By Wisdom Mumera.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) -I’m standing at the corner of 1st and Robert Mugabe my back to Chicken
Express waiting for Fagio Marowa but I don’t know him. I know only that he looks like a CIO agent because that’s what he has been accused of being by some.
You cannot just wake up from your home, pick up a placard, go to Parliament and demand that you need to know where US$15 billion from sold diamonds vanished to when its clear high ranking politicians are involved.
Doing that as a lone ordinary man means few things, one of which being you are a state agent playing out a charade whilst actually waiting to snare real protesters who may come in.
He also says he has sent a petition to Parliament demanding answers for the vanished amount which is approximately 4 times the size of the country’s budget.
Later after the interview with News of The South during which he said he is a business consultant, I’m left confused as he has just failed to conduct the
interview in English. (“I get emotional on this topic and may not be able to express myself clearly in English”, he said and I struggle to believe that).
Never during the interview does he appear emotionally overwhelmed, but
semantically he struggles. A peculiar business consultant.
Marowa appears cruising down Robert Mugabe from downtown in a dark coloured BMW which, in the suddenness of his poking out his head and picking me out of the crowd milling, walking and standing, I never notice its real colour.
“You wanted to see me?’ he asks.
I have never seen him. We have never met. All I see is a strong looking man somewhere in the early 30’s, driving an equally middle aged BMW. He has the face and demeanor of a beer drinker.
I later learn that he is a Christian at UFIC. That’s what he says. He also has a key holder with a picture of Emmanuel Makandiwa and his wife to corroborate his faith.I throw caution to the wind
“Yes it’s me”, I answer back.
He removes some paraphernalia from the passenger’s seat. A lady’s push, some papers, and places them in the backseat. I climb in and we move up the road.
“I need some gas at the service station”, he says as we turn past the
Eastgate Complex towards the Total service station. At the station he brings out US$150, hands over the US$50 to the service attendant.
“$5 petrol”, he says looking ahead, and continuing with his explanation why he is not afraid of disappearing like Itai Dzamara.
“Im not confronting anyone. Neither am I demanding that anyone step down from power. All I want is some explanation and yes, accountability for the missing money. So I don’t see how that should
put my life in danger.”
We drive away from the station and up towards Parliament, make a U-turn at the end of the kerb facing the gate and park in front of Old Mutual offices behind a vehicle selling shop.
Why is it that many people are in doubt of his sincerity and are thus accusing him of being a state agent? There is simply more to it thanthe goatee beard style and the closely shaved head.
He just doesn’t look enough of a political fanatic to carry a placard
written, ‘Where is our US$15billion we now want it’, since one has to have some extended level of political zealotry to try something like that in Zimbabwe.He doesn’t care about that though.
“Im not a state agent and even if I were what’s wrong with demonstrating. A state agent is a Zimbabwean and can demonstrate, so can a ZRP officer or anyone for that matter”, he says.
I ask him what he thinks of President Mugabe and his campaign against corruption, if there is any.
“I admire that man because the things that he has managed to achieve far outweigh those he has failed. In fact the very fact that he remains in power, despite the concerted efforts remove him from power,to me that is a positive mark upon his character”.
Marowa is of the school of thought that Mugabe is a shining beacon surrounded a litter of dead, broken and malfunctioning bulbs.
“He is the one that informed the nation about the missing money, and that is a way of giving us people power”, he argues.
“Doesn’t that reflect someone who is now weak and powerless to deal with his understudies?’ I ask him.
He denies that and embarks on an analogy about his father’s escapades back in the rural areas.
“Whenever he returned from a beerhall and someone insulted him along the way he never replied back. All he did was come to us crying and told us that the son of so and so had insulted him. It was then our duty to decide how to deal with the bullies”.
“Thus the President by telling the nation about the missing money actually gave us power and the prerogative, as citizens, to act upon that information”
“Now what I want is a commission of enquiry that will look into this matter and those caught should be brought to account. Politician should not be involved in the composition of the Commission but we need the ZRP, we need business people, auditors, and other technocrats who can do the job”, he says and leans back satiated with his explanation.
Alright, if that’s how he wants to justify cowardice I won’t contest.
What about joining the President’s party then and help him fight the pandemic of corruption?
“Im still studying these political parties and am yet to find the one
that is in congruency with my dreams and ambitions”.
“In ZANU PF they are so infatuated with unnecessary things such as history in the party structures and don’t look at merit, and that’s a very flawed way of sifting for leaders”.
“As for Tsvangirai, I used to admire his energy but now he is diluted by whatever happened to him. They should have been someone who took over the baton of what he was doing and kept on but no one came up.
Still he is the only person to ever really fight Mugabe”, he says.
Despite still to be convinced by other parties, Marowa doesn’t have any ambitions to form a political either.
“I would rather be the tail of an elephant than the head of an ant”, he says.He talks about plenty of other things. The need for courage in young
people. The emergence of many fearless advocates for change in the country. An absence of vision within the opposition political camps.
He talks about plenty of other things. The need for courage in young people. The emergence of many fearless advocates for change in the country. An absence of vision within the opposition political camps.
As we are about to finish Marowa, borrows a wistful look from somewhere and says where he to die for what he is doing, he would die happy.
“At least I would have done something and died for it”
The words and the tone are at variance and the supposedly solemn intonation of something tragically cathartic for a willing martyr sounds lost in his mouth.
I exit the BMW mildly wondering if there not some state agents somewhere around this area busy taking pictures.
Or if I have not just come out of a state agent’s car for that matter. Were he to die for what he is doing, he would die happy.
“At least I would have done something and died for it”.
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