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NewsDay

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Zanu PF’s lack of seriousness shocking

Opinion & Analysis
Zimbabweans have now effectively been placed in a hellhole, as the Zanu PF party leadership looks clueless and unmoved by the effects of an economy hurtling towards the abyss.

Zimbabweans have now effectively been placed in a hellhole, as the Zanu PF party leadership looks clueless and unmoved by the effects of an economy hurtling towards the abyss.

NEWSDAY COMMENT

Instead of dealing with the economy, President Robert Mugabe, whose party has largely been divided by its long-unresolved succession issue, is determined to impoverish the majority to extend his hegemony. Mugabe (91) is in his twilight years, hence talk of a successor in a democracy should not be viewed as taboo.

Mugabe-naphead

But Zanu PF factions would want us to believe that Mugabe is immortal and, therefore, irreplaceable even though signs point to his incapacity given the divisions in Zanu PF — fuelled by, chief among them, his wife First Lady Grace Mugabe

Zimbabweans best be warned to brace for much more extravagant attacks on perceived enemies in the coming months, as Grace continues with her so-called-rallies.

With the way events are happening, it is clear the centre no longer holds. That alone should worry the populace more and they should be prepared for a “night of long knives”.

This debacle pitting Grace against the party leadership is evidently a result of a deliberate political decision, which breaks decisively with the progressive programmes, promises and commitments that Mugabe has made to the electorate over the years.

Is it not true that the majority now view Mugabe and his acolytes as traitors, who betrayed them at the beck and call of their most egregious class enemy — the economy?

Events show that Mugabe is disconnected from the suffering of the impoverished and unemployed voters, yet Zanu PF apparatchiks are blind to the need to make a break with the system. No doubt, the political cowardice is structural and leads to easy moral duplicities.

Sadly, Zanu PF’s political impotence does not recognise the power of democracy. We believe Grace should understand that extreme negativity does not work, even on its own cynical terms. The most it can achieve is the mobilisation of the party’s core supporters, and even this assumes that it does not simultaneously repel uncommitted voters.

Unfortunately, Zanu PF has come to believe its own rhetoric, and this has lulled its leadership into intellectual laziness. Indeed, if Zanu PF leaders need reasons to stop pouring pestilence into our ears through Grace’s ranting, they should consider the anti-Mugabe mood and wonder where it comes from.

If politicians say vicious things about each other, they cannot be surprised when voters take them at their word. The net result is not a victory of their party over another, but a general debasement of their profession.

We wish Grace could understand that negative campaigning works if it is measured and delivered more in sorrow than in anger. Diversionary politics by Zanu PF will not help any situation.

We were even surprised when Women Affairs minister Nyasha Chikwinya brewed a shocker as she distributed sex-enhancing drugs to hundreds of the poor and hungry party faithful at a Gokwe-Nembudziya rally at the weekend where she emphasised on increased “sexual activity” among couples. Yet, although Chikwinya is not licensed to deal with the prescribed drugs which have serious side effects, she nonetheless dished them out like confetti.

The Zanu PF leadership should be warned that the effects of their policies will one day come to haunt them. There is no doubt that the major issues worrying Zimbabweans are Mugabe’s succession and the economy which has literally ground to a halt.

It befuddles the mind how government can be preoccupied with fighting over positions and distribution of sex-enhancing tablets when the economy is burning.

With Grace playing a central role in government business even without holding a constitutional office, Zimbabwe will remain unattractive to investors.

Indeed, the people will curse their memory and their betrayal of a noble cause.