Habineza remains defiant

Modern technology can be both inspiring and destructive in equal measures, depending on the context of issues at hand. While in Egypt, people used social network-facebook to ‘pull down’ President Hoshi Mubarak, it was the complete difference, here in Rwanda, when former Sports Minister Joseph Habineza resigned after his private photos while at party were leaked to the public. It is the first time that a minister in Rwanda resigned over such an incident, while as something like this could have passed away without much fuss in our neighboring countries, morals of public officials are highly valued in Rwanda. Habineza was Sports Minister for six and a half years and there is no doubt that local sports relatively developed. Rwanda hosted continental and regional tournaments in football, cycling Basketball, Volleyball, rugby, rallying, Golf and many others. Local teams also performed quite in some of these tournaments, for example in the last 13 months, Rwanda finished fourth in the Africa junior volleyball championship, the national men and women sides won the Zone 5 basketball championship while the junior wasps qualified for the Fifa U-18 World Cup in Mexico. This article is not trying to drum up Habineza’s achievements, since he never reached them alone, but how a man so enthusiastic about sports erred so easily. It has always been a public secret that Habineza was the most popular minister especially with the youth, who had nicknamed him Uncle Joe. But some always suspected that the 48-year old’s captivating character would somehow tarnish his image. Uncle Joe would never shy away to dance at parties that he was invited in, and his dance strokes were always up to date, but I was always astonished at his serious face, the following day. His ability to separate work and leisure was commendable. His last press conference that he called to explain his reasons for quitting, was the most touching that I have attended in a long time. This was not the Habineza that I was used to, a man full of confidence, charisma and articulate. Donning jeans, a polo t-shirt and sneaker shoes, he looked battered, regretting his gullibility and laid back attitude that allowed him to pose for photos dancing away with eager girls. (It is not every day that you get to dance with a minister). The press conference was attended by over 35 journalists, some from neighboring countries and many of them did not know the type of character, Habineza was. Surprisingly many of the journalists present felt pity for the former Sports Minister and agreed that though he had seriously erred, it wasn’t necessary to resign. But Habineza was not about to leave people to use that to attack the country and its Leadership, according to the father of Four. Despite his resignation, there is among some Rwandans the embattled Minister has learnt a lesson and may come back stronger, if at all that happens. Ends