Coalition brouhaha: A volt of vultures stalking a fading Morgan

We continued hitting the Rhodesian government forces by laying ambushes and attacking economic activities. Now our operations had moved to areas beyond St Luke’s. We laid an ambush at koSomgoro, another timber processing plant. It was at that point that on realising that they could not enter many areas like they used to, the Rhodesians started deploying Selous Scouts. We lost Cde Shumba who was one of the commanders in the Hwange area. He was killed by a Selous Scouts unit which had among its ranks turned guerillas. The Scouts organised a meeting AFTER a stunning Kodak moment which earned him a global standing ovation, photojournalist Kevin Carter took his life. The sometimes crazily-cruel world had just made a U-turn and subjected his diligent effort to destructive criticism.

He was labelled “inhumane” for his 1993 awardwinning photograph when he zoomed and captured a famine-stricken Sudanese girl in agony. The frail girl was being closely monitored by a vulture as she struggled to gather energy attempting to reach a United Nations feeding center in Ayod, South Sudan.

Devoid of any knowledge regarding the ethics of journalism, critics later stoned Carter with questions and the hapless South African succumbed to pressure and committed suicide in 1994. Hopefully the Lord received his informative soul.

But what could he have done besides celebrating semiotics and sharing the tales of the Sudanese mass starvation with the Humanitarian world? In all frankness and fairness, he could not have done anything more, death was already knocking at the little girl’s door.

You see, these scavenger birds called vultures are very evil and heartless. At times they prey on extremely sick and infirm prey. Those not familiar with their tendencies can mistake them for sympathisers as they keep the prey company in its last moments. Vultures can fly thousands of miles for prey, thanks to their brilliant vision and a very sharp sense of smell.

The sudden interest by opposition figures in surrounding Morgan Tsvangirai has raised eyebrows and sent tongues wagging among people of more research with some saying it could be a clear indication that something is soon-to-be malodorous in the opposition landscape. This indeed holds some grain of truth. Tsvangirai’s political death shadow is hovering over his head, as he nears his final straw in 2018. We saw it coming though.

My lens is capturing vultures surrounding a Tsvangirai who is struggling for clues in his endeavour to reach for international attention. The vultures are so many that I struggle to locate him. Unfortunately, the dying opposition godfather thinks he is being kept company yet the stalkers he mistakes for allies are just waiting for his last breath so they could devour him as they vie for visibility on the opposition landscape, a conduit to donor appeal.

They also probably think biting off a sizeable chunk from this opposition demigod can make them get some of his powers. But what powers? The recent confusion in tongues with the NPP deputy, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo having set the ball rolling, aptly subjecting Tsvangirai’s chances of recovery to contention, highlights the real motives behind the muted coalition. It has nothing to do with the people but a struggle for visibility.

I can be subjected to all sorts of criticism but sadly, there is nothing I can do to save Tsvangirai except to keep zooming. I have to show the political world the circumstances surrounding a frail and clueless politician. Who knows? He might be helped. I hear some have dreamt of his imminent political death and have flown from as far as the United States of America, just to join others in monitoring his condition closely, lest they miss out on the wake. One of these is called Evan Mawarire.

Wow! Blessed are those with a very sharp sense of smell for they shall join the wake!

I hope this Kodak moment won’t usher me to my early grave like Carter who was indirectly stoned to death by the unaccepting world, or make me relive the fate of that biblical Stephen. All the same, should you decide to stone me, read Galatians 4:16 before you cast the first stone. I just felt the moment was worth capturing and memorable for future generations. Pardon me; I just couldn’t ignore the spectacle. I am neither heartless nor inhumane, I am just celebrating semiotics.

I just positioned my lens and clicked on a frail and politically-stricken Tsvangirai who has on record languished in political famine characterised with scarcity in strategy and ideology. He has never been a regular shopper at the market of ideas and has over the years surrounded himself with vessels synonymous with questionable advisory credentials like one Dr Alex Magaisa who dismally failed to advise him on pertinent political matters, before scurrying for cover in the United Kingdom.

And how the fellow makes noise, I wonder what kind of a vessel he is! As the world counts down to Tsvangirai’s political demise in 2018, a handful of contemptible individuals of very low weight and standing in any scale of values are surrounding him. Flocking in volts like the National Electoral Reform Agenda (Nera) and Code, a number of political predators have landed at “his” Highlands residence in the capital to sign MoUs as they set out to execute their usual politics of the belly.

Although the word “understanding” is invisible in the matrix, Dr Joice Mujuru and Professor Welshman Ncube have since signed MoUs with Morgan. Other parties like Elton Mangoma’s Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe and Tendai Biti’s People Democratic Party (PDP) and an array of other little known formations have also highlighted some appetite in surrounding Tsvangirai in an impatient wait for that last heartbeat.

On the other hand, those who have been preying on him all along are displaying egocentric and greedy tendencies as they want to feast alone. I hear Thokozani Khuphe, in particular, was not happy with his ailing godfather signing MoUs with Welshman and Mujuru. And tapping from semiotics; how Nelson Chamisa looked incapacitated the day Joice Mujuru landed at Highlands!

For the past 17 years, the opportunities vicious fellows haven’t fully convinced the electorate on how they intend to bail out the country from this economic quagmire. The noise makers strive on visibility and they cannot miss an opportunity to be visible. Now they are seeing a failed and fading soul and looking forward to taking over. It is the survival of the fittest in the opposition jungle.

A certified loser in his own right, Tsvangirai has caused voter apathy in his former strong holds and has lost favour in the hearts of the electorate, those close to him and his handlers. They all want him out. His so-called counterparts know they can not resuscitate him back to life, save for accompanying him to his political grave, via their bellies of course.

Those preying on him can however, be vindicated because common sense has it that Tsvangirai will never recover. Of course it has been a tiresome journey to nowhere, but 17 years in politics should have taught him something. Foretelling his own demise and speaking as though he was on American Embassy soil, before likening himself to Trump, while addressing workers and spoiling their day in Harare, he declared that he won’t accept defeat to President Mugabe in 2018, and that he will accept nothing besides victory.

In regret, Tsvangirai is now singing along R Kelly’s lyrics; “and now I’m sinking, sinking to rise no more”. Sadly, he can’t turn back the hands of time. He is going down. RECENT revelations that over sixty percent of the African Union’s budget is donor driven make sad reading — in fact they are a cause for continental worry.

They closely resemble a demented father who sires children and lets them be taken care of by a neighbour.

In that scenario chances are that the children will cease to be subservient to their father. They will pay homage to the neighbour who contributes majorly to their welfare. Dependency has always been the father of exploitation if the common adage he who pays the piper calls the tune is to find meaning in the African-European political context.

While the idea of forming a continental body — in a bid to unify the continent with the aim of creating an integrated political, socio-economic prosperous and peaceful Africa was noble, it is unfortunate however, sad in fact that almost two decades later the organisation — a grouping of 55 wellresourced members is still reliant on donor funding.

In a nutshell the idea can be located and expressed in the spirit of political, economical and social oneness as the continent sought among other things to promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples. Revelations are however, that close to a third of the AU’s budget is raised from member states while the rest of funds come from international donors and development partners.

The inability of the organisation to be self-funding often places it in a precarious position when funding comes with conditions some of which will be alien to the social and political order of the continent and its people. While there is nothing wrong with accepting a gift horse and not looking it in the mouth, it is imperative to point out that when a lion plays with a zebra’s cub it is not usually looking for friendship.

Suffice it to say a heavy dependency syndrome on the imperialistic West has become part of the comfortable tale of most African countries where they depend on Europe for both economic and political templates, a few of the African statesman are still alert to the imperialistic motives of the Western donor community. Indeed the continued struggle against imperialism is aptly captured by one of the revered African authors of all time Ngugi Wa Thiong’o who posits in his book Decolonising the Mind that any blow against imperialism, no matter the ethnic and regional origins of the blow, is a victory for all anti-imperialistic elements in all the nationalities.

The sum total, he adds, of all these blows no matter what their weight, size, scale, location in time and space makes the national heritage. For these patriotic defenders of the African people, imperialism is not a slogan. Ngugi contends that imperialism is the rule of consolidated finance capital and since 1884 the monopolistic parasitic capital has affected and continues to affect the lives of people in the remotest corners of our countries. If you are in doubt, he adds, just count how many African countries have now been mortgaged to IMF — the new International Ministry of Finance as Julius Nyerere once called it.

The need for Africa to stop relying on donor funding and gravitate towards selfsustenance and self-reliance recently found expression when Zimbabwe donated 300 cattle to the AU. The exemplary gesture by President Mugabe should be read as a representation of the ideals of the revolutionary African fathers which grouping he belongs and whose torch he continues to bear and light the way for the new generation of leaders.

Political commentator and philosophy scholar Mr Jowere Mukusha said the ideals of President Mugabe resonated with the principles of Africa’s founding fathers such as Julius Nyerere who emphasised the need for self-reliance, ownership of resources and hard work.

“It is unfortunate that Africa and some of its leaders find it comfortable accepting donor funding from the imperialistic West and seem to be reluctant to do anything to end their dependency syndrome despite having the resources. The issue of selfreliance and beneficiation born out of total control of resources that President Mugabe has sown and has been speaking passionately about should be the new narrative for African leaders if Africa is to be weaned off by the West,” said Mr Mukusha.

He added that now was the time for Africa to rediscover its voice and collectively sing the chorus of