Interview with Gorden Moyo, MDC-T Bulawayo provincial chairman The Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai MDC- led party was recently in the news for chaos and confusion that allegedly rocked the party in the run-up to its congress that was staged in Bulawayo. In this question and answer, Nkululeko Sibanda (NS) talks to the party’s chairman for the Bulawayo province, Gorden Moyo (GM) on the issue and many others around his party and its activities. Below are the excerpts: NS: Briefly tell us about who Gorden Moyo is? I guess you are aware Nkululeko that I have no business talking about myself. As matter of a principle I don’t like talking about myself and l am not just about to break that principle just for the sake of this interview. My daily challenges are not about the persona of Gorden, not at all, it’s about the people, policies and the future of this country. Am sorry I have neither time nor interest in discussing personal, private and mundane issues which are not germane to the struggles of our time. If you want my bio, I guess you are a googler, a facebooker, a blogger and a twitter. You can get my bio duty- free from that social media. I am basically a product of the history of our people. Both as an individual and through my lineage I carry scars that bear witness to the many struggles my people, my community, my family and I have contributed to, in history. From the despicable atrocities of the war of liberation to the chilling manslaughter and blood curdling acts of barbarism committed against the innocent civilains by Gukurahundi, I share that sad past with the people. However, I have refused to see myself as a victim but this background does shape and formulate my identity since you wanted to know who I am. NS: You were known to most people as a member of civil society until a few years back when you decided to join politics. How did this come about? And what was the force behind this decision to move from civil society to mainstream politics. GM: Yes I have relocated from the civil activism to the political activism but I haven’t dislocated from the civil space. I remain a frontline human rights defender at heart. There is a wrong assumption that civil activism is inferior to political activism. I believe that civil activism and political activism are just but different sides of the same coin. Both advocate for an open society, promotion and protection of human and people’s rights. The only major difference lies in the fact that political society also seeks political power through a system of representative democracy while civil society derives its work from the participatory democracy architecture. I have not made a great leap by relocating to the political public sphere, it’s just a change of the weapon, exchanging a shotgun for an AK 47 but remaining in the same battalion, with the same camouflage. NS: If you were to pay tribute for your emergence in the political field, who would you pay tribute to? GM: That is an interesting question. There is a long list of people who have pioneered the new struggle for democratisation. These men and women have gone ahead of us and challenged the system at great personal risk; people like Sydney Malunga, Mthandazo Ndema Ngwenya, Bekithemba Sibindi, Lupi Mushayakarara and others who have dared question the perverted habits and traditions of Zanu PF at a time when it was considered a taboo. May their spirits rest in peace. All these are people who suffered and some even lost their lives for articulating the aspirations of the people. They are now our tragic heroes and like all tragic heroes they will be more influential after their deaths than they lived as did the likes of Julius Caesar in Rome and Jesus Christ in the Christian religion. We will continue to draw inspiration from them and wage a fearless struggle in their honour and in pursuit of the noble ideals they strove for. NS: Now to politics: You are the incumbent MDC-T party’s provincial chairman. How has been the terrain, politically, for you during your tenure as provincial chairman? GM: Bulawayo is one of the most contested regions in the country but the people of Bulawayo are mature citizens who once they have made up their minds on which leader they want to work with do not turn back. So I took up the responsibility of being the Bulawayo Metropolitan Province Chair fully aware of the challenges and expectations. Therefore we have been working at council, provincial and national government levels to push ideas and projects that will bring development and progress to Bulawayo. Becoming Provincial Chairman has helped me to understand the opportunities and challenges of leadership at community level in very practical ways. From a political perspective I’ve learnt how to manage political competition. Despite many spurious claims to the contrary, the popularity of the MDC-T in Bulawayo has grown in recent years. Within one year of my tenure as Provincial Chairman the party recruited nearly 60 000 new members into its ranks. Our assessment is that the alleged decline could have been experienced prior to the 2008 elections owing to the freshness of the split in 2005. 2008 was therefore the year the competitors of our party should have taken advantage of to snatch some odd seats in the province because of the confusion over legitimacy and true identities of the two MDCs. Not now. The people are now very clear which MDC they want to associate themselves with; the party that has steadfastly fought in their corner to permanently rid the country of oligarchy, kleptocracy, plutocracy, autocracy and securocracy. We are however not complacent. We will continue to work hard in order to deliver another 100% victory to the MDC-T but this time with a crushing winning margin. NS: You beat Matson Hlalo to the provincial chair. How is your relationship with him now? Is he working with you, including his “own structures?” GM: Kindly get this straight and clear; I did not beat anyone. In the MDC there are no winners and losers because we all have a responsibility to contribute to the greatness of our movement, whether in an elected capacity or otherwise. What happened last year was just a normal internal democratic process of electing the leadership of the party in Bulawayo and I emerged as the preferred choice to spearhead the growth and expansion of the party, not a winner. The notion of beating is calculated to foment and perpetuate bitterness, division and strife in our party. As a party we resolved that we would move from pre-congress and congress issues. Right now we are working as a team with mutual respect amongst ourselves as leaders. Any member or leader working outside established MDC structures would be violating the constitution of the Movement and Mr Hlalo as a loyal cadre and veteran member of this party wouldn’t do such a thing. Remember that this great party is not about individuals, it is a collective enterprise and as leaders we understand that at the end of the day voters want to see positive change in this country and that change will only be realized by a team effort and not by any single individual. NS: What challenges have you encountered as the provincial executive of the MDC-T party in Bulawayo? GM: Indeed, there has been a fair number of challenges we have faced as a party; right from having some of our meetings blocked by the police to negative publicity by media organisations, institutions and individuals that are terrified by our phenomenal growth since the new executive took over. As a provincial executive our task has been to understand clearly the needs of the constituents in our province and to come up with programmes that help us to resonate with the legion of our membership as well as those whom we seek to attract to our cause. After the Congress we focused on avoiding political complacency and are working very hard to expand our membership and to articulate the needs of our region. Ultimately we seek to leverage on service delivery in local government so as to ensure that to the greatest extent possible, all relevant tiers of government are working compatibly for the benefit of the people of Bulawayo. As a party we are deeply concerned that the process of reindustrializing Bulawayo is moving too slow. The DIMAF package is proving to be a pie in the sky because of bureaucracy which really justifies the acute need for devolution of power. In my capacity as a cabinet minister from this city who doubles up as provincial party chairman for the most progressive party in government I pledge to fight tooth and nail to bring development to this city. In this regard I will join forces with anyone whose interest is to promote development in this region regardless of political affiliation, provided they are sincere, genuine and progressive; not clowning, politicking or gambling with our people’s desperation for a voice. NS: Recently, some of your members decided to cross the floor to join the Welshman Ncube-led MDC party. As a party, what can you say about this development? GM: As a party we have always maintained that no such defections occurred. We checked our records with our entire branch and district structures and we were satisfied that this was an act of desperation by Zanu PF which has apparently finally admitted that Bulawayo is out of reach for them and therefore have decided to front other entities as their surrogates and counterfeit defections allegedly from our party. They know that if they had claimed the so-called defectors for themselves nobody would have believed them so they created this decoy. I reckon that this will not be the only time such things will be done. As the country moves closer to elections more and more stage-managed defections will be reported. Why is it always the Zanu-PF controlled media which break those news items. The most credible test of our support levels will be the forthcoming election for which we are preparing flat out. Our leadership cannot be distracted by irrelevant and unsubstantiated side shows fomented by our detractors. NS: One would guess there could have been some investigations into what was the major cause of these defections. Would you like to share with our readers what the outcome of these investigations could have been if at all you bothered to investigate? GM: I have already alluded to the membership audit we did as a party when such reports first emerged and that we have concluded that Zanu PF is highly motivated to infiltrate our structures with their own people for purposes of future destabilization. These are the people whom when they later withdraw from such missions they claim to have defected from our movement. I would like to reiterate that our focus as a province is on connecting with old and new voters and on remaining in control of setting the political agenda in our province. We are not complacent, as we are exhausting our energies on expanding the party’s base and understanding the history of this region, its voting patterns, and having clarity on the present context of voter interests since the formation of the inclusive government. This is what we are focused on and not on chasing the shadows of agendas that we have not set. NS: There are some that claim that some elements of your party were now using Zanu PF elements to fan violence within your structures in Makokoba so as to discredit your leadership. Would you like to respond to this allegation? GM: It would be unfortunate if anyone in our party chose to go into bed with those Zanu PF elements. That there is an enemy hand in this whole saga is quite evident. However, what I would dispute at the risk of being seen as naïve is that genuine MDC-T members would knowingly enter into unholy alliances with criminals, pillagers, looters and murderers of innocent Zimbabweans just to discredit an individual. What I know for sure is that we have consolidated our provincial leadership to focus on the same goals. As far as I know, no one in our provincial leadership is running joint programmes with ZANU-PF. Who in their right mind would go out to work with Gukurahundists to destroy our party structures? Our leadership is therefore loyal to its core mission which is to work hard towards ensuring that our party gains a clear electoral victory in the forthcoming plebiscite. NS: Have there been any members that have crossed the floor from other political parties to join the MDC-T Party in Bulawayo? If so, any figures involved? GM: Surely our goals cannot be as limited, as narrow and as simple as attempting to increase our membership through floor crossing. While it may be plausible as a propaganda stint it is unpractical that we can increase our membership through floor crossing. That is gutter politics of desperation which will soon be exposed to have been as such in the next elections. The increase in our membership and grassroots support is instead the result of a robust membership drive to recruit new party members and to ensure that our members are registered as voters. Those who think that votes are won through Zanu- PF aided publicity stunts and thesocial media but fear to hold mass rallies that would unequivocally enable them to gauge their popularity levels will be inconsolably humiliated when election results get announced. NS: There is a general allegation that your party needs to restructure its departments and organs in Bulawayo as there is an allegation that there are some people that are not playing their effective role in the party. Are we likely to see any restructuring exercise soon in Bulawayo? GM: I have no idea where those allegations are coming from and who it is that is alleging that. As a matter of fact our party is growing in leaps and bounds. It is only in the futile footages and coverage of adversarial media that you find such spurious allegations. NS: You are known to be an advocate of devolution of power- most probably one of the loudest proponents of the notion of devolution of power. Can you shed light on your thoughts regarding devolution and benefits that will accrue to the lower structures of government if it manages to sail through into the new constitution? GM: We are aware that there are people who have attempted to appropriate for themselves the credit for being the sole proponents of this concept. However, the fact remains that the MDC-T is a committed champion of this concept. It, more any other party in the inclusive government, carries sufficient political muscle to see devolution becoming a reality in Zimbabwe. As the biggest component in this government, the MDC-T will welcome any auxiliary or supplementary efforts from other Zimbabweans in ensuring that this democratic dispensation materializes. Some of the merits of devolution include promoting democratic and accountable exercise of power; fostering national unity by recognising diversity; giving powers of self-governance to the people and enhance the participation of the people in the exercise of the powers of the State; recognising the right of communities to manage their own affairs; protecting and promoting the interests and rights of minorities and marginalised communities; promoting social and economic development and the provision of services; ensuring equitable sharing of national and local resources throughout the country; facilitating the decentralisation of State organs, their functions and services, from the administrative centre; and, enhancing checks, balances and the separation of powers. In short devolution of power is the most ideal system for Zimbabwe given its history, current set up and the desire to deliver true democracy. NS: You are the minister of State Enterprises and Parastatals in the country. Can you shed light on the state of the parastatals and what is being done to ensure that they are brought back to their feet and that they operate efficiently. GM: I am the head of a Ministry that is seized with policy more than implementation of policies but off course through SERA, our agency we are involved in restructuring of state enterprises but again this is dependent on the cooperation that we get from line ministries. So I believe we have worked well within our mandate, we have produced Corporate Governance guidelines and Restructuring Procedures. What we have learnt from emerging economies is that modernized, efficient state enterprises are at the core of a democratic developmental state, so our priority has been to generate new ideas on how we can reform and transform state enterprises. As you might be aware we have worked on an Inter- Parastatal Debt Strategy through which we would like to free our parastatals form the noose of debt. Recently, we have made a lot of headway in marketing SEPs to the private sector in South Africa and China for possible joint ventures and direct investment. As I speak a delegation will be going to China as a follow up to our visit earlier this year. We are also looking into the future and are working on a Vision for SEPs in Zimbabwe where we see them as being an integral part of a 100billion dollar economy. In Bulawayo, we are obviously concerned about National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) and Cold Storage Commission (CSC) which are located in Bulawayo. I have met NRZ workers representatives and also worked on the plan for CSC. NS: There is an ongoing debate about the defiling of the Njelele shrine by some former Zanla people said to be linked to the Gukurahundi mass killings in the Matabeleland and Midlands province. As someone who hails from Matabeleland, what are your thoughts on this matter? GM: There are times when you sit and wonder if some people are not escaped inmates of a psychiatric institution. The kind of disdainful disregard of the sensibilities of the people of Matabeleland and those things they hold dear to their hearts is quite outrageous to say the least. That kind of provocation where people come hundreds of miles from their homes to wash their filth on the backyard of another person under the guise of some misguided cleansing ceremony is unprecedented. However, my thinking is that these people had the full blessing of some wasp-minded Zanu PF luminaries who have always held the people of Matabeleland in contempt. If these people are indeed victims of their own past horrendous acts of genocides against this region then they need to do it the acceptable way. They need to make peace with survivors of their Gukurahundist actions first before they can surreptitiously go to such a sacred place as Njelele to commit further atrocities. There is an urgent need for the process of truth telling about what happened during that period. In my opnion if people are genuinely seeking peace and forgiveness they must engage with victims and survivors in transparent ways. I think our people have a great capacity to forgive if proper processes and conditions are followed and met. I don’t believe that forgiveness be forcibly extracted from a victim. I don’t think it’s cool either to bypass the victims and go to their offended ancestors and seek forgiveness if this is what they were trying to achieve. There has to be an open confession, then an apology, then a plea for forgiveness, then compensation and finally reconciliation. Anything other than would be a waste of time. NS: Finally, what does the future hold for the MDC in Bulawayo province? And your message to party supporters in the province? GM: To start with I urge all people to vote an MDC-T government into power, come the next elections. This is very important as the basis for achieving our goals. It is only through the MDC-T that true freedom and democracy will be enjoyed by the people. Meaningful development will only be realizable through devolution of power and the MDC-T is the only party that has both the realistic stamina and the political will to implement it; all the rest are either political grandstanding or seeking political relevance. It is quite significant to note that the people in Matabeleland had the foresight to realize this much earlier than other regions and it is commendable that other parts of the country have also bought in, which has facilitated the concept’s inclusion in the draft constitution. Ownership claims made by some people are out of step as they tend to allienate other stake holders and make them think the concept a regional demand. For this and other reasons I think Bulawayo in particular and the Zimbabwe in general has a bright future; we cannot afford to stop believing in ourselves. As a city and metropolitan province we pride ourselves for possessing an admirable ethos of administrative excellence not found in the rest of the country. We have always been known to be the best governed city in the country if not Southern Africa. We must uphold that standard by all means. We must come up with creative ideas to revive our industries. NS: Many thanks Minister Moyo for your time and the responses you have proffered to the questions put out to you. GM: My pleasure.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 10:13:36 +0000