Consciousness and Cdes We Lost or Still Have. Without Epiphany.

By Takura Zhangazha*

I will start with cde Freedom Nyamubaya. A war veteran of repute. She would tell us at the now closed iconic Quill Club that we are 'small boys'. And that we did not understand the viccisitudes of the liberation struggle. What she went through and what she endured post-independence.

Then there was Cde Dzino (Dzinashe Machingura) and his commitment to 'dialectical materialism' even as he worked to invent the chemical make-up of the now famous Zambezi larger! He was to remain one of my primary political mentors for another ten years until his sad passimg. And he is yet to be declared a national hero. (Apa vanga vari vakomana ve Mgagao!)

I also met the also still undeclared national hero Edgar Tekere in different and difficult circumstances. When he pitched up at the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) offices with Ian Smith, former Rhodesia prime minister and with the then political outfit called the Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe (CAZ).

We sort of ran away from cde Edgar Tekere that day in the late 1990's when he sort of hobnobbed with Ian Smith. 

But our icon at the same time was Morgan Tsvangirai as he led the late 1990s stay aways via the historically relevant and amazing Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).

And with perculiar political decisiveness formed the National Working Peoples Convention (NWPC) which in turn led to the formation of Zimbabwe's historically largest opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999 at the Chitungwiza Acquatic Complex, Harare, Zimbabwe. 

There are many other cdes that are alive or have passed on. 

Some of those that are still with us have lost their ideological way for materialist reasons. 

Others have gone relatively quiet either out of general ideological despair (this is not ehat they envisioned). 

Or because their life priorities became more individualistic. 

There are however cdes that are still holding people-centered ideological fort. I cannot mention them for the sake of their privacy.  

Some are in academics (teaching), quietly pulling intellectual strings for future generations. 

Others are in labour unions, struggling with the important issues of fair wages and conditions. 

Some remain in civil activist groups relating to human rights, social services, equitable land redistribution, medicine, greener ecological mining and agricultural practices. 

As well as dealing with emerging racisms and issues of global immigration. 

The key point however is that there is need for a re-galvanisation of cdes in their progressive consciousness. 

In Zimbabwe and within regional, African continental and global progressive consciousness across continents.

A lot of cdes know this. They may however miss the point as written by Nelson Mandela that there is no single epiphany, just a thousand slights that firm up a renewed progressive people- centered struggle conviction. This is our new urgent revolutionary task. 

Whereas we can be caught up in the trap of mimicry of the global north's false mainstream intellectualism via social media, we have to contend with our own organic intellectualism challenges. 

In the words of the revolutionary Aime Cessaire and I am paraphrasing here, we must 'return to the source' of our intrinsic Pan African consciousness in order to navigate what is a very difficult future for global humanity. We have seen and lived the thousand slights. We now need to tackle them without anticipating an epiphany! 

It also remains apparent that we are faced with a younger and less ideologically focused generation of Zimbabweans/Africans. 

There is the urgent evident need to bridge the ideological gap beyond age and the craze of assuming education does not have a trickle down effect of knowledge ownership and control via the global north and its techno-feudalists.  

Watch many films or tick tock videos and you will see a global narrative that continues to look down on us from the global south. Or promote a myth that the global north is a heaven worth dying for in the Sahel or the Medittaranean sea. 

We do not need a mimicry of  Eurpeoan Renaissance. I know that respected African elder statesman Thabo Mbeki has his ideological pretext of an African Renaissance. 

That did not work out as planned even after the reform of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) which he helped spearhead. 

To be honest, cdes Pan African and historical consciousness is at a crossroads. 

We have over-mimicked other histories, nations or states. We have over-prostrated ourselves to global capitalism to a point where our own lives are deemed collateral in wars or economic subterfuge. 

We have to return to the source of our own consciousness. Not in order to differentiate ourselves from anyone. 

But in order to understand the historicity as well as the future of where we are in the present. 

So we salute cdes who led us to the contemporary progressive consciousness we have today. 

We also now know that even that consciousness is no longer enough if it is not sustained via newer multi-media narratives that combine the past, present and the future. In our minds and in our progressive consciousness. 

That is where the struggle continues. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity

New National Political Contradictions in Contemporary Zimbabwe (Preparing for the Rupture)

By Takura Zhangazha *

When we were younger and in tertiary education of one form or the other we used to play around with the term, 'The negation of the negation'. 

It was a very Marxist philosophical term that meant that things tend to return to where they were in structural format. Albeit in a somewhat advanced form. 

We used this term in tutorial and public debates in order to appear intellectually sophisticated and impress the students union! 

We however, after a few more years of handwringing examinations learnt that Marxism was more than about the same said 'negation of the negation'.

It was a critical tool of analysis of not only national but global political-economic and historical human interactions and existence. 

From issues to do with class struggle and the ideologies of communism versus capitalism through to the structural intent of the slave trade and colonialism and its contemporary offshoot, global imperialism/ neoliberalism.

We also learnt that human political, economic and social history does not function in stasis. It is never permanent and it does not come to an 'end'. 

Instead it creates even in assumptions of permanence or finality, its own internal contradictions. 

As Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels would come to argue in their most popular work, 'The Manifesto of the Communist Party' commonly referred to as the 'Communist Manifesto' of 1848. 

In the simplest of terms particularly under the ideology/way of life of capitalism, human history is generally always creating its own contradictions that are centered around not only class struggles but an overall struggle against societal inequality and oppression. Even when the rich in our societies appear invincible or all powerful. 

This is the stage at which Zimbabwean society finds itself in today.  

When the ruling Zanu Pf party passed constitutional ammendment number 3 (CAA3) into law it made one awkward political calculation. 

It assumed or still assumes that our country's political economy and in particular our politics are in stasis. 

Or that the legality of CAA3 puts paid to broader demands for democratic electoral politics and economic accountability beyond the publicly visible elitist accumulation. 

It forgets the key Marxist lesson of how the system or political economy they are putting their necks out for creates its own contradictions that will lead to its own downfall. 

For at least three reasons.

With the first being that an assumption of the permanence of political power via avoiding general elections is a misreading of national consciousness.

 Even if it was an attempt at changing the same said national consciousness. There is quite literally no 'stasis' in Zimbabwe's politics. 

Where, as a government you esconce yourself in power by avoiding periodic elections you are sowing the seeds of not only eventual discontent but potentially greater societal instability. 

An instability which, in the short and long term, will eventually lead to a national 'carthartic' moment. 

As was the case in November 2017. One whose evident internal contradictions we are again witnessing today. 

In the second instance, the contradictions of elite economic wealth accumulation become clearer when the masses come to a slow realisation that they cannot all be rich.

 They watch in awe and envy at the politically connected affluent pastors, celebrity business men/women, quiet money movers and miners who flaunt their material wealth in a sea of poverty. 

All to come to a realisation that as Ngugi wa Thiongo would have it, it is the 'Devil on the Cross' that they have been envying or 'worshipping'!

So our ruling elite, with their strong links to capitalism and its newest forms of neoliberalism/ techno-feudalism are sitting on an economic time bomb that will likely explode before 2030. 

Young Zimbabweans may be less intellectual about their national politics and the national political economy but as was the case in the Arab Spring in the Middle East at the turn of the century, a 'rupture' is coming. In Zimbabwe. 

With the key issue being a society in which economic equitability is no longer an even imaginable possibility with the current form of greedy ruling establishment politics. 

One in which the rich get richer and flaunt it via lifestyles and patronage with the blessing of the ruling Zanu Pf party. 

In this, it is clear that the contradictions of the current ruling party's economic policies are creating the grounds for economic equity struggles that they are least likely aware of. From land, jobs, mines and access to water, education, health, fair labour practices and disposable incomes.

They are creating a comprador bourgeoisie (false middle class) off the back of the fast track land reform programme (land barons) and informal (gold) mining without knowing that even land and minerals are finite. 

Or at least not enough for everyone. And that even internally these contradictions will eventually not only show but lead, as they did before, to resistance political economics. 

The third and final cause of contradictions relates to opposition politics in Zimbabwe. 

Our mainstream opposition political parties are in a serious dilemma. 

They are bereft of cogent ideology, run like mini-cults and desperately out of touch with any counter-hegemonic national consciousness. 

They created this situation largely by themselves but also by falling into Zanu Pfs mimicry trap during Mugabe's era and after. 

By so doing, they created the contradiction of a cyclical repetition of a defeatist narrative. One that does not seek political permanence or in flux have any revolutionary outlook in one form or the other. 

Even if they were to wish themselves permanence in political opposition until 2030, they are creating a contradiction within their supporters who will not see their leaders' added value to what were previously popular organic democratic struggle causes.

Instead their supporters will be unable to, in a George Orwell sense, distinguish the pigs from the horses! 

So Zimbabwe is in some sort of political conundrum where things appear already permanent. Or as cdes now tend to say, 'Zvaendwa!'

This is far from the truth. Hapana zvakaendwa! There is nothing permanent or insurmountable about where we are as a country. 

Even as we know we are not voting in 2028 for a government of our choice. Or that the neoliberal political economy under Mnangagwa is functioning with a trickle down patronage system and repression of political dissent. 

We also know that there is no such thing as political 'stasis'. 

And that our current politics are already creating new internal contradictions that defy assumptions of false permanence. 

If I was a pastor, I would argue that cdes must prepare for a 'rupture' before 2030. 

Hopefully it is a peaceful one. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his persoonal capacity

Our More Weakened Zimbabwe Parliament as Broader Political Theatre Until 2030

By Takura Zhangazha*

I will start with what has been politically obvious over the last three months in Zimbabwe. 

Our national Parliament and its current serving members in both the House of Assembly and the Senate, directly or proportionally elected, have made up their minds about their political careers. At least until 2030. 

Mainly because of their staying in office after supporting or oppossing the then Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3 which is now the law (CAA3). 

Now that the whole hullabaloo of who voted in favour, against or abstained for CAA3 is over, we can now easily re-assess Parliaments assumed democratic oversight role with the Executive going forward. 

And because the Executive got what it wanted with CAA3 mainly as motivated by its two thirds majority in the National Assembly and its majority in Senate. Together with the complicity of some opposition members of both houses. 

There is not much else that Parliament or your MP can really do to resist any further major legislative changes intended by the executive.

They all owe the Executive for not only extensions to their terms of office but also the largesse/salaries/perks that comes with the same. 

The ruling Zanu Pf party MPs will make general rumblings about one or two issues over the next four years but will always be brought to heal. 

The still remaining opposition MPs will waffle their way via abstract arguments about defending democratic space, seeking national consensus while at the same time being esconced in similar perks, benefits of their now long duree stay in office. Just like their counterparts. 

So unless your MP is a person who does other things at community level (boreholes, maize distribution, health or other matters) he/she is no longer legislatively useful to the country. 

Except when needed or manipulated by the Executive. 

Moreso when they are now the ones, even within their current term of office, who will elect the next executive President. Including possibly before the current term of office of the incumbent E.D Mnangagwa expires. 

So if any MP is going to be melodramatic in either the House of Assembly or Senate, it will be exactly that, just drama! 

Even if we wanted to look at their role as incrementally useful for what remains of what we would still consider 'our' democracy. 

It is self evident that going forward this will be characterised by performative politics that will major in minors and avoid bigger national questions. Unless they are approved by the Executive and the ruling party leadership. 

It is a precarious and elitist type of politics. One that relies on the gatekeeping both by government and Parliament of this new status quo for both individualised and hegemonic/power benefits. 

At least again until 2030. 

I wish this was confined to Parlaiment and central government alone. 

Unfortunately it is not. It is also the same when and where it comes to our local government political infrastructure. Because their terms too have been extended for the same period. 

And our constitutional commissions that are selected with the role of Parliament and approval of the President will be also be wary of these political developments. 

To the extent of proceeding with caution for their tenures and understanding the dynamics of dealing with the same president, MP for the next four years. 

The media too if not already should increasingly be aware of the new elitist political dynamics of the country. And knowing its current sustainability crisis will pander to where the money will come from .

As for civil society, trade unions and churches, there are clear signs of ongoing co-optation by the state. And a desire by the same said state to control an elitist national political narrative. Embedded in Zanu Pf lingo and more worryingly with threats against human rights and attendant freedoms. As was the csse on 31 July 2026. 

But private capital is perhaps the happiest in all of this. They have  a longer shot at the 'ease of doing business' and trickle down economics. All the while profiteering as much as they can in the name of 'inhibiting' government policies that frustrate the 'free market'. 

When all is said and done, after CAA3 we now have a society that may technically, legally be considered somewhat a Parliamentary democracy. 

 But in reality and politically it is now run by elitist politics that has created new nodes of long-duree patronage networks. All of which involve the executive as the central player, Parliament as the compliant enabler ( with a few rumblings here and there) and private business as the distributer of elitist largesse via politicised networks. 

But such systems eventually fall because of their own internal and external contradictions. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity 

Explaining the Theory of Political 'Morari' in Zimbabwe

By Takura Zhangazha*

In recent debates on Zimbabwean politics with cdes, we ventured into aspects of our national liberation struggle and the key aspects of what was then referred to as 'morari!' 

The English language version of this term would be 'morale'. And in the same language it would basically refer to a specific 'enthusiasm' within a group of people in a particular moment for a particular cause. 

Be it in competitive sport, work or political shared 'causes.' 

It's very much behavioural and in the contemporary has been used in what is now being referred to as 'team-building' exercises. With song, energetic sporting exercises and somewhat ridiculous mind games!

Even in our churches, you will find 'morale'. 

Again through either enthusiastic singing, charismatic priests/pastors/preachers and famed miracle workers. 

But there is an historical distinction between 'morale' and our Shona version of 'morari!'

As alluded to earlier the term 'morari' emerges from our liberation struggle history and political-cultural ethos. 

It mainly referred to the 'mood' in our then liberation training camps in Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Libya and even Algeria. 

Interestingly this 'morari' was a combination of the final liberation struggle objectives,  consciousness, song/ music, literature, lectures and physical training/practise. 

With historical hindsight this is sometimes referred to as 'propaganda'. Or 'ideological indoctrination' of our liberation struggle fighters and the 'povo!'

The reality of it was that it was a pointed political culture as learnt from Maoist doctrine in the context of identifying, retaining and building an optimism of inevitable victory towards independence for the liberation movements fighting settler and global colonialism/imperialism. 

In this case 'morari' in our instance of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle became not only an organic body of ideological socialist thought but also via cultural productions such as song, music, lectures, literature and strict discipline, a lived experience. 

In this 'morari' becomes both an 'idea' and a 'practice'. Making it a political culture that links ideology, physical struggle and collective understanding of a political objective!  

In other words if there was no 'morari' our liberation struggle would not have been won. 

Hence a number of books around songs, literature and African religion that helped Zimbabwe become free have been written! 

It essentially means 'morari' was not just hearing Cde Chinx or Cde Solomon Skhuza belt out liberation songs in their high powered baritone voices on short wave radio stations.

They only represented the more popular expression of a 'morari' that was embedded in our national liberation steuggle political psyche. 

From 'pungwes' to contact battle narratives through to the role of African spirit mediums and the role of progressive remote Christian churches. 

Make no mistake, 'morari' had a sub-culture of extreme political violence that accompanied it.

This was via again 'pungwes' and narratives of sellouts or in the liberation training and refugee camps where the now infamous 'prawn' position was used to discipline errant cadres. 

The key point about 'morari' however is how it applies both theoretically and in practise in our national political present. 

By virtue of its liberation struggle genesis, 'morari' is an ideological practice of the combined/united ruling Zanu Pf  party.

It is what in post independent Zimbabwe drove the same party to not only seek a one party state but also to deal ruthlessly with the opposition parties that emerged over the last 46 years. 

Even while singing, chanting, praying and writing about necessity of the violence that ensued particularly with the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) and in the 2008 tragic political violence spearheaded by sections of our war veterans. 

All in the name of liberation struggle 'values' that had been cultivated by 'morari!'

On the other hand the mainstream political opposition while borrowing not only songs but consciousness from the liberation struggle history, misunderstood the organic nature of the theory and practice of 'morari!'

It mistakenly misunderstood it to be ephemeral/temporary. 

Or that it was only necessary toward an election. 

That is to say, it thought that its members/supporters were only to be seriously motivated for elections and not in-between them. 

So the opposition's approach to 'morari' was inorganic. 

And not only that.  

It was scattered by interventions of ideological disparity, religious assumptions, local/global capital and high levels of messianic tendencies. 

As opposed to the collective responsibility required by the theory of 'morari'. 

I will not expand further on the opposition because I would then have to over-explain where they got it wrong thus far. 

Save to say 'morari' is not ephemeral. It is the character of your organisation. It is something that your member(s) never forget. It is the organisation's history as a political weapon for renewal and recruitment. 

So as we look at Zimbabwe's political future and inevitable political struggles, remember 'morari!', as a necessary political theory.

You can also now refer to me as 'cde Morari' if you have read to the end! 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity

Zimbabwe's Political Dilemma: Shallow Populism, Materialism and Dying Ideological Values

Zimbabwe has always had a very active and in some parts organic political culture. Since our national independence it has been largely characterised by a general sense of optimism about the future as relating to liberation struggle promises/values that also came with what we then referred to as 'morari' (morale). 

Which in turn meant cultural and popular music elements to accompany our then optimism in the early 1980s. 

All in the name of our own version of socialism that we referred to as 'gutsaruzhinji'.  

Even as the historically infamous Gukurahundi period ended as we approached the 1990s, we still had a generalised optimistic approach to our national political future. 

We had the then Mugabe government declaring five year programmes of development which had various themes and names that are now hard to fully recall what they meant. 

Until the after effects of Economic Structural Adjustment (ESAP) hit us hard in the early 1990s. Particularly after the 1992 drought that brought us down to earth via eating the infamous 'yellow maize'. 

And the emerging of more radical trade unions due to job cuts and a rising radical pro-democracy political activism that followed global post cold war trends. 

Particularly in the late 1990s when there was the formation of the labour backed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to challenge the hegemony of the ruling Zanu Pf party. 

This challenge was from an initial organic standpoint. Where the narrative was that the ruling establishment had betrayed the values of the liberation struggle.

In turn, the establishment racheted up its populism and started the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) from 2000 to present as a counter narrative. As well as a claim to a 'return' to historical values and principles. 

And as a justification for retaining power by hook or by crook in order to finish off the purported next phase of the liberation struugle (the 3rd Chimurenga). 

We then moved to the political impasse where the past clashed with the present in 2008 and had to accept a SADC mediated government of national unity until 2013. Thats when the 'past' in the form of Zanu Pf recovered and reconfigured its own internal politics until the coup-not-a-coup in 2017. 

The 'present' in the form of the opposition attempted at populist reinvention in 2018 and 2023 via mixing religion and political activism. 

A strategy that proved to be highly inorganic and ephemeral as well as also highly dependent on a short term electoral cycle for relevance and optimism. 

Now here we are in 2026 and we are at yet another national political crossroads. The 'past' i.e Zanu Pf has decided that the 'present' i.e what remains of opposition political sentiment, and the country in general must be harnessed to an ambiguos and elitist political future. 

It has changed the constitution and electoral cycle to stay in elitist power and protect its own economic interests for the long haul until at least 2030. With a very co-opted and defeated political opposition. 

What however is missed by the powers that be is that they have placed Zimbabwe in an impasse where the past, the present and the future are no longer in sync. 

I know this is a complicated point to make. But I will explain it in relation to our national political culture and consciousness. 

In the first instance Zimbabwe as a country and society is one that is acutely aware of its origins. Even if by default of propaganda, education and lived experiences. 

Most of us can easily put two and two together in order to establish political meaning of the state we live in or want to depart from. 

This means the recent elitist constitutional amendments are viewed as being at best technical and not democratically people-centered.

Almost as though they reflect a Rhodesian UDI moment of 1965 which sowed the seeds of future resistance to such politics. Either by those in the present or those from the future. 

In the second instance, there is now a general public understanding that populism works in tandem with materialism. 

Hence the role of money, patronage and religion as a new cornerstone of assumed political legitimacy. Without direct general elections at all levels of government. And in cahoots with private capital which really has no problem with a Chinese model of elitist governance for profit. 

The third and final instance is our national contemporary consciousness dilemma.

 Particularly for young Zimbabweans. This is where populism, materialism (religion) and ideology are findimg new interactions that are complicatedly defined in the social immediate. 

If one goes anywhere in Zimbabwe to interact with young cdes on our country's political future, they will argue in at least three ways.

First is 'Zvakavarwa' (it is closed).

Second is 'make money!' As instructed by the incumbent president Mnangagwa. 

Third is in order to deal with the aforementioned first two, 'find Jesus'. 

In this connundrum of false and sometimes ephemeral national consciousness we are losing the heart and soul of Zimbabwe. 

Not only as an historically ideologically grounded people centered state but also its future political value in the world as an exemplar of progressive global politics. 

We are in a dilemma. We however, I am certain, will recover! 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity. 

Thomas Mapfumo Hurts. For Many Reasons #Zimbabwe.

Monday, 13 

By Takura Zhangazha*

My late father first introduced my sisters, brother and I to a song called 'Mugarandega' in the late 1980s.

It was on vinyl record player (if thats what they are still called). 

If I remember correctly it had a reggae rhythm to it. 

We did not know that it was a song also related to the liberation struggle for Zimbabwe's independence until we watched the visuals on a black and white television  via the then Zimbabwe Broadcasting Coorporation (ZBC).

Or opened the colour cover of the long playing record (LPR) to see Thomas Mapfumo emaculately dressed in what was a suit and bowler hat, looking at images that related to lost comrades in the liberation struggle war. 

The song was a regular also on what was a popular music programme called at that time ZBC's Radio 2 and the television 'Mvengemvenge.' 

Dressed in the same above described attire Thomas Mapfumo would be seen opining about how he lost relatives in the war. Ones he did not know where they were because they never came back! Even in spirit. 

My father, who played the cassette song during the week would generally tell us to keep quiet as the song played. 

Though on weekends, he would put it on the vinyl player and make us dance to it to the reggae chants of the late, amazing Tobias Ariketa. (He's a  true man Africa!)

All we knew in our late primary school years was that you either had to dance to Leonard Dembo's "Chitekete" or Mapfumo's "Mugarandenga". 

We did both depending on the rice, chicken on offer. Especially in Section 2 of what I still consider my most most amazing childhood memory surburb of Kambuzuma! 

I did not know who Thomas Mapfumo was at that time. And the iconic tag he had. 

I just knew that my father liked his (Mapfumo) music and made us dance to it especially after imbibing a glass of my namesake opaque beer ''Takura 5" from Chibuku breweries which is still run/produced by, I think, Delta Cooperation. 

My father passed away in the early 1990s and his record player also eventually died with him. 

We sort of forgot his passion for Thomas Mapfumo and Chimurenga music. At least for me until I got to the University of Zimbabwe in the late 1990s. 

There I met an amazing, courageous student activist called Maxwell Saungweme who hauled me back to grassroots realism. Together with my former high-school mates who I cannot mention without their permission because of where they work now. 

They re-introduced me to Thomas Mapfumo via his still amazing album Chimurenga Explosion! 

By the time we left university I was a clear Mapfumo afficionado (fan). 

Even my elder brothers would agree to take me to his (Mapfumo's) shows on their happier weekends as they got married and so on. 

Ridiculous as it may seem is the fact that I first part personally encountered mdara Thomas via his then replication manager Cuthbert Chiromo, who is an elder brother to me and was in the same high school class as my elder brother in 1994. 

By the year 2000, at the height of opposition politics and in 2002 at that legendary Boka auction floor show we had built enough of a rapour to link up with 'blah Cathaz' as we called him at that time. Mukanya akavarisa! You can ask the equally amazing former journalist Luke Tamborinyoka! 

After that I went off to Edinburgh university in Scotland and lo and behold Bla Cathaz had organised a Mapfumo show in the European summer of the next year (2003).

Bla Cathaz was not there but I managed to sneek in a few words to mdara Tomimbi of appreciation because tanga 'tirinyika dziri kure'. 

This was circa 2003.

Fast forward to 2010 and when bla Cathaz is still mdara's manager, he asks, while I am holed up in France, if I can do the cover write up for Mukanya's next album. I was shocked but happy to proceed as instructed. 

While waiting for the infamous European volcanic cloud cover to clear up that year I had to write the backdrop for the album 'Exile'. I was stuck in Paris so I got down to it. And Mukanya and bla Cathaz approved! 

By the time the album was published I was a mini-celebrity! 

After that mdara Tomimbi came back for two amazing shows in Zimbabwe from exile. 

But even before these there were other sad developments that happened. We lost cdes in the Chimurenga movement. And later after that we also lost bla Lancelot. 

What is however significant for this article that I may get crucified for, is Thomas Mapfumo's newfound decision, as reported by mainstream and social media, to come back and perform at home at the behest of Wicknell Chivayo in 2026. 

From a champion of the poor to a champion of the rich! 

As afficionado fans we are divided on the meaning of this decision. 

It is however his decision. And his alone as he owns his own music. (I have no idea about his copyright issues) 

He does not however own his legacy. It belongs not only to his fans but to posterity and future generations. Rich, poor or inbetween.

If he eventually, as he has publicly said he will do, comes and performs for rich but limitedly talented younger cdes such as Jah Prayzah or Wicknell, he will have let his own legacy down. For cash money.

But as he himself sang, 'hapana munhu anomanikidzwa kuita zvaasingade'. There is no one who should be forced to do what they do not want to do.

Asi huya uzowona zvinoita ngoma... inodaidza vakaenda kare... 

Ini ndapedza... handina mazwi akawanda

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity

Zimbabwe's New Phase of Crass Political Elitism Until 2030 and Beyond.

By Takura Zhangazha*

On 7 July 2026, Zimbabwe's constitution has now officially been amended after president Mnangagwa signed the amendments into law. It was as generally expected. 

Especially after the ruling Zanu Pf and its functionaries publicly insisted on it. 

And their minister of Justice, Ziyambi Ziyambi, aggressively and speedily pushed it through the House of Assembly and the Senate and back in Parliament. 

The elitist argument was that not only did Parliament have a right to do so but that it had undertaken a legal public consultation process that gave these changes 'legitimacy'. 

A legitimacy in which it was argued there is no need for a national referendum (thanks to outsourced political consultants closely linked to national intelligence), the weak/co-opted state of the opposition political parties and a diminishing labour, social/civil society movement(s). 

Not forgetting internal Zanu Pf factionalism in which 'original' war veterans of the liberation struggle have been fighting a losing factional war with emergent rich individuals who are representing the 'nationalists' in historical party ethos. Or as they are also referred to as 'zvigananda'. 

Now that these amendments have been passed into law there will be many public and constitutional court legal arguments as to their veracity or legitimacy. 

But they are now a technical political reality until such a time they are reversed in one way or the other. A development which is least likely to happen in the political short term.  

I however am not a legal mind let alone a lawyer. 

I can only read between the political and cultural end-effects of these constitutional changes. 

The first and most obvious one being that the somewhat ritualistic custom of voting for our leaders is gone for at least the next four (4) years until 2030. Be it for the president, parliament or local councils. 

The president, MP, councillor that you have, no matter their performance legitimacy, they (he/she/woman/youth) is the one you are stuck with for the next four years. 

Your political or other opinion does not matter as a Zimbabwean. Unless they cross paths with the party that got them elected in 2023 which is the only organisation that has recourse to recalling them from office and causing by-elections if they were directly elected. 

Or unless they resign and the same said political parties in parliament select from their proportional representation or other lists somewhere to replace them. 

The second end-effect of these changes as related to the first means that Zimbabwe has entered a new political cultural phase of 'crass, corrupt elitism'. 

One in which we have been falsely led into creating a political establishment where politics dines with private capital for mutual gain at the expense of the majority poor! 

And I will not mince my words on this particular point. The now legally expected long duree rule of our current president, MPs and councillors can only potentially breed a mafia-like culture in our national political economy. 

All in the name of the 'ease of doing business' 'vene-vayo' and an assumption that some sort of tried but historically failed 'trickle down economics' based on political patronage will keep the masses at bay. 

The third end-effect of these changes is the potential decimation of organic, ideologically progressive political opposition parties in Zimbabwe. 

Or to put it simply, the creation of a de-facto one party state with a sprinkling of wannabe or sponsored token opposition party members. Ones who will be esconced in parliament and local government pretending to be defending 'democratic space'. 

While at the same time being direct beneficiaries of the undemocratic process that has brought us to where we are. 

And being unable to effectively or meaningfully challenge the ruling Zanu Pf party status quo and its factionalism.

In conclusion, we now have a legal reality but also political/cultural attempt at a fundamental elitist and undemocratic change to what was already a problematic political culture in Zimbabwe. 

Whereas a lot of Zimbabweans were generally used to the habit of elections, popular political contestations, they are now being told that they no longer have that direct right. Only their current MPs do until after 2030 or seven (7) years lapse. 

This removes the state from the people and hands it in the long term to an elitist political establishment. One in which Zanu Pf factionalism shall predictably flare up and opposition complicity remain permanent. And the cycle will likely repeat itself as it did in 2017 when Mugabe was ousted. Even without the military. 

For some of us, as we remember the late national hero Maurice Nyagumbo and how he titled his memoirs, "Some of Us Must Remain to Be With the People". 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity