Reports that newly-appointed energetic MDC-T organising secretary Nelson Chamisa will be redeployed to Harvest House full-time to revitalise party structures countrywide may be a blessing in disguise for the youthful politician — himself a gifted orator.
Whether the posting will give him the same flamboyance he currently enjoys as Information Communications Technology minister, is something else, but indeed a Herculean task awaits him in the face of widening cracks in the MDC-T.
If it is true MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai is set to redeploy Chamisa, he would have in the eyes of many and from what is coming through made a wise and tactical political move that could save the party from losing its urban support base currently in a mess.
If the MDC-T is to remain a relevant player in the country’s treacherous political waters, Tsvangirai must hit the ground running and Chamisa focus all his efforts towards re-energising his party’s waning political fortunes.
Chamisa is an orator able to woo supporters, but the question still remains: Is he up to the task? He was elected to the post following a close contest with his predecessor Elias Mudzuri at the MDC-T congress in Bulawayo last month.
He will now be in charge of the political supervision of the MDC-T, and under a communist set-up, a political commissar is a high-ranking functionary in a party who holds co-equal rank and authority with the military commander.
Since he moved to this posting, we believe Chamisa should work as efficiently as possible — for he has been assigned an important task to guard and increase his party’s support base.
This will not be easy, but Chamisa should mould himself into a statesman.
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Why? A political commissar is second in the chain of command of any political party. In a sense, he is being groomed to take over the reins at the MDC-T if he fits well in the scheme of things. In this case, he can only be second to Tsvangirai and, we believe, time is on his side if he manages himself well.
We are, however, not sure whether he will pull through the political furnace going forward, judging by the polarised political environment engulfing Zimbabwe.
But he needs to make people see sense in supporting his party and why they should vote for them in the first place.
Education in the party’s ideology and traditions should be intensified among party cadres so that they all think and act in line with the will and ideology of the party.
He is expected to educate youths and regulate their behaviour and instil discipline.
He is expected to conduct an uncompromising struggle among the youths against any practice detrimental to his party’s ideological system. He should also pay great attention to enhancing the collective leadership of the party.
Will Chamisa stand up and be counted?
