COMRADE Simon Vengesai Muzenda left us.
It is never good for us to be so orphaned, but such is the way of man – you’re born, you live and then you leave, sometimes you leave a trail of darkness or like Dr Mzee you’re a shooting star, you leave a trail that still blesses and inspires.
September 20 is the 13th anniversary of his departure from us to join the elders of Zimbabwe who served our country with unparalleled love and devotion, Mbuya Nehanda, Cdes Josiah Magama Tongogara, Hebert Chitepo and Solomon Mujuru, among many others.
Cde Muzenda was a great father, a teacher, a fount of wisdom, full of humour that made you laugh, but above all, he was a Zimbabwean par-excellence.
His incandescence was such you could never forget what the struggle was about and what it required of you.
Each combatant who came close to him in the struggle was deeply inspired and humbled, but it was his wisdom deriving from his love for everyone, big and small, that made his heart a special place for everyone.
At his residence in Maputo, at any time, you found diplomats, senior commanders, top party officials and the humblest of cadres, in him they all found an equal friend. Dr Mzee was Dr Mzee, a wise, loving friend.
After independence nothing changed, people from all walks of life mingled at his home.
They still felt at home with him, still found the same old friend.
He still made you laugh and he still gave wise counsel.
At his Munhumutapa offices, as Deputy Prime Minister and later as Vice-President, all were still welcome.
He still made each visitor feel special.
One wondered where he found time to do all his other state duties.
Thus he lived the life of a socialist.
Everyone was welcome; no-one was ever sent away empty-handed. The teacher always, his life was a lesson, from him you learned humility, understanding and acceptance of all peoples.
A practical and sincere man, in discussions he always said socialism should not be theoretical, but practical.
Like all the founding fathers of Zimbabwe, he was a great exponent of education with production, that in it was the key to socialist transformation and that, because separating theory from practice and production, perpetuates capitalist relations of production.
“Also, we detest the form of education that will perpetuate the division between mental and manual labour. Such education makes people believe that mental labour is superior to manual labour because it involves the formulation of models. In the final analysis, this leads to the separation of manual labourers from the ownership of the major means of production and distribution of wealth. That is why here in Zimbabwe we have opted for education with production to minimise the distinction between the two.” – (Muzenda: 1987)
The socialist ethos cannot translate into economic reality without an educational methodology that transforms capitalist relations of production on the ground.
That is what he meant when he said that socialism cannot be taught theoretically, it has to be practical.
On this 13th anniversary, I want to share a special story he told us as young comrades during the struggle:
“Once, in a faraway country, there were two friends, Hen and Pig.
One year in their land there was a great famine.
Everything was destroyed by the scorching sun, no crops survived.
Hen and Pig could find nothing to eat; they looked everywhere, there was nothing.
They decided to go and look for food from other lands.
They travelled far but the land was bare, scorched, there was no food.
They kept walking, crossed many rivers, beyond mountains, still there was no food.
They were weak, exhausted but they had to keep walking until they found food or they would die.
Finally when they could hardly walk, they came to a home that was nicely fenced, and inside there was prosperity, women were pounding grain and chickens were busy pecking all that fell to the ground.
At the gate to this home was a sign which said in great big letters: EGGS AND PORK WANTED HERE
Hen and Pig stood by the gate, they could not believe their eyes, here is what they needed, what they had been looking for, for so long.
After a while, Hen turned to Pig and said:
‘Let us go in and we shall live.’
Pig looked at Hen long and hard and shaking his head sadly said:
‘You can give your eggs and live, but if I go in, they shall kill me for my pork and I shall be no more.’”
We went quiet after he finished telling us the story.
Then he explained that a true revolutionary does not compromise, he or she has no price.
Capitalists say that everyone has his price, but a revolutionary has no price, he taught us.