TAGWIREI’S APPOINTMENT; MY POSITION
Some people expect me to have a view on Kuda Tagwirei’s recent appointment. I do. I want to put it on record, for whatever it may be worth.
Last week, Hon. Willard Madzimbamuto an opposition MP and SDA member who was unlawfully recalled through a process involving Tagwirei, and which eventually led to CA3 warned against celebrating an appointment stained by political skulduggery. Madzimbamuto sees himself as a victim of Tagwirei’s anti people and pro corruption politics. He is. What many may not know is that Hon. Mutasa, also an SDA member, is another victim of these recalls carried out at the same time and to achieve a diabolical purpose.
The record is plain: in 2023, Tagwirei targeted two young opposition parliamentarians from his own church. Their removal was driven by malice, defied the expressed will of the people and served selfish interests. Yet some of the church members said nothing. We heard the silence.
I agree with Madzimbamuto that Tagwirei’s appointment rests on a malevolent campaign against his own ‘brothers’, ‘brothers’ who are now supposed to applaud him for his progress. I understand their anger, and why they find it contradictory, indeed, indefensible that certain fellow believers should celebrate his call to public office founded on nothing but the violence he administered to their interests. What is worse is that this taint is barely being discussed by those people. In fact, discussing it is taboo as it shows envy.
Nor are ZANU PF members themselves at ease with Tagwirei. His own Vice President did not attend his swearing in ceremony. The reasons are public. His own Vice President regards him as a political bottom feeder. I do not disagree with his Vice President but I’m not bold enough to make the point.
In other words, Tagwirei’s brand of politics is rejected on both sides: by his opponents and by people within his own party. He is odious to all save those directly benefiting from his largesse.
He is even odious to his church, whose hand he is trying to force in order that he may have a primary political constituency.
I agree with those disturbed by Tagwireyi’s antics. I too am disturbed.
For what it is worth, let me state plainly the pith of my opposition. One cannot claim the mantle of Christianity while practising politics that people across the divide find detestable and revolting. There’s, at a certain stage, a universally accepted wrong. To my mind, Tagwirei embodies that wrong.
I do not stand in the middle and so do not wish to conceal what some people may view as my bias. I have taken positions on what is happening in this country, and I speak from that perspective although I do so honestly. I disapprove of Tagwirei’s appointment and, more especially, of the process that brought it about. I am not blind to the possibility that this appointment may sound a death knell to his political career. In fact, I know it will. But I will not dwell on that now.
Neither will I dwell on the genius of appointing as Investments Minister someone who is on economic sanctions. In football terms, this is like picking a one legged player as your main striker
I also reject the claims of religious people, including some in my own church, who treat Tagwirei’s appointment as proof of divine favour. I regard such people as scoundrels and I call them out for what they are. The body of Christ does not celebrate political debauchery.