Jaspreet Kindra
Moses Mzila, a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)MP for Plumtree North, is a hurt man. Almost two decades ago he left his job as a schoolteacher to become a member of Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) and opened his home to African National Congress freedom fighters in Bulawayo.
He was among the first to construct secret compartments in cars to smuggle weapons out of Zimbabwe for the ANC. “My home, 12 Irene Avenue, was the base for Operation Vula [a plan, launched in 1986, to build-up underground ANC structures in South Africa]. Any ANC member working from Zimbabwe knew my home from 1978 to 1992,” says Mzila.
He cannot understand how the MDC can be dismissed as a puppet of the West or how ANC members can digest Zanu-PF’s “struggle credentials” and declare the recent elections in Zimbabwe free and fair.
“We the ANC and Zapu were comrades in a struggle to bring freedom of speech and association to our people how can they [the ANC] turn their backs on that?”
Mzila’s name appeared on a list of people who the ANC felt indebted to for having served its interests during its struggle against apartheid. He qualified for a pension from the ANC, but could not claim it as he was not a South African.
“I do not want the pension, only recognition for our contribution that we were with the ANC,” says Mzila. Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union was then anti-ANC.
The ANC has concluded its fight, but Mzila’s struggle continues.
Last November he saw two policemen carrying jerry cans near the MDC’s regional office in Bulawayo. Minutes later the offices were on fire.
Mzila gave an interview to a foreign news agency describing what he saw. Two days later he was arrested and charged with murder. Later the charges were changed to kidnapping an MDC supporter.
“Clearly the powers that be had seen my interview on foreign news networks,” he says. Mzila is to appear in court next week.
Mzila lives in fear and, like many MDC MPs, is always on the move.
He says the MDC is modelled after the non-racial ethos of the ANC. “I saw that the ANC had white, Indians and coloured members that is why we have people from all racial groupings in the MDC too. How can we be charged with pandering to the West?”