The Sunday Mail
Factionalists and successionists in Zanu-PF are running scared. Others are too excited, but they know the dangers of showing the over excitement.They don’t know if this is the beginning or the end. They don’t know whether the future will accommodate them. Others don’t even know if they will still be alive. Some are making overtures of reconciliation. Others are laying the foundation for a crossover. Of course, there are those who are too stunned to do anything. Bishop Lazarus ziii zvavo watching it all from a distance. Take it easy vanhu vaMwari, the President was just cleaning up and putting his house in order. Kuvhunduka chati kwatara!
This was just a slight detour dear reader.
This week’s sermon is on mukuwasha Simba Chikore as he seeks to take Air Zimbabwe back to the skies. The hullabaloo surrounding his appointment to be the chief operating officer at the national airline has caught the attention of Bishop Lazarus.
Yellow journalism has been unleashed on mukuwasha Simba and it looks like there is no relenting on the issue.
The prophets of doom, fronted by the opposition MDC fragments, have gone on the overdrive, crying foul that mukuwasha shouldn’t have landed the job, mainly because he is the President’s son-in-law.
Some who can’t even spell their own names, let alone know the duties of a COO, have joined the “Simba haaiti” chorus.
Well, mukuwasha Simba, Philippians 4 vs 5 says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all.”
This is the time to show the true and real Simba. This is the time to show your professional proficiency. Usatinyadzise mukuwasha.
But then we need not be afraid. Mukuwasha Simba seems to be fitting well into the First Family. No scandal, no nothing.
His appointment at Air Zimbabwe is confirmation that President Mugabe and the First Lady have seen kuti mukuwasha kwaye. If the two doubted him, he wouldn’t be at the national airline.
Who would have the guts kuyanika mukuwasha benzi in front of a combative Zimbabwe? Mukuwasha Simba has passed the test.
From his side, mukuwasha Simba has shown that he is indeed a thinking patriot. You see, mukuwasha Simba’s wife Bona is one of a kind. Very calm, collected and educated.
It really would have been a tragedy if after marrying our treasure, mukuwasha Simba had decided to continue working outside the country or worse still, to migrate to another country with our Bona. That would have been very awkward.
But Simba aita mukuwasha kwaye. He has come back home to join everyone in the trenches. Unozoda mukuwasha akaita sei? He has chosen not to run away.
As Martin Luther King Jr would say, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
By applying to join Air Zimbabwe, mukuwasha Simba was saying “bring it on.” He has shown that he is not afraid.
But it’s not a secret that things have not been well at Air Zimbabwe for quite some time. Fixing the problems and challenges at the national airline won’t be a stroll in the park. Mukuwasha Simba will have to be at his very best with his team.
Soon all those who are trying to throw mud will get tired after discovering that there is no reverse to the appointment. They will console themselves saying let’s watch — mukuwasha Simba will fail and fall. Some #simbamustfall nonsense.
Some people at Air Zimbabwe will welcome mukuwasha Simba. Others will be skeptical while some will throw spanners in his work.
Of course, hakuna dunhu risina benzi, so some will try kunanzva mukuwasha.
They will pretend to be the good boys and girls. They will try to sway mukuwasha to their side through deception, back-biting and outright lies. Mukuwasha will have to be on the lookout.
There are those who are saying mukuwasha Simba lacks the experience blah, blah blah. Well, do they even know this mukuwasha that well? He may be young but those who have been fortunate like Bishop Lazarus to interact with him will tell you that from the technical side, Air Zimbabwe has hit a jackpot. Mukuwasha knows his stuff and if you doubt this Bishop, just watch the space in the coming few weeks, if not days.
But then mukuwasha Simba does not need to worry a lot. He boosts of what French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu refers to as “capitals.” Bourdieu is credited for coming up with the concept of habitus which he describes as a structuring structure which organises practices and perceptions of practices.
According to Bourdieu, habitus is linked with four species of capital which include social capital, comprising one’s circle of friends, groups, members and social connections; cultural capital which includes an individual’s knowledge and experience; economic capital comprising one’s economic asserts and symbolic capital which includes one’s honour, prestige and recognition.
My apologies for a bit of social sciences but then we need to simplify things a bit for those making noise kuti mukuwasha “Simba haaiti.” Mukuwasha Simba anoita because he boosts of the four capitals listed above.
But for now, l am more interested in his social capital. There is no denying the fact that besides his experience as a pilot, mukuwasha Simba can knock on any door with confidence.
His social capital mixed with the cultural capital makes mukuwasha Simba the right candidate for the job. Tell me of anyone who would shut the door for President Mugabe’s son-in-law? He is what Air Zimbabwe needs at the moment.
He has all the necessary capitals to take the national airliner back to the glory days. But like I said, mukuwasha Simba will have to work well with the team at Air Zimbabwe. He should use the capitals that he poses to charm and not to intimidate the Air Zimbabwe team.
The attacks from the prophets of doom will not stop but he should be ready for it all. I am sure he knew what it meant to marry the President’s only daughter.
One of the jokes that immediately started circulating on the social media when mukuwasha Simba’s appointment was confirmed was that Air Zimbabwe was now called Air Simbabwe. Zimbabweans have a shocking sense of humour, but mukuwasha should know that one African writer Achille Mbembe had seen it all when he wrote the article entitled “Aesthetics of Vulgarity.”
In the article, Mbembe (by the way I really don’t like some of the views by Mbembe. He sounds like a sponsored writer), talks about the banality of power where he looks at the simplistic nature of power on the post colony and how authorities in Africa are challenged via unofficial sites and unlikely sources of power. He looks at how vulgar, jokes or how the grotesque is used to deploy power by ordinary citizens in Africa.
So all manner of dirty jokes will be unleashed on mukuwasha Simba, but fortunately we no longer live in the days of the Magic Bullet Theory. Small-minded Zimbabweans will mock mukuwasha Simba in the hope of mocking President Mugabe, but we are now living in the days where people can see that uku kwangovawo kuvenga mukuwasha. Godo chairo.
I will conclude this sermon by quoting one of the statements that was included in a letter that Kwame Nkrumah wrote to one of his close confidants June Milne, on 11 March 1966 after he had been ousted in a coup in Ghana.
“You shouldn’t worry about me now June. I am safe and well. I did not write earlier because I was trying to get myself sorted out. I know very soon I shall be back in Ghana and I don’t think that you should bother about the criticism, abuse, vilification and the lies being told about me. The truth will out,” wrote Nkrumah.
Mukuwasha Simba should not worry about the abuse, the vilification and the lies being told about him because the truth will come out. We are waiting for his revolution at Air Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, mukuwasha ngaawombere ana tezvara.
Bishop is out!
