powerful entities failed.

But one woman, in week of rallying around the country has succeeded where they failed. She has torched what is bound to be a bout of open warfare in Zanu-PF.

Like a bull in a fight she has launched a spirit charge at the other faction. Just as in any normal bull fight, it is to be expected the other bull will charge back.

Heads will knock together with force. Horns will be clashing and clanging together. Of course tufts of grass have already been flying. More will fly.

Guys take the ringside seats and get ready to witness the battle royale for the control of Zanu-PF.

Grace has thrown down the gauntlet. She has knocked over the mother's breasts of the other faction. If she is not expecting a response then she is not very clever.

Kumakwicho!!!!!!

Open Letter to Amai Grace Mugabe

Dear Amai

I am a graduate of the University of Zimbabwe who was capped by His Excellency the President of Zimbabwe Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe in person. I am extremely proud of our institution of highest learning.

I know it has produced some of the best quality graduates in the region, whose abilities are highly respected. They have given it a shinning and growing reputation. It is my wish to see that reputation continue to grow. I would not want to see it lowered.

Amai, I would very much love to congratulate you on your graduation from this prestigious beloved institution of ours. However, before I do that, may I humbly ask for clarity on a few points.

I know that many people who study for degrees at whatever level publicize it, especially if they are prominent people. They even publicise the period of study. It is entirely shocking to hear about someone's study and qualification only when the chancellors hand is about to be placed upon their head to cap them.

For example we know that Her Excellency Vice President Mujuru graduated from the Women's University in 2005. She graduated again from Chinhoyi University of Technology in 2008. We already knew that she was going to graduate from the Women's University again this year.

Amai your study seems to have been rather secretive. Needless to say that on its own raises a lot of questions.

Awarding a 'degree' under murky circumstances, not only makes the recipient an object of ridicule, it also makes the awarding institution an object of ridicule. It besmirches its reputation.

It seriously compromises the integrity and reputation of qualifications, not only to be awarded in future, but those already awarded by the institution.

Once serious doubt is cast upon the veracity and quality of degrees an institution awards, it seriously affects the careers and employment opportunities of alumni of the institution.

My dearest Amai, you will not be sitting in the interview panels and employment agencies that review job applications. If the perception is that the UZ awards degrees without paying due attention to the quality of the study process, CVs will be thrown aside without much ado.

It is therefore in the interests of UZ graduates, past, present and future, to make sure that the degrees that we spent years and thousands of dollars studying for are not degraded in the eyes of potential employers. The acquisition of a degree is not an ego enhancement endeavour, but a serious learning process.

Based upon information in the public domain, our dearest Amai you do not seem to have done sufficient study to obtain a baccalaureate, let alone a doctorate.

University study is a public affair because it is meant to demonstrate publicly that the student has done the necessary work to acquire a certain level of knowledge. That is why study records are always publicly available usually in the form of project reports, published papers, theses and other activities all listed in an academic transcript.

To obtain a doctorate degree by study one needs to have a baccalaureate degree and a subsequent masters degree. During the study for the doctorate itself one needs to author several academic papers of sufficient quality to be published in internationally renown, referred journals.

Amai it is up to you to let us know which journals your work was published in.

In conclusion, Amai if you did do the work requisite for a doctoral degree, I would like to heartily congratulate you on your successful graduation.

If you did not, I will not lie to you. Not only am I disgusted, but I am extremely concerned at the potential to degrade qualifications issued by the UZ in the eyes of industry and commerce.

They ultimately are the main reason why people are schooled in universities. People are not schooled just to give them status, but to make them true experts that industry and commerce can rely upon.

Only you know the truth of what happened. It is up to you to silence the doubting Thomases with a forthright narrative of how your study was conducted. That should be very simple.

Thank you very much Amai for giving me your attention. Once clarification has been made on your qualification process, I will not withhold my congratulations.

Humbly
Jupiter

TB Joshua building collapse: Nigeria needs to account

According to TB Joshua's very own Emmanuel TV, a low flying plane was linked to the collapse of his building. The security footage it flighted, shows that the plane flew past at 11:54. The building collapsed almost an hour later at 12:44.

If a plane had crashed into TB Joshua's building, the wreckage would be obvious. The moment of impact would definitely have been noticed by many witnesses.
Mention of a plane is a desperate attempt to divert blame and will only be taken seriously by those without technical know-how.

If the building was sensitive to vibrations then a passing truck would have been far much more of a hazard than even an A380 taking off. The ground transmits vibrations better than air. That's is why there is earthquakes and never airquakes. It would still mean the building was poorly and inappropriately designed.

Clearly the insinuation carried by the claims of a low flying plane is that some sort of supernatural powers were involved in the collapse. The insinuation of black-magic is utter hogwash coming from a man who claims he is in contact with god so much that he could foretell the deaths of presidents.

He claimed to have foretold the death of Bingu wa Mutharika. How could he fail to foretell the collapse of his own building, and deaths of his own followers? By his own claims, he was given one whole hour of forewarning by the passing of a low flying plane.

Surely, if he could foretell anything, the building could have been evacuated of all people in that time. If his powers were so easily defeated by two bit n'angas (sangomas/witchdoctors) in low flying planes then it is himself admitting that he is a fake.

That aside, the bottom line is a construction site should NEVER EVER have been used to accommodate people. That is STANDARD well established safety practice. A high school building student will tell you that.

The Nigerian authorities themselves need to answer questions on why that was allowed. Do they not carry out construction site inspections in Nigeria?

Then there is that the collapse itself seems to have been kept under wraps for a day or two. That could not have happened without the complicity of people high in authority. How high I don't know.

When the first plane flew into the World Trade Centre on 9-11-2001 we were watching the news on the internet within minutes. How come it took days for a this particular collapse to start filtering into the mainstream news?

As far as I can see, this is more of a scandal for the Nigerian government than for TB Joshua. That is if Nigeria has a government given their handling of Boko Haram and the abduction of school girls about a year ago.

From the hard facts so far, it is clear this is a simple structural failure of a building under construction. Such failures are normally rooted in the owner trying to save costs by cutting numerous corners. While the owners are ultimately to blame, professionals who may have gone along with cuckoo brained cost cutting short-cuts must also be held to account.

Concrete on its own, stone and sand bonded with cement, has a tendency to develop micro-fractures over time. That is why it is always reinforced with steel in most applications. The right amount and type of reinforcement is critical to its ability to bear weight. Any home owner knows that you can put concrete footing with no reinforcement when you built a single storey house, but you can't do that for a multi-storey house.

The higher you go the more reinforcement you need in the foundations, thus the foundation design changes. Its cost increases as well thus normal practice is to design a foundation only as strong as needed for the planned building.

If a foundation is designed for certain number of floors, you can not just raise the building without re-designing and re-doing the foundations. That is why they demolish whole buildings, dig up the foundations and start from scratch when they build bigger buildings where smaller ones used to stand.

Other problems may occur such the crew stealing materials resulting in less steel or cement being used. Some owners may even buy less material than required in an effort to save money. It does not seem to have been the case here.

The problem seems to be that the building was just raised from four to six floors (doubling the weight the foundation had to carry) without re-designing the foundations. If a proper building approval and construction inspection regime had been followed. That should never have happened.

My guess is that either corruption was involved, or there was no proper construction inspection regime. Either way the buck stops with the authorities.

Nigeria needs to account for what happened here.

The Oscar Pistorius Verdict - Unbelievable!

They say the law is an ass. In the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius, it proved to be a very obstinate ass.

At the risk of boring repetition let me rehash the facts as I understood them.

Oscar heard a sound while on the balcony. He then went to his bed to get a gun loaded with soft tipped 'zombie-stopper' bullets.

Zombie stopper bullets are designed to disintegrate into hundreds of fragments upon impact with flesh, tearing a huge hole out of the victim's internals. They are rarely survivable. Any gun enthusiast knows that. Oscar seems to have been an above average gun enthusiast.

Oscar then went to to the bathroom. He stood at the door shouting at whoever was inside that he had a gun. He then claims that, while having made his way from the balcony, it was only when he was standing at the bathroom door that he got such a fright that he accidentally fired his gun, not once, but four times into the bathroom. He definitely was not startled by the door opening because it was locked from inside.

According to the judge all of Oscar's movements were an accident. Even the keeping of a gun loaded with zombie-stopper bullets was an accident. That alone signals an intention to kill whoever he fired his gun at long before there was a reason to fire at anyone.

Moreover, why did he not get a fright while he was at the balcony or by the bed? Why did he not fire warning shots while at the bed?

Oscar knew there was someone in the bathroom. Oscar knew his gun was loaded with zombie-stopper bullets. Oscar knew that those bullets are not survivable. He had fired them at water melons, with much delight at the result. Oscar's set up, long before he fired into the bathroom, long before he had a victim, signals an intention to kill.

I think there are only three facts that swayed the judge in this case. They are called retch, sob and vomit. Those are the facts that went straight to the judge's heart, not necessarily her mind.

I am not saying Oscar was acting. However he sure made a sorry sight sitting all alone in the dock with a green bucket next to him crying bucket-loads of tears. Any soft hearted person would have wanted to give him a smooch, slap him on the wrist and tell him not to be a naughty boy again.

He is lucky I was not sitting behind that bench. With my heart made of Mutoko granite, I would have abandoned all court decorum, got up, went over, gave him some nice treatment that would have left his ears ringing, before telling him to shut the what-what up in a voice loud enough to be heard in my home town of Chivhu.

Needless to say, it is my firmly held opinion that this pathetic display had more to do with feeling sorry for oneself than regret.

Then comes the little speech by Oscar's uncle after the verdict. The family, he said, were very grateful to Judge Masipa. Carefully note that he did not mention South Africa's justice system, but the judge personally. On that score he is right. It was not the justice system that saved Oscar from a murder verdict, but the judge.

He then added that the family would like to show their gratitude to the judge. May I ask, how? I ask because such language is also used in corrupt situations. Such as when offering a palm greaser type of gratitude.

Corrupt people do not say, I am going to pay you a bribe. They use seemingly benign language like, I am going to thank you. I will show you my gratitude. We can work together on this. Perhaps the most popular in South Africa being, let's make a plan.

I do not know about other people, but in my mind Oscar's uncle's language immediately raised a huge red banner. Why that choice of language? He is the best person to explain, but the picture it created in my mind is surely not a good one for him. After using such language, 'clever' is not one of the words I would tick if asked to describe him.

I just hope, someone is going to flog this obstinate ass and get it to move in the right direction. A justice system is primarily supposed to protect and reassure society that the truth and fairness will prevail in the long run.

In this case there were suggestions that domestic violence was involved. It also happened in the same month that a brute, or set of brutes, disembowelled a woman, Anene Booysens, in the Western cape.

I do not think the verdict is particularly consoling for victims of domestic violence. It might even be an encouragement rather than a deterrent to potential offenders.

The state's case was that Oscar was abusing Reeva when he killed her. His acquittal on all charges that involved intent, may be interpreted by some as meaning that he was clever enough to get away with it. Others might try to be clever too and get away with, excuse the pun, murder.

The ANC vs The EFF? Or is it the ANC vs democracy?

Recently the ANC complained that the nature of EFF objections to some issues in parliament 'undermines the authority of the state'.

If anybody is undermining the authority of the state it is the ANC. Statements by ministers that the security cluster which includes the army is going to be deployed to 'deal' with any disruptions of parliament is a clear threat meant to intimidate opposition politicians into not asking questions that the ANC does not want asked.

Clearly the provisions of the constitution, to allow representatives of the people to object to actions of the executive, are being made subordinate to the wishes of the ANC not to be embarrassed. Parliamentary rules should never ever be used to shield a sitting president from robust scrutiny.

The speakers of the various houses are very loyal ANC functionaries. If an MP makes a statement or asks a question that they don't like they quickly order them out. If the MP objects, ministers who are also very loyal ANC functionaries are now promising to deal with them violently.

These party functionaries are using a benchmark, respect, that is not defined or required by any law.

I cannot imagine in what way these threatened actions will enhance democracy. The only likely effect is that they will silence vocal opponents. Nothing can be more anti-democratic than silencing vocal opponents. If the EFF are undermining the state, charge them with treason, not chuck them out of parliament.

A loud ruckus over controversial issues is quite normal in a properly functioning democracy. In India parliament recently had to be adjourned early after opposition MPs kept loudly objecting to the dropping of a motion condemning Israel's actions in Gaza. The ruling party had connived, using its majority, to have the motion dropped from the agenda.

In my native Zimbabwe proceedings often come to a stand-still as MPs sing opposing songs or engage in shouting matches. MDC member of parliament now exiled in South Africa, Roy Bennet, once went to the extend of shoving Zanu-PF minister, Patrick Chinamasa, to the ground. Despite its close alliance with the security forces, Zanu-PF never issued threats like the ANC is doing.

Though, they used their parliamentary majority to have parliament sit as a court and sentence Bennet to 1 year in prison for contempt. That was provided for by the constitution. That episode is often cited as an example of Zimbabwe's lack of democracy.

Other parliaments literally feature MPs engaging in boxing matches and throttling each other. Yet you never hear of armies and the police being called in. Using the armed services to intimidate opposition is a typical characteristic of dictatorships.

The official opposition, the DA, seem to be quite happy to tag along with the ANC against the EFF. It looks like they think that if the ANC gets rid of the EFF then their own position as number two will be secure.

They are doing a disservice to South Africa's democracy by choosing to be an ANC poodle. In a democracy, the security services should never ever be used to evict objecting MPs. That defeats the spirit of democracy.

Showing respect to an establishment, especially a corrupt one, is not a requirement in democracy.

I do not know what respect the ANC are demanding. They are the ones who chose to be led by a man with scandals hovering around him like flies. A constant stream of controversy is an obvious consequence of such a choice. It does not require a PhD degree, even a fake one, to figure that out.

Here are the facts beyond dispute. The man admitted impregnating the daughter of a family friend. Despite claims that it was his culture and he had done nothing wrong, he had to pay a fine in terms of that culture. A fine in any culture is an admission of guilt.

He had unprotected sex with the HIV positive friend of his own daughter. The girl ended up accusing him of rape. He caused an outcry when he admitted that his only precaution during that episode was to take a shower after the sex.

Imagine Barrack Obama being allowed to serve after admitting to impregnating Jesse Jackson's daughter and to having sex with Malia's friend.

A close friend and adviser of the man was convicted of corruption related charges. When pronouncing the conviction, a judge said that the two clearly had a corrupt relationship.

The ruckus, over which opposition MPs are being threatened, is again corruption related.

Nearly 250 million Rands were spend on a collection of building, which even if they were placed in a high-end suburb like Saxonworld or Cape Point, it is difficult to imagine that they would be valued at over 50 million Rands. Four similar if not bigger properties belonging to the man's friends in Saxonworld, the Guptas, were last year valued at a combined value of only 35 million rand.

In the engineering profession, consultation services are normally pegged at between 1 and 6 percent of the value of a project and almost never go above 20%. What kind of professional services were offered that would cost nearly 400% the physical value of the project. It stretches imagination and boggles the mind.

The ANC are trying to use their majority to reduce parliament to a rubber stamp. They want to brush opposition objections aside in the name of respect. We know the objections are little more than tokens of protest, rather than effective checks and balances. The ANC will likely use its majority to smoother them.

Now the ANC want to silence even those tokens of protest. Clearly they are worried that the constant highlighting of their deficiencies is going to cost them votes in future. In my opinion, that is the main motivation for their threats, not upholding the dignity and authority of the state. They are trying to contain the negative news constantly hovering around their leader through badgering the opposition from raising the issues.

If the succeed, South African democracy will be walking with one leg broken. South Africans need to the think very carefully on whether the struggle going on in parliament at the moment is the ANC versus the EFF. It may be the ANC versus democracy.

White Africans belong nowhere else but Africa

I have decided that I am not going to use the words Whites or Europeans anymore in my writings, when referring to Africans with European ancestry.

These are definitely not a derogatory words but they carry this sense of 'otherness' that we need to get rid of. They have connotations of these other people who are not part of us in this continent. They sort of imply that people born and bred here in Africa somehow belong to Europe.

Yet the real truth is they are part and parcel of this continent forever. They are as African as any charcoal-black South Sudanese you can imagine. So for me there is no more White farmers but Euro-Zimbabwean farmers. This acknowledges their ethnic origin but makes it clear they are Zimbabwean.

If I ever slip up please remind me of this pledge that I am making. Especially you my fellow Euro-Africans.

This line of thought on my part was prompted by recent statements by the president of my country, Robert Mugabe. In an informal off the cuff speech, it was reported, he declared that Euro-Zimbabweans should not be allowed to own land in Zimbabwe.

It is clear His Excellency thinks of them as people who belong to some place other than Zimbabwe. It is also clear he is subconsciously allocating them lesser rights than non-Euro Zimbabweans. To me that is racist.

As I was writing this blog, a columnist of The Sunday Mail, Nathaniel Manheru, thought to be Mugabe's spokesperson, launched a scathing attack on a minister who called for the remaining Euro-Zimbabweans to be protected by government.

Given the atmosphere in Zimbabwe after fast track land reform, I believe such protections are an absolute necessity. Don't get me wrong. Land reform was necessary, but it has morphed into gratuitous harassment of a minority group.

To me this is evidence that Zanu-PF have clearly shifted from liberation rhetoric to anti-White racist rhetoric.

Let me make it clear, I believe in the liberation and freedom of every human being walking the surface of this planet. Oops! The guys on the International Space Station are also included.

I do not believe in black or white supremacy. I certainly do not believe in black revenge. As an atheistic humanist, I believe individual human freedoms surpass any group rights that some groups, like religious zealots for example, might wish to allocate themselves.

Migration is an inevitable happening in human existence. It has been happening for millennia. We the Bantu peoples migrated to this region from north and central Africa. Euro-Africans may have migrated after us, but once born here, they belong here as much as we do.

Migration comes with conflict. Conflict is a physical struggle to achieve domination. Domination comes with oppression and rights abuses. Consequently conflict leaves behind bitter memories that get handed down for generations. We need to get past these bitter memories and move on as a human race.

Migration is often followed by cultural integration and assimilation. Where the assimilation is allowed to naturally occur the bitter memories get quickly overwhelmed but the intermixing of cultures. In this region there was a tremendous amount of resistance to integration by the ancestors of Euro-Africans. That makes the process more difficult but it doesn't stop it.

The history of European colonisation and domination of Africa has left very, very bitter memories among the black population of the continent. That is a result of the virulent, violent racism and wholesale dispossession of resources that accompanied it. Euro-Africans themselves worked very hard, at keeping themselves segregated and separate. That has hindered natural assimilation and lengthened the period of bitter memories.

On top of that the ancestors of Euro-Africans unfairly grabbed and reserved the bulk of resources for exclusive use by themselves. This has added a very deep sense of injustice on top of the bitterness left by conflict.

Robert Mugabe is not alone in thinking that Euro-Africans belong to Europe. Millions of black Africans, still think of Euro-Africans as belonging to Europe. This is a direct result of lack of assimilation.

Just now I was involved in a debate between a Sotho colleague, and an Afrikaner colleague. The Sotho was adamant that the young Afrikaner belonged to Holland. I had to come to the defence of the Afrikaner.

The Euro-African's great-great-great-great---grandfather may have come from Holland, but people in Holland today will call him a foreigner and won't want him there. The Hollanders would be right, he belongs to Africa.

I reminded the young Sotho that even his and my ancestors migrated from elsewhere. We have no right to expect later migrants to go back to where they came from. The same way we cannot turn around and start a black Zionist movement to go back to where our ancestors came from. We will probably just start another senseless and idiotic conflict in the Middle East.

It is alright to seek justice and equity for past wrongs. However it not right to use the quest for justice as cover for retaliation, revenge and reverse abuse of rights.

Many Euro-Africans themselves seem to think of Europe as 'home'. Brothers and sisters, your home is here in Africa. We do not choose where and when to be born.

If I had been given a choice, I would have chosen to be born into some un-contacted Amazon tribe, hidden from the pains and injustices of this world.

We may not like the racism the ancestors of Euro-Africans brought with them. However what is done is done. We need to move on. If a man rapes you, the child you bear is still your child. Anyone born on this continent has got the same belonging, as everyone else. It is not right to qualify someone's belonging by the colour of their skin.

I was not right, when it was done by the ancestors of Euro-Africans. It is not right, when it is done by blacks today. I will never ever be right.

Comrade Chinamasa, dollarisation is not the problem.

Recently Zimbabwe's finance minister Patrick Chinamasa testified before a parliamentary committee supposedly investigating Zimbabwe's economic woes.

The minister blamed the exclusive use of foreign currencies (referred to as dollarisation since the US dollar is the most used currency) as the prime evil in creating these problems.

The erstwhile comrade seems to have forgotten that he is the one who announced dollarisation in the first place. The wheel has turned a full circle but the economy has remained stuck in the mud. He is now blaming his own idea. Surely it should be obvious to the minister that other things apart from the currency regime are responsible for the economic stagnation.

My long held view is, as long as the government is living beyond its means, as long as the government is spending TOO MUCH of taxes collected in Zimbabwe OUTSIDE the country, there is nothing they can do to fix the economy. Overspending is overspending. It does not matter what currency you overspend in.

There is a better chance of the sun rising from the west than of getting the economy right as long as we paper over the issue of corrupt, irresponsible behaviour in the top echelons of government and parastatals.

Having a currency you control means you can try to print money in order to fool yourself into believing that you have lots of cash. However we all know what happened when Zimbabwe printed zimdollars in billions, trillions and quadrillions? Value in our economy comes from the way we behave and support our economy than from the amount of ink we put on paper and call it money.

I find it ironic that the very same MPs sitting in the committee, are demanding that the government import luxury vehicles for them. They all seem to think that driving a locally assembled vehicle is beneath their dignity. As they sit around a table scratching their heads wondering what is causing Zimbabwe's economic doldrums, does it not occur to just one of them that it is their spending habits which are chiefly responsible.

I would like to say to Chinamasa, Comrade Minister the problem is not the currency that we use. The problem is the conduct of the people who run the economy. Let me not hit a dog with a hidden stick. I mean you and your colleagues are the problem. As long as you think it is beneath your personal dignity to buy Zimbabwe, wear Zimbabwe, drive Zimbabwe and educate Zimbabwe, it will remain beneath your capability to right Zimbabwe's economy.

Varume kana muchida kugadzirisa economy motosiya nyaya yenyu yekudya kusvika matumbu arembera seemombe muchidya mari yenyika.

Stop the foreign trips. Start buying locally. Buy all your vehicles from Willowvale and Quest. Encourage other manufacturers to set up plants here.

At one time Volkswagen floated the idea of setting up a plant in Zimbabwe. Why should they bother if you are going to ignore locally produced vehicles and go buy in South Africa. It would be better for them to keep all their manufacturing, jobs generated and downstream economic activity, in South Africa.

One of the few white people ever placed on sanctions for associating with Zanu-PF, Billy Rautenbach, had car assembly operations in the region. I am sure he could set up a plant in Zimbabwe if he had the confidence that the government would support him. Why should he bother when he watches the Zimbabwe government leaving the cars of other local assemblers, like Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries and Quest Motors rotting in dealerships while they buy Range Rovers, Fords and Jeeps manufactured in the very same countries that placed them under sanctions?

As we say in Shona kwadzinorohwa matumbu ndiko kwadzinomhanyira. The Zimbabwe government are busy sending profits to those who are sanctioning them.

Insist that every minister buys locally made clothes, shoes, socks and even underpants. Tell His Excellency the President, and the rest of you ministers that the University of Zimbabwe and NUST are among the best universities in the world.

A large proportion of the experts running mining, manufacturing and services in this region came from there. So there is not need to spend millions of our scarce money sending children to two-bit backroom universities elsewhere, where they come back without even enough skills to tie their own shoelaces. The only reason for sending them there being your mistaken belief that it is prestigious to be associated with something foreign. On the contrary, it is as intelligent as cutting off one's own feet.

I am very much aware that a number of people who gave you political trouble came from local universities. The likes of Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, Munyaradzi Gwisai and the infamous Madhuku came from there. However my elders you do not burn down your homestead because your children are troublesome.

Use Zimbabwean money in Zimbabwe to support Zimbabwe's economy. Do not rush to hand it over to those in Dubai, Japan, South Africa, Hong Kong and China. They are the ones who will get rich while this country remains poor.

It is as simple as that!

Flight MH17: Swallowed in The Confusion of Conflict

The happenings surrounding the apparent shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 are a perfect example of the confusion that reigns in the midst of conflict.

The Western media seem to think that conflict happens as a well organised choreographed activity where everybody knows their place and everything that happens can be attributed to a plan. The intended outcome is that every plan can eventually be attributed to someone.

Sad for them conflict is not choreographed. It is a mass of confused happenings often with the thumb not knowing what the forefinger is doing. The ethnic Ukrainian in the army will never know what the ethnic Russian sitting next to him is thinking and vice versa.

It happens in every conflict. The Americans never new what the Afghans sitting next to them were thinking, until maybe the bullets started flying in green-on-blue attacks.

The bottom line is that every single action is ultimately up to an individual person, who have their own individual aims apart from the collective aims. Once individual aims diverge significantly from stated collective aims confusion might set in. It is a sign of rebellion against the collective.

It is very much likely the responsible people in both Ukraine and Russia probably do not know exactly where all their BUK systems were. One cannot rule out that some, from either side, may have been in rebel hands.

This more likely for the Ukrainian side, since some of their own armed forced have defected or shown sympathy for the rebel cause. Like in Syria, units of the Ukraine armed forces have defected to the rebel side with their equipment.

This perfectly dovetails with my theory on clan politics and their role in the Ukrainian conflict. Members of the Russian clan in the Ukraine armed forces would have felt it better to join the rebels rather than turn against their own clan.

The act of shooting down the airliner itself may have happened because of the confusion that reigns in conflict. Nobody knows who was flying where and for what purpose. In such scenarios people tend to act on the famed gut feeling.

The handling of the aftermaths was also plagued by confusion. Bodies were left lying in open fields for days.

The rebels claim they were told by OSCE observers to leave the collection of bodies to experts. The OSCE denies this. However remember that the 'suggestion' did not have to come on an OSCE letterhead for it to be taken seriously. Especially in a confused situation like this. It may have been an off-the-cuff remark by an official on the ground.

One does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the rebels did not have the expertise to handle an air accident of this magnitude and nature. The way they eventually trundled around the debris field with cranes and heavy trucks is evidence of that. The rebels themselves clearly acknowledge that shortcoming and rightly expected someone better qualified than themselves to come and handle the task.

However the question of who to send was quickly swallowed up in the dust cloud of confusion. Western leaders seemed to suggest that Russia should take charge of the crash site while at the same time blaming Russia for interfering in Ukraine. If there was a moment Russia did not want to be seen as interfering in Ukraine I can't think of a worse moment than this one.

To make matters worse some leaders and media, particularly from the Western side concentrated on trying to allocate blame. On their part, Russia did not want responsibility for the bucket-load of excrement. They did their best to put some distance between themselves and the accident. 'No we are not responsible for anything' was their basic position.

The accident happened on Ukrainian territory. Conventionally they should be expected to have responsibility. However the fact is the Ukrainian government does not have full control of its territory, and could not be depended upon to handle the recovery.

The only way to handle the situation, in the interests of the bereaved families was outside of conventional ways. The bereaved families and governments, particularly the Dutch government, should thank the Malaysian government for having the wisdom and vision to wade through confusion and eventually extract the remains of the deceased from the rebel area.

If they had fallen lock step in with the Western approach of allocating blame, it is very likely those bodies would have languished in rebel territory for weeks if not months.

The 'Blame Russia' Game Leading to Nowhere

It seems the favourite passtime of Western governments and media has become blaming Russia for a situation that they themselves encouraged and actively campaigned for.

At the start of the Ukraine crisis there was an elected pro-Russia leader in power in Kiev. This was a leader elected in credible peacetime elections. When a section of his population became restive, he did not unleash the full might of the armed forces under his command upon them. Instead he negotiated and made huge concessions.

With the full backing and encouragement of Western governments and media, these concessions were ignored. The pro-Russian leader then left power. He could have chosen to fight but he did not.

The violence that is going on now could have been rebels in Western Ukraine against the government. To me that indicates Viktor Yanukovych made a decision to save his country. A man who placed his country above the petty tribal politics that are ripping Ukraine apart today.

Western backed two bit tribalist leaders then unconstitutionally seized power, with much cheering from very same Western leaders who are pointing fingers at Russia. At one point Western foreign ministers were trooping to Kiev to pat these tribalists on the back, like a herd of drought stricken wildebeest rushing to a watering hole.

The tribalists subsequently organised elections that make the much maligned elections run by my country, Zimbabwe, look like a raffle run by honest old ladies. Half the country could not even get the chance to vote. Yet the so called paragons of democracy in the West were tripping over their own toes in the rush to endorse the farce.

Now that their short-sighted actions have led to a disaster that has claimed mostly Western lives, they have been screaming like a troop of monkeys that has seen a leopard, pointing fingers at Russia. They forget that they invited conflict to their own doorsteps by encouraging one side of a tribal conflict to be unreasonable.

Honestly speaking what do they want Russia to do? Occupy Western Ukraine and impose order? I don't think they would be happy with that. Would they rather have Putin do policing on Kiev's behalf? Why should Putin take responsibility, and costs, for short-sightedness that the West and those in power in Kiev are responsible for. Let them shovel their own waste.

If the shoe of controlling one half of Ukraine's tribes could not fit on a pro-Russian leader's foot, what made the West thing it would fit on the other foot without crippling the country? They forced it on and now the country is crippled. They should not be surprised.

At this point, the only thing I see in Ukraine is long term conflict. Western leaders should be prepared to gather and stomach that harvest, because they planted the crop of nettles. Throwing tantrums at Russia won't help them in the slightest bit. It will only make the nettles bigger, and yield a much pricklier harvest.

It is the West who need to change course, not Russia. Ethnic linkages going back centuries are not controlled by one man.

The West should ask themselves why Britain remains closely allied to the United States. A poodle as some would put it. It is because of ethnic links. No single leader can change the character of that relationship.

No one should expect Vladmir Putin, to perform miracles and change the character of ethnic links between Russia and eastern Ukraine. He will not be able to, even if he wanted. If he tried, the discontent within Russia would probably threaten the fabric of her own society.

Clan Politics and Ukraine

What is going on Ukraine is serious war but I could not help but compare it with the games played by African boys herding cattle in the savannah scrub-lands of Zimbabwe.

Those were the best days of my life.

Life was lackadaisical, with occasional bursts of exciting activity. The years sauntered by, with passing seasons colourfully marked by the foliage of musasa trees exploding into various hues of red and orange.

During that time I, along with other boys, would be found trailing ourselves after our families' cattle, tasked with preventing them from invading the fields full of young succulent maize plants.

Herding cattle is not the most exciting of activities. We invented lots of games and activities to while time. Football was a favourite. Occasionally we set about getting some of the boys among us to fight so that we could enjoy the spectacle.

Our favourite way starting a fight was called kupwanya mazamu amai (breaking your mothers breasts). Nothing riles an African brother like insulting his mother. We would built four mounts of soil, and allocate two to each of guys we wanted to fight saying, 'These are your mother's breasts.'

The logic was that if somebody kickedyour 'mother's breasts' you had to defend your honour through violence. If any of the planned pugilists was reluctant to break the other's mother's breasts, we would egg them on through ridicule and mockery.

It was guaranteed that the moment they kicked each other's "mother's breasts" they would ferociously set upon one another with flailing fists, kicks, scratching nails, head-butts and the occasional sinking of teeth into the rival.

Meanwhile we would be enjoying the spectacle and cheering them on with whistling, shouts of encouragement and the occasional delighted dancing. One could hardly believe that such a fierce fight was over nothing but little mounts of dirt.

A bleeding nose later we would stop the fight, and set about placating the warriors saying things like 'The fight was nice but you guys must remain friends.' Most of the time they did remain friends. No permanent damage would be done to the relationship of even physically to the fighters.

Is what is going on in Ukraine any better than fighting over little mounts of dirt? If I take a government soldier and a rebel and ask them to explain why they are fighting can any of them give me any answer that is better than 'He kicked my mother's breasts!' Never mind that those mother's breasts are little mounts of soil made by others.

There is no way anyone is going to uproot Ukraine and plant it in the Hudson bay, or even the English Channel. Ukraine borders Russia and that is the way it is going to be until donkeys grow horns. Not just that, but Ukraine has got a large population of ethnic Russians.

Consequently, any wise Ukrainian leader, would be better off maintaining relations with Russia than pandering to the whims of hoped for allies thousands of kilometres away. Sometimes we need to accept things the way they are, not the way would like them. It is called accepting reality.

Keeping peace with your neighbour is far much better than making friends with a stranger. Especially if you are married to the neighbour's cousin. It is totally unrealistic to expect peace in your own house when you are insulting your wife's cousin or to expect the cousin to remain quiet while you are beating your wife.

Ukrainians need to do a reality check. There is no way they are going to be virulently anti-Russia and still expect their ethnic Russian population to be happy.

It is also simple logic that if East Ukrainians are ethnically related to Russians then they probably have 'clan members' and sometimes relatives in Russian society including the armed forces. For those of us who belong to clans and know how they work, we know they tend to stick together even across national borders. Take a look at how the Mafia has extended tentacles all over the world from clan roots in Italy.

There is no better time to call upon clan links than in times of need. Clan links are always difficult if not impossible to break. What Ukraine should fear is not what Putin thinks, but what the clan links to Russia might lead to. I personally think that Putin has little choice but to flow with the clan links.

What the Ukraine needs right now, is a reality check from within. There is no way they are going to fight with ethnic Russians in their country and expect the Russians in Russia to stand by. A swear upon the blood of my VaBarwe clan, at some point or another, the Russian clan will respond.

Are the Americans creating more terrorists in Middle East.

Do the Americans have any idea what they are doing in the Middle East.

For a long time and particularly since ISIL started overrunning the Bush project, Iraqi, I have been trying to make head or tail of what the American policy in the Middle East is? As of this moment I am convinced I would have much better luck unthreading a very large bowl of spaghetti.

The mayhem that is ensuing in Iraq at the hands of ISIL is unbelievable. They have captured heavy American supplied weapons. They have been machine-gunning civilians in a manner that rivals the Srebrenica massacre.

They seem to have nudged a deck of cards the USA spend more than a decade delicately stacking together.

The leader of the blood-thirsty group has declared a caliphate and demanded the allegiance of each and every Muslim. They clearly suggest they have no intention of respecting existing borders or even stopping just in the Levant. Secular countries like Jordan certainly have good reason to worry for their future.

Their rhetoric and methods makes the Taliban sound like Sunday school preachers.

Oh! Did I mention the Taliban? Aren't they another group that arose out of superpower misadventure in the region. Specifically the Taliban rose out of the ashes of the Mujaheedin, sponsored by the USA against a Soviet supported regime.

Isn't it ironic that ISIL is rising out of a rebellion sponsored by the USA against a Russian supported regime? Those who do not think history is repeating itself, please I beg to have your opinion on what you think is happening. Oh, remind me again what is it they say, about making the same mistake over and over, and stupidity?

To me it very much looks like USA foreign policy in the Middle East is floundering in a huge pool of sectarian quicksand.

Their best strategy as of this moment, would be to shore up the Iraqi government as best as they can and give Assad breathing space as well. That is their best hope at restoring and maintaining order in the region in a reasonable time frame. Carefully note the use of the words 'best' and 'hope'. I am not sticking my neck out and giving any guarantees. I also deliberately left out adjectives like 'loved' and 'liked'. The best way forward may not be a way they like or love.

One guarantee I am prepared to give is that violence radicalises people. The situation in the middle East is breeding more radicals than ever. A lot of people in the world, including those of us who have nothing to do with it, and are virtually powerless to change the course of events in the middle east, will pay a price.

Al Qaeda sponsored radicalism, which has its roots in the American sponsored anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan of the 1980s, is starting to spread mayhem across Africa. Boko Haram is a manace in Nigeria, al Shahaab in Somalia and Kenya, AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) has wreaked havoc in Mali and the Sahel.

I doubt the Americans would have sponsored the Mujaheedin with such gusto if they knew they were opening such a can of worms. I do not sit in their boardrooms, so I do not know the true answer. I do not think they ever guessed that Osama bin Laden was going to emerge out of their activities. They were short sighted.

Unfortunately there is absolutely no sign that the Americans have learnt from their mistakes. Look at the course they took in Syria and where it has left their pet project in Iraq. If there is any direction in American policy in the Middle East at present maybe I am a complete idiot for not being able to see it. To me their policy seems to have the resolute direction of a windcock in a whirlwind.

As of their latest talk, the Americans want to sponsor 'moderate Islamist rebels' against the Western educated Bashar Assad, and hope the same Islamists will also fight the extreme radicals of ISIL. Bookmakers I think this is your territory. Start taking the bets. Will it work?

It seems to be an assumption on the part of the Americans that there is a solid dividing wall between the 'good' or 'moderate' Islamists and the radical Islamists. My personal opinion is that the dividing line is a fuzzy foggy one across which individuals, fighting units and sometimes entire rebel groups drift back and forth, with whatever weapons they have in their hands.

Maybe my logic is wrong but to me the best strategy to bring stability to the region is to shore up Assad and tone down the anti-Iran rhethoric, and strengthen the Iraq government. The Americans need to stop having their foreign policy in the middle east run for them by Sunni secterianists. To achieve this, they need to pull the leash on regimes sponsoring rebellions in other countries.

Nonetheless, the developments in that part of world are too big for the minds running the United States at the moment. By this I do not mean just Obama and his crop of advisers, but several of his predecessor and a maybe couple of the regimes before them, as well.

Oh Roosevelt! Oh Washington! Oh Lincoln! Where are you when your country needs wise leadership?

The world after the Soviet Union has been beyond the ability of US politicians, who were forged in the furnace adversarial cold war politics, to adjust to. To them they must have a big bad enemy to deal with even when their country is the only big thing around.

After the collapse of USSR they talked so much about a New World Order. Am I alone in feeling that if they came to this New World Order they definitely forgot their minds in the Old World Order? They are still thinking very much in the old way.

Of course they occasionally go forth six-guns blazing in an effort to prove their mettle. Unfortunately, the more they thrash about, the deeper they sink into a foreign policy cesspool.

Also, unfortunately for us the little countries trying to keep our heads above the water, they drag us down with them. They come in, try something without listening to anyone. When things do not work out as they fantasised, they ship out and leave others to deal with the mess.

The US adventure in Somalia during the Clinton years has evolved into a major problem for Somalia's neighbours, particularly Kenya. Pakistan has had to carry much of the burden of Afghanistan's instability since the US sponsored the anti-Soviet mujaheedin. They have also dragged NATO allies into the mess.

Iraqi after Sadaam has been a perfect model of instability. At the time Iraqi was invaded, everyone except the Americans and their allies was saying he was well contained. Now the Americans have shipped out leaving behind an apparently two bit leadership that do not seem to know their index finger from the thumb.

Need I mention Libya after Gadhafi. He was taken out after he had swung well towards rapprochement with the West. Africa was humiliated in the process, with Zuma having to dodge bombs and missiles on his way to  try and negotiate a peaceful way forward. His efforts were ignored with very little effort, if any, to hide the disdain. Right now testosterone driven hoodlums are fighting each other on Tripoli airport grounds.

My personal take is that the US think they know it all when in fact they know nothing. Take for example the vision Bush Junior expounded when he invaded Iraq for the second time. By now Iraq should be an oasis of American ideals. A leading democracy in the region.

What he didn't know was that he was dragging the USA into a cesspit of sectarian divisions which according to some schools of thought are rooted in pre-Islamic tribal divisions between Arabs and Persians, not just Islamic sects. Maybe it is because I am from Africa but I am yet to see democratic ideals transcend tribalism.

Ancient, deep rooted divisions cannot be papered over by any kind of ideology or idealism. They are best healed by long term peace. Conflict of whatever magnitude simply renews them for many more generations.

Take for example the tribal conflict between the Assyrians and Israelites recorded in the Bible. It is still going on with unbelievable ferocity today. One would be shocked at the amount of money and effort supposedly enlightened people are putting into perpetuating what is essentially a pointless centuries old tribal war.

As I write this Palestinians and Israel at each other's throats again. Missiles and rockets have replaced the swords and chariots of yester-millenium, but it is still the same tribal conflict.

Open Letter to President Mugabe on reported 'No Land For Whites' statements.

Your Excellency, The Head of State and Government, Commander In Chief of the Defence Forces, President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, I respectfully beg to differ reported assertion that whites should not own land in Zimbabwe.

Denying rights to whites, is not what you spend eleven years in detention for. I have always believed that the suffering you, and thousands of others, went through was so that each and every Zimbabwean would enjoy equal rights. That was a noble fight.

Your Excellency the last time I checked Zimbabwe's constitution did not classify citizens' rights by race, religion or ideology. That is to say the nation you fought for, and helped build to where it is, is not a segregated apartheid state like South Africa and Rhodesia were. It is not a nation that denies property rights to certain races like those evil racists used to.

I hope Your Excellency, you then understand that I was terribly confused when I read in the press that you had declared that whites should not be allowed to own land in Zimbabwe.

Are they any less Zimbabwean than you and me?

Your Excellency may I also draw you attention to the fact that our history as a proud Bantu people, has never been one of discrimination. You are my elder, and I am sure you know these tenets far much better than I do.

For example I am sure you know that descendants of the Portugueese, vana Sinyoro Vazungu vemachira machena, assimilated into our culture without any problem and were given chieftaincy and noble-ship by our forefathers. You probably know the history of the Chitsunge chieftaincy far much better than small boys born yesterday like me do.

I am sure you are also aware that the first European to see the great ancient city that gives our country its name was Adam Renders, not Karl Mauch as Eurocentric history narrates. The main reason European historians ignored Adam Renders was that had been taken in by our African community. Our community accepted him so much that he married the daughter of a chief (mwana waMambo) and lived among us as an equal.

He looked after Karl Mauch for the nine months he was exploring the Great Zimbabwe. Our culture has always accepted and accommodated others, not rejected them.

As you can see, it is not only from the viewpoint of modern day rights conscious humanism that it is wrong to say whites can't own land in Zimbabwe, but from the rich depth of our own culture.

Our culture values Hunhu (humane-ness) above everything else. Yes the forefathers of whites may have come with race based discrimination that makes us bitter. Let us not allow bitterness to diminish our own Hunhu.

Your Excellency, please do not misunderstand my position. I fully support land redistribution to CORRECT past racist, segregationist and idiotic policies that landed us in a lot of trouble. However there is no way I will support reverse racism.

To me a 'no land for whites' policy is as a bad as the 'no land for blacks' policy of old. I hope our country will never go that route.

The Madeleine Albright of South Africa?

The plight of DA MP, Phumzile van Damme demonstrates the futility of trying to enforce an 'us and them' approach with people coming from close neighbouring countries.

May I start by pointing out that the former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright was born in then Czekoslovakia not the USA. That did not stop her from participating fully in the politics of her adopted country. I saw no reason why Phumzile's similar political career should be curtailed.

The nature of national borders in post-colonial Africa makes it futile to strictly police the movement of people. In fact along national borders without a distinct geographic barrier, people often do not know on which side of the border they were born.

Take for example Mozambicans who live between Mukumbura and Zambezi river. After Cabora Bassa dam was built the only way they could catch a bus to anywhere was walk into Zimbabwe first. It is therefore perfectly natural and reasonable to expect most of the them to have acquired Zimbabwean IDs.

In Malawi the main road from Balaka to the capital Lilongwe runs along the border with Mozambique on some parts. Hospitals and schools along this virtually unmarked border cater for people from either side of the border.

Colonial borders were arbitrarily drawn sometimes right down the middle of villages. Thus many people living along the border areas can pick and choose nationality depending on what is convenient for the moment.

Where my wife comes from, in Honde Valley along Zimbabwe's border with Mozambique, people used to live in Zimbabwe and plant the crops in Mozambique and vice versa. Movement was curtailed, but not completely stopped, after the border was heavily mined by the Rhodesians during Zimbabwe's second Chimurenga war.

Even along the famous, or is it infamous, crocodile infested river border, brothers' families live on either side of the river. In the 1980s I went to primary school in Harare with Tsveropile Tlou. A long term tenant at my father's house was a Mr Mbedzi. They were Zimbabweans.

Yet they could easily have moved to Thohoyandou or Louis Trichardt and lived as South Africans. I never bothered to find out on which side of the border they were born and to me it does not matter at all.

That is a fact of life South Africa cannot escape.

Surely, surely you cannot go about making people pay for the sins of colonialists, or even their parents. The digging into Phumzile van Damme's origins is just a xenophobic witch-hunt.

It is no different from Republican 'birthers' digging into Obama's origins and trying to prove he was not born in the USA and therefore should not be eligible for the office he holds.

If Phumzile has been living in South Africa as a South African because of choices made by her parents, how is her case different from that of Madeline Albright?

It is an open secret that probably more than half the people passing themselves off as Zulus in Gauteng are actually Swazis and Zimbabwean Ndebele speakers. Some of their children do not even know that they have roots outside South Africa.

While Phumzile's parents may not have been perfectly honest about where she was born, she is still a South African.

Are the gloves coming off?

Those of us who have been blessed and fortunate enough to herd cattle in our younger days know exactly what is happening to Edmund Kudzayi. We come from the generation that enjoyed the spectacle of bulls preparing to fight.

Accompanied by thunderously loud bellows, the bulls would circle each other. Occasionally one would charge the nearest unfortunate bush, or violently plunge its horns into the soft ground - demonstrating to the foe how ferociously he was going to deal with him.

Both bulls would paw and dig at the ground with unnerving ferocity, heads bowed in attack mode. Tufts of grass would fly, like the clothes and bags of a woman being divorced in a Nigerian movie.

In this ferocious scenario, Edmund Kudzayi is nothing but an unfortunate flying tuft of grass. The real fight is yet to come.

As the twilight of Robert Mugabe's rule darkens, and the sunset of his life approaches, the bulls in Zanu-PF are circling each other. Woe betide to any tuft of grass that happens to be in the battle ground. And there is no battleground more obvious than the state media.

Even a blind mole living underground can see the correlation between accusations of using the state media to fight Zanu-PF factional battles and Kudzayi's sudden arrest. It is as obvious as the buttocks of a baboon.

The gloves might be getting off in the factional fight within Zanu-PF. Fists and feathers are starting to fly. Claws are being bared.

Anybody who thinks the turn of events has been unfair to Kudzayi should go and have a little chat with Julius Malema. There are no permanent allies in politics, especially factional politics. The pedestal from which Kudzayi is falling is far much lower than that from which Malema fell in the ANC.

In both cases accusations of state powers being used to further the ends of factional politics have been made. Malema still has South African Revenue Services (SARS) breathing down his neck.

On more substantive matters, freedom of expression, is protected by the constitution of Zimbabwe. In other words Kudzayi has a right to state his opinion no matter who disagrees with it. In fact, he earns his living by doing just that.

If he told lies, fabrications, the constitution and laws of Zimbabwe equally gives potential victims the right to sue him in a civil court and claim compensation.

When police officers break down doors looking for a newspaper editor and long time journalist 'because of articles he wrote' what form of harassment could be more obvious than this. They are not even bothering to pinpoint a specific article as is normally the case.

This suggests that the 'articles he wrote' accusations are just a convenient excuse.  The inner motive for the arrest lies elsewhere. From whichever angle I look at it, Kudzayi looks like a proxy victim of the Zanu-PF factional struggle.

Which leaves us to wonder, is a bare knuckles brawl on the way?

Who is Shona?

Remember... remember.... the term was coined by the Ndebele. It was then misintepreted by colonialists, for the main purpose of colonising an area as big as they could.

It was extended to include a very large collection of ethnic groups with whom the Ndebele never had contact. Because of strong similarity of language and culture from Hwange, Plumtree to Chimoio, Mukumbura most ethnic groups in this geographic region have grown to accept being called Shonas, not because that is the name they gave themselves, but because that is the name that is in popular use.

That umbrella term, applies to clans who were already in the region for thousands of years such as VaRozvi, maShangwe, etc and clans that are recent arrivals such as my own clan vaBarwe, vaNjanja, etc.

Do not make the mistake of trying to attribute the Shona to a single ethnic origin. Yes some Shona clans came from great lakes region such as VaTsunga, vaBarwe, etc. Other Shona clans such as vaRozvi, vaRemba, maUngwe etc have been in the region much longer. Some of these clans may be offshoots of other neighbouring cultures such as Kalanga and Venda.

But because of the way the recently coined term Shona has been applied to the region, it now applies to all of these clans, newcomers and oldcomers alike. It is more a marker of common culture than a marker of ethnic origin.

If you now say the older clans should not be called Shona but be solely referred to by their old names, then why should the newcomer clans not be referred to by their old names too and not be called Shona.

If you do not accept use of the term Shona for some clans such as vaRemba (with surnames like Hove, Zvakavapano, Hamandishe, Mukwakwami, etc) then you should also reject it for all the other clans and use their original names such as vaBarwe, vaTsunga, vaHera, etc. In other words you should not use the term Shona at all because in such a context it applies to noone.

Take for example myself. My surname is not even characteristically Shona like Hamandishe, Zvakavapano and Mukwakwami. These are the surnames of known vaRemba families. Mine does not have a meaning in the Shona language as those other surnames do.

It is more commonly rendered as Ponongwe in chiChewa chakuNyanja, Sena and Tumbuka. VaBarwe folklore says we came from around Sena in Mozambique.

Why should you apply the term Shona to us vaBarwe and remove it from vaRemba, who are right next door to where the term was invented?

When we consider the origins ofthe term Shona (abantu betshonalanga) it most likely applied to the Kalanga and Nambya who were to the West of the Ndebele as they arrived in the region. It is only later misinterpretation by the colonialists that extended it to the rest of the country.

Of course this was helped by the similarities of language and culture throughout the region. Take for example a typical Kalanga book, Nhau dzabaKalanga. Rendered in Karanga dialect it would be Nhau DzavaKaranga, in Zezuru dialect Nhau DzevaKaranga, in chiManyika Nhau dzowaKaranga. These dialects cover the geographic area from Mberengwa to Chimoio in Mozambique.

The problem seems to be that the communities in close contact with the Ndebele who are often throwing insults at anything 'Shona' are now trying to remove the term from themselves in order to escape the insults.

People if the term was invented to insult you, you will still be insulted by other means even if you reject the term.

A Ndebele friend once told me that Dabengwa is the Kalanga/Nambya rendition of Tavengwa. He was explaining to me that the Dabengwas were offspring of Mzilikazi who ran away because of internal disputes to settle among the Kalanga. According to him the surname came about because they explained to the Kalanga that they were hated by their fellow Ndebele which in Shona would be tavengwa.