| Former Defence Minister Enos Mzombi Nkala. By Geoffrey Nyarota On Sunday, July 30, 2006 The Zimbabwe Standard published an article penned by intrepid former Chronicle reporter Gibbs Dube which, if my memory serves me well, was the first inkling the public had of the forthcoming book by former Defence Minister Enos Mzombi Nkala. Nkala, who during his time was also minister of finance and of national supplies, was named and shamed by The Chronicle in 1988 in its Willowgate Scandal expose, resulting in the instant and premature termination of his career as a powerful and much feared politician as well as an influential cabinet minister. For more than a decade thereafter Nkala maintained an ultra-low profile in his home town Bulawayo, where he reportedly became a born-again Christian. Once in a while he made the occasional foray into the news media, as the subject in interviews with journalists of a younger generation, who obviously did not really appreciate who they were interviewing, judging from the questions asked and the resultant articles. It is unusual for books that are still at the stage of the manuscript to be the subject of public discourse, but that was all before Nkala became an aspiring author and craftily forced his forthcoming book onto centre stage as a subject of debate. Much against my better judgement, I find I am left with no option but to join in the ongoing discourse about a book that noone has seen, let alone read. I join in this dialogue in my sincere hope that my own intervention will help to enlighten some of the participants in this debate on certain crucial historical events that are being overlooked and, thus, hopefully put issues of national importance in their proper context. Dube informed the public back in July that Nkala was burning the midnight oil while working on the manuscript of a book in which he would reveal the identity of the killers of former Zanu-PF chairman, Herbert Wiltshire Chitepo, who was assassinated in a car bomb explosion in the Zambian capital, Lusaka on March 18, 1975. I was under the impression that this particular information, controversial as it is, had long been placed at the disposal of the public. More sensationally Nkala said he was going to name the killer or killers of former Zanla commander, Josiah Magama Tongogara, who died in a horrific road accident on the eve of independence. "I know what happened to Josiah Tongogara, Herbert Chitepo, Jason Moyo, Lazarus Nkala and other senior politicians during the liberation struggle," Nkala said to Dube. "I definitely know some of the people who killed them and this will be exposed in my book." This was riveting stuff or so I thought, begging nevertheless, of the question, "So why have you not sai all these years?". That was until I read towards the end of the article that Nkala had insisted he wanted his book published only after his death. "There are many people who will be exposed for what they did during the liberation struggle," the former minister intimated. "I know that they will say a lot of things about the contents of the book but it is better for them to say these things when I am dead." Just in case he was accused of being a spineless coward, Nkala quickly pre-empted any such speculation. "I don't fear anyone in this country because I am not a coward. My book will correct a lot of impressions, pure lies and evil concoctions peddled by certain quarters of the ruling elite about the liberation struggle. I will even tell all about the deployment of 5 Brigade in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces, which killed more than 20 000 innocent civilians at the peak of clashes between the then rivals, Zanu PF and PF Zapu in the 1980s." Notwithstanding the fact that few, if any, publishers would agree to publish a highly controversial and possibly defamatory book only after the author is departed and no longer at hand to face the music, I felt a great sense of disappointment and betrayal. If publishers allowed authors to produce manuscripts for publication when they are deceased I would write a book of a million words. As a sign of his good faith and good intentions Nkala must reveal which publisher is the custodian of his valuable disclosures. Nkala's current age is 75. Notwithstanding the fact that the World Health Organisation says male life expectancy in Zimbabwe is down to only 37, there is nothing about Nkala's appearance to suggest that he cannot push on for another ten or so years, at least. For all we care, he could live to the ripe old age of 95, or more. That means his book will only come out in 2027, at the earliest. There is a great likelihood many of those Nkala seeks to expose and many others with a vested interest in his sensational disclosures will be long gone by then. "I am ready to spend the last days of my life in Mugabe's prisons in defence of the legal, constitutional and civil rights of the precious people of Zimbabwe", Nkala declared bravely in a statement published on the internet last November. How can he be jailed if he postpones his revelations until he is dead? Back in 1999 the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe and the Legal Resources Foundation jointly published Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace, a report on the disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands in the 1980s. The report says in part: "In November 1980, Cde Enos Nkala made remarks at a rally in Bulawayo in which he warned ZAPU that ZANU-PF would deliver a few blows against them. This started the first Entumbane uprising in which ZIPRA and ZANLA fought a pitched battle for two days." The rest is history which Nkala would, presumably, now like Zimbabweans to forget, if possible, under the influence of sneak previews of his pending revelations. Last week Nkala outdid his previous efforts to re-invent himself as a man of the people. He tried, in somewhat strange circumstances, to steal the thunder of a fellow author, who was launching the evidence of his claim to being an author, a published book. Nkala attended the press conference to launch Edgar Zivanai Tekere's book, A lifetime of Struggle. Taking advantage of the gathering of media people, fellow politicians and Tekere's friends and supporters Nkala issued yet another of his now regular statements about his own forthcoming book. A very significant question arises in the minds of astute observers of Nkala's pending dramatic entry into the world of book-publishing. Why has the aspiring author become so obsessed with issuing numerous statements about a book whose manuscript he is still in the process of putting together? On the recent occasion Nkala made even more sensational disclosures about the alleged content of his forthcoming book. "I have documents," he boasted, "that were left by the Smith regime containing names of the sell-outs who worked as informers of the regime. All these names will be published in the book that I am currently writing. Some of the sell-outs run like little fools claiming that they fought for this country alone. I will write about all of this in my book." It appears the former fiery minister still loves calling other people "little". Predictably, in these circumstances, Nkala did not reveal in what circumstances or at which particular time in his checkered career as a government mister he laid his hands on these documents or why he has kept the existence of the documents a closely guarded secret for nearly three decades. He did not say either why he would not leak the list to the media for publication now. What if the documents are dismissed as fraudulent when he is no longer at hand to defend them? The former minister of defence obviously still regards the public as little fools. In the absence of conclusive evidence to the contrary, anyone would be excused for reaching the conclusion that Nkala, as is his proven custom, is being a little economic with the truth. If Nkala possessed any such authentic documents he would not miss an obvious opportunity to revive his political fortunes by making their content public. Judging from his many statements it is clear Nkala is determined to bring President Mugabe down. Why does he not realize that such compromising documents are a powerful weapon in his hands right now? Nkala's strategy is patently clear. He wants to have it both ways - worm his way back into the political limelight while riding on the back of meaningless snippets of the alleged disclosures in his forthcoming book, while at the same time protecting himself from possible suits for defamation, if he makes full disclosure now, in the absence of evidence or documentary proof. In one of his numerous statements so far Nkala touches on "the so-called Sandura Judicial Commission (which) was appointed at Mugabe's initiation and instigation so that he could get rid of us". He claims the Sandura Commission was the initiative of the so-called Zezuru Group of 26. "This group reports directly to Robert Mugabe. It includes Zezuru judges, senior Zezuru army officers and some senior Zezuru CIO," he explains. "It recommends the dismissal of ministers and appointment of ministers who are amenable to Mugabe remaining in power. Should I be challenged over what I have said herein, I am ready to elaborate and defend the position that I have hinted to in this statement." As the journalist largely responsible for investigating the Willowgate Scandal that was the direct cause of the appointment of the Sandura Commission I suppose I am entitled to challenge the former minister. Yes, I became aware of the so-called Zezuru Group of 26, but this was long after the downfall of Nkala in 1989. Details of events leading to the appointment of the Sandura Commission are explained in great detail in my own book, "Against the Grain, Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman," which was published in Cape town last July. I urge Nkala to read this book so that he does not continue to embarrass and humiliate himself in public by making such false statements. If this is the quality of the disclosures that Nkala is preparing to cause some publisher to print then it is just as well that he wants the book published long after he is dead. Meanwhile, since copies of my own book are not readily available in Zimbabwe I undertake to mail an autographed copy to Nkala, if he furnishes me with his address. | 
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