I have no doubt that academic education adds value to our politics but any suggestion that academic knowledge is superior to other forms of learning is misleading. Academia has no monopoly over the smartest minds. All education is essential for human development and political decisions need more than just academic knowledge.
Some of our Matabeleland academics have not conducted themselves in a way that makes people feel comfortable and secure about their political motives within Mthwakazi; they come across as opportunists with vested personal interests than an honest desire to serve Mthwakazi public.
Our academia must not be allowed to abuse its status to undercut local political morality. Some individuals will use sophisticated but unnecessary language that makes little sense to the ordinary man/woman in social media political debates; they brazenly intimidate other contributors and avoid scrutiny of any questionable political associations.
To further our Mthwakazi political agenda, we need to guard against the implied superiority of academic knowledge and never to allow academics unearned respect. All contributions from individuals and organisations should be exposed to the same level of scrutiny to avoid our political environment being a playground for academic experiments and being misdirected with falsehood packaged and marketed as scientific research.
Academia does not replace personal skills; there are many academically gifted people who are excellent in dealing with research objects than with people. An unscientific assessment of the online Mthwakazi agenda and social media data footprint, illustrates that the agenda is not being driven by holders of academic degrees but ordinary men and women with an extraordinary passion for Mthwakazi freedom and people; these are people who have nothing to lose but their chains.
On the other hand academics have professions to protect, they have their status to preserve; the last thing many would want to do is provoke the masters who help them maintain their status; instead they have tended to hide behind ‘objectivity’, remain neutral even when the truth is clearly to the left or right and nowhere in their imaginary centre.
The Mthwakazi agenda is a massive innovation whose unprecedented rise leaves its leadership vulnerable to making mistakes. My advice to our people is that while it is important to listen to academic findings, they should not judge our maturing organisations on academic status and mistakes they make. What we should hold the pro-Mthwakazi agenda proponents accountable for is if they are learning from their mistakes.
Through its propagandist educational narrative that teaches people what to think and not how to think, the Zimbabwean education system prepares people to sustain its socio-political system, and those who fit in it are rewarded handsomely. Using their democratic right, many of our academics have sort to promote the MDC Alliance in Mthwakazi.
Let not our academics sway us along with their selfish dreams towards the MDC Alliance and ZANU PF. The MDC Alliance and ZANU PF combination shows no interest in Mthwakazi concerns, and thanks to tribalism and ethnic Shona population superiority (their main support base), the MDC Alliance and ZANU PF control Zimbabwe’s national political agenda irrespective of policy quality and are not answerable to ethnic minorities. By design, these parties cannot be shifted from absolute power, they will only change when it suits their ethnic Shona support base.
The MDC Alliance is nothing but a ZANU PF clone; apart from the red colour donned by its members, its intrinsic design and infrastructure resembles that of ZANU PF; the MDC uses not only the same pen but the manuscript of the original slayer of our liberties too. No sane person, whatever their educational background, objectively believes that Alliance of mostly opportunists will alter Matabeleland politics for the betterment of the public. The MDC-C which is fundamentally the backbone of the Alliance is obsessed with power not people.
We have genuine reverence for the hard work of our Mthwakazi academic elite, particularly those who have since got educated and managed to unlearn the lies taught within the Zimbabwean academic system. We are here talking of those innovative men and women who have created new things in the process discovered how to become useless to the Zimbabwean absolutist system yet ably managed to turn themselves into Mthwakazi assets.
Academia has an important role to play in the transformation of Mthwakazi politics, but the academia must not be allowed to play fast and loose with the people’s minds. If their academic input is obsolete to local cause, we must be prepared to replace that knowledge from our space. While it is essential to protect democracy, we cannot afford to let this generation and the next down through inexcusable abuse of intellect that has seen academia using its local influence to misdirect our people. There is no objective justification in calling our people to vote either the MDC Alliance or ZANU PF.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 