Factionalism has poisoned democracy

Is it possible for Zimbabwe to clean up its politics so that democratic processes can happen smoothly without the charade we saw in the past few weeks when the ruling Zanu PF party went to the polls to elect its provincial leadership?

Zanu PF Political Commissar Mike Bimha explained the heat that accompanied those elections as a sign that democracy was alive in the ruling party and all the infighting was a manifestation of the vibrancy of power contestation in the outfit.

But analysts saw the situation differently concluding that all was not well in the governing party.

Zanu PF has always been riddled with factionalism, beginning in the latter years of former President Robert Mugabe’s reign, which its leadership has tried to suppress.

It continues now although the fault lines seem blurred.

Some allege that erstwhile allies President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga no longer see eyeto-eye and the party is divided along those lines.

Obviously the two protagonists deny this and continue to put up straight faces as if everything between them is hunky-dory.

But these factional fights, real or imagined, have poisoned national politics.

Factions exist everywhere including in government offices. So pervasive are these factions that they have affected the very functioning of government.

The mayhem that accompanied the Zanu PF elections is replicated in the MDC formations.

The original MDC has splintered so many times no one knows how many factions exist in that poor party.

Recently, a very important member of the opposition party was lamenting the demise of MDC founding president Morgan Tsvangirai writing on his Twitter handle, “We miss you Save!” referring to Tsvangirai by his totemic name.

The same member, who happens to be the secretary-general of the main fragment of the MDC also averred that it was beyond the opposition party to mobilise 1,6 million supporters and called for the help of the civil society.

This was in a way a kind of fatalism that implies the opposition party was surrendering its fight to defeat the ruling party.

The important thing is that elections in Zimbabwe have failed as a means of selecting credible people to take the country forward.

Every election has shown that it’s not the good people who are elected to lead, but those with the money and an abundance of roguish behaviour.

Vote-buying and violence are the trademarks of electioneering in Zimbabwe.

This week Mnangagwa proclaimed that by-elections for the vacant seats in parliament would be held on March 26.

These empty seats had become something of an embarrassment to everyone.

They all should have been filled more than two years ago but kept on being postponed ostensibly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The real reason was however that the ruling party was not sure who would win them.

When the MPs were recalled from parliament it was hoped they would be replaced either by ruling party cadres or people from a compliant faction of the MDC.

But as time went by it seemed the recalled MPs would easily reclaim their seats.

Now it doesn’t matter; whoever wins will only be in the seat for little more than a year since harmonised elections would be held a year later.

The March 26 elections are therefore only being held to show the world that democracy is still respected in the country.

But soon the poison will be there for all to see as contestants hold primary elections.

There will be fire and brimstone once more especially in the ruling party.

The fractured opposition will also go into the fray displaying its own version of violence.

But the major loser will always be the people.