There was nothing sinister to me in the intention to work with the President, but what surprised me was the effort to try and compare the two. I was a grown man when the late Father Zimbabwe died. I have read about him and I have seen some videos in which spoke, and nowhere have I ever found anything cruel from what he said and did. Reports of President Mnangagwa’s cruelty, on the other hand, are well documented, especially his speeches during the Gukurahundi era when he wanted innocent civilians murdered for allegedly protecting dissidents. No leader can be more cruel that wanting innocent people to be murdered.
Drawing such comparisons based on falsehoods betrays Jabulani Hadebe for being a bootlicker of Mnangagwa for the obvious reasons of wanting favours from the President. Even President Mnangagwa himself, if he has it all in the head, must stop and think about that the intentions of such praise singers are before he entertains them
Juxtapose Hadebe’s remarks and those of the late Father Zimbabwe reported in a different newspaper headed “Mnangagwa nowhere near Nkomo: Family” where the Nkmo family dissociates the foundation from Hadebe’s statement, then it becomes obvious that there is something fishy – either a desperation to impress President Mnangagwa in order to gain favours by Hadebe, or his brain is derailed to the extent of not being able to distinguish fact from fiction.
This is Zimbabwe’s trouble that people are willing to distort facts in order to appease leaders. Unfortunately, such remarks a can of worms which could father expose and damage the reputation of the person who is being extolled.
Interesting that Hadebe is planning on inviting Mnangagwa, the man who obviously tormented the late Nkomo by calling for the massacre of innocent civilians. I hope this has been agreed on by the Nkomo Family, but I would also want him to remember that emotional people who lost their beloved ones to Gukurahundi which President Mnangagwa actively supported may want to use the opportunity to express their anger over his involvement in Gukurahundi.
Not so much desperation, IMO. More like a lifetime of appalling misbehaviour, and perhaps, now, an emergence into something that recognises how self-destructive and futile such behaviour is?
(Plus: it’s not as Joshua Nkomo is some sort of saint – ZAPU was part of the chimurenga, and what followed after. He also has innocent blood to account for).