TG🇿🇼

Proud Father

[Batsie K @BatsieKu]

This is rich coming from the same person who:

(a) Gave Mnangagwa a chance.
(b) Said Tshabangu had genuine grievance.
(c) Tried and FAILED to form GiE.

Pathetic!

[TG🇿🇼 @tazgomo]

@Laque_davis @MasvingoZw Uyu mupengo uyu

[Batsie K @BatsieKu]

😅😅😅😅😅😅😅..asi vanhuka!!

[TG🇿🇼 @tazgomo]

Prof pendulum doing what he knows best

[TG🇿🇼 @tazgomo]

@Leokoni Very true. All he knows is blocking

[TG🇿🇼 @tazgomo]

@JoriDenford Apa tototi vanogona basa ngativape 2030! Mukati vanhu vanoda CAB 3 havapengi imi?

[🅽🆈🅰🆂🅷🅰 @NNyashaYessur]

I laughed at first but its actually sad.

[TG🇿🇼 @tazgomo]

@dextertawona @BorisCde Ndidzo pfungwa dzamaishandisa airforce kuya uye ndidzo chaidzo dzamuri kutoraramisa nadzo mhuri nhasi here nhai vaNduna?

[J E T H R O 🇿🇼 @Brian___Jethro]

I wish we could all repost this

This is why Zimbabweans are scared 💔💔

[Ranga Mataire @rangamataire]

All Marlborough, Mabelreign, Westgate residents & surrounding areas, this is the face of one of the robbers who have been terrorizing your neighbourhood. He was caught on CCTV- let's make him popular. I am sure a lot of people know this man.

[Citizen Dee @DenzyAnderson]

Prof Lovemore Madhuku has laid it on the line: Nelson Chamisa is the one who provided transport and security to the opposition bigwigs fighting against Amendment Bill 3. Despite being committed to other things. Chamisa is playing a crucial role in blocking this bill

[nelson chamisa @nelsonchamisa]

@ChinyokaSy51643 Ndezveruvengo manyepo negodo. Godo igona rehuroyi rinotuma kubika ruvengo manyepo nekurwadziwa. Chamupupuri hachivhurirwe maziso munotosvorwa we! Musateerera manyepo. Hana ngadzidzikame. Chokwadi hachisvinyangwe semusuva wesadza!

[Brighton Mutebuka @BMutebuka]

Extremely Long Read (or "composition") On Biti, "Unlike Hearts & Minds" & "Collective Leadership"!

This has been written by my alter ego - "Dhambrosi" & contains no filter. Reader discretion & stamina is very strongly advised! I have followed where the evidence has taken me!

@thescrutator - this is the official X handle of my blog. It's been there for at least 12 months! From this weekend, I will be publishing there as well & updating all previous posts from here!

Introduction

My brother @daddyhope is without doubt one of Zimbabwe's finest journalists of his era.

The very numerous global awards & recognition that he has received bear testimony to that.

That notwithstanding, it is my respectful view that he has let himself down with some of the analysis he has given on recent and key political events.

In this instalment or "composition", we will explore his post below concerning "collective leadership" which has been triggered by @nelsonchamisa's post.

a. For any analysis to be credible, it has to be located in the prevailing political situation.

b. In Zimbabwe, this is dominated by deepening authoritarianism exemplified by the recent sham elections which were universally condemned, including via the regional body SADC's SEOM Final Report, frequent abductions of opposition activists & embarrassing regime inspired parliamentary recalls, which have rendered democracy a farce.

c. The formation of @CCCZimbabwe was preceded by similar regime inspired hijacking of the MDCA as a political party, seizure of the then party's properties and allocation of money due under the PFA to proxies, a script now replaying itself.

d. Now back to Chamisa's post in response to another post on X, this is what he said: "Is there anything called collective leadership for unlike hearts and minds?? Governance issues are matters of the heart ❤️."

e. The background to that post is @Tbiti_campaign's statement over the weekend which accused @nelsonchamisa of amongst other things, lacking "collective leadership" as a value system.

f. Now, bearing in mind that I have previously highlighted @daddyhope's award winning credentials, I will apply a high standard to judge his conduct.

g. Chamisa's post refers to "unlike hearts and minds" as being a disqualifying factor for "collective leadership" to be applicable.

h. It's clear that "unlike" is applicable to both "hearts" and "minds", yet @daddyhope, @ProfJNMoyo and other critics have latched onto this - totally ignoring "minds" to gas light the matter via whipping many into a frenzy by leaping to conclude that - that was sufficient to suggest revulsion to collective leadership!

i. The question is, is the omission of that critical word an innocent oversight or part of a calculated and sustained campaign to "cancel" Chamisa? I don't know. I will leave that to others to judge.

j. How does such an internationally celebrated brother as @daddyhope use one post, (while omitting a crucial word / text - thereby distorting the narrative) and a statement from Biti to conclude that Chamisa had "made it explicitly clear that there is no place for them .." referring to "those who are wanting collecting leadership ..."?

k. Where is the "explicit" text underpinning the sweeping conclusion? Is that analysis objective? Has the threshold been reached to instigate for the downright fracturing of a party with a leader who had a million plus votes in a sham election? By what authority does @daddyhope, a journalist, make himself a kingmaker in political matters? Who is he accountable to? Is that normal behaviour to be expected from a journalist in a democratic society?

l. Would it not be more credible to refer to other objective evidence beyond Twitter, such as Chamisa's extensive record in the opposition political movement over the past 20 or more years or his stint in government? Would it not be appropriate to seek more sources, including from other party members?

Biti's Statement On "Collective Leadership"

m. My senior colleague Biti made it clear that he was disgruntled as he felt that he had been unfairly denied an opportunity to be an MP via "Bereka Mwana."

n. Just to make it clear, I respect my senior colleague immensely yet I have to set that aside and try and examine his part in the saga without fear or favour.

i. Firstly, he acceded to Bereka Mwana, which is an electoral method that I have got no hesitation to condemn.

p. His statement would have been more credible had he disengaged at that point. Instead he didn't. He was also, at that point, happy to be in a movement which had no structures and a Constitution according to him.

q. During the campaign period, he was also recorded on video making overtly racist and crass comments against Markham which are, frankly speaking, beneath him and inconsistent with a genuine democrat, let alone a seasoned opposition leader of international repute. The net import of those remarks were that race alone, and not merit should be a decisive factor.

r. After his loss to Markham, @daddy led the charge for a way for Biti to be roped into Parliament, perhaps even ahead of Markham. I must confess that I was amongst many who were shocked by the result and hoped that an amicable solution would be found.

s. The question is, would any such intervention on Chamisa's party have been democratic or constitutional? And at whose expense? And did that not amount to being power hungry and selfish? And would that intervention been made had been declined? If as likely, it wouldn't have been, would Biti still have levelled the accusations he is making against Chamisa?

t. We must also not forget that my brother Biti was in the same Parliament that was happy to accept the shameful US$40k trinket from ED's regime in the lead up to the August 2023 elections which publicly undermined @nelsonchamisa's authority as he publicly made it clear he was against it. Chamisa's argument then was morally superior, resonated with the public - and, as a leader, he was objectively justified in taking a dim view of it.

u. In the aftermath of his defeat to Markham, there were many posts from my brother @daddyhope here on X publicly lampooning Chamisa and suggesting that he had agency either from Biti himself or someone close to him.

v. In the lead up to elections, we saw explicit criticism of @CCCZimbabwe's election manifesto by @ProfJNMoyo and referring in explicit detail about how @Tbiti_campaign had been side lined from crafting economic policy which could only have come from either Biti himself or those close to his team. In invite readers to go and read that post for themselves and see the lurid detail Jonso unloaded!

w. In the recent audio which went viral, my brother Biti was allegedly explicitly recorded speaking to Kucaca Phulu, who is openly working with the shameless imposter Sengezo Tshabangu - stating that the "operation" had been premature as "anga achapera ega" and stating that he would publicly dissociate himself from the charade. His defence of Chamisa was feeble and fooled no one. It was all contrived. It was clear he was done. That is the moment the relationship ended. This was followed by defeaning silence until the moment the infamous statement was made.

x. The reason why I have cited all the above transgressions is to demonstrate that there are clear objective grounds demonstrating that Biti and Chamisa's relationship had reached the end of the line, meaning an absence of "hearts" and "minds" which are "alike" and justifying working as a "collective leadership". It would appear to have been marked by duplicitous behaviour, public insincere backing, and private lynching.

y. The challenge that we face is, my brother @Tbiti_campaign's statement was made following the release of the damning and shocking audio referred to above. This will put the cat among the pigeons but, in light of the contents of that audio, if they are true, would it be beyond pale to argue that - those contents suggests that whoever made them was capable, if the constitutional basis was there, of pursuing a split in the opposition movement on contrived grounds?

z. It will be remembered that Biti's audio went viral and rank and file members of the opposition movement met it with shock, horror and consternation. The audio is damning in that it suggests that whoever was recorded knew that @nelsonchamisa and @CCCZimbabwe were under attack, was indifferent to those attacks, allowed this to carry on without intervention and pretended to still be publicly loyal to Chamisa.

aa. Despite the seriousness of the contents of that audio, he went several weeks without addressing the subject and has only just done so - clearly belatedly and in the same statement where he makes disparaging statements about @nelsonchamisa's leadership. Much more importantly, if we follow the timeline from the disclosure of the audio to when the recalls started, the contents of that audio objectively chimes in not only with the recalls, but personal attacks on Chamisa & CCC and one of the characters allegedly recorded in them and his behaviour since - Kucaca Phulu, a high ranking former PDP member!

bb. In light of the above, I take no pleasure in concluding that there is a reasonable basis for finding that there are other credible reasons which can explain why Biti disengaged other than the ones that he cited in his Statement, specifically the unexpected disclosure / leakage of the explosive audio and the disgruntlement due to the failure to make it to Parliament. In fact, the available evidence suggests that circumstances forced my brother Biti to resign from @CCCZimbabwe. The official statement was actually the coup de grace sealing an exit which had been a fait accompli for some time!

cc. Once the audio was out, given its contents, the writing was on the wall for Biti. Potentially and understandably motivated by a desire to minimise the inevitable damage to his reputation, it is likely that it became irresistible to highlight other reasons for effectively resigning from @CCCZimbabwe - which were capable of being believed by the wider public so that a bit of "honour" would be restored to the damaged reputation. He likely knew that the audio meant that there was no reasonable prospect of a way back and decided to attack Chamisa in exchange for salvaging his own reputation while risking agitating the opposition movement by referring to retiring to his profession and international engagements during the hour of its greatest need.

dd. This of course does not mean that @nelsonchamisa is not guilty of discarding collective leadership in @CCCZimbabwe.

ee. It just means that the credibility of the source of the allegations and the circumstances under which they have been made has undermined the veracity of those allegations in the specific context cited.

ff. More compelling evidence has to be cited by other credible and independent sources before the allegations can be made out. Much more importantly, it is possible that such duplicitous behaviour as referred to above is perhaps the very reason why Chamisa quietly and arbitrarily side lined Biti and others! Vanga vava kubatana kumeso!

gg. There is no doubt that collective leadership is a vital cog in deepening democratic ethos. Yet it is also trite that this can only take place in an environment where there is shared values, trust and objectives. Such a state of affairs clearly does not exist between Biti, Chamisa and other senior leaders who perhaps always secretly harbour ambitions to lead the opposition movement but are constrained by the suffocating reality of the absence of popular grassroots support. Perhaps just like in Tsvangirai's era, many are happy to privately vilify and are contemptuous of Chamisa while publicly pretending to be behind him because of his popularity which allows them to thrive politically. Perhaps Chamisa has discovered this and is fed up of it hence why matters have now come to a head!

hh. It must be remembered that before joining Chamisa, my brother Biti already had a chequered history of breaking away from the opposition movement, starting his own party, experiencing splits within that party, joining a ruling party off-shoot and then the above audio, video and other leaks - which is clearly unsettling to any leader, particularly in an environment plagued by infiltration, recalls, defections and splits.

ii. I have got no hesitation in finding my brother @daddyhope's campaign to be groundless and perhaps motivated by his partiality to @Tbiti_campaign and contempt for @nelsonchamisa perhaps straddling a long period of time.

jj. My brother @daddyhope has made some highly concerning interventions in recent times which border on being baseless, partisan and beneath him on account of his highly esteemed credentials.

kk. These include the rush to urge people to "move on" in the immediate aftermath of the electoral sham, the charge that how Chamisa would govern was already known based on a religious post he had made, referring to the election having been "lost", holding Chamisa responsible for the "loss" on account of the absence of V11s, prematurely blaming Chamisa's "Strategic Ambiguity" for the CCC Bulawayo 12 MP's case before the court outcome, stating that CCC had no candidates in Chimanimani, virtually dismissing the SEOM Report's findings, rushing to wholly attribute Sengezo Tshabangu's antics to an internal rift in @CCCZimbabwe and now this episode!

ll. We rightly expect high standards from my brother given his credentials. This is not to say that @nelsonchamisa must or should not be criticised. Rather, all criticism should be fair, objective and reasonable in light of the prevailing political circumstances such as regime sponsored infiltrations, defections, abductions etc.

mm. It is clearly not a normal political environment. @CCCZimbabwe is only a year old. Its formation was rushed to meet the deadline for the March 2022 by-elections.

nn. @daddyhope previously acknowledged that a congress at that time would have potentially caused rancour and divisions - allowing for infiltration by the regime. In my view, that is the background to the absence of a Constitution and structures at this moment in time - yet Chamisa & CCC recently lodged a Constitution with the court during an application for an interdict, which suggests that perhaps it had always been there, and he felt forced not do disclose this due to the duplicitous behaviour cited above and fear of it being exploited during regime engineered splits or infiltration.

pp. It should be remembered that I have been on record that the opposition should have them and find a proportionate way of addressing its security concerns. I remain resolute on that.

(Interruption - Soliloquy - In fact, it is not sustainable for @nelsonchamisa to continue on this path. It is for his own good that governance structures be championed which can hold him to account, nomatter how sincerely he believes he is following the correct path. These also facilitates due process and eliminate subjectivity, arbitrary and capricious behaviour while also pre-empting reputational damage. Credible figures should be encouraged to join or be promoted using democratic and transparent processes to engender diversity of thought and counter allegations of side lining those perceived as a threat! More importantly, Bereka Mwana should die an ignominious death and peaceful protests should be unleashed. Hell, even Martin Luther King Junior embarked on them as part of registering discontent against the Jim Crow Laws!)

qq. The cumulative evidence cited above (up to paragraph nn) suggests that @daddyhope is biased against Chamisa's leadership.

rr. We of course remember that he previously publicly backed ED in the 2018 election - which he is entitled to, but this is in spite of ED's appalling record from a human rights standpoint, which he was already aware of and had documented at that time. The question is, has he ever truly warmed up to Chamisa? If so, when and on what grounds? Could it not have been simply a case of ED performing so horrifically bad that he had no option but recoil from having endorsed him in the first place induced by mortification?

rr. The sustained campaign that he has led against Chamisa has meant that the SEOM Final Report and the sham election has now been swept away by a new and dominant narrative which mainly focuses on Chamisa & @CCCZimbabwe's shortcomings. Is it credible that a multi-award winning journalist can genuinely use the word "lost" to refer to a sham election while also citing anonymous sources that the person cited is unable to hold to account? I genuinely doubt that.

ss. The brazen and unprecedented intervention he has made today which is inconsistent with journalistic ethos effectively means that he would rather see Zimbabwe's only viable opposition political party split at this moment in time based on a potential misinterpretation of a post and a Statement from an objectively verified disgruntled opponent of Chamisa.

tt. The point is, if @CCCZimbabwe splits today, who would benefit the most? The answer is - it's undoubtedly the much reviled regime. The second follow up question is, is my brother blind or insensitive to that outcome? That is where it gets confusing. What is there to replace CCC with? The answer is nothing. The regime would effectively have a free reign, which is unacceptable.

uu. Just pause and look at what is happening in Zimbabwe at the moment. Can it get any worse than this? Not only do @nelsonchamisa and @CCCZimbabwe have to contend with being hounded by the regime, Jonso, Charamba & others - they also have to deal with threats, torture, recalls, abductions and the clamour for structures and constitutionalism all at the same time, as if they have ever had the luxury of even heaving a sigh of relief! How insensitive is that?

xx. Unfortunately, at this moment in time, compelling evidence cited above suggests that my brother @daddyhope is either on a crusade to destroy the only viable opposition left in Zimbabwe, or is unconcerned whether or not it survives the regime's onslaught as he is relentlessly attacking and discrediting it almost in tandem with the regime!

yy. It's extremely rare in history that victims of the level of persecution that we have seen in Zimbabwe and who have recently been cheated out of an election victory are then subjected to the relentless criticism we have seen in @nelsonchamisa and @CCCZimbabwe's case at that very same time.

zz. What usually happens is, if the criticism is genuine and made in good faith, it's unemotional, free of abuse or condescending / patronising behaviour, is delayed or postponed until the "storm" has cleared - i.e. survival or the worst of the crisis has been overcome - this not only helps it to survive, it also allows it to reflect and view the criticism as coming in good faith, and from a genuine place, because it appreciates being given a break in bad times - which then increases the chances of that feedback being implemented. At the moment, my understanding of history over the past 30 or so years is that there appears to be a conspiracy to politically decapitate @CCCZimbabwe and @nelsonchamisa at the very moment that they were posing the greatest threat to the current regime. I can find no other plausible explanation for the unprecedented events that we are witnessing! Zimbabweans are not that foolish. They are discerning!

[TG🇿🇼 @tazgomo]

@AmandaSkinSA_ As long as you agree for things within their control, then no problem. What l have a problem with is to expect them to carry out the reaponsibilities of the current gvt with no control over resources and you have some “clever”people blaming them leaving the incumbent

[TG🇿🇼 @tazgomo]

@AmandaSkinSA_ That l agree, they should be scrutinized however we cant blame them for failure of the incumbent! Lets talk to what they are promising and how they will do rather than blaming them for the current failure by those in power

[TG🇿🇼 @tazgomo]

@AmandaSkinSA_ So you blame the future ones for current problems? Give them a chance in gvt and remove them if they fail to give you what you want. You expect them to get donations and build public hospitals? Hold them accountable - ask them where you money is going

[nelson chamisa @nelsonchamisa]

CITIZENS RESIST THE NONSENSE…To date, Citizen Volunteers in various districts have had meetings disturbed, disrupted or stopped. This must be stop!
What is surprising is that ZANU-PF leaders are able to hold meetings freely across the country, while those who oppose the heinous amendment are being denied the same opportunity.
The moment you start coaching party members on what to say, it suggests one of two things: either you don’t fully trust them, or they are not genuinely on the same page with you, perhaps both. Truth be said, they do not own the very amendment. It is being ‘force-fed’ on them from the top.
After all, if the constitutional amendment was truly sponsored or suggested by the ‘your people’ as you claim, there should be no need to explain or justify it to them in the first place. #NoToED2030

[TG🇿🇼 @tazgomo]

@hwendec Mbwende iyi

[nelson chamisa @nelsonchamisa]

IN TIMES of oppression and dictatorship, the civic duty and patriotic act of progressive students, journalists, intellectuals, and professionals becomes greater, not smaller.
1. Debate issues, not personalities.
2. Speak truth to power.
3. Defend the interests of the citizens.
4. Preserve facts, truth, and professional integrity.
5. Refuse trinkets, bribes, and complicity.
6. Encourage citizens courage, not fear.
7. Expose injustice without hatred or prejudice.
8. Encourage not discourage or demonize the symbols of the struggle.
9. Stand firmly on the side of freedom, dignity, and the citizens.

What else do you add ?