CAN anyone really express surprise that the savage attacks unleashed on Vice-President Joice Mujuru primarily by First Lady Grace Mugabe could be having the opposite effect, that they could actually be working in Mujuru’s favour?
Conway Tutani
Any serious student of history, politics and leadership could have predicted the unintended results even before Grace’s countrywide rallies – dubbed Meet the People Tour, which served as nothing more than a platform to demonise Mujuru – ended.
One thing for sure: This public show of anger is not endearing – especially coming from a woman. It’s not being sexist, but that’s just how it is. Noisy outbursts detract from whatever positive point you have. That good point is buried in anger.
That is how disastrous in terms of PR the attacks on Mujuru have been. It does not sit well with most people to bully a Vice-President, who happens to be a woman, who happens to be a widow, who happens not to have been convicted of any crime.
Instead of de-campaigning Mujuru, they have actually campaigned for her. This is a function of overkill. The attacks have been manifestly disproportionate and excessive.
People are asking: What crime on Mother Earth could Mujuru, their comrade-in-arms, whose late husband, Retired General Solomon Mujuru, is the most decorated soldier in Zimbabwe, have committed to deserve this? The timing of it all is not coincidental. This week we had a story planted — yes, dusted off from 2011 and placed with the intention to besmirch or incriminate — in the Grace camp-controlled Herald newspaper with the big, bold headline VP Mujuru in $1m scandal.
They are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, but for political blackmail, political silencing, because why have they been silent about it until now? It is strongly rumoured that the system has a political stranglehold over each and every minister and many politicians in the form of damaging dossiers which will be promptly publicised if they dare step out of line.
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Yes, two wrongs don’t make a right, but we should demand complete revelations with no sacred cows, not what may turn out to be politically calculated stunts.
If they are genuinely intent on cleaning up the system, the broom should sweep every nook and corner. Last week, Japanese Justice minister Midori Matsushima resigned after the opposition filed a criminal charge, accusing her of violating the election law by distributing paper fans — yes, mere paper fans — to voters.
In Zimbabwe the First Lady has been openly campaigning for her husband and distributing goodies to her audiences and threatening to withhold them from those walking out on her. What does the law say about this? And is it ethically acceptable?
One wonders: Are these propagandists reading the overwhelmingly negative comments about their vile conduct on various media websites, including the public media which they use and abuse as their “own”? Scanning newspaper websites, at least 85% of responses are on Mujuru’s side.
Yes, these propagandists — who are proving not to be so adroit, after all — ought to be reminded about the underdog effect. It’s about not letting bullies win. From politics to sports to business, people are quick to identify those at a competitive disadvantage as underdogs, such as Mujuru.
Moreover, there is ample anecdotal evidence — derived from gatherings like football stadiums, bars, funerals, etc, where you get the feel of the real political temperature, not the official propaganda in the State media — that most people do not hesitate to align themselves with underdogs. This a natural human instinct.
This leads to people rooting against top dogs — of which the First Lady and her sidekick Oppah Muchinguri are as the State machnery is clearly favouring them.
That the President’s own wife has been spearheading the anti-Mujuru crusade does not show astuteness, but crudeness.
Mujuru reports to Mugabe, not to Grace, fullstop. But what has been happening is like the boss’s wife who does not appear on the company’s organogram or organisational chart — a drawing or plan that gives the names and job titles of all the staff in an organisation or department, showing how they are connected to each other — but still finds it in herself to barge into any office or department at will to bark orders and make any and all threats to staff.
Being First Lady is at the most an honorary title conferred purely out of respect, not legal entitlement.
She is not there by merit or anything like that, but through marriage to her husband who happens to be the Head of State. The title is nominal, it is unofficial; that is why “First Lady” is not written anywhere in the Constitution.
This week, a hired crowd of loafers and political illiterates, on the other hand, and, on the other hand, people going about their business caught at the wrong place at the wrong time and vendors threatened with closure of their markets if they did not jump on the provided buses — some of them possibly commandeered — descended on the Zanu PF headquarters for a stage-managed anti-Mujuru protest.
Some of them from outside Harare were heard saying they had been forced onto the buses without being told for what purpose, only to discover on arrival that they had been tricked into joining the “protest”. One placard, among the many uncultured, uneducated sickening, primitive, uncouth, vulgar banners, read: “Zimuroyi! Zimbuya reku Dotito! (The Witch! The Old, Ugly, Evil Woman from Dotito!)”
Mujuru has been used and abused. Mr President, you appointed her to thwart the Mnangagwa faction accusing it of plotting against you for merely devising strategic plans to change the political matrix as politicians everywhere do — and 10 years down the line you pull out the same accusations against Mujuru for merely taking steps to consolidate her position, as – again — politicians the world over are inclined to do.
Nix! This is mere trickery to maintain your iron grip on power. To Amai Mujuru and the routinely-robbed opposition: It’s about not breaking when you are broken.
