South Africa Forgetting Biko: Retaining An Inferiority Complex

By Takura Zhangazha*

Between the years 1983-1996 I grew up in what is now a very expanded surburb of Waterfalls in Harare.

In an area that still remains referred to as Cheviot as one approaches the former Irvines chicken farm which was also relatively close to the still famous Frank Johnson primary school where there used to be a refugee camp.

I do not remember the official name of this refugee camp. 

Save for the fact it housed those cdes that we later learnt with hindsight, were from South Africa, Sudan, Namibia, Ethiopia and also Mozambique. Remember this was in the late 1980s. 

My sisters, brothers and I were in primary school in the same late 1980s. 

And there was for some reason adults queing with us for Lobels bread at the height of Zimbabwe's economic structural adjustment programme (ESAP) that closed many local manufacturing companies.

This, in our angry young minds, when we thought they should be at work while we were on school holidays and hunting bread to eat with green vegetables! 

Except that when we shoved and pushed each other in the queues, we would not understand the multitude of languages being used either to swear or plead for the limited loaves of uncut bread delivered on the day. 

(If you have read thus far, please tell your children they are in bread heaven!)

It would be Zulu, Swahili, Chichewa, Tsonga, Venda, Ndebele and Nyanja mainly because the cdes of the ANC and PAC were mixed like that at that time. But we didnt know the languages. I am only writing with disputable hindsight and memory. 

This was by the one supply Lobels Bread lorry for the shops at Cheviot, Malvern or Zindoga (believe it or not, yes that sprawling commercial area next to Magaya's church used to be relatively decent.)

When our parents would come back from work we would be asked if we managed to get bread? 

Sometimes we would triumphantly say yes! Most times we would have to say no, and be asked to join the bread queue again tomorrow. 

But when we watched the ZBC '8 oclock PM news' which was compulsory before being ordered off to bed, we would see not only images of the Cheviot, Waterfalls shops and the fenced refugee camp next to them with a story about the fending of an apartheid regime 'bombing attempt' against the ANC or the PAC. 

We did not understand much of it in the immediate until our parents and also the Mvengemvenge music programme with songs about freeing some country (in our young minds) of a country called Azania. Especially, if I recall correctly, a song by the late great Robson Banda and the New Black Eagles titled 'Soweto' was played.

A song that asked God and African ancestors to liberate as it implies the people of Soweto and also 'Azania'.

We had an idea that while we were going to primary school, there were bigger issues about Soweto and Azania that we always had to remember. 

This music TV show always preceded the same 8 O'clock news as read by Joseph Madimba, Noreen Welch, Tsitsi Vera, Jestina Mukoko who would outline the struggle of the black people of Africa to free Azania (now South Africa) and also South West Africa (now Namibia). 

To this day I still think the ANC of South Africa should have named the country they took over in 1994 as Azania! But thats a debate for when they at some point manage to regain a majority government and also find Hani ways of dealing with global financialised capital in their 'revolutionary' midst.

The key point however cdes is that Zimbabweans and all other Africans have always been at the heart of South Africa's liberation struggle, independence and envisaged prosperity. 

What has been happening in recent years around xenophobia does not come alone. And I agree with former President Mbeki who has recently been correctly arguing that any anti-Pan-Africanism that we are witnessing today has a nefarious or imperialist foreign hand to it. 

Not because Zimbabwe has done better economically or politically. In fact Zimbabwe's  "better" development over and above Zambia or Malawi is a legacy of late colonialism as borrowed from Mahmoud Mamdani

Moreso via the historical bias of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland as determined by British colonial foreign policy via proximity to the then apartheid South Africa (Azania). And fortified by Ian Smith's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) which gave us limited options but to embark on a painful struggle for liberation. 

So all this xenophobia that we see from South Africans against our people from Angola, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and others being hounded out of the still settler colony that is South Africa is completely ahistorical. 

It reflects a fundamental problem with our fellow South African Africans' "inferiority complexes"

For example, as shown on social media how does on accept a white European cde as 'one of us' yet you are chasing a longstanding Somalian hardworking cde from a spazza shop? 

They need to go back and re-read, re-think their own national liberation heroes in no order of preference (whom they dont know are also ours) such as Biko, Sobukwe, Shaka, Mandela, Tambo, Winnie Mandela, Joe Slovo, Ruth First, Govan Mbeki, Albert Luthuli, Clement Kadalie (yes he was Malawian), Mac Maharaj, Chris Hani among many others! 

Then they need to crossover and overcome their pride to the mainstream leaders that insisted that all of Africa should help liberate them. And I will list a few in no particular order. Nkrumah, Nyerere, Machel, Ben-Bella, Gaddafi, Nasser, Kaunda, Neto, Nujoma, Cabral, Mugabe, Nkomo and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity.

Jesus Does Not Happen That Way. Cdes Engel ,Makandiwa, Magaya and Others.

I am a Roman Catholic by way of Christian belief and more significantly by way of upbringing.

I have been taught to not fight wars that are not mine. Mainly because I am not clergy. Though I am left with one sacrament. That of beimg blessed upon death (where I fall ill in time for a priest to bless me)

But occassionally I pop up as a layman in the Christian faith. Something that I will never wish away for personal reasons. 

Except to mainly argue about interpretations of the Bible. Not as sent by some Biblical prophet. But as academically or philosphically given.

From creche to University.

And no, I have not found Jesus in a spectacular format. 

I was taught by my mother to accept his (Jesus) reality. In faith. An issue I have never disputed. Based on the very fact that I cannot argue with my mother! Let alone my sisters!

The key issue however has always been what I refer to as 'societal objectivity'. One in which faith avoids itself as a basis for the pursuit of political power (electoral or otherwise) as it's primary motivation. 

I use the term 'avoid' mainly because we tend to mix things up via our contemporary Christian and other prophets as cited in this brief write up. 

I will argue this in three parts. 

The first is that religion is integral to our national liberatory politics. Dating back to our national liberation struggle and the role of 'masvikiro' 'midzimu' ne 'madzimambo'! 

It is in our national historical narrative. Even as we send, in the contemporary, our children to schools where they can hardly speak local languages. All because we have inferiority complexes. A debate for another late night article. 

The catch though is that religion is not self definitive. Even as we wish it to be.  

You are who you are! Beyond your assumed faith and beyond your parents,uncles or aunts! Let alone your brothers, sisters or cousins. Even if you feel judged by 'others'. Religion remains a choice and an option.

The second point relates to 'rising above the norm'. To see beyond the horizon and what appears immediate. What people say and even do is not what matters most. It is always about a measured approach to what can be the future.

What you want to to see is what you will most likely achieve. Even if in part so long you avoid feeling judged!

Thirdly, and this is about economic class and aspirations. As a cde you have to be more cautious about your material desires and why you have them in the first place. For this one I will not expand further. If you have come this far in this conversation, hauna pressure!

Let me come to the contemporary 'prophets' ana Engel, Makandiwa, Magaya and others. It is relatuvuly clear that in your celrgical functions you have chosen to mix religion with politics. Or faith with what would be considered 'hedonism'. 

The point however is to be contextual to our national Zimbabwean 'historicity'. Faith remains multiple in its pre-colonial, colonial, anti-colonial and post colonial genesis. 

What the cdes are doing is ahistorical to their own proclaimed faith(s). Asi vari vafudzi vehwayana.The objectivity of history, religion  and struggle is beyond alĺ night prayers. Zvakasiyana nema Pungwe. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity

The FIFA 2026 World Cup and its Complicity in a Changing Global World Order

By Takura Zhangazha*

Football (soccer if you are from the USA) at the global stage, particularly via the competitive World Cup run by Fifa, was always sort of meant to unite people of all countries. In adulation at global sporting prowess as opposed to military war. 

Almost like the more historical global Olympics that have had their own iconic moments. 

This year's Fifa 2026 world cup tournament does not give that impression or aura of the 'beautiful game'. It comes across as an awkward version of Cold War football. For many reasons. 

I will focus on three before expanding my argument. 

The first is that this 2026 tournament is occuring in a world where there is no longer a shared understanding of global multi-lateralism via the United Nations Charter. 

Mainly because of Donald Trump even as a host president and his racist domestic and international relations politics.

 As well as his direct desires at global unilateralism under the mantra of 'Making America Great Again' (MAGA). 

I mention this first reason because it reflects a renewed trend at mixing global politics with global sporting competitions. 

Hence we see the bans on some countries either from entry into host ones or long standing moratoriums on others such as Russia due to international relations differences couched in either drug or substance abuse claims. 

Yet we can read between the lines when a Somali referee is banned from entering the USA or when Canada treats a Ghanaian player with moral high handedness before he even goes to trial (football fans here will remember the case of Edward Mendy who was acquitted of the charges brought against him).

Or when the Iranian national football team has to fly between Mexico and the USA for games it should be playing in the latter. With the obvious reason being that the USA government wants to prove a point about its illegal war (in tandem with Israel) on Iran. 

Something that any genuine football fan can immediately see as completely unfair and not being done in the name of the once 'beautiful game'. 

The second reason is again based on the global west's (Europe in particular) increasingly racist approach to global sporting competitions and an unwritten desire to control the 'victory' narrative. Via its regulatory sports bodies, media and pundits. 

Almost as a retention of former colonial glories about always being better at sports than the rest of the world (read as natives).  

Hence, again, the retention of football players of African or even global south parentage/origin for their talent while actively kicking out immigrants of colour from their countries.

 Including burning down their homes as was recently the case in Northern Ireland of Great Britain. Or the massive anti-immigration marches in England of the same country. 

What this points to and regretably so is a subtle re-emergence of racism in sport. One that is sanitised in two ways. 

Namely, that you can become a good sportsperson of foreign origin (to Europe/North America) if you are quite literally exceptionally talented to be accepted. Or that despite your talent and where your actual country of origin stands on internationa relations you will never get the opportunity to demonstrate same said sporting talent. Unless you acquire 'their' citizenship. 

Or be frustrated as it was with the case of Iran, Russia, Venezuela and a number of African countries (DRC, Senegal, Ghana, South Africa) that have faced serious challenges just to get to not only being at the Fifa 2026 world cup tournament. But a myriad of others beyond football before. 

The third reason, which is perhaps the most obvious, is that of the 'corporatisation' of not only the 'beautiful game' but also global sport. 

Where and when sport is treated as a business, it ceases to unite peoples in genuine sporting competition. As has been seen with global football via the Saudis, Spanish, Germans and the British. 

Places where money matters and players are traded as though they are cattle. With their own money motivated complicity of course!

Even if this 'corporatisation' satisfies our need for immediate entertainment or quasi religious football templates, it affects the long term future of the sport as being one based on genuine global competition. 

I will also use an anectode here. In a pub conversation, while watching for example African players in the English Premier Leagues demonstrate their prowess at that level, we always ask the question, why dont they play as well for their countries. 

Either at the African Cup of Nations or the World Cup? The inevitable answer is always its about the money or neocolonial narratives about how sports administration is better in the global north. 

My impression however is that its all about inferiority complexes stemming from 'corporatisation' culture of a once unifying global sport. 

Finally, the Fifa World Cup 2026 has shown us signs that football is now a political ball game. Almost as though it never helped the world to see a better equitable future for all. Even with its example of former South African president Nelson Mandela attending the final bid announcement for hosting the 2010 version. 

Or the story of Pele, Roger Milla, Iniesta as examples of how being underdogs can unite the world in optimism against all odds. 

This Fifa World Cup 2026 has no optimism, is too politicised and does not give any signs, as in the past, of a better global equality future! 

But its the 'beautiful game'. We will watch, laugh, support, even bet!  But we will still read between the lines! 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity

Zanu Pf's Elitist, Populist Factionalism as a National Burden for Zimbabwe #CAB3

By Takura Zhangazha*

The second reading of Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3 happened on Wednesday 03 June 2026 in the Parliament of Zimbabwe. I watched it fairly closely on an online livefeed. 

It was a reading led by the current minister of justice Ziyambi Ziyambi. 

He read the justifications of the bill with relative gusto and against a backdrop of fairly loud support from ruling Zanu Pf members of the House of Assembly. 

He also used odd metaphors of airport runways and aeroplanes. This was about how you can change lengths of airport runways (duration of terms of office of the president) but cant change the pilot of the aeroplane that arrives at the runway (by inference incumbent ED Mnangagwa).

Or something like that. It was hard to follow how that metaphor was helping clarify, at least to a watching Zimbawean public, what it was intended to mean. 

To be honest it came across as pretensive and performative. Particularly where and when he then mentions issues around electoral toxicity and our (still current) electoral cycle of a five year harmonised term for the executive, legislature amd local government.  

Even moreso when he tried to justify the changes to the judicial appointment system. Or that of the emergence of a triple election management system that now brings back the Registrar General, a new Zimbabwe Election Delimitation Commission (ZETDC) and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). 

While extensively citing long standing opposition figures like Tendai Biti and Charlton Hwende among others as having propositioned the proposals. 

As he covered many other aspects of CAB3 such as the issue of the changing of the phrase around our national defence forces to 'uphold' versus 'protect' the constitution, he was slightly more cautious in his wording. 

For completely understandable reasons. Though he did not directly mention it, he probably had the 2017 events at the back of his or his speechwriters mind. 

A mind backdrop in which while not mentioning the liberation war struggle for Zimbabwe directly he was tryimg to argue that politics should lead the gun without ambiguity. 

However it still gave the impression of being elitist, pretensive and sadly choreographed.

 There was no sense of any organic liberatory politics to this second reading of CAB3 or its justification by Ziyambi Ziyambi. 

Even when he tried to justify a further politicisation of traditional chiefs roles. We know that the majority of them were colonially appointed after the first Chimurenga. And that their some of their  lineages have the insignia Rhodesia written all over them anyway.

By the time MP Zvobgo gave a joint parliamentary committee report on the second reading with contestable outreach figures about what the public said about CAB3 it was not pursuasive in the least. 

It apeared more of a rehearsed and agreed to report with the minister save for its averment that the gender commission should remain. 

The key point however is to state the obvious to all of us as Zimbabweans. We cannot continue to shoulder the burden of the ruling Zanu Pfs elitist factionalism. From the nationalists through to the war veterans, refugees, detainees, mujibhas, chimbwidos and now these so called 'zvigananda'. 

Including too a very highly complicit parliamentary and local government political opposition presence and support for Zanu Pf's elitist factionalism for material gain. 

Hence they are still in Parliament pretending to argue or in local government and privatising water and other social amenities.

So we have a national burden cdes. It may not be as argued in an anti-colonial historical book, the 'Black Man's Burden' by Basil Davidson. 

But it is now a national burden all the same. And we can see it in the abuse of the masses via materialism, shallow populism and religion. 

It is also one in which Zanu Pf and its elitist factionalism seeks to transpose itself on our national political culture in perpetuity. While creating factional oligarchies in our national political economy beyond 2030

And repeat their 2017 suçcession battles even in 2026 or by the time of their elective congress in 2027. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity