IT doesn’t need a genius to work out that Zimbabwe needs fresh faces at the top, but should it be just any fresh face?
I pose the question because the current state of opposition politics resembles tragicomedy. Instead of giving people a glimmer of hope with the Zanu PF narrative of failure plain for all to see, the opposition is in disarray — short of organisation, strategy and focus.
Take the case of the main opposition MDC-T, who have decided to boycott next month’s by-elections necessitated by their recall of 21 MPs who crossed the floor to join the MDC Renewal Team. Now, if they can’t capitalise on the divisions within the ruling Zanu PF and reclaim and gain seats and fashion out new allegiances, what are they doing in politics?
A remixing of the core membership of both Zanu PF and the MDC-T — the biggest political parties in the country — could be underway following the brutal purge in the ruling party and MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s highly divisive decision not to participate in the polls that his party was sure to win hands down. Some of these soon-to-be former MPs have sacrificed a lot for daring to stand for the opposition and would be blacklisted from employment outside Parliament, which had become their only source of livelihood. Does the MDC-T have a kitty in reserve to pay them for the foreseeable future?
Or is there substance in the rumour doing the rounds that millions of dollars exchanged hands for them not to stand under the guise of a boycott? And that some Zanu PF heavyweight is at the centre of it? That would be the greatest betrayal of all. And that similar financial overtures have been made to Hurungwe West independent candidate Temba Mliswa to withdraw and pave way for Zanu PF’s Keith Guzah (alias Neverjoy Kachasu Phiri)? I digress.
Indeed, Tsvangirai took a big, big unnecessary gamble and the MDC-T could find itself reduced to the status of an embattled political party seeking to re-establish itself among its voting and financial constituencies.
How could they throw away the cards they had held for so long and to significant effect? Are they cocksure they will regain those seats come 2018? Or they will be gone forever? So, Tsvangirai could have brought a worst-case scenario nightmare upon himself.
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You need as much political space as possible and the better when that political space comes with privileges and immunities such as afforded in Parliament. Isn’t that crystal-clear?
In politics you don’t do one thing at a time, but many things — even contradictory ones — simultaneously. A poll boycott doesn’t have to be a complete boycott where a partial boycott would serve the party better. It’s not about “either or”. In football parlance, they say: If you can’t win it, don’t lose it. Who doesn’t know that there is political chicanery in Zimbabwe? But the MDC-T should have held on to what they got.
With Zanu PF is at its most divided, those constituencies where the MDC-T lost by a narrow margin in 2013 — such as Matobo North, Mbare and Mt Pleasant, to mention just three — would have been regained had the MDC-T done its permutations. It beats me how the MDC-T has failed to see this.
Maybe, it’s because they are too internally focused whereas you need to focus on the road ahead, process what you observe, then make the necessary adjustments to get to where you are going. If you don’t take into account changes in the political environment, readjust your key strategies and continually scan the political landscape for new opportunities, you get stuck in a cul-de-sac.
Tsvangirai could be planting in the minds of the voters — if he has not already done so — that what they are seeing is an uncertain individual leading his party towards an uncertain future because there is plentiful evidence that the MDC-T, despite its enduring massive support base, has been badly run for years. When it comes to the decisive moment, people can suddenly change their allegiance.
Then there is MDC leader Welshman Ncube who is certain in his mind that voters themselves — not him — have been getting it wrong all along by not supporting his party. Lately, Ncube has been saying that too many of them have put their own fears of economic insecurity before their long-term interests.
He could be right, but he misses a strong point: “People do generally vote in what they perceive to be the interests of them and their families,” writes British journalist and historian Tim Stanley. This tendency not to credit the public with being able to understand the essence of the problems facing Zimbabwe when many of them understand the issues clearly can and does backfire. People might not be able to engage at a “more sophisticated” level, but they are not that daft as not to know what’s good or bad for them. Blaming the voters for an unfavourable result rubs people the wrong way.
Ncube also ought to avoid being perceived as self-righteous. Voters don’t respond well to being told, for instance, that Ncube’s opponents are totally dull and clueless, or there is some grand supremacist conspiracy where people have ganged up to shut him out. People won’t readily believe this because they can’t help, but notice that his own party has suffered multiple fractures — including desertions and defections by some of his closest lieutenants and staunchest supporters — and the buck stops with him. Rather, he should work on his inability so far to connect than apportion blame elsewhere to stem his dwindling numbers.
Wrote Ncube recently: “What counts is what manner of proficiency, depth, commitment, knowledge, a passion for delivery and people skills the man or woman on the ballot paper has.” Precisely! Ncube could start by working on his people skills to grow his party. Politics is also about managing situations, it’s about putting your house in order first before you point fingers at others.
As for the MDC Renewal Team, this week all hell broke loose at the party’s offices in Eastlea, Harare, leaving co-founder Elton Mangoma bloodied after being clobbered by a party youth, Believe Tevera, for allegedly having an affair with the youth’s 20-year-old common law wife.
Said MDC Renewal Team spokesperson Jacob Mafume: “The issue is a purely private affair . . . As a party, we will wait for due process to take its course between three private individuals.” This is not to say Mangoma is guilty of anything, but there is no such thing as a private matter when you are a public figure like him. Otherwise, former United States President Bill Clinton’s affair with a White House junior staffer — unmarried for that matter — revealed in 1998 would have been treated as a purely private matter rather than the explosive political scandal it became.
The next day Mafume revised his position announcing that they would set up a committee to investigate the matter. Said Mafume: “The committee will establish its findings and measures will be taken with the precision of a butcher’s cleaver and the force of a hippopotamus to rid the party of any manifestation of violence or unbecoming language.”
Such pedantic, overdone, showy language smacks of the political frivolity which is sinking the MDC Renewal Team — fast.
This is the sort of drama that their supporters and sponsors could do without, especially after Mangoma said “some of my colleagues” were behind the attack. It’s disastrous in terms of image and reputation especially after they broke away from Tsvangirai accusing him of, among other things, sexual indiscretions and violence. It’s not a cruel reminder, but a relevant one.
These characters in the MDC Renewal Team could be the worst of the whole lot. It seems no matter which party they are in, they just can’t stop blundering.
