via Herald’s Manheru finally discloses who he is | The Insider 3 January 2015
Up until now it has been mere speculation that the Herald columnist, Nathaniel Manheru, is permanent secretary for Information George Charamba. But he confirmed this in his column today.
It was Gukurahundi and the Unity Agreement that forced Manheru to reveal himself. “At the risk of revealing who I am,” Manheru wrote, Gukurahundi occurred while he was still at the University of Zimbabwe, which was the only university in the country at the time.
After leaving university, he says, he joined the government as an information liaison officer for the then State President, Canaan Banana.
George Charamba was Banana’s last spokesman and joined the new President’s Office when Banana stepped down to give way to a new executive president, Robert Mugabe.
Banana had been a ceremonial president. The Prime Minister, then Mugabe, had executive powers.
In the column targeted at those trying to bring up Gukurahundi again, Manheru wrote: “I don’t think I run this column to please any quarter, to ingratiate myself with any person or interest, from whichever corner of the country.
“Freeing myself from such arresting impulses is how I have been able to tackle any issue, all issues, all the time seeking to bring in a different, hopefully fresh, perspective to national debate. That cannot happen when I write under strictures, whether by way of fears, doubts or debts.
“Above all, I try to write from a national perspective in the sense of regarding Zimbabwe as one indissoluble polity with a given history, a united nation which is free and sovereign, yes, a polity which must forever remain free, democratic and African.
“I write from a Zanu-PF pedestal. Not simply out of gratuitous loyalty to that party. But because it remains the party of national liberation and national unity, a status it can never lose or compete for, but one it could so easily spoil by what it does or does not do, both in the present and into the future.
“But because presently it is the only party whose policies do coincide with the national interest as I see and interpret it, something I hold sacred………….
“When I talk about Gukurahundi I do so from a lived experience, not from a synthetic report founded on hearsay or some narrative by some Rhodesian-turned Catholic. I don’t do so from calculated political advantage located some time in the future. I have no such ambitions.
“I do so from a deep fear. A deep fear arising from knowing the divisive potential of any politics kneaded around this and any such occurrences.
“Any nation is bound to handle with utmost care any conflict which follows a natural faultline, more so when the faultline has failed to hold together in the past. It is very easy to cause a second failure, to burn a country, generating even greater suffering.
“I do so knowing how reckless politicians, especially those embittered by the loss of what they view as posts natural to them, can very easily rake fresh these ominous faultlines. They hope to gain from the ensuing conflict, indeed hope to use these natural faultlines to mobilise people for what in reality amounts to a narrow personal quest for power and office.
“Often they never make it, usually getting eaten by those conflicts. But they will have burnt a nation. Above all, I do so from deep anger at what I see as an attempt to wreck an accord designed to foster peace in the land, designed by leaders of far greater vision than the little men who prance about getting shorter with each jump at ambition, presently seeking high office they clearly don’t deserve, judging by their little outlooks and warped visions.
“It is not sheer coincidence that the reissuing of the whole debate on Gukurahundi coincides with new appointments done recently. It is also quite telling that the debate happens on the Internet, in papers and by way of opinion pieces, themselves platforms and instruments which have absolutely nothing to do with the interlocutors of Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe when they sought to present the Unity Accord as a proposal and mechanism for national peace, national healing and national reconciliation.”
It was not clear why Manheru finally decided to disclose who he really is.
COMMENTS
Aw gee…..breaking news…..like we didn’t know already? Big deal.
Sorry did not complete reading this article by an idiot who has helped kill, main zimbos & the country. He is neither patriotic nor worth of any respect just like the master that he has served so well destroying our motherland.The same goes for the likes of vana Misheck Sibanda who have faithfully served the despote in killing & destroying Zim
for the time is ticking nd its almost, for all those playing wit our beloved zim ,its only a matter of time,judgement day is cming i hate zim politics,though we ar said to b educated there is no proof to show we are a nation of educated pple,we ar a selfish nation.
For me the Herald is just like ZBC. I start to read on the Zimbabwe situation website a few lines down I stop because it does not makes good reading. The ZBC TV I switch on the channel and switch it off two minutes later BORING…So I have never bothered with Maneru.. I would still like to have seen the Masked Tornado’s face (local masked wrestler) Manheru I DO NOT CARE.
We do not care who is what in ZanuPF . All we want is that they exit the field and give others a go.The country needs this.
For the guilty and their supporters, “justice” is forgetting select atrocities no matter how wicked and disgusting and destructive… but, there is a God who sees all, and knows all, who has grace for the righteous, and an awful judgment for the guilty. He will not be denied, nor his pronouncements appealed. Collect your wealth. Run! Hide! It will do no good, for His hand is justice, and in His eyes is all your wickedness.
Manheru Please spare us the too many words that you write which are full of sound and fury but signifying nothing to the many impoverished and downtrodden Zimbabweans. Manheru you forget that after the war there were many who were imprisoned for the wrongs that they had committed then …. so because we have to remain one unified nation we have to remain silent about Gukurahundi, about any crimes committed by those in power now!! Your reasoning id devoid of any humanity
Excuse me. What is this pompous, heartless and shameless ZANU PF toad trying to say? That ZANU PF, which has terrorised and impoverished this country and ruined lives, is still the best and only mafia outfit to ruin this country? What cold blooded arrogance! What nonsense!
This guy Manheru does not qualify to comment on the subject because he was still a toddler from the university trying to impress his bosses.Mr Dabengwa is the only person who can comment on the subject with no shame because its his people and his region which was subjected to madness beyond logical thinking.
He should concentrate in resolving the current mess at ZTV and ZBC to improve the services to justify our yearly licence of $50 instead of trying to steer controversy with his biased comments.We know what happened,therefore his propaganda won’t work.