BY KENNETH MUFUKA
There are some behaviours, which the wisest among the Bantu call bad omens. These are signs, real or imagined, of ill fortune or catastrophe in the future.
When we were children, and my father thought we deserved some sort of punishment, we would hide behind grandma VeVheku.
My father would dare not apply the mulberry switch on us, lest some portion of it lands on grandma. That would bring the most horrendous omens upon my father, if peradventure Mbuya Vheku winced with pain.
I have no brief from Sister Marry Chiwenga and from Sipho Malunga, but their public humiliation must make all of us with an iota of conscience, wince with vicarious pain.
Let me be quick to add that the handling of these two is being done by surrogates, who are regarded in one way or another as representatives of the Zimbabwe government.
Marry, a Samaritan woman by any measure, would normally not deserve a paragraph in these columns. An adventurer, street wise to the core, she exploited the number one rule of economics, the greater the risk, the greater the returns (profit). But that same rule also says that the greater the risk, the greater are the chances of collapse.
Falling in love with a General of the Republic of Zimbabwe, she abandoned her husband, constrained him from seeing his children on pain of undisclosed punishments. Having a achieved a lofty position as second wife in the Republic (a position of arrogation) she had enough authority to dispossess 15 Arda families working for a state experimental farm near Mverechena Showgrounds in Chief Chinamhora paramountcy. As often happens, greed begets greed. She also secured, without going to tender, government travel agency.
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Then she suffered a mishap when a bomb aimed at eliminating her husband injured, but did not accomplish its aim. There were other mishaps. It is my sincere belief that having suffered from the onset of lymphedema in her hands and legs, and feeling that her husband might die before her, she sought to avoid tribal property disputes with the husband’s relatives by acquiring a Chapter 5 paragraph 11 marriage, usually called Christian marriage or European marriage. In a Christian marriage, the next of kin, and inheritor of the husband’s wealth, is the wife. In pagan Bantu society, the brothers of the deceased descend on the family, assuming responsibility for the children, chasing the woman back to her ancestral village with nothing but kitchen utensils.
We may add, the husband’s brothers, the more to justify their cruel treatment of the widow, always cook up some story that their brother was ill treated by the widow (even accusing her of witchcraft). My dear Fabian Mabaya, I have examined over 100 pieces of evidence on this matter. The most damning allegedly attributed to Marry is that she made a negative reference to some bedroom secrets.
In victory show mercy
Seeing that the judiciary is captured, Marry would have been wise to settle out of court. But the issue now raises other problems.
If Marry bought curtains from South Africa worth more than U$1 million, and had pocket money for children valued at U$27 000 in addition to five cars which she demands must be allocated to her, how honestly was this money acquired and was it recorded in Zimra’s chronicles of taxable income? This is only the tip of an iceberg.
While the General flew to China and was treated and returned with his youthfulness and handsome countenance restored, Marry was not allowed to leave the country.
Placed in Marry’s situation, if I were allowed to leave the country, I would not return. The state, therefore, has a case. But it places the state in a position of unequal treatment under the law.
Marry’s physical and mental condition deteriorates by the day. One does not need to be a physician to see that her hands and legs are rotting and that her falls (thrice) are not premeditated.
When mercy seasons justice.
Therefore, thou Jew though justice be thy plea, consider this.
That in the course of justice none of us should see salvation.
It is freely bestowed to temper justice, and those who grant it ennoble themselves,
Especially those people who have power to dispense punishment
{Merchant of Venice)
Though the General will win every legal battle he chooses, his name will stink to high heaven in phyrric victory. He will be seen as wife killer (that is the lesson of Mbuya Vheku).
Marry will allege that she had no influence over the bank to transfer the large sums of money referred to abroad and that the General was responsible.
Such affairs should never be brought before the public. They are harbingers of ill omens for the government. The sums of money involved are staggering. That is part of the opposition mantra, that government is itself the home of looters, par excellence, and wife beaters, just to add for good measure.
No limit to greed!
The case involving Sipho Malunga and former Mines minister, Obert Mpofu is very simple. Obert, mtwana kaMpofu (the Eland) is the richest man in Mtwakazi paramountcy, having a spread of 65 000 hectares that supports 2 000 herd of cattle.
While at the Ministry of Mines, he is alleged to have known about the looting of Marange’s U$15 billion by Chinese and their surrogates.
He was then Robert Mugabe’s “obedient Son,” We do know that he bought a bank, some of the money he brought in a hessian bag in cash. The bank ran aground and disappeared.
While it is said that every morning he dines on a whole chicken and a loaf of bread to support his generous frame of 300 pounds weight and that he needs two assistants to climb into his Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) one would assume that at 75 years of age, he spares some time preparing for his afterlife.
No Siree! Like King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, he laid his eyes on a small garden (Eskadeni) owned by young Sipho Malunga. The name Esidakeni is a corruption by the Ndebele of garden, which supplied Bulawayo with horticultural products.
Like Jezebel, Provincial Affairs minister Richard Moyo, went to Obert and said these words. “My Lord and Master, that young man, Sipho, Mtwana ka Malunga (the Zipra patriot) has committed a grievous crime. He refuses to respect us. Now go Thou and possess the Esidakeni (little garden) I have now allocated his little plot to you Siree. Allah is Great. Forward with Zanu-PF.”
Verily I say unto you, among the Philistines, Greed has no limits.
- Ken Mufuka is a Zimbabwe patriot. His latest book, Life and Times of Robert Mugabe: Dream Betrayed is available from Innov Bookshops in Zimbabwe and from kenmufukabooks.com in the wider world.
