POLITICIANS’ DEATH THAT HAVE PAINED ME

I watched part of Mugabe’s funeral today. I still don’t feel anything. I felt content when a relative of his said Mugabe died a sad man. I am not happy he did not face justice in this life. He caused the unnecessary suffering and death of many innocent Zimbabweans. A number of children grew-up without parents after they were murdered or ran away from Zimbabwe. Many marriages failed due to migration and economic hardships. Mugabe never asked for forgiveness from us his victims so I don’t see why I should forgive him. Us Africans we are too quick to forgive without punishing offenders. World war 2 ended in 1945 and they are still hunting and punishing Nazi mass murderers 74 years later.

I look at the death of politicians that have pained me over the years. When President Samora Machel died in the 80s, I was still in primary school in Amaveni, Kwekwe then. When President Machel’s death was announced, you could see the anguish on adults’ faces. Zimbabwe’s war of liberation was waged mainly from Zambia and Mozambique. A number of police officers had been guerillas fighting from Mozambique. I still consider Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda as my presidents also. Zimbabwean soldiers were also fighting in the Mozambique civil war and there were many refugees from Mozambique in Zimbabwe especially in our village in Murewa.

Those in high school started explaining theories of how Samora Machel’s plane might have been brought down by the South African then Apartheid government and that made us very angry. During Cold War those in high school were telling us about nuclear bombs and it seemed to me that the world would end any moment. In the 80s death was not very common, it was before the Aids pandemic started wreaking havoc especially from the early 90s. The first time I saw a dead person was outside Amaveni Police station when a person had disembarked from the United bus at the bus stop and the person went on to ground collapsed and died.

The next dead person I saw was my father at the end of 1990. When I was about to finish high school, Sidney Malunga died many people were very upset about his death, we genuinely believed that he has been silenced for being vocal. In 1999 Joshua Nkomo died. Joshua Nkomo’s life story inspires me. Many people don’t know that he supported Strive Masiyiwa when he was trying to get a licence for Econet. It was written in the independent newspapers that time that Joyce Mujuru then Minister of Communications allegedly disrespected Vice President Nkomo regarding the Econet Licence saga.

I walked to and from Heroes Acre to voluntarily attend Joshua Nkomo’s funeral and that was the only time I ever visited Heroes Acre. Yitzhak Rabin’s the former prime minister of Israel, his death also pained me. The death of Learnmore Jongwe in prison also pained me. My eldest cousin was an aide to Vice President Simon Muzenda and the death of Muzenda also pained me. In 2005 when I visited Gutu for the first time after I had gone with my father in law for his meetings, I spent some minutes seeing Muzenda’s dilapidated buildings for his businesses that had closed down.

The death of Princess Diana also pained me. My brother in law had also been an aide to General Zvinavashe, the death of General Zvinavashe also pained me. In 2006 I met retired General Chin’ombe at his farm in Mhangura and he inspired me to start a piggery project, when he died I was sad. When Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, the circumstances of her death really pained me. When Nelson Mandela died, I was very sad, I consider Nelson Mandela to be one of the most consequential leaders to ever come out of Africa.

Last year when Morgan Tsvangirai dies, I did not want to believe that it was true and I really shed some tears. Morgan Tsvangirai is a true hero of our time. I remember him through successive electoral thefts he always used to calm us supporters. He always preached that he would only get to power through the ballot. After the 2002 presidential elections it was clear the election had been rigged. I voted at Avondale primary school, the queue was not moving at all. After voting I visited Chitungwiza where MaNyoni was registered to vote, the queue was not moving at all. Zanu-PF government wanted to frustrate urban voters.

That night MDC got a court order to extend the vote the next day. When people started to vote, police started arresting people accusing them of voting twice, by doing that action people stopped voting fearing arrests. My wife’s cousin mainini Anna (may her soul continue resting in peace) was one of the people arrested and taken to Makoni police station. After the election was stopped she and other people was released without charges. When I say Robert Mugabe was a devil this just one of the examples.

There were other deaths such as Chenjerai “Hitler” Hunzvi who spearheaded farm occupations, the death of DRC dictator Laurent Kabila that I was indifferent to. Zimbabwean government was not happy that people seemed to be happy that Kabila had been assassinated.

We should always say the truth about our leaders’ conducts. Like what Dr Noah Manyika wrote last week, if you now start saying Mugabe was good what incentive is there to force our leaders to change their ways🤷🏿‍♂️ Mnangagwa should know that if he continues on this path, Zimbabweans will urinate on his grave also

ROBERT MUGABE THE RACIST, TRIBALIST, HOMOPHOBE, XENOPHOBE AND FATHER OF NEPOTISM

Yesterday we saw former Mines Minister Walter Chidhakwa representing Mugabe’s family. You will be surprised how many relatives of Robert Mugabe were within the structures of government. Bona Mugabe his eldest daughter was a Commissioner in the Censorship Board and Simba Chikore his son in-law was the Chief Operating Officer at Air Zimbabwe the national airline.

Grace Mugabe had been elevated to be the leader of Zanu-PF women’s league before the November 2017 coup and practically she was running the country and there was a push to make her a Vice President. In the cabinet I know of Mugabe’s three close relatives such as Walter Chidhakwa, Mike Bimha then a powerful minister of industry he will be remembered for the infamous import controls and Patrick Zhuwawo his nephew who was the minister of Youth and Indigenous.

The deputy commissioner of police Innocent Matibiri is a relative of Mugabe and so is the current Minister of Agriculture Perence Shiri. Coincidentally Perence Shiri was the commander of the North Korean trained 5th brigade that is accused of committing the Gukurahundi massacres. Phillip Chiyangwa is a relative. Leo Mugabe who spent many years as the president of Zimbabwe Football Association is Mugabe’s nephew.

The Gukurahundi massacre of the 1980s which saw the murder of 20 000 Zimbabweans in Midlands and Matebeleland provinces mainly affected people who were perceived to be supporters of Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU. A number of the victims where of Ndebele origin.

In early 2000 Robert Mugabe lost the Constitutional Referendum. Mugabe decided to punish white farmers and farm workers who were mainly originally from Malawi and Mozambique. In Zimbabwe there is a huge population of immigrants from Malawi throughout Zimbabwe. In 1983 at Amaveni primary school my best friend Abudu Phiri whose parents came from Malawi and were working at a nearby gold mine. The other pupils I still remember was Bhukudhadi and Alaje. In high school at Nyameni secondary school in Marondera a number of my classmates were children of Malawian immigrants. My best friend in high school James Chapuma his father also came from Malawi. Mugabe then called these immigrants people without totems.

The state unleashed violence on the farms and the police looked the other way. In early 2000 I had joined an American Insurance Company, AIG Zimbabwe in Harare. I was working in the farming claims department. I had front row seat in the farming violence. I saw names of relatives in the assessment reports who were perpetrators of violence against white farmers and black farm workers.

Robert Mugabe’s government then changed the constitution to take away citizenship of hundreds of thousands of whites and millions of blacks especially those who were born outside the country or those whose parents had been foreigners. Still Mugabe had to rig the 2002 election. You can google the report compiled by then South African high court judges Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke regarding the 2002 Zimbabwe presidential election.

Three successive South African presidents from Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and finally Jacob Zuma refused to release the Khampepe report until finally the court ordered the release of the report. Thabo Mbeki aided the thefts of Zimbabwean elections. The damage is already done because millions of Zimbabweans are now in South Africa and now competing with struggling Black South Africans for scarce jobs and other resources.

Some notable people who lost their citizenship was Sir Garfield Todd a former Prime Minister of The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (present day Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia). Sir Todd is credited with championing the education of Africans before Independence. Even after taking away citizenship and the right to vote from many Zimbabweans, Zanu-PF still had to rig the 2002 Presidential election especially in Harare Province.

2005 there was the Operation Murambatsvina to punish many urban dwellers to force many of them to go to rural areas where they could easily be controlled to vote for Zanu-PF. My young brother was affected and I had to transport my uncle’s family back to our village in Murewa after the cottage he was renting in Highfields was demolished. It was a heartless move from the inhuman government of Robert Mugabe, even the UN had to intervene.

On Mugabe chemai mega (cry alone).

REMEMBERING THE PAINFUL LEGACY OF ROBERT MUGABE

I first saw Robert Mugabe in person in the mid 80s in Kwekwe at a rally. When you are coming from Amaveni Township going to Kwekwe City center, on the right you pass Fitchlea medium density surbub which was originally built for Coloureds during days of segregation and before you get to Sebakwe Hotel and Kwekwe Central Police station there is an open ground on the right and it was the same place that the Luna Park would come yearly. 

When we moved to Marondera in 1990 we were staying at Dombotombo Police Camp and Mugabe would come next door to Rudhaka Stadium for rallies and I saw him again. When I was in high school Mugabe was becoming unpopular with educated young people, however we would listen to his speeches on radio as we all aspired to speak good English the way he spoke it. 

In the 1995 and 1996 elections, I didn’t vote and that time the economy was still ok. In 1997 I started working in Harare CBD and in my first month of working there was that ZCTU demonstration led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Gibson Sibanda. After awarding war veterans those unbudgeted gratuities that sank the Zim dollar Robert Mugabe now wanted to tax workers more. After the demo, Mugabe shelved the idea.

I learnt to avoid going nearer Mugabe’s office due to the brutality of the police. When I started driving, I quickly learnt that every motorist had to go off the road and park whilst Mugabe’s massive motorcade rolled past, indeed death is an equalizer Mugabe is coming back to Africa as cargo. My wife worked in Borrowdale and also my biggest client Aon Zimbabwe was also in Borrowdale. I avoided driving past State House by going either via Newlands or Second Street.

In 2005 my company car stalled on the robot next to Prince Edward High School, I then called for the breakdown and waited. Unknown to me Robert Mugabe’s motorcade was going to pass by on the way to Zanu-PF headquarters. The first vehicle of CIO officers stopped and ordered me to move the vehicle, I couldn’t move the Mazda double cab on my own as if was very heavy. A few minutes later another CIO car stopped again, I was scared that I could be seriously assaulted or even shot. They helped me to push the car in the direction of Milton Park and luckily they did not hit me.

Beginning of August 2007, we were staying in Bulawayo and MaNyonj and I went to Harare and we booked into Holiday Inn. We went for dinner in First Street. On the way back it was dark I suggested that we use Samora Machel Avenue because it would be safer from any muggings due to armed police at Mugabe’s offices. As we passed the armed police guard he asked my wife, “Ambuya chii chamakanda?”, (Lady what did you throw?), I answered that it was the cord on my jacket that had accidentally knocked on the metal pole as we were walking and made a noise.

The next moment I was lying on my stomach on the pavement and he was busy assaulting me. My wife was standing next to me helpless. I really thought he was going to shoot me that moment. He then ordered me to stand up and go and we walked to the hotel. I got my work permit weeks later. There was nothing to stay in Zimbabwe for as our retail business had lost a lot of money during the price control blitz ordered by Robert Mugabe around June 2007.  I did blog about this when Mugabe resigned in November 2017. http://kanyokad.blogspot.com/2017/11/?m=0

I have read that Mugabe died an old bitter man because he was not happy with his comrades for removing him from power. At least he was lucky he died in a foreign state of the art hospital overseas unlike his victims millions of Zimbabweans most are living in abject poverty, tens of thousands died without dignity, millions are toiling in foreign countries where they are not welcome. 

My hope is that Robert Mugabe does not Rest In Peace. Hopefully the new rulers learn before it is too late.

ROBERT MUGABE-HOW DO YOU FORGIVE A PERSON WHO WAS NOT SORRY?

On Monday 3 September 2007, I reported for duty in Pretoria to start a new job. I had left our home in Bulawayo on the morning of 23 August 2007. I had collected my work permit at the South African embassy in Harare the previous day and travelled overnight to Bulawayo. It’s never an easy thing to leave your country for the unknown.

After years of bad economic management inflation was wreaking havoc in Zimbabwe. We called Mugabe’s dubious economic policies- Mugabe Economics. It was mind boggling that Mugabe with his Masters degree in Economics from University of London would manage the economy the way he did.

Beginning of 2007, I was working as the Bulawayo branch manager for an insurance company. For years to supplement our salaries we were running side hustles. Due to ravaging inflation our salaries no longer kept up with inflation. I was earning less than a farm worker in South Africa. About two months before I finally left Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe had launched a price control blitz that not only left us bankrupt but my manager for our 4 general dealer shops was arrested and she now has a criminal record. When she was arrested, the security officers accused her and other business people of trying to bring down the government of Mugabe through price increases.

That first week in training in Pretoria we were asked to introduce oneself. I told the class of about 30 that I was a Zimbabwean. I thought I was the only Zimbabwean until during lunch time a guy came and told me he was also Zimbabwean. I discovered then that most Zimbabweans did not want people to know that they came from Zimbabwe. People are ashamed to let the people know they are Zimbabweans and I don’t blame them. A few years later when we received separate e-mails asking each person to resubmit their work permits, I then realized that there was even more Zimbabweans at the company when some of the guys were panicking.

Black South Africans would tell me during breaks how they admired Robert Mugabe their hero. I got tired of arguing with people. Guys from other races were scared to crack Mugabe’s jocks thinking that I would be offended. Yesterday I saw news of Mugabe’s death on Twitter and to be honest I don’t feel anything. I am not even sorry that he is gone. I started school just after independence in the 80s and this monster destroyed our promising future.

Millions of Zimbabweans of all races are now foreigners because our country was reduced to a wasteland. It’s not easy being a foreigner my friends. His actions led to death of innocent tens of thousands of Zimbabweans, people die from medieval diseases in independent Zimbabweans, about 90% of well educated Zimbabweans are not employed and a government employed medical doctor in Zimbabwe earns less than a domestic worker in South Africa. Millions are planning to leave Zimbabwe even right now.

I am not happy that Mugabe never faced justice for his crimes against Zimbabweans. I already celebrated when he resigned in November 2017.http://kanyokad.blogspot.com/2017/11/why-i-am-rooting-for-my-new-president.html

May his soul burn in hell.

WHY I AM NOT SAD ON NEWS THAT MUGABE IS DEAD

If there is after life, the creator knows how millions of Zimbabweans of all races and tribes suffered at the hands of Mugabe. I have written in my blogs about the violence against PF- ZAPU supporters in the 1985 general elections in Amaveni Kwekwe when we were staying there. 

In 1990 we witnessed the violence against Edgar Tekere’s ZUM. Mugabe went on to pardon the thugs who were convicted for the attempted murder of Mr Patrick Kombayi. In 1997 Mugabe was forced to award unbudgeted gratuities to war veterans and the Zimbabwean dollar tanked. In 2000 after Mugabe lost the referendum there was so much violence towards the 2000 parliamentary elections especially in towns like Marondera where my mother and my siblings were living.The farm invasions started property was destroyed people were killed on the farms. I was doing farming insurance claims at AIG Zimbabwe that time and the murders and violence I saw personally and on assessment reports will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Towards the 2002 presidential elections I visited my mother at Marondera General Hospital shortly before her death. My mother even in her pain was worried when she saw me holding The Daily News as that independent newspaper was banned by war veterans in Marondera and they would assault anyone seen holding the paper. In 2005 Mugabe initiated operation Murambatsvina, I drove to Chitungwiza one day to see the inhuman destruction of peoples’ houses.

2008 after Zanu-PF lost elections, they killed many people. I am still grieving over the murder of Mr Shepherd Jani from Murewa. I lost saw Mr Jani in early 2008 when I passed by his house in Murewa on my way back to Pretoria as I was thinking of coming back to Zimbabwe and I wanted to rent a shop from him. I gave him a lift to Harare, I think on that day MDC was deciding if they were going to participate in the March 2008 elections.

In 2009 a childhood friend came to our home in Pretoria after he had resigned from the police and he recounted harrowing stories to me and my wife about the senseless murders and bodies being thrown in Wenimbi Dam that happened in 2008. Even though Mugabe improved the education of Africans after Independence, It all came to nought as millions of educated Zimbabweans are unemployed at home and a lot left the country to do menial work as foreigners. It’s hard being a foreigner but due to Mugabe’s policies we had no choice but to leave our beloved Zimbabwe to be foreigners.

I know it’s un-African to say this, I am not crying over Mugabe’s death

IT IS A VERY SMALL WORLD, NEVER BURN BRIDGES

I am blessed to have met so many mentors since I started my first formal job in September 1996 as a temporary teacher. So I arrived in Pretoria in the evening of 23 August 2007 to escape the dire economic situation in Zimbabwe. I had modest goals, I thought I would start as a waiter first whilst looking for a job in the insurance sector. Fate had other plans.

 

I saw an advert for a Business Claims Advisor in Pretoria News and I e-mailed my CV. A day or so later I was driving from Sandton from another interview right by Buccleau Interchange where M1, N3 and N1 meets, I recieved a call from Ms Anne-Marie Matthee from OUTsurance for the telephonic interview. I parked the car next to the road and closed all the windows. After the telephone interview, she told me I had not really impressed her but nonetheless she was inviting me for a face to face interview after lunch on Friday 31 August 2007. I had another interview in Sandton and I was not sure which interview to attend.

I decided to go the interview at OUTsurance. I was interviewed by Glen Rae (who would become my direct boss) and Shaun Marshall. Shaun Marshall told me in the interview that I had got the job and I was supposed to report for my two months training starting on Monday 2 September 2007. I can summarize my first 10 years at OUTsurance as change is the constant thing. The lady who taught me systems in October 2007 predicted that I would only last 3 years because claims environment is stressful.

When I got to my 10 years in September 2017, I resigned and started serving my 4 weeks notice. Serving notice is very difficult, luckily for me throughout my career I got advice from smart mentors. I served my notice to the very last day which was 2 October 2017. I wanted to leave early on that day as I wanted to catch an earlier bus to Harare that afternoon but the GM refused. I only left around 4pm and I went  to say goodbye to Anne-Mare and say thank you for the opportunity and I started crying I couldn’t help it. When I went out to my car with Kobaschni Kim Naidoo, I was still crying.

In February 2019 I saw an advert for a 6 months claims contract at a big insurance company in Constania Kloof, Johannesburg and I applied, I told my former boss at OUTsurance that I had put him as a referee. I reported for duty in Constanta Kloof on 18 February 2018 and spent the day there, I only discovered when I got the contract that I was going to work for a labour broker. I refused to sign the contract.

I then went for promising interviews in Highveld and another one in Sandton and started writing psychometric tests. I then told my former boss around mid-March 2018 that I wanted to come back to OUTsurance and I wanted to go to non-motor claims. I then came for an interview and started working on 1 April 2018. The same GM who refused me to leave early on my last day, was the same GM who signed off my return. Imagine if I had given him a piece of my mind that last day mind you I had no intentions of returning to the company then. On the first day of induction, I received a call from the company in Sandton, they wanted me to come for another interview again, I told her no. She then phoned back to say she was going send me an offer and I told her sorry it’s too late you wasted time.

Some of the guys I worked with also want to come back and they asked me how I managed to come back. My advice is that at times things get heated at work but it’s always important to have emotional intelligence. Tell your boss when they have done wrong things, learn to accept criticism and always remember two things (1) you work for yourself and not the company and (2) if you do a good job someone will notice, that someone might be your bosses boss, a customer, a competitor etc. Guard your personal brand don’t slacken, it’s easier to appeal to higher authorities when your own house is in order.

Imagine going for an interview and when they ask you if they can phone your former bosses and you say no, put yourselves in their shoes, would you hire you🤷🏿‍♂️. It’s true there are toxic bosses but if you feel that the whole company has bad bosses maybe look into the mirror for problems. My last note if it was your own company would you work the way you do?Taking advantage, slackening, lying that you are sick when you are not etc.

http://kanyokad.blogspot.com/2017/09/what-i-have-learnt-in-my-21-years-of.html