Fighting for a living man’s estate
IT WAS clear from a mile away that the MDC Alliance was headed for its predictable split. With elections around the corner, the monumental disarray within the opposition camp looks at first like a circus of political clowns but on close inspection, it really is a pitiable inheritance dispute with siblings fighting over an estate while the father is still alive.
As opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is battling for dear life in a hospital abroad, his three vice-presidents, like the spoilt brats they are, are busy angling for a share of the spoils in cruel anticipation of their leader’s demise.
So callous has been the infighting to the extent that it is reported Tsvangirai’s wife, Elizabeth, has been barred from seeing her ailing husband for fear that she may influence the succession dispute.
No one cares about his spouse anymore; the very spouse they used to praise as “amai, amai” — today she is treated as if she bewitched her husband.
She is vilified for purportedly supporting vice-president Nelson Chamisa.
What is most perplexing as the drama unfolds is the wanton disregard for ubuntu and humanity. Elizabeth simply wants to see her husband but troops of power-hungry political vultures are already circling around Tsvangirai’s deathbed as they cannot wait for him to breathe his last.
While Tsvangirai is alive, the vice-presidential trio is selfishly parcelling out his presidential powers amongst themselves.
With this kind of attitude, void of any democratic values, there is no prize for guessing that the MDC and its alliance will disintegrate.
There is a Shona saying that goes: “Pfuma yenhaka inoparadza ukama.”
The late John Chibadura popularised it in a sungura song in which he details how the jostling for an estate has dire consequences.
He talks of a brother who takes the deceased’s vehicle only to be involved in an accident and perish; and another brother who loots all the deceased’s livestock only to wake up one day when every beast has been struck by lightning.
The climax is the nephew who inherits the deceased’s wife only to suffer from a horrible venereal disease.
For all intents and purposes, this is a terrific description of what awaits the MDC in the very near future.
It will disintegrate. The so-called Alliance will revert to its own stand-alone political fragments. Obert Gutu will contest against Tendai Biti for Harare East constituency while Chamisa, Thoko Khupe and Elias Mudzuri will each battle against President ED from their own little corners.
Trust me, it is going to get both funnier and sadder.
All those who will have pinned their hopes on MDC over the last 18 years will be eternally disillusioned. Shattered hopes and destroyed dreams will be reaped at the ironically named Harvest House. A real harvest of thorns.
Even as President ED opens up political and social space, the MDCs are hell-bent on committing suicide.
The international observers our President has said can come for the 2018 harmonised elections will observe the disharmony in the MDCs and bear witness to their annihilation.
No one will pay attention to the detractors who continue to tweet to high heavens or those who plead to dig up graves and open wounds that have taken a generation to heal.
Surely, if Tsvangirai beheld this vision of what will happen to the MDCs, he would spring from his bed. If he knew he was just going to be a wispy memory of a once formidable opposition party; a party that once gave Zanu-PF a run for its money; a party that improved the way Zanu-PF provides leadership today — if only he knew, he would head back home immediately.
The hyenas have gathered. They don’t care if he is alive or not.
Yes, Tsvangirai is alive but no one in the MDCs cares. None of them care even half as much as President ED who took time to visit him at his home.
Zimbabweans should vote wisely this year. No one can afford to put in power a party full of greedy politicians who have no regard life, marriage, prosperity or democracy!
Dubula’zitha!