A BANNER advertising the MDC-T’s 17th anniversary may on paper look innocent, but it is the theme of the event; ‘Redefining the endgame’ which exposes the Rhodesians’ determination to finish the process started by the Pioneer Column when Lieutenant Edward Tyndale-Biscoe hoisted the Union Jack at Cecil Square (now Africa Unity Square) at around 10am on September 13 1890.
What is probably lost to Tsvangirai is the fact that the anniversaries of the birth of the MDC-T fall when the country is mourning occupation by the British.
As a surrogate of the British, it is not mere coincidence that the puppet party was formed on September 11 when Pioneer Column arrived in Harare on September 12, hoisting the Union Jack on September 13.
For MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, however, the celebrations are about grabbing power and not knowing what to do with the same.
History is the best teacher in this regard.
The peak of Tsvangirai’s stuttering political career came in 2008 when he led the first round of the March 29 harmonised elections and fled to Botswana, overwhelmed by the prospects of power.
The Rhodesians were not that inept.
They were daring and given the opportunity, they would have extinguished the black people of this country when they officially commenced their looting expedition in 1890.
As serial looters, the Rhodesians were regimented, followed a system drawn from a basic blueprint by Cecil John Rhodes; the plan was to milk Zimbabwe dry.
When the MDC-T goes to the Bulawayo commemorations, there will be yet another fresh attempt to revive the Rhodes looting blueprint that Tsvangirai has dismally failed to adhere to.
Elsewhere, the Rhodesians, now scattered across the world will be cursing the opposition leader for squandering the 2008 opportunity for the reignition of the looting spree of yesteryear.
But just how did the Rhodesians do it, creating a hegemonic legacy that even our own black people blindly follow?
Zimbabwe was always an attractive destination for any prospective wealth seeker and adventurer.
Rhodes knew this, such that when he arrived in 1889, he proceeded to consolidate his position as leader of the Pioneer Column’s impending visit to Harare.
He bought out all his potential rivals and anyone with mining rights.
A paper titled To the Victoria Falls: Development of Rhodesia reveals Rhodes’ ambition and the British South Africa Company’s (BSAC) looting project.
It says:
“Lobbying the corridors of power in London, Rhodes motivated sufficient support for his proposal of a Chartered Company, and on July 7 1889, Salisbury wrote to the Queen (Victoria) asking Her Majesty if she would be ‘graciously prepared to grant…a Royal Charter of Incorporation by name or title of ‘British South Africa Company’… with limited liability, and with such powers and privileges as to Your Majesty may see fit.
The Charter, granted by Queen Victoria on October 20 1889, detailed some of these powers:
‘….the right to make and maintain roads, railways, telegraphs, harbours; to carry out mining or other industries; to carry out lawful commerce; to settle territories and promote immigration; to establish or authorise banking companies; to develop, improve, clear, plant and irrigate land; to establish and maintain agencies in our colonies and possessions, and elsewhere; to grant lands in terms of years or in perpetuity.’
In 1890 Rhodes recruited the pioneer column to travel north and occupy Mashonaland.
The plan was to avoid confrontation with Lobengula by skirting Matabeleland and striking instead for the eastern part of the territory.
The Column was raised by Rhodes and his BSAC in his effort to annex the territory of Mashonaland, and consisted of a pioneer corps of 180 men, including lawyers ,engineers, builders, bakers, butchers, printers, farmers, clergymen, and at least two physicians in addition to Dr Jameson, who was to go along with them.
Among the men who were finally chosen, there were English, Dutch, Germans and at least two Americans.
It was commanded by Major Frank Johnson, included Leander Starr Jameson and was guided by none other than Frederick Courtney Selous.
Rhodes agreed to pay for an additional force of 300 Bechuanaland Police, under the command of Colonel E G Pennefather of the Inniskilling Dragoons, a leather-tough veteran of the Zulu wars, as protection.
The Column was armed with general issue of Martini-Henry riffles, handguns, 7-pound field guns, maxim machine guns.
They even borrowed a steam driven generator and a 10 000 candlepower searchlight from the naval depot at Simonstown; it was turned on at nightfall to discourage Matabele attacks.”
The greedy men set out from Mcloutsie on June 28 1890. 
The Column established Fort Victoria on the Southern Eastern plateau of Southern Rhodesia (now Masvingo).
Fort Charter (now Chivhu) was also established by the Pioneer Column.
Harare, the capital city of present day Zimbabwe, was also established by the Pioneer Column as Fort Salisbury.
Soon after establishment of these Forts, the Pioneer Column disbanded and began practicing agriculture in various parts of the colony.
The day of the Column’s arrival, 12 September was a national holiday between 1920 and 1979.
The MDC-T wants to revive this madness.
The interesting fact about the Pioneer Column and MDC-T’s Bulawayo fete is, while Rhodes’ men enjoyed temporary, but short-lived victory against blacks, Tsvangirai will go to Matabeleland to seal his political fate.
There will be no victory for him.