Attacking Garande Is Quixotic Tilting At Windmills

by T. TutTsanga; 29th December 2008

The main thrust of my Garande-debate op-ed is far from praising Garande. I contend that we are better of if we let Garande have his say. If he is wrong, we all will have an opportunity to lay bare the folly of his political convictions and, better yet, avail to ourselves the opportunity to bring him to the fold of the sensible. If we have the sick in our midst, we do not throw them outside the walls of the city. Instead of ostracization, we help our sick by taking them to hospitals. Let us think of the TalkZimbabwe crowd in similar terms.

By silencing Garande, we all lose. Censorship is a prong of the fork of tyranny, as Mugabe’s Zimbabwe has proven to all of us. Let us not become the monster that we publicly profess to hate!

When I praise Garande for not being an avid fan of censorship, I genuinely mean. It is not an article of faith but a fact. I wrote an article, located on http://www.oocities.org/tsangatutankhamenshanga//editor-garande2012007.html, attacking him and he was enough of a man to publish it on his site. How many editors would do that? Try to write an article critical of Mr Wilf Mbanga, Mr Geoff Nyarota or Mr Mduduzi Mathuthu and, I bet, you will not see that article published on thezimbabwean.co.uk, thezimbabwetimes.com or newzimbabwe.com.

From a political point of view, Itayi Garande and I are polar opposites. All you have to do is go to hararetribune.com where most of my opinion editorials are published with active links or this site http://www.oocities.org/tsangatutankhamenshanga/ for proof. His support for Robert Mugabe is misguided and morally repugnant. Be that as it may, can we honestly say that Garande’s opinions make him as dangerous us Comrade Florence Chitauro?

I think we run the risk of embarking on quixotic quests, tilting at windmills and attacking shadows like the demented Don Quixote, while missing real, clear and present danger posed by the likes of Comrade Chitauro. We need to ask ourselves a number of very simple but probative questions, viz.; (i) how many Florence Chitauros are in the UK, Australia and the USA? (ii) How much subterranean damage are they doing to Zimbabwe? For a number of years, many in the diaspora have purchased basic necessities for their loved ones using hard-earnt forex. It was affordable but no more. The crooks in ZANU-PF have finally caught up and are now charging incredibly high prices for the same basic commodities.

Should we not try to expose the people who are enabling Mugabe’s homicidal grip on power? Are these people being used as ZANU-PF fronts to sell stolen maize seeds, fertilizer, food supplies, fuel et cetera to diaspora Zimbabweans at extortionate prices? Surely, it is instructive that we demand swift and comprehensive action against the people home-linked, pun fully intended, to that fat-necked wolf, Gideon Gono.

It is in vogue to mount ad hominem attacks on Itayi Garande because he is brave enough to pop his head above the ZANU-PF parapet. However, there are much more sinister characters operating stealthily within the Zimbabwean diaspora community. Ngatisapedze nguva tichitandanisa tsuro nemapfumo tichisiya ngwarati dzakawa nemisana – let us not waste time chasing after mere rabbits instead of bigger prey.