On Saturday evening I watched the Sue Lloyd-Roberts report from Harare in its entirety – and there is one part of the report that I believe needs discussion – and action.
While she is interviewing Phillip Chiyangwa’s wife and she is shown all of the luxury motor cars with personalised number plates, she mentions, in a very flippant manner, that their daughter, Vanessa, is ‘doing a Masters‘ in the UK.
Why is she getting a tertiary education in the UK? What is wrong with the University of Zimbabwe?
This sort of thing was highlighted a while back and many children of Mugabe-ites were forced to return home and complete their education in Mugabe’s university in Harare. Chiyangwa gloats that he has succeeded as a businessman in Zimbabwe and claims that he is more than happy to live in that country. If that is so, then why is his daughter being educated outside of Zimbabwe?
In September 2007 we read that Morgan Tsvangirai shared an aircraft home from Australia with the children of Augustine Chihuri, Sylvester Nguni, Olivia Muchena, Ignatius Chombo and David Karimanzira.
“Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono’s three children are also said to have been affected by Australia’s new policy.
William Bango, who speaks on behalf of Tsvangirai, said Chihuri, who met his son Slyvester at the Oliver Tambo International Airport en route to Zimbabwe, accused Tsvangirai of urging Australia to deport the students.
While in Australia, Tsvangirai said he supported the move by Howard’s government to send back home children whose parents worked with Mugabe either in ZANU PF or government. He said a million children were out of school in Zimbabwe, yet the children of government supporters had the luxury of Australian education.
“This is the minimalist action that one can take to send a message that we will not tolerate you to put in place policies that will disadvantage all Zimbabweans and your children are actually benefiting,” he said, attracting the ire of Mugabe’s spokesperson and the state media.
Commenting on Tsvangirai’s trip and his comments in Australia, Mugabe’s spokesperson, George Charamba said in an article published in the Herald headlined “Tsvangirai thanks paymasters for sanctions”;
“The new sanctions against the little boys and girls who were fully paying for their education in Australia was white Australia’s big welcome to Tsvangirai. Is it not ironic that descendants of criminals are the first ones to invoke the moral principle that sins of fathers are visited upon their children?
“Their blood is tainted by their forebears’ criminal past. Our blood is ennobled by our demand for what is rightfully ours. The Zimbabwean people now have to thank Alexander Downer for saving them from more sanctions which their own aspiring president (Tsvangirai) not only wanted extended but ‘admire’ so much. Does he admire the suffering of his people?”
George Chiramba will always write anything in defence of Mugabe, Mugabe’s minions and all of their family members. I wonder though, how he can call secondary school leavers who are at university “little boys and girls“? Does he really think that he can pull the wool over our eyes that easily?
In another article at about the same time “ZimDaily understands that the young deportees were met at Johannesburg International Airport by a visibly infuriated Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Rural Affairs Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. Chihuri’s son, Sylvester, and Mnangangwa’s son, Emmerson, were among those deported, the sources said.
Government sources in Harare said the move sent shock waves through government and ruling party circles where there is fear that other Western countries such as the United States, Britain and Canada may take their cue from Australia and deport the dependents of top government and ruling ZANU PF officials.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said last month that the suspension of student visas, an extension of existing sanctions against Zimbabwe, was provoked by President Mugabe’s disregard of democratic principles and human rights.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard called Mr Mugabe an “undemocratic bully” while briefing the media on talks with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.”
Perhaps the Chiyangwa family believe that because they have money – which Mrs Chiyangwa says is a “blessing from God” – that their wants, needs and desires will be catered for by all and sundry.
This from the House of Commons dated January 2003: “It is manifestly unjust that the ZANU PF elite are still able to send their children to the comfort and safety of schools and colleges in the United Kingdom using illegally acquired wealth while, because of ZANU PF’s policy of selective starvation, children in Zimbabwe are too weak from malnutrition to acquire an education.”
Just like we did then, let’s start to apply pressure and get the ZANU PF elite to have a dose of their own medicine – their children can get educated at the local university which Mugabe has allowed to virtually collapse.
And before Chiyangwa, a nephew of Mugabe, states that he was ‘outdone’ by the BBC, let’s remember that it was Chiyangwa’s wife that volunteered the information, on screen, in person…
The time has come to make an example of Chiyangwa’s daughter, identify which university in the UK she is attending and have her shipped home with the same alacrity that Mugabe had himself sworn into office having partaken in a sham one-man election.
You can watch the BBC News Night broadcast here. See if you agree with me.
Robb Ellis
The Bearded Man
