Shona administrators must prove they are capable

By Kudakwashe Marazanye

I WAS moved by Zimbabwe Saints supporters who were singing with nostalgia about their team's good old days, "…mutserendende, mutserendende, mutserendende Dr Love Matavire… ndakambonetsa… kumira neni aive makomborero mumvuri womuvonde…"

Just like Matavire Chikwata chakambonesta and their supporters once walked tall. I could not help reminiscing over the good days at Saints.

Which Saints fan does not have fond memories for the Super Saints of Ephraim Chawanda, Henry Mckop, Joseph Machingura etc? I still remember how the Saints family was crestfallen when we lost a final to a Shakeman Tauro-inspired Caps United in 1979. Aah! Vakomana, choenda here Chikwata? With such a distinguished footballing history, what has gone wrong at the once-famed Chikwata?

There is a discernable trend of Shona failure in this and many other cases of administrative bungling in this country. Unfortunately this trend only serves to reinforce long held stereotypes of Shona dishonesty and bad management. Traditionally, whites have had contempt for the cowardly and ignoble Mashona and grudging respect for the proud and brave Ndebele.

The Ndebele had and still harbour contempt for the fickle ama*****. The Ndebele still have an unkind refrain about the Shona - thathekile mota yama*****. When in a charitable mood, the Ndebele argue that the problem with the Shonas is that they are full of I know, omaningindaba, vanamandihindini. So, traditionally, the Shona have always been at the bottom of the ethnic pecking order.

That is why most whites would have preferred a Ndebele government to a Shona one in 1980. In their view, Ndebele hands in government were more responsible than Shona ones. After all they had wrested the country from the Ndebele on their arrival. Even during the liberation war, it was generally held that Zipra cadre were a more professional force than Zanla's army of contemptible garden boys turned terrorists. Peter Godwin says as much in his book Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa. With the current problems our country is facing, blamed mainly on mismanagement, white liberals are quick to distance themselves from President Robert Mugabe declaring that "… I was an Inkomo man…"

Against such a background, it is in the interest of the Shona to prove history and their detractors wrong. But instead, the Shona seem to be hell bent on confirming such prejudices about their ethnic group. Dynamos and Saints are both Shona clubs and they are both in an administrative mess. It is a scandalous shame that the Shona in Bulawayo now have to turn to Highlanders for a soccer team to root for after the demise of Saints. Even the Shona players in Bulawayo have to go to Highlanders to launch a career in football when in the past they naturally went to Saints.

Generations of Ndebele and Shona youngsters in Bulawayo had a healthy, non-antagonistic rivalry on the soccer pitch to establish which group of youths was better. This good-natured rivalry extended to the members of the two ethnic groups at work places and in the various drinking places.

The kind of friendly rivalry you see in Amakhosi's Foromani and Sakhamuzi.

But with the demise of Saints, Shonas in Bulawayo now shamelessly consider themselves as members of the Highlanders family, both as players and supporters. This is despite the humiliating taunts they are subjected to like "okungama buya-buya lokhu; …okungama***** lokhu…" as correctly depicted by Amakhosi at the Highlanders Annual Prize Giving Day last year. At national level, soccer administration is largely in the hands of Shonas, with Leo Mugabe, a Shona at the helm. At this level the sport is also generally in the doldrums due to administrative incompetence.

Apparently Ndebele administrative superiority over the Shonas is not confined to football. The city of Bulawayo is the country's shining beacon in local government administrative excellence. Whilst corruption and mismanagement have cost Harare (and some Shona cities too) its glamour status, Bulawayo has been relatively well run. And Bulawayo, it must be remembered, is the heart and soul of Matabeleland.

In business, Ndebele businessmen are generally known for their financial prudence and modesty. They are also known for their social responsibility to their Ndebele community - even though the money might have been made in the much-loathed Mashonaland. Over the years we have had Ndebele businessmen pouring money into Highlanders for its Champions League campaign and to sustain their foreign coach, Eddie May. We have had Delmar Lupepe coming up with his Amazulu, Titus Ncube and Chemist Siziba amongst others, sponsoring Highlanders. Of course the Bulawayo-based Ndebele businessmen would do well to discard their Bantustan mentality where they want the Bulawayo business arena to be rid of foreigners (read Shonas).

The corollary to that warped thinking is that the Ndebele sons making money in Harare and other areas outside Matabeleland should be chucked out of these areas. So Delma Lupepe, Trevor Ncube, Tammy Msimanga and others who have thriving businesses in Mashonaland would have to close shop. Ultra-Ndebele nationalism may be good for Highlanders but it is certainly bad for ethnic relations. In contrast to the financial discipline, social responsibility and modesty displayed by Ndebele businessmen, Shona businessmen are given to obscene ostentation. They parade their opulent villas and cars, firing guns at funerals in the fashion of gangsters, which the less charitable say is exactly what they are.


Parastatals headed by Ndebele boys also seem to fare better compared to those run by their Shona counterparts.


The Zimbabwe Investment Centre under Nicholas Ncube and the then Cotton Marketing Board under Sylvester Nguni were some of the better run quasi-government organisations.

From the foregoing, it is clear that the Shona may well have earned a reputation as incompetent, out and out crooks driven by the love for money, much like the Nigerians. This does not do any good to their tribe's standing in society, and they should work hard to correct such perceptions and stereotypes.

Because of these negative stereotypes of Shonas, there has been muted talk in some circles about whether things wouldn't have been better in Zimbabwe under the late Joshua Nkomo and his PF-Zapu.

Bafowethu,

Well said baba leli ngeliluhlaza tshoko lase masontweni lapha sibona some churches alamabranches in Matebeleland being pastored by abantu abesintwini thriving and the people seing progress physical and spiritualy, while their counterparts in Mashonaland are involved in squables and breakups, gossiping and show off,mismanaging church funds and showing no signs of accountability at all.
In Bulawayo you see such organisations or churches distributing inhlanyelo,impuphu and so on.

Abantu besintwini bondlekile Bandla.

Bafowethu.

Kuyabongeka lokhu baba Potshoza. Asazi kumbe sonke sikuzwile. Lokhu akudingi kwengezelelwa.

Li Zwangendaba.