The Sunday News
Charles Dube
WE left Nyati livid about what he called “little, nosy journalists” who were allowed to go scot-free after writing sensational stories about Cabinet ministers. Journalists were a threat to his domain by exposing corrupt activities hence drawing all this ire from Nyati. Nyati has a hidden past and is capitalising on the fact that nobody remembers his role during the liberation struggle.
Nyati is so much involved in scandals such that he considers the “car-gate” scandal as minor. He says: “And the poor fools keep on calling this little thing a scandal; “Willigate!” “Watergate! This is not a scandal!” To him that was one of the most straight forward business deals that he had ever been involved in. Is it not scandalous to sell a car ten times its buying price?
Was it not scandalous that the car could only be got by those who had contacts in very high places?
Only a person blinded by corruption can condone such blatant corruption. Nyati is swimming in corruption and describes people condemning that in derogatory terms. He says, in fact these little people who are going about spreading the malicious rumours know nothing about him. If they knew him well enough they would not waste their precious time trying to do such a thing because they would never succeed. He says he is out of their league.
Lest we forget. Nyati seems to forget that he has cheated his way up. He is steeped in blood. He sold out his fellow comrades to the Rhodesian army leading to the massacre of thousands of freedom fighters in their bases like Chimoio. Despite this bubble of confidence Nyati seems to exhibit here, at times he is desperate. He is aware of the power of the media, that it has the potential to destroy him. It is clear that all these scandals are reported by newspapers and Nyati is not taking this kindly.
He blames everything on newspapers. “All because of the stupid newspapers; I have always wondered where gullible fools get the patience to queue up for hours in order to buy a newspaper. Fools! Wasting precious time queuing up for a newspaper, instead of thinking of ways of making money. You know what, one of these days I am going to wake up early in the morning, buy all the stupid newspapers and burn them!” This is outrageous and Nyati should have known that the truth could not be hidden.
Nyati says the formation of the so-called commission of inquiry was the worst that the new government of theirs ever committed. He goes further to say that the commission of enquiry should not have been formed in the first place. He puts himself into the new government claiming it to be theirs. Nyati is boastful as he says his motto goes” “I am a born winner. I must win, at whatever cost!” In order to be a winner, one has to align oneself with power and influence, this I know very well.”
He says during the war, he quickly identified that power lay in the barrel of the gun. Those who carried the gun carried power.
After observing the amount of power and fear the freedom fighters commanded in his home area he immediately decided to join them. He soon learnt that all that glitters is not gold. The strenuous conditions that prevailed at the training camps were not exactly what he bargained for. He decided that he would run away from them as soon as the opportunity arose.
It was a matter of time before Nyati escaped from his fellow comrades and gave information about the guerrilla training camp in Chimoio to the Rhodesian army. He was sure to be rewarded handsomely for passing on such information to the Rhodesian army authorities. Using the information that he had provided them with, the Rhodesian army attacked the Chimoio guerrilla training camp and massacred hundreds of Zimbabwean refugees and trained freedom fighters. Nyati was immediately appointed top intelligence officer in the Selous Scout’s battalion in charge of the Midlands Province. This is where Joseph Takundwa found him, to be enlisted as his informer.
But at independence, Nyati who had just resigned from the Rhodesian army immediately jumped upon the new political bandwagon. He had to learn to sing the new song and dance the new dance. His vision was focused. He discovered that political influence was not enough. All sing-song about scientific socialism had very little to do with real power. Real power lay in the hands of the dollar. Money has such an influence on people.
Having money led to many things for Nyati. He says he never ceases to be amazed by the amount of respect he got from people, even top government officials, whenever he stepped out of his brand new chauffeur driven Mercedes-Benz. He goes wild when he says the other thing he observed was the incredible power that money has over women. He believes he can get any woman no matter how beautiful. He says he has already acquired seven wives, all of them young and beautiful. Is this something to cherish when young women are being abused?
As Nyati’s business interests developed, his political ambitions grew. The role he played during the war was now dead and forgotten. He had gathered enough political muscle to make effective inroads into the political scenario. He was to start by contesting for a councillor’s seat in the municipal council. He was to represent the party in the Mufakose municipal council seat left vacant by Dan Biso who was now serving a four-year prison sentence. He had been caught red-handed trying to solicit a bribe from a construction company that was competing for a municipal construction tender.
Nyati says Dan Biso had been amateurish about that as such a thing would never happen to a professional like him. He admits being a hard core criminal who cannot be arrested as he can buy his freedom through bribes. He bought his nomination because his pockets were full of silver and gold. In other words he bought voters to vote for him. His motto is: “Every man and woman of this country has got a price tag.” This is a dog eat dog world. Only those who are prepared to pay will get served.
“Nothing for nothing!” Nyati says these have become the lyrics, the national anthem.” Using the same philosophy, Nyati says he was able to reap for himself a cool half a million dollars from the War Victims Compensation Fund. How did he do it? He says all he had to do was to pay the senior administrator at the compensation office a mere $10 000. What is $10 000 to half a million dollars?
He brags: “Call it bribery, corruption or whatever, but those of us who have grown and matured in this game have another name for it: “strategic investment”. That is what it’s all about and that is the name of the game.
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