My revered brother Ibbo Mandaza, has been preaching about a provisional transitional authority for almost a decade.
Like a prophet in the wilderness, while the message became more and more urgent, those who have the ability to act on it closed their ears while circumstances and economic wellbeing of the people deteriorated further and further.
While I am in complete agreement with Ibbo’s suggestion, I have found a historical precedent which provides some guidelines to such a coming together of the hearts and minds of the people.
“Central to this proposal is the establishment of a National Transitional Authority (NTA) to prepare the ground for a durable peace and national prosperity.” Ibbo writes.
“Rather, it is a recognition that democracy itself requires institutional foundations that have been” missing in Zimbabwe.
The precedent I have comes from US General Dwight Eisenhower in 1945.
As Russian and US troops entered Auschwitz Camp in Germany where 1.1 million Jews were thrown into furnaces, the stink and the horrors of Jewish skeletons still alive made many US soldiers to faint. It was inconceivable that such horrible deeds could have been directed at humans by a civilized nation.
The point I am making here is that Eisenhower brought into the camp, every two weeks, batches of city mayors in the surrounding areas to witness the horrors.
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They all denied knowledge and complicity in the events that led to of such atrocities.
One of these mayors was a young man, Konrad Adenauer, mayor of Cologne and leader of Christian Democrats. With US support, he served as chancellor from 1949-1963.
Adenauer accepted blame for the holocaust, paid reparations to the Jewish state, banned the Nazi party as a criminal organisation, and forbade all paraphernalia and mementoes in public or private places on pain of imprisonment.
Zimbabwe’s military has not accepted blame for the 20 000 deaths in Matabeleland, nor has any compensation been offered to the survivors and homeless from that era.
The Zimbabwe military, all pretty uniforms, style and puff but no substance, has not accepted responsibility for cheating in the elections since year 2000.
The Zimbabwe military has been the main protector of all kinds of malefactors, transgressors and sinners who walk the streets in broad day-light challenging the righteous going about their business.
We have betrayed our white supporters. There are many white colonials who served the nationalist cause when it would have been to their advantage to stand with their kinfolks.
Patrick Brickhill risked his life in Bulawayo many times to serve Zapu. Alfred Knottenbelt lost his job at Fletcher High School for supporting striking students. Judy Todd went to prison many times and so did her father.
Here is a sad story from Rory Duncan a farmer in Manicaland.
“We had adult literacy courses in the evenings at the farm hall and transport to hospitals at any time of day and night. A football team with a coach and smart uniforms and boots were provided. The annual turnover was I the multiple of millions, and the wage bill was huge. Today, it is a village of (sic) subsistence level agriculture, all of it gone with hardly any memory of what was once there.? Why?”
Rory is now a man without a country. We ask why?
Indeed, we can ask: Why?
I may add that a fully equipped primary and secondary school flourished teachers lived in well-lit three-bedroom cottages for free.
This story can be duplicated a thousand times. As in Germany’s case, if Jews were to blame for the Versailles Treaty and other trumped up charges, was every Jew, woman and child to be punished?
We ask the same question for Zimbabwe.
Eisenhower and Adenauer made a list of the mistakes of the past, took responsibility for them and then set out to take remedial action.
Bishop Bengt Sundkler.
In my second life, I was privileged to meet the Lutheran Bishop Bengt Sundkler who was studying African apostolic churches in Zimbabwe.
“Ken, you can’t keep on sinning and hope to be blessed.” He told me to keep this wise saying.
The Reserve Bank and the Zimbabwe Treasury are the mother and step son of all monetary wickedness in Zimbabwe.
Every sinner knows that if one has a choice between two currencies, one will prefer the superior one. We have had no less than six currencies and nobody seems to learn anything.
It escaped common sense that a motorist is supposed to buy petrol in US currency while his income is in Zimbabwe currency. Banks and ATM’s on the roadside do not disburse US currencies in exchange for Zimbabwe currencies.
It stands to reason, therefore, that every Zimbabwean motorist commits an offense every time he sources US currency from a private source.
If we speak of such common-sense issues, the military show us their “nyembe” and the George Guvamatangas get angry with us and begin to say big words.
In facing the Nazi past, Eisenhower was faced by a tricky problem. The Nazis, in their defense, said that they were obeying orders. The matter was resolved by applying “conscience and common sense” as a guide to human behavior and natural law.
A transitional authority should have enough spunk to bring these malefactors to book, not through convoluted constitutional law but through common sense and natural law.
For instance, a professor at the University of Zimbabwe is paid USD500 per month after 20 years of study and academic toil. A teacher is paid USD200 per month. The university vice chancellor and Education minister display their mastery of a huge vocabulary and repertoire of the English language. But I doubt if their presentations can pass the test of common sense.
To my brother Ibbo, I say that while we find each other, we must begin with common sense and natural law as our guide. There is nothing new under the sun.
*Ken Mufuka is a Zimbabwean patriot. He writes from the US.
