The Sunday Mail
First, a moment of silence for El Comandante …May he rest in peace.
Now, a moment of silence for the Mafioso Resolution of 2016 and for the strange agenda behind it.
Let us have a little contextualisation. There is a fable titled “The Monkey and the Cat” generally attributed to Jean de La Fontaine back in the 17th century.
Others contend that La Fontaine adapted the fable from one told much, much earlier by Aesop, the black slave who achieved fame in Greece as a storyteller.
The origins debate aside, the fable is responsible for giving the English language one of its more enduring idioms. According to the La Fontaine version, a monkey called Bertrand convinces a cat called Raton to pull some nuts that are being roasted from the fire.
The monkey persuades the cat with an offer of sharing the nuts if the latter can extricate them from the embers.
As the cat takes the nuts out, burning his paws in the process, the monkey quickly gobbles them up and in the end naïve Raton gets nothing for his pains. It is from that fable that we get the idiom “to be used as a cat’s paw”.
La Fontaine goes further to apply this fable to the age-old and often very dirty world of statecraft, saying: “No more are the princes, by flattery paid/ For furnishing help in a different trade, And burning their fingers to bring/ More power to some mightier king.”
The events of the past week more than amply demonstrate that Cde Dickson Mafios, Zanu-PF’s chairman for Mashonaland Central Province, is nothing more than a cat’s paw.
We will let readers debate for themselves who the monkey convincing this poor Raton to put his paw into the fire is.
Cde Mafios announced that Mashonaland Central had resolved, among other things, to strip President Mugabe of the right to appoint his two deputies in Zanu-PF.
He presented this as an official provincial position to be tabled for possible approval at the ruling party’s Annual National People’s Conference in Masvingo in December.
But then we are told by Zanu-PF officials in the province in question that they had not made any such resolution; that Cde Mafios was possibly pursuing a family agenda (he is said to be the brother of ruling party National Political Commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere); that he was essentially transposing his narrow mafioso agenda on an entire executive.
And Cde Mafios himself has said as much, ranting: “Hazvina nebasa rese izvo! Isu takatotaura, and that’s our position. It will not change.”
Translation: None of what the rest of the executive is saying matters. We have spoken already.
Now, we don’t know if when he says “we” he speaking of the royal we; or if he means it literally and in reference to the Bertrands that have convinced him to stick his paws into the fire on the false promise of sharing in the roasted nuts.
What we do know is that in 2014, Zanu-PF agreed at its Congress to amend the party constitution so as to allow the President and First Secretary to appoint his two deputies rather than have them elected.
The reasoning, as pointed out quite lucidly by Zanu-PF Deputy Secretary for Legal Affairs Cde Paul Mangwana, was simple.
Elected Vice-Presidents and Second Secretaries would have to campaign to get those positions. They would have to build power and loyalty bases away from their boss. From there it would be one small step to actively working against the boss so as to succeed him.
The entire party — bar of course the Dr Joice Mujuru cabal which was engaging in that very factionalism that Zanu-PF was keen to end — supported the concept of the President appointing his deputies.
Among the most vocal proponents of the one centre of power principle were some of the Bertrands that are today engaging in contrary gibbering on social media — never mind that President Mugabe has expressly told them to steer clear of such feverish tweeting.
In fact, here is what Cde Mafios himself said on November 30, 2014: “As a province we resolved that the President should be the sole centre of power who should appoint all Politburo members, including members of the Presidium.
“We also resolved that soon after the President has appointed members of the Politburo, he should also dissolve Cabinet and appoint ministers from the pool of Politburo members to avoid conflict of interest.
“We have observed a trend where Cabinet ministers, who are not Politburo members, making some attempts to sabotage recommendations made to Government by the party.”
Suddenly our Raton in Mashonaland Central does not agree with this logic. Suddenly President Mugabe, in his jaundiced eyes, is not capable of appointing his own deputies.
Well, Raton can continue to put his paws in the fire and Bertrand can continue scooping the nuts for himself. But soon enough, Bertrand shall from his tree, and Raton will be left with nothing but horribly singed paws.
EDITORIAL COMMENT: The Mafioso Resolution and the Cat’s Paw
The Sunday Mail
First, a moment of silence for El Comandante …May he rest in peace.
Now, a moment of silence for the Mafioso Resolution of 2016 and for the strange agenda behind it.
Let us have a little contextualisation. There is a fable titled “The Monkey and the Cat” generally attributed to Jean de La Fontaine back in the 17th century.
Others contend that La Fontaine adapted the fable from one told much, much earlier by Aesop, the black slave who achieved fame in Greece as a storyteller.
The origins debate aside, the fable is responsible for giving the English language one of its more enduring idioms. According to the La Fontaine version, a monkey called Bertrand convinces a cat called Raton to pull some nuts that are being roasted from the fire.
The monkey persuades the cat with an offer of sharing the nuts if the latter can extricate them from the embers.
As the cat takes the nuts out, burning his paws in the process, the monkey quickly gobbles them up and in the end naïve Raton gets nothing for his pains. It is from that fable that we get the idiom “to be used as a cat’s paw”.
La Fontaine goes further to apply this fable to the age-old and often very dirty world of statecraft, saying: “No more are the princes, by flattery paid/ For furnishing help in a different trade, And burning their fingers to bring/ More power to some mightier king.”
The events of the past week more than amply demonstrate that Cde Dickson Mafios, Zanu-PF’s chairman for Mashonaland Central Province, is nothing more than a cat’s paw.
We will let readers debate for themselves who the monkey convincing this poor Raton to put his paw into the fire is.
Cde Mafios announced that Mashonaland Central had resolved, among other things, to strip President Mugabe of the right to appoint his two deputies in Zanu-PF.
He presented this as an official provincial position to be tabled for possible approval at the ruling party’s Annual National People’s Conference in Masvingo in December.
But then we are told by Zanu-PF officials in the province in question that they had not made any such resolution; that Cde Mafios was possibly pursuing a family agenda (he is said to be the brother of ruling party National Political Commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere); that he was essentially transposing his narrow mafioso agenda on an entire executive.
And Cde Mafios himself has said as much, ranting: “Hazvina nebasa rese izvo! Isu takatotaura, and that’s our position. It will not change.”
Translation: None of what the rest of the executive is saying matters. We have spoken already.
Now, we don’t know if when he says “we” he speaking of the royal we; or if he means it literally and in reference to the Bertrands that have convinced him to stick his paws into the fire on the false promise of sharing in the roasted nuts.
What we do know is that in 2014, Zanu-PF agreed at its Congress to amend the party constitution so as to allow the President and First Secretary to appoint his two deputies rather than have them elected.
The reasoning, as pointed out quite lucidly by Zanu-PF Deputy Secretary for Legal Affairs Cde Paul Mangwana, was simple.
Elected Vice-Presidents and Second Secretaries would have to campaign to get those positions. They would have to build power and loyalty bases away from their boss. From there it would be one small step to actively working against the boss so as to succeed him.
The entire party — bar of course the Dr Joice Mujuru cabal which was engaging in that very factionalism that Zanu-PF was keen to end — supported the concept of the President appointing his deputies.
Among the most vocal proponents of the one centre of power principle were some of the Bertrands that are today engaging in contrary gibbering on social media — never mind that President Mugabe has expressly told them to steer clear of such feverish tweeting.
In fact, here is what Cde Mafios himself said on November 30, 2014: “As a province we resolved that the President should be the sole centre of power who should appoint all Politburo members, including members of the Presidium.
“We also resolved that soon after the President has appointed members of the Politburo, he should also dissolve Cabinet and appoint ministers from the pool of Politburo members to avoid conflict of interest.
“We have observed a trend where Cabinet ministers, who are not Politburo members, making some attempts to sabotage recommendations made to Government by the party.”
Suddenly our Raton in Mashonaland Central does not agree with this logic. Suddenly President Mugabe, in his jaundiced eyes, is not capable of appointing his own deputies.
Well, Raton can continue to put his paws in the fire and Bertrand can continue scooping the nuts for himself. But soon enough, Bertrand shall from his tree, and Raton will be left with nothing but horribly singed paws.
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