Zanu PF’s President Robert Mugabe recently unwittingly confirmed he had a hand in the shrill calls by the few, but well-oiled MDC rebels to unconstitutionally oust popular party leader, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.
Luke Tamborinyoka
Discussions in the townships and the villages, far away from the boardrooms and sleek offices of the few well-heeled conspiring to remove Tsvangirai outside a people’s process, have been about Mugabe’s unprecedented backing of the MDC renegades.
Clearly showing he had more information than all of us, Mugabe chorused the rebels’ cause and went further to tell us that they should be peacefully allowed to walk out and form their own political party.
For a Zanu PF leader to back Tsvangirai’s ouster calls is like a well-known thief joining a few policemen calling for the removal of the officer-in-charge at a police station.
This obviously leaves bemused innocent citizens in the neighbourhood legitimately concluding that the rogue policemen calling for the hostile removal of their boss and the thieves are one; that, in fact, the shrill calls for “renewal” by the few officers at the police station were initiated and instigated by the criminal in the dark underworld.
The question in the villages and in the urban townships is: Why is Mugabe concerned by the goings-on in the MDC-T? Kurwadziwa nei pahuku yemweni? (Why concern yourself with other people’s affairs?)
Mugabe went further to tell us that the rebels want to form a party and they should peacefully be allowed to do so. He certainly has more information than all of us.
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In short, Zanu PF simply proved its paternity to this new political creature.
The objective of the plot to oust Tsvangirai is clear for all to see. Zanu PF knows that Mugabe is in the twilight of his career and chances are high that they might have a new candidate.
They also know that the Morgan Tsvangirai brand is too strong and has sufficiently embedded itself in the national psyche. Any new Zanu PF Presidential candidate will have a tough time against Tsvangirai whenever the next election is held.
It is in the interest of Zanu PF for the MDC-T to have a new candidate, a new brand so that both parties have new brands on the political market. In that case, the MDC-T will not have any head-start over Zanu PF.
It is in that context that Mugabe’s backing of the rebels begins to make sense. Removing Tsvangirai at this juncture is very much in the Zanu PF interest.
In any case, the MDC-T congress is the only platform for leadership renewal. Leaders can only be removed through an MDC-T congress. There is certainly no way leaders can be removed by a memorandum, a boardroom caucus or Zanu PF. They cannot substitute that body called congress.
The people of Zimbabwe are watching. The discussions in the villages and in the urban townships are centred on the nexus between the MDC-T rebels and Zanu PF (Hurukuro mazuva ano . . .)
In any case, it is ridiculous for a small group to say they have lost faith in the MDC-T and they are now forming a new political party called the MDC-T (eam). How ridiculous can we get!
But as Tsvangirai said in Mbare on Monday last week, why would Mugabe become a stakeholder in MDC-T issues? Surely, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho cannot be the one shouting louder than the Anfield faithfuls that Brendan Rodgers must go!
Itsitsi dzei mhou kuyamwisa mhuru isiri yayo? (Why cry more than the bereaved?)
Luke Tamborinyoka is the spokesperson for MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai. He writes here in his personal capacity.
