Chamisa is compromised
THE MDC Alliance leaders have perfected the art of faltering when it matters most.
Its founding leader the late Mr Morgan Tsvangirai disappointed his supporters and sympathisers several times by failing to deliver. He would make wrong decisions or fatal mistakes when it mattered most.
Mr Tsvangirai would make several uncensored political pronouncements which eventually turned to haunt him and his political career.
As if that was not enough, the late MDC leader was also prone to being found in the wrong company or place with wrong people, especially concubines.
These things, combined, worked against Mr Tsvangirai’s political life until he breathed his last without realising his dream to land the country’s top post.
Now we have his heir in the form of Advocate Nelson Chamisa, a young politician who found himself at the helm of the MDC through hook and crook. However, it is one thing being at the helm of the party and delivering the intended results. In the few months that Adv Chamisa has been at the helm of the MDC-T, now known as the MDC Alliance, the young man has made several fictitious and exaggerated electoral promises which have been met with extraordinary skepticism.
While we have not heard anything relating to scandals involving women, the young man’s greatest undoing is his insatiable desire for the presidency of this beautiful country.
We know it is everybody’s right to aspire for power, however, it is the motive and drive behind this desire that becomes an issue. His appetite for power is very dangerous and has seen him make both comical and dangerous statements.
He has been quoted saying that once he gets in power, the MDC would literally want to enjoy the benefits of being the ruling party because Zanu PF was doing the same.
This is dangerous for a presidential aspirant to be driven by such selfish and shallow aspirations.
Now what is more disturbing is his declaration just a day before Zimbabwe’s crucial election that he was now working with the former Head of State, Mr Robert Mugabe.
The pronouncement came after Mr Mugabe had earlier on the same day expressed his support for the MDC Alliance leader.
The MDC Alliance leader has also taken a position in terms of the outcome of the election result, declaring that any result that does not have him as the winning candidate is fictitious and unacceptable.
Such extremism has been associated with people like the late Alfonso Dhlakama of Mozambique, Jonas Savimbi of Angola and Kenya’s Raila Odinga, and interestingly Adv Chamisa has joined this club of political renegades.
Given his young age and political stature, it is imprudent for him to take that seemingly treacherous route.
A few months ago Adv Chamisa was celebrating Mr Mugabe’s fall and shockingly a few months down the line he went into bed with the same man he ridiculed as a dictator and impediment to democracy.
While it is true that there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics, still people need to remain with a certain degree of dignity, integrity and principles.
It seems Adv Chamisa can do anything for power, including sacrificing his identity and dignity.
The voters are wary of such characters and given the way he brutally dealt with Dr Thokozani Khupe to land the MDC-T presidency.
Meanwhile, it’s embarrassing for a liberator like Mr Robert Mugabe to sell out to opposition just because he wanted to die in power.
Whatever it is, vengeance, bitterness or sour grapes, this, I believe, has been his worst political decision and will haunt his offspring forever.
What do we get when two extremes collude? One is a very young politician who is hungry for power and the other is an extremely old politician who is bitter about losing power.
The outcome is inevitably disastrous.