“THERE is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system.
Vince Musewe
The innovator has the enmity of all who profit by the preservation of the old system and only lukewarm defenders by those who would gain by the new system,” Niccolo Machiavelli once said.
These words of Machiavelli can hardly be challenged. We are currently witnessing this in Zimbabwe now, where everyone acknowledges that things must now change and yet that change is being vociferously stalled by those that seek to continue to benefit from the status quo while we are seeing a lukewarm response by those that would gain from the new system.
I continue to be amazed how the State media continues to reframe all issues and project President Robert Mugabe as infallible, always correct and not prone to make any blunders. That is simply not true. Zimbabwe needs a new leader with a totally different paradigm.
I suspect that Zanu PF fears axed Vice President Joice Mujuru’s comeback given their continued attack on her. For goodness sake as Zanu PF rots, I would advise Information minister Jonathan Moyo to focus on getting his party sorted out within than continually attacking those outside it.
If the truth be said, he has become rather uninspiring with his predictable ingenious diatribe. If only he could read his previous pieces when he was outside the party because, as far as I am concerned, he was absolutely on point then regarding his observation on Mugabe’s leadership.
Nothing has changed since then; in fact, things have gotten worse. I truly wonder how some men can sleep at night. But I guess erratic politicians are in fashion these days.
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In my opinion, Mujuru et al have every right to establish whatever political platform they wish. There is no law against that. I predict that they will certainly give Zanu PF and Nikuv a run for their money if they decide to contest the next elections.
Better still, if they partner with other substantive opposition parties. We will be in for a political thriller indeed. In my opinion, the political confusion and continued infighting within Zanu PF are not an accident.
Any system that is not founded on sound principles will destroy itself from within as it fails to continually regenerate itself.
The flawed thinking and value systems upon which Zanu PF is based cannot prevail and last forever.
Degeneration has caught up with it just as happened to dinosaurs. Sadly, we now can see how this government continually wants to deal with symptoms to what is a problem of illegitimacy, irrelevance and incompetence. We will all be the better off without it.
I think that Mujuru can certainly succeed if she is smart about it and goes for an inclusive approach to politics. For far too long we have left the responsibility of running Zimbabwe to a political party where the politburo runs the country even when it is evident that those members of Zanu PF who are appointed to the politburo are not there for their competence, but rather for their perceived loyalty to Mugabe. This means that the country is being run by politicians with very narrow interests and the results speak for themselves.
Struggle credentials have everything to do with the past and nothing to do with the future.
Zanu PF is clearly disintegrating and the main reason for this is because you cannot build an institution around an individual. That is our challenge in Zimbabwe post Mugabe era. We need to build new political institutions that live beyond individuals.
Sadly this also applies to our opposition political parties and we have seen how MDC Renewal is fast becoming a joke. I just don’t know what happened there, but that is why I hate political parties.
There is too much intrigue and contestation for positions and power that people will do anything to get to the top.
If it is indeed true that Renewal Democracy of Zimbabwe leader Elton Mangoma was set up, then I do not think that those that did it deserve to lead us at all. We cannot have unethical leadership claiming that they can lead us to a better future.
We have learnt from the past and as voters we must now judge people who aspire to be our leaders through who they are and not what they say. If we do not do that, we shall end up with the same problems that we now have with Zanu PF.
It is quite sad really that as a country we seem to spend more time bickering than getting things done. There have been no substantive economic changes since the 2013 election. All we have witnessed is the fallout among politicians from all sides and continued bickering, in the meantime the world is moving on and Zimbabwe is falling behind fast.
What is even comical are the claims and counter claims of who did what during the struggle. We all know that our struggle history has been manupulated and the truth shall reveal itself one day. I guess we shall have to rewrite our history some day. As Winston Churchill once said: “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”
Vince Musewe is an economist and author based in Harare. You may contact him on [email protected]
