In Zimbabwe, the more things seem to change, the more stagnant they become.
That holds abundantly true when you think over the case of Barbra Rwodzi.
Barbra is the deputy Tourism minister and a Zanu PF senior member who is seeking to renew her mandate as the member of parliament for Chirumanzu in the Midlands province.
She caused a big dust recently when, in a telephone interview, she went ballistic over the case of one of the ruling party supporters who had been arrested for taking down CCC campaign material in the constituency.
The case was in the hands of Chester Matsa, an assistant inspector in charge of crime at Charandura police station in Chirumanzu.
A fuming Barbra phoned Matsa and had the cheek to call the policeman’s parents and forebears barking canines.
How? Because she called Matsa a dog. Biology tells us that only a dog begets a dog.
So, by calling Matsa a dog, she was calling his mother and father dogs. That goes for all the people in his lineage.
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No insult comes worse than this one. But Barbra was not done with Matsa.
She called him an idiot and a fool too. So, there you have it.
This very dishonourable woman rolled Matsa into a foolish and idiotic dog, all under one long, howling breath.
His crime? He had accepted a report against a Zanu PF member and was processing the docket before it was taken to court.
The way I know the police, ordinarily, such a case was supposed to be handled by a constable.
But, given the sensitivity of matters when it comes to the arrest of Zanu PF people, Matsa must have agreed with his inspector boss to handle the matter as the member-in-charge of crime.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with what Matsa was doing.
As he said from his own mouth, his mandate was to enforce the law, and enforcing the law includes arresting suspects, processing their cases and handing over the cases for prosecution.
Barbra didn’t like this lecture from the clearly balanced assistant inspector, so she threatened to finish him off before the police chief, Godwin Matanga.
All this is on record, so no wahala about it.
Interestingly—nay disturbingly—Matsa was immediately transferred from Chirumanzu to the nearby Shurugwi.
The real reason for his transfer remains hazy.
Some say the police chiefs took that decision to protect Matsa from further political persecution if he remained in the area.
Some say it was some form of punishment. The latter is tempting. Transfers have invariably been used to punish offenders.
We are hearing that the police has issued a warrant of arrest for Matsa because he has not reported at the police station to which he was transferred.
That’s ominous. Either Matsa has just decided not to play ball out of frustration or something bad has happened to him.
Having saved in the Zimbabwe Republic Police at one time, this gives an echo.
In 2002, I was also an assistant inspector at Warren Park police station when the inspector I was deputising was transferred to a far-away place after having been linked to the MDC.
That was just on the eve of the presidential election of that year.
At 29, I was left in charge of an expansive policing jurisdiction covering Warren Park, Warren Park D, Kambuzuma and Rugare.
That area had become notorious for political violence, so you can imagine what my boss’s transfer woke me up to, at such a young age.
I, therefore, can relate with what Matsa has gone through and is going through.
Now, my ex-boss who was transferred had what easily becomes a weakness if you are working in a flawed system.
He was a principled and vocal chap. Those were the days of the fast track land redistribution programme and the war vets.
He didn’t hide his disdain for some of the things that were happening.
While he had his own admirers within the system, he must have courted some enemies too, particularly the rigid and bigoted chefs who didn’t want to hear a single thing about MDC and the opposition, so to speak.
He was sold out and the rest became history.
When I took over the station as a naïve and young officer, there was a dramatic development that shows the thin line between politics and law enforcement, even though, happily, I came out unscathed.
There were these war veterans who led political hooligans in persecuting MDC supporters assaults, arson and intimidation becane a daily—nightly, rather—routine and, a couple of weeks in the hot seat, it took a toll on me. I was barely sleeping.
I set up a station reaction group comprising young and energetic details who were deployed mostly at night, to patrol all the areas of jurisdiction and quell the war vet-instigated violence.
I briefed my Dispol, a war vet himself, and he was cool with my strategy.
I wasn’t too sure at the start, though, because his promise of support was only verbal.
But he later gave me a strong assurance.
He was a sober, mature and wise chef and I had respected him.
Once I got enough reassurance, I called the offending war vets, mainly based in Rugare and Kambuzuma, together with the area MP, to my office.
I kindly advised them to desist from political violence and promised to arrest them if they did.
The same night, I noticed that the war vets hadn’t taken me seriously because they were on the prowl with the militias once again.
I ordered their arrests and threw them into the cooler.
The following morning, there was drama at the station.
I woke up to Zanu PF women singing and toyi-toying at my house in the camp, calling me an MDC sell-out.
I called the Dispol and he said, “Deal with them!”
I did. I called my reaction group to parade, gave them tear smoke and batons and told them to smoke out the protesters.
They dispelled and, up to the time of the election, you could only hear the crickets at night.
I cautioned and released the war vets and they became very sober after that.
Thing, though, is that this was a lucky—pretty rare as it is—intervention.
I later learnt that I got off the hook in that tense season because the political leadership in Zimbabwe had been ordered by a troika comprising, I think, Nigeria, Australia and South Africa to ensure peace during election time.
The message had been cascaded to the police districts.
That’s probably the reason why my boss at the district headquarters was supportive of my strategy and tactics.
But, in the main, things don’t happen like that in Zimbabwe.
We saw enough of Zanu PF intolerance and impunity during the Mugabe era, but it seems nothing is changing yet.
The Barbra-Matsa case is illustrative. It is the individual writ large in Zimbabwean politics, particularly in election time.
Matsa was suddenly transferred and he is likely to face disciplinary action as a downstream development from his professional conduct when he accepted the CCC complaint and Barbara then abused him.
However, there is nothing to show us that appropriate action will be taken against Barbra.
There is little chance that Matsa’s report against the lawmaker will be processed accordingly.
In a sane society, you would expect Zanu PF to issue a statement of reprimand against Barbara. None came, predictably.
The failure puts a dent on President Mnangagwa and his administration.
It puts a dent on his leadership of Zanu PF and shows just how much things have not changed since Mugabe’s departure.
As has always been the case, vulgar and offending politicians from the ruling party are being shielded from the law while those that are professional are being victimised. This is crass impunity. It shows that there is no rule of law.
The impunity extends beyond the ruling elite. It inevitably cascades to the rank and file within the party. Chances are slim that the dude who was arrested for tearing down CCC posters will be prosecuted. No prosecutor or magistrate will want to come near that docket.
Or, if they do, that will just be for the optics. The matter is likely to be thrown out. It’s called fear.
On the other hand, the criminals from the ruling party have learnt a bad lesson.
They will be emboldened, as they have always done, to commit more politically-motivated crimes knowing that nothing will happen to them.
Similarly, law enforcers from across the country will not take action against Zanu PF offenders. It, therefore, becomes a vicious cycle.
*Tawanda Majoni writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on [email protected]
