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Bootlicking: A political survival strategy

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WHILE President Robert Mugabe has become a willing recipient of flattery and well-choreographed utterances from bootlickers within and outside his Zanu PF

WHILE President Robert Mugabe has become a willing recipient of flattery and well-choreographed utterances from bootlickers within and outside his Zanu PF party, opposition activists are also learning fast the art of bootlicking.

moses matengaTHE CENTRE SPREAD BY MOSES MATENGA

Bootlicking has become a survival strategy for many in local politics — creating cult-like leaders out of people they then fawn at to curry favour.

MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s loyalists have developed the art of bootlicking, leaving the proven Zanu PF bootlickers green with envy.

Experiences last weekend, where Tsvangirai loyalists fell over each other to shower the under-fire ex-Premier with all sorts of praises to prove to the world that he was no ordinary politician, can only prove that bootlicking has become an integral part of local politics.

Leading the pack at the Budiriro rally in Harare was party national organising secretary Nelson Chamisa, Tsvangirai’s right hand man, who said the opposition leader was anointed by God as he was a commander of the struggle.

“In a struggle there is a commander, others are lieutenants and no lieutenant should say they want to be a commander.

“If you dream while sleeping on top of a mountain that you want to be leader, we say no to that,” Chamisa said.

“He is the founding father of democracy in Zimbabwe, the doyen of constitutionalism. You can’t replace a person chosen by God.”

He added: “Let’s keep on feeding into river Save so that even Gushungo can be swept away.”

Not to be outdone, party deputy national chairman Morgen Komichi went into overdrive, describing Tsvangirai as the biblical Moses who endured all insults and setbacks, but remained steadfast in his mission to deliver the Israelites from the hands of Pharaoh.

“Mugabe is the Pharaoh and the Israelites were taken to the Red Sea by Moses — there is our Moses here. Moses was attacked and insulted, but he kept his mission,” Komichi gushed before churning out an apostolic song to buttress his point.

And Youth assembly deputy chairperson Costa Machingauta went a gear up, describing Tsvangirai as the face of the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe and likened him to the iconic late former South African President Nelson Mandela.

“There is no ANC struggle without Mandela, no Zanu PF struggle without Mugabe and there is no MDC struggle without Tsvangirai.

“They want to change the face of the struggle and replace Save (Tsvangirai’s totem) with a weaker person,” Machingauta ranted.

The unfettered bootlicking became the order of the day at the Tsvangirai rally just reminding the casual observer that it is possible for the opposition sometimes to copy the bad from the ruling Zanu PF where party leaders have developed the art of flattering the 90-year-old Mugabe.

In the last few years, Zanu PF ministers Webster Shamu, Obert Mpofu, Saviour Kasukuwere and many others showered Mugabe with citations, describing his rule as Cremora, and openly saying given a choice, they would have applied to be Mugabe’s children.

“If I was given the option to choose my father before birth, where would I go? I would have been Chatunga’s elder brother.

“I would have been number one at First House, at President Mugabe’s house.

“I would have said that’s where I want to be born,” Shamu surprised many at the Harare International Festival of the Arts Press conference in 2012. Mpofu signed off letters to Mugabe as “your ever obedient son”.

Kasukuwere was not to be outdone at the launch of the Mhondoro-Ngezi Community Share Ownership Trust at Makwiro in 2011, saying: “President Mugabe is like Moses. He will take us to Canaan where we will own our own resources and wealth. He is a leader who does not take bribes, otherwise if he took bribes, we would not have been here.”

A year earlier, the Zanu PF political commissar Shamu had shocked many by saying: “Gushungo, people say you have Cremora . . . the whole body.

“The war the world over, President, is about you. They fear you and that is why they are doing all this. There is no President the world over who has degrees like President Mugabe. He is brainy and that’s why he is feared. You fought the liberation struggle for a long time and you should also rule for as long as you want.”

National Party chairman Simon Khaya Moyo weighed in with his nicely-choreographed oration, describing the 90-year-old leader as a liberator of unparalleled proportions.

“His Excellency, you are a liberator of unparalleled audacity. You are a useful and amazing leader and we pray to God to make you stronger and continue to lead us from the front,” he said.

Most recently, Zanu PF apparatchiks fell over each other at Mugabe’s 90th birthday celebrations as Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera turned into a sycophantic contest after speakers lined up for congratulatory messages used all sorts of adjectives to define the Zanu PF leader.

Zanu PF youth affairs secretary Absalom Sikhosana suggested Mugabe should assume the grand title “Conqueror of the British Empire” from the late ex-Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada.

Idi Amin Dada had several titles to his name and was often referred to as “His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular”. Mugabe is also referred to as “His Excellency, President and First Secretary of Zanu PF, Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces”.

It is this sycophantic culture that has led Zimbabwe to failure because sycophants never criticise or correct their superiors, but want to be nice to them all the time.

Political analyst Ernest Mudzengi described the trend in politics as dangerous for politics as people were more into seeking favours and not being objective. “That is dangerous for politics as it blocks objective thinking and assessment of issues. People will not look at things objectively,” Mudzengi said. Click here to see graphic