Ex- Zipra members still trying to get their properties back 30yrs later

 

 

The two late Generals Lookout Masuku and Rex Nhongo ( Solomon Mujuru) walk hand in hand

BULAWAYO — Ex-Zipra members have resolved to continue piling pressure on the government to return immovable properties that were seized at the height of the armed dissident crackdown in the 1980s.
SILAS NKALA
The ex-fighters also claim they lost over 4 000 cattle during the period.
Zipra Veterans’ Trust chairperson Buster Willy Magwizi yesterday said members of the trust would meet in Bulawayo on Saturday to craft new strategies on how to reclaim their properties.
Magwizi said since Zanu PF had now regained full control of government, the party could no longer blame anyone for any further delays.
“At independence in 1980, all the Zipra ex-combatants contributed Z$50 each towards the purchase of properties which were registered under Nitram Investment Holdings,” Magwizi said.
“Some of those properties include Castle Arms Motel in Bulawayo, Nest Egg building in Bulawayo, Ascot Farm in Solusi, Wood Glen Farm in Nyamandlovu and Hawton Farm in Gweru at which
former (Midlands) governor Cephas Msipa reportedly resettled people from Sogwala,” Magwizi said.
He said ex-Zipra veterans would hold an annual general meeting at Castle Arms Motel in Bulawayo on Saturday to discuss strategies on how to pressurise the Zanu PF government to return their properties.
“We are inviting all ex-Zipra members from across the country and abroad to attend.
“After Zanu PF resoundingly won the election, we have a chance to push it to return our properties with their title deeds.
“We purchased these properties for the purposes of helping all ex-Zipra veterans and their families, but all those efforts
were thwarted when the properties were taken.”
Magwizi said Zipra also lost some properties in Harare which included Nijo Farm, Salisbury Motel and several others.
“When our farms were taken, we lost 4 000 cattle which were there and if we had had these cattle for the past 30 years, they would have been close to 200 000 now and our members would not be suffering as they are now.
“Most of these cattle were taken from Ascot Farm. They also took our tractors, chickens and pigs,” Magwizi said.
“The livelihoods of the ex-combatants would have improved if the properties had remained in their hands. But it’s sad that some undeserving people are benefiting from those properties,” he said.
Last year ex-Zipra combatants appealed to President Robert Mugabe and former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to facilitate the return of their properties, but to no avail.
Magwizi said they suspected some of the properties had already been sold privately.
“We are again appealing to Mugabe to intervene and guarantee the return of our properties. These properties can benefit even our great-grandchildren if returned. We have a complete list of these properties and even the people who took them,” he said. This story first appeared in Newsday online.

The truth about the Enos Nkala we loved to hate?

Dead or alive the  mere mention of the name Enos Nkala, triggers a lot of memories among the people of Zimbabwe. To the ruling party comrades in the capital, he was a hero. To his own flesh and blood  in Matabeleland South, his name is synonymous to that of a demon if not the devil himself. Which ever way you look at him, Nkala' historic significance or insignificant is undeniable. Most of us would be quick to judge Nkala  in his old self and yet forget that this man made a turn around.

                                                 A case for the two Nkalas

What do I mean by "turn around" and why is it important for Zimbabweans to know? There are credible sources that suggest that the late Enos  Nkala died a born again Christian.  I do not doubt that theory since I knew people who knew him closely in the mid 90s. At no point do I want to use that to justify him in anyway shape, or form. If there is an justice or lack of it is not within my jurisdiction. I am just a mere writer, who tries to make sense of things believe it or not. Coming to the point, the people of Matabeleland and the Zimbabweans at large have a duty to seek both justification and apology from the party that Enos Nkala helped establish. (ZANU PF)  This is for the atrocities that he and his party at the time caused.  (Born again or not ) No amount of words can justify such enormous evil and brutality in modern times. Although history has it that Nkala helped form ZANU Pf because of his strong hate for the Dr Joshua Nkomo, he is not blamed for that.

What he is blamed for is zealously and publicly unleashing a reign of terror and brutality on the civilians who supported the ZAPU leader Dr Joshua Nkomo in mid eighties. Nothing wrong  about  choosing  a political party. I want to be clear here. However as we all know that Nkala would leave the ruling party un ceremoniously after the infamous Willowvale car scandal in the late 80s or early 90s. (Not sure here) This scandal rocked the government so much that one of the minister who was involved  committed suicide not too long after that. It must have been Maurice Nyagumbo.  Nkala left the government and the party as a bitter man. This marked the end of his political career. He still had blood on his hands regardless. To this day his homestead in Filabusi is still known as komuzi omubi. "At the evil man's place"

In the past few years in many intervals we started hearing about Nkala in the headlines news again. He was threatening to spill the beans about some issues concerning the infamous Gukurahundi period. This is an issue which he was most hated for, and real because of his public confession that he would "wash away being a Ndebele if there was such soap"  When he started to surface gain, he was very blunt about the way President Mugabe and ZANU PF were handling things in the country. He even confessed that one day he would march in protest to Mugabe's rule. He said that was not what they had in mind when they formed ZANIP PF. He further said that Mugabe was now a different man from what he was back then. In short he had nothing good to say about this present ZANU PF. He was heard saying that some truth would come after he is dead. Sources said he wrote a  tell all book which could be realized anytime, now that he is dead.

It is a reasonable thing to associate ZANU PF with Enos Nkala at any point and time just for the fact that the party was formed in his house. Period! Although Nkala and Mugabe where still "friends" God knows for what reason, Nkala  never made an effort to rejoin or show support for the party even in all theses heated and tightly contested elections ever including this last one. The question would be why was he given a hero status, when he did not want it? What gain did Mugabe and the ruling party have in affording him that status? The answer is simple, to divide the people of Matabeleland one more time. Not just to divide them but to make them feel the pain once again for voting MDC T in this past elections. Guess what, this plan worked because we were all once again angry about Enos Nkala's ghost.  Whether he was born gain or not is not the issue here. The issue is did he die a ZANU PF man or not ? In short poor  Enos Nkala was used as a ZANU Pf scape goat to inflict pain to the people of Matabeleland . Nkala should have changed his name after conversion like Saul who changed to Paul. To be continued!

Mugabe admits that Bulawayo was Zimbabwe's industrial hub (back in Rhodesia)

 

 

( President Mugabe in his own words)

 

"But for industry, companies look at the companies. Bulawayo was made the industrial city tichiri vana vadiki isusu. When we grew up, Bulawayo was the talk of our city which was the industrial, where employment was available much more than other cities.

Harare was to be the administrative capital. But pakazouya Federation in 1953, December although it lasted only for 10 years December 1963 it was dead. So, but it drew now much more investment into Salisbury and Salisbury started having industrial, industrial, industrialization on a larger scale than Bulawayo because this was also the federal capital apart being the territorial capital. And then started having skyscrapers here and none in Bulawayo. The first one was Livingstone House. Mamwe akazouya much later before you were born, I am sure. Some skyscrapers are much older than you are, shame! You should have been born much earlier, makanonokerei? Okay that’s Harare, that’s how it grew and outstripped Bulawayo.

I am saying so because by the fact of my employment and fact that my father stayed in Bulawayo for 10 years and was employed there as a teacher first at Empandeni a year, then Hope Fountain outside Bulawayo, 10 miles therefrom. If you don’t know what miles are, don’t ask me I am British. (Laughter) 10 miles out of Bulawayo, I was there, and I hopped to South Africa to Fort Hare from there. So I have that Bulawayo culture in me. It was a very nice city and very beautiful. I went there when I was a bachelor and that means quite a lot (laughter). So now when I look at it, it’s like a dying city, it was vivacious, full of life, social life I didn’t know Harare until I returned from Ghana actually to join politics then I started knowing ma streets and suburbs and even the suburbs we did not know very well because the whites didn’t want you to move into the suburbs unless you were servants and were working as domestic servants for them or they would ask, the police “ini wena funa lapa?”

Anyway, Bulawayo is like a dead city now, we must enliven it. We must bring back that capacity which it had, industrial capacity it had and do much more and bring back even that employment capability which it had. So we talk about it, but this is not just because I stayed but also because it really grew into a capital not just of the industries of our industries, our industrial capital but it was also our railway capital, ndiko kwakaiswa headquarters, also you have it much closer to Botswana, much closer to South Africa, but Harare grew in faster strides and kwakazouya Soweto to keep the natives away from the closeness of the city.
Harare was getting too congested. Highfield, Chitungwiza, what did I say? Soweto oh! Oh!  That was to be our Soweto and Chitungwiza and I think the population of Chitungwiza now is much more than some of the smaller cities. Smaller countries in Africa. The life there, the people couldn’t drive the whole way into the main part of the city for employment. Industrialization could have started, we tried to do a few things there, earlier on during the first 10 years for our independence, 20 years for our independence, a few companies were established, but that was not enough, much more could have been done"
(This was part of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe's speech on his vision of the country thanks to online news sources)

South African Chiefs promise to help revive Ndebele Monarch?

Sunday, 8 September 2013

‘Ndebele kingdom to be revived’

Vusumuzi Dube Sunday News Reporter

SOUTH African royals have resolved to facilitate the revival of the Ndebele kingdom and have called on the Khumalo clan in Zimbabwe to put its house in order so that a rightful heir can be annointed.


Speaking during the commemoration of the death of the founding Ndebele monarch, King Mzilikazi Khumalo, at Mhlahlandlela just outside Bulawayo yesterday, Chief Mthayiza Khumalo from Mpumalanga in South Africa, said the Khumalo clan in that country had come together and resolved to assist in reviving the Ndebele kingdom.

The commemorations saw politicians, traditional leaders and traditionalists converge at the venue, which was King Mzilikazi’s capital.
Chief Mthayiza said it was a point of concern that while everyone knew that King Mzilikazi founded a kingdom, this kingdom was no longer in existence and there was no one to lead the cultural functions.
“We had a function last year as Khumalo chiefs in South Africa where we all agreed that there was a need for us to note our history and document it. We might be spacious in terms of location but there is a need to sort out our identity.
“It was very unfortunate that back then there was no representation from here but I am glad that today we have finally met. Mzilikazi’s nation is in existence here in Zimbabwe but what is the problem? Is it fear, or you cannot agree on the rightful leader? We will intervene as the Khumalo chiefs and ensure that we get rid of this anomally,” said Chief Mthayiza.
He said the royal Khumalo family should come together as a matter of urgency, talk to their ancestors and ensure that the kingdom was revived.
“While we could say that Mzilikazi’s fleeing from South Africa was unintended, we are essentially proud of him because he developed the Khumalo name and our culture as an African continent-wide recognised brand.
“We are not stopping here because we know there is the royal Khumalo blood in Zambia and Botswana, that will be our next port of call, of course after we fix the problems with regards to reviving your kingdom. It does not make much sense that right now you have a cultural function but there is no cultural leader,” he said.
Accompanying Chief Mthayiza was Queen Ndlunkulu Khumalo from KwaZulu-Natal.
Also present at the commemorations that were attended by close to 1 000 people, was Zanu-PF Politburo member, Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube, Deputy President of the Chief’s Council, Chief Mshana Khumalo, Chief Malachi Masuku and Chief Nyangazonke Ndiweni.
In an interview on the sidelines of the event, Rtd Col Dube said culture was a key component of national development, thus the need for such functions to be supported.
“Culture is something that has to be ever supported, it is non-political and helps in national development. If a nation keeps its culture you are then assured of development . . . that is why as leaders we have to be seen supporting such events,” he said.
King Mzilikazi left then Zululand in the 1820s after a fallout with King Tshaka Zulu with less than 500 people and fought his way up to present day western Zimbabwe.
He was able to persuade some tribes in the Transvaal to join his crusade and crossed the Limpopo River before finally settling in this part of the country, establishing his capital at Mhlahlandlela, a recognised historical site and place that has been hosting his commemorations since the year 2000.
The kingdom was never revived after the disappearance of King Lobengula who was being persued by white settlers