It has been a long time since anyone dared to give President Robert Mugabe a dressing-down in public in Zimbabwe.

But this week was an exception as the 87-year-old leader was given a sober view of the state of underdevelopment in Matabeleland by the son of the late struggle hero, Andrew Muntanga.

In a week that brought back memories of the Matabeleland massacres of the early 1980s, Dominic Muntanga caught Mugabe and his spin doctors unaware when he gave a moving but sober speech at his father's funeral.

He reminded the Zanu-PF leaders of the many outstanding issues of underdevelopment in the province and the Gukurahundi massacres that the party has been battling to erase from the history of the country.

The young Muntanga put it squarely to Mugabe, telling him that for as long as the Matabeleland region remains under-developed, Zanu-PF should forget about winning elections in the wider Matabeleland region.

The MDC, led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, had a clean sweep in Binga and Bulawayo central areas in the last election.

"What I say today is only an inadequate expression of what I carry in my heart," said Muntanga. He said his father fought against "prejudice and economic seclusion of the Ba Tonga people".

The Tonga people are a small minority living in northern Zimbabwe near the Zambian border. To them the late Muntanga was a father figure. The tribe has largely managed to keep its traditions, including language, intact. At one point they refused to send their children to school because they were not taught in their own Tonga language.

"We have our opinions about economic marginalisation in Zimbabwe. But it is not a matter of opinion that the construction of Kariba Dam cost the Ba Tonga people their lives, their heritage and their wealth," said Muntanga

"The Ba Tonga people have not drank from the cup of economic opportunity in our country. Scientific evidence suggests that teaching children their mother tongue affirms their identity and is a good foundation for intellectual and economic development. But until recently our nation rejected Tonga children by denying them the right to learn their mother tongue."

Muntanga reminded Mugabe that since his father's retirement from politics in 2000, Zanu-PF never won any parliamentary seat in the area. Muntanga served in Zanu-PF as a central committee member and worked directly under the supervision of the late vice-president Joshua Nkomo.

He was part of the Zapu delegation to the Lancaster House talks that led to Zimbabwe's independence in 1980.

Muntanga was the first MP for Binga and deputy commissar for Zapu and first chairman of the Binga district.

His son reminded Mugabe of how his party ill-treated his father just because he carried a different view from the majority of the Zanu-PF members. He said his father was arrested on trumped-up charges in a free Zimbabwe.

"Unfortunately, he was again imprisoned in a free Zimbabwe," said Muntanga.

In 1990, after contesting and winning Zanu-PF primary elections, Muntanga was unfairly disqualified, but decided to stand on an independent ticket and won the election.

Muntanga belonged to the rare Zanu-PF breed of politicians, such as the late Edgar Tekere, who were not shy to speak their minds.

"In 2000 he retired from active politics when some of the people he had mentored not only ran against him but history also records that after his retirement Zanu-PF had a decade-long electoral loss for Binga. In 2004 and 2008 the open palm prevailed over the fist in the parliamentary elections in Binga," said Muntanga.

By The Times (SA)