Becoming The Muse

Coffee With Chairperson

If you were having coffee with me, I would welcome you to my tangle of words. Feel at home, grab a chair and put your feet up… Enjoy the weather, its getting warm and I think its kinda spring this side of the world.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that from the 17th of August 2024 to the 17th of August 2025 you could refer to me and other Zimbabweans as Chair, because upon his appointment as SADC Chairperson our president quipped that every Zimbabwean was now also a SADC Chair.

“Every Zimbabwean is a SADC chairman” became an inside joke during the president’s tenure as SADC chairman, with some satirically claiming that appointing every Zimbabwean as a Chairperson was his singular achievement. Ironically, there was an awkward moment where it appeared the president forgot making this historic appointment, when a journalist had jokingly referred to himself as a Chairperson, which perplexed the president…Oopsie…

Was it all a throw away joke which wasn’t worth remembering, despite how most people had taken to it, or maybe a brief flash of the forgetfulness that comes with age?… There’s been chatter about the president’s mental well-being, the infamous Comrade Bombshell hinted at talks of impeachment on account of the president having vascular dementia, though that all remains unsubstantiated…

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that the 45^th SADC Heads Of State Summit was held on 17 August 2025 in Antananarivo, Republic of Madagascar which became a member state of SADC in 2005. During the Summit, Andry Rajoelina, President of the Republic of Madagascar, officially assumed the SADC Chairpersonship, succeeding the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

So what did we achieve as Chair? Aside from the preps that happened running up to the 44^th SADC summit that was hosted in Harare, Zimbabwe, and the presidential villas that were suppose to accommodate the visiting heads of state that never got completed, cant say I personally saw any impact of the  SADC chairpersonship. People had expected that maybe there would be focus on the Zimbabwean situation and the scrutiny of being a chairperson would help get transparency and governance as enshrined in the values SADC aspires to but alas...

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that SADC comes across as an old boys’ club of former liberation movements that have now become ruling parties, still patting themselves on the back for revolutionary support and gains from decades ago. How do you tell a head of state of a nation that helped yours secure independence, that they might be getting out of line? You don’t..

Recently, the leading political party in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC), hosted a Liberation Summit with six Southern African liberation movements ANC (South Africa), MPLA (Angola), SWAPO (Namibia), FRELIMO (Mozambique), ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe) and CCM (Tanzania) whose countries represent a significant chunk of the SADC founding states. The theme of the summit was: “Defending the Liberation Gains, Advancing Integrated Socio-Economic Development, Strengthening Solidarity for a Better Africa”

Revolutionary parties really need some introspection on their purpose, especially given population dynamics, where decades after independence, the populace is made up of youth no longer held hostage or guilt tripped into patriotic behaviour to support a party or president whose claim to power is simply that they liberated the country from colonial rule and that makes them singularly qualified to stay ruling till they reform themselves out of power or violent protest forces their hand or whatever comes first …till the cows come home to roost.

At least the SADC Chairperson position is on annual rotation, I would be willing to bet that it was made such to prevent anyone from being too comfortable in the seat and thus harder to remove… When people speculate about having a United States Of Africa, one of the first concerns is but who would be president of it all… given our track records of politicians and governance, it’s a valid concern…

Whats been happening in your neck of the woods.

chairman out 🫡

~B