Hopewell Chin’ono, Opinion
Doug Munatsi will be buried today at Greendale cemetery.
One Saturday afternoon he came to my home with Edwin Manikai armed with excitement and hope for Zimbabwe’s future, and persuading me to join Government or ZBC.
I chose to stay on the sidelines but promised them that I would do whatever was necessary to help our country progress from the side lines.
This was not the first time choosing to stay on the sidelines, I had been offered the ZBC job in 2003 under Jonathan Moyo, and I turned it down because I am a firm believer that a single person can’t change a place unless armed with a reforms agenda and Government political will!
Doug and I would argue as brothers over the past 4 years about how I thought things could have been better and how he thought people like myself should serve and fight for change from within.
He would remind me of how a system doesn’t change overnight if good people choose to stay on the sidelines.
I last spoke to him when he was in Turkey, he called me to ask for my view on the ZIDA messaging.
As I considered him a genuine brother, I was savage about their messaging and at the end told him what I thought should have been their messaging.
“Hmmmm,” he said followed by his characteristic laughter.
“Do you now understand why people like you should never have turned down the opportunity to serve,” he asked me.
Many people are vilified because of their association with Government, yet they fight quietly for good.
Doug was one such guy, in my conversations with him, he always thought that things could be changed for good.
Sadly he passed on in the most horrific manner, one that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.
His works as a banker and entrepreneur are there for all to see, hopefully his attempt and desires to serve Zimbabwe and see it prosper will one day come to fruition.
People like him are needed because they come with a world view, and because they became self made and competed with the best on the global scale.
Sadly his death and its mysterious circumstances might deter many who wanted to try and see if they can be of any meaningful assistance to their country.
May his soul Rest In Peace.
