Mhiripiri was not a hero — not even to his family

Source: Mhiripiri was not a hero — not even to his family – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 31, 2017

IT’S most difficult — no, it’s impossible — to say anything complimentary or positive about Nathaniel Mhiripiri even though he cannot defend himself from his grave.

echoes: CONWAY TUTANI

Mhiripiri, the liberation war veteran who was found dead at his Makoni farm on March 14, 2017, with a bullet lodged in his head, seemed to revel in outrageous and sickening wickedness when he still breathed. He took it upon himself to crush opposition support in Makoni district. He became the Makoni political warlord. We should not mince our words about his trail of vile and evil deeds.

What drove him over the edge? Was it a guilty conscience — that deep, nagging feeling of guilt for some gross misdeed that took the lives of many others — after he was alleged to have sold out during the liberation war by collaborating with the Rhodesian enemy forces and so found it expedient to unleash violence on everything remotely resembling opposition to Zanu PF to prove that he was loyal and dedicated to the cause and clear his name of such treacherous conduct? It’s a common trick for traitors to use. As we keep on hearing from former freedom fighters themselves some 37 years later, there was no shortage of sellouts among their ranks.

I shall quote extensively and widely so that no one can accuse me of being out to demonise Mhiripiri. The catalogue of his infamy is long and thick, making it practically impossible to exaggerate about him.

One, NewsDay reported this week: “Mhiripiri was also infamous for disrupting meetings where he felt his authority or that of Zanu PF was not being respected, including going to the extent of burning copies of private newspapers critical of the government. He became an untouchable with the reported protection of powerful politicians and declared Makoni a no-go area for opposition parties.” What does this say about his decency or lack thereof?

Two, Happymore Mavhezha recounted when — three weeks before the bloody and farcical presidential run-off election in June 2008 — he was attending a church service when Mhiripiri tried to kidnap him.

“It was drama. The church service was disrupted and had it not been for the fact that the whole church stood by me, he (Mhiripiri) could have achieved what he wanted.”

Thus, sacrilege — treating a holy place in a disrespectful way — was not beyond Mhiripiri as he invaded churches to ferret out worshipping opposition supporters. What are people without self-control, without a conception of morals, without a sense of right and wrong? A person is simply a person regardless of their political affiliation.

Three, Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister Mandi Chimene said of Mhiripiri: “He was our harassing machine, discipline and indiscipline was more like the same to him, he was always the judge in everything. Let’s bury certain things, we are a very big district, we should not allow influence from outside. People said a lot of things about Mhiripiri, but I am happy that his district stood by him and he was given the hero status (despite) all the negative influences.”

Whether intentionally ambivalent or accidental, this is more condemning than complimentary. The tone of it all shows more embarrassment than pride in what Mhiripiri did. And the very fact that to mention Mhiripiri’s name exacts or calls for an explanation, a long, belaboured and circuitous one — going round and round in circles — is condemnatory in itself. Mhiripiri’s excesses disgusted and repelled even some of his Zanu PF comrades, who, by the way, are not known to be soft and kind themselves. They felt uncomfortable and nervous in his presence. You cannot prettify horrific deeds. You can apply lipstick to a pig, but it still remains a pig — it won’t look any prettier. Just like declaring a tainted person a hero for the political expediency of closing ranks in Zanu PF will never ever make Mhiripiri a hero of whatever status in the eyes of the people.

Four, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa, maybe out of gratitude to Mhiripiri for clearing out the opposition to give him virtually a walkover victory in Makoni Central in 2008, was also ambivalent about Mhiripiri, saying: “He was the protector of vendors, he was the vendors’ patron in Rusape. Yes, we can talk of respecting the law, but this was nothing to him. He always took matters into his own hands — he was lawlessness personified.”

Can there be a worse indictment than this? Doesn’t this show that Mhiripiri was, for all intents and purposes, villainous, not heroic? Shouldn’t that in itself have disqualified him from being accorded provincial hero status? Mhiripiri rightly belongs in the hall of infamy than to be counted among illustrious heroes of the liberation struggle who would have distanced themselves from him. But Chinamasa and, of course, Chimene have been sucked by or into the system and would not be seen to be stopping the likes of Mhiripiri in their tracks, but bend over backwards to accommodate them and make every excuse for them. After all, 2018 beckons.

Those new political parties and social movements emerging ahead of the 2018 general election accusing the current opposition of having totally failed to remove the regime, have they factored in the Mhiripiri phenomenon of impunity and lawlessness? If Mhiripiri were still alive today, would he have spared them from his lawlessness which even Zanu PF heavyweights, while reaping from it, had been resigned to, in the sense of giving up on him? Are they implying they would have talked to him nicely or failing which they would have knocked sense into his head?

And, five, Mhiripiri died poor. Why? Because he was the manic-obsessive type. In his obsessed — not heroic — way, he became the one centre of power in Makoni district, spearheading the destruction of farms and reliable food sources. He was the Zanu PF Manicaland provincial secretary for production and labour, but the little television footage shown of his farm did not show much production going on.

And Chinamasa confirmed this without using the scientific term: “He (Mhiripiri) destroyed his wealth working for Zanu PF. He had many vehicles, but he had nothing when he died — he died with only a motorbike. I still remember his family came to me complaining that he had harvested all the maize and given it to Zanu PF supporters.”

Surely that should have rung alarm bells about Mhiripiri’s mental status. According to cognitive scientist and psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman, people who are “obsessively passionate” about their jobs or, as in this case, a warped sense of their political mission, are “inflexibly, excessively, and compulsively committed, finding it difficult to disengage”.

Well, you can tick all those boxes for Mhiripiri. He could not envision or define himself outside the criteria or parameters of Zanu PF and Chinamasa said as much.

“When one’s life isn’t in balance, passion can become obsessive and counterproductive,” writes Kaufman.

Well, that about summarises Mhiripiri, who left Zimbabwe and his own family worse off.

We can’t be that short of great people to lionise and eulogise.

Conway Nkumbuzo Tutani is a Harare-based columnist. Email: nkumbuzo@gmail.com