No opposition: only comic characters
condition, what do you think will happen to him when he loses again next year?
Not only is his health worrisome, but his supporters are too. I remember during my college days we used to debate a motion that read “This house will not vote into office individuals with terminal illnesses”; this is the case of Morgan Tsvangirayi, the odds are against him, he has a high probability of not making it to next year’s elections among all possibly contesting candidates next year, that’s how gruesome cancer of the colon is. He is broke too, remember, the party had to sell some of its properties last year to foot his medical bill, and he has a son who was implicated in the corruption scandal of Harare City council with the Mudzuri-led council. He is scared of his numerous wives/women in South Africa, so his political focus is livid. Too much worries for the man, too much, but I wish him less pain in all this, after all, he is human like me.
If only people like E. Manning would wake up from that political slumber before they get embarrassed once more. Tsvangirai has never been re-elected into their presidency, he always chooses to split whenever that subject comes up, remember in 2005 when he left Welshman Ncube and Gibson Sibanda after he was suspended and the 2013 suspension by the Biti cast, he refused to be suspended and in turn suspended Biti, how funny and ridiculous it is, and I repeat, it’s nothing short of an animation screenplay. He has a thing of turning down suspensions, phwee! How conveniently democratic that is.
I am compelled to remind you of how there is no political or economic redemption in MDCs when some Zimbabweans religiously believe that the answer to all their problems is the absence of Zanu-PF. First, let me remind you that MDC, like any opposition in Zimbabwe, was born out of Zanu-PF expelled members who had or have failed to display internal discipline, so it’s a reactionary led party. Secondly, lack of ideological rigidness best describes the party when it continuously imposes candidates on constituencies for individuals’ expediencies.
Nelson Chamisa was accused of being instrumental in the imposition of a candidate in Bulawayo in 2013 to the cost of Sandla Khumalo ending up as an independent candidate. Chamisa allegedly took that from his father Tsvangirayi who appointed himself as the sole appointer of all posts in MDC-T reflected by the confusing appointment of Chamisa as one of the Vice-Presidents, a plot to oust Thokozani Khuphe, a ceremonial official in the party. Many believe Khuphe is nothing more than a tool of Affirmative Action on the grounds of gender and ethnicity, she too should set ship sail before we read her a political obituary.
Thirdly, their divorce by Zinasu has left them stark naked, you should have seen the letter written by Alister Pfunye to Tsvangirai, telling him that they do not own Zinasu, in fact the students’ union owns MDC. To a large degree that is true, MDC-T had no response to that, they could deny it. The young chap says “this is from president to president . . .” surely bringing him to his level.
Like the prodigal son, Tsvangirai was hopeful that he had been taken him in when he had a taste of power in 2008 when he made it into the GNU. Alas! Politics is different from biblical fables we were read to at the Sunday school, in fact let me be precise, Zanu-PF’s political discipline is way too impressive to harbour opportunists like him. If you are not there for the people but for yourself, it’s hard to stay in, when the contract ended in 2013, it was back to business as usual. Tsvangirayi was an opponent again, who lived in a mansion bought for him by the very same government he opposed.
Lucky him, some opponents like many councillors in the Bulawayo City Council survive on stolen stands and spend much of their time debating General Lookout Masuku and the stadium, they don’t live in mansions like he does but they repeatedly vote for him. I say 2018, let us revise our choice of councillors, those people have no clue of what local governance is, they confuse urban management with village meetings, what can I say, they are products of a bleeding expired party.
Whenever we buy commodities we specifically check for the Best Before tag or guarantee label all to ensure value for our bearer trading. It is the same with Zimbabwe’s opposition, its way past its sell by date and has to be discarded.
Micheal Mhlanga is a research and strategic communication specialist and is currently serving Leaders for Africa Network (LAN) as the Programmes and Public Liaison Officer. He also administrates multiple youth public dialogue forums in Zimbabwe including the annual Reading Pan Africanism Symposium (REPS) and Back to Pan Africanism Conference. Feedback can be sent to michealmhlanga@abakhokheli. org