Dreams, drama and colourful shirts
Some people never cease to amaze, in a very strange way I must say.
Opposition figure, Job Sikhala, who was released from prison last Tuesday, will not only be wearing strictly Madiba shirts but will also now speak like the late South African leader, Nelson Mandela.
Perhaps Sikhala, who spent 595 days in pre-trial detention at Chikurubi Maximum Prison for inciting public violence, now thinks he will do for Zimbabwe what Mandela did for South Africa.
Mandela famously spent 27 years locked up on Robben Island, fighting against the country’s harsh, discriminatory apartheid system and later became South Africa’s first black president.
I don’t know how Sikhala will make it as a regional and maybe global political figure, but the man seems convinced that better days are coming for him.
According to local media reports, Sikhala told a Bulawayo-based prophet that while in prison, Mandela had instructed him, in a dream, to stop wearing suits and instead put on Madiba shirts, which are loose-fitting, usually bright and colourful, like the latter used to wear during his days.
Sikhala said the dream was also the reason he now mimics Mandela.
I personally find the whole thing absurd if not comical but Sikhala seems to be very serious about the issue.
It really beats me as to why Mandela would choose to ‘live through’ Sikhala, but well, ‘it is what it is’ as Sikhala says.
Oh, and by the way, Sikhala claims to also have been ‘visited’ by the late opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, on several occasions and that at one time he (Tsvangirai) was crying on the former’s shoulder.
Meanwhile, Sikhala says he will not be actively involved in politics, at least for now as he needs time to understand and process everything that transpired in the party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), during his jail time.
As readers of this column will know, Party leader, Nelson Chamisa, recently quit, saying the outfit had been infiltrated and hijacked by the ruling Zanu PF.
This followed recalling of Members of Parliament and councillors by self-proclaimed Secretary General, Sengezo Tshabangu, with the support of Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Mudenda.
By-elections to fill some of the vacant seats were held over the weekend and the ruling party triumphed, giving it the two thirds majority it so needed to have powers in the house.
In the last election, the party had failed to win the number of seats required to be the majority.