“Pasi nemhandu, pasi nemhandu pasi nemhandu, pasi nemhandu! (Down with the enemy!),” gleefully chanted Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa soon after his “appointment” as vice-president of both Zanu PF party and the country.
Wilton Nyasha Machimbira,Our Reader
He was almost in ecstatic frenzy. His political star, which had remained stagnant for decades, seemed to be rising, oblivious of the sacriligeous glass ceiling in Zanu PF.
What Mnangagwa failed to bear in mind is that he had been “appointed” and not “elected” into the office. Every political office-bearer has to know the background of his or her position because in the field of politics or corporate world an appointer can also be a disappointer.
Everyone watched as Mnangagwa was humiliated and torn apart by political novices such as Hurungwe West legislator Sarah Mahoka and recently by Mandi Chimene at the crisis management meeting held at the Zanu PF headquarters in Harare recently.
Mnangagwa’s crime is his cosy relations with war veterans who recently issued a communique severing ties with the President Robert Mugabe. Chimene spoke without qualms, candidly, without an iota of hesitation and obviously at the behest of the First Family, the chief puppeteer. One then wonders if gynarchy — rule by a woman — has slowly, but surely gained momentum in Zanu PF. People are wondering if this is the fearsome “crocodile” we know or something else. Surely, Mnangagwa’s political sojourn has been signposted from a political invincibility episode to a political vulnerability epilogue.
However, it’s too early to take this as Mnangagwa’s Waterloo. The Generation 40 (G40) crew therefore risk premature political climax if they assume that it’s game over and fait accompli. In fact, this is the begining of a new political discourse in Zimbabwe. This ought to be taken as the trial and not the triumph of securocracy given the fact that the Mnangagwa flirts with the security sector.
As post-modernists hinted, people must embrace and acknowledge uncertainty for every discpline even politics will never be certain. However, the paradox of the post-modern position is that in placing all principles under the scrutiny of its scepticism, it must realise that even its own principles are not beyond questioning.
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Well, needless to say, Mnangagwa is having a good taste of his own medicine. He is now being subjected to the very same political torment that Joice Mujuru was subjected to. Do to others as you would love them do unto you. That’s a cardinal policy that Mnangagwa failed to understand. It reminds me of the memoir of Tony Blair in which he rightly pointed out that it’s unwise to deliberately create enemies in the field of politics because you can also create a myriad of them unknowingly.
As the shadow boxing and mudslinging continue to take centre-stage, it’s important to realise that it is the masses who happen to be the collateral damage and the unintended casuality as service delivery has now been placed in the backwater. As the drama unfolds, the masses remain in perpetual servitude as hewers of wood and drawers of water for the recalcitrant regime.
While the chimera of Mnangagwa’s presidency seem to be on the wall in the face of cataclysmic factionalism, one wonders why some political figures in Zanu PF have chosen to adopt some form of “quiet diplomacy” and some wait-and-see atittude. The silence of people like Sydney Sekeramayi and Ignatius Chombo needs to be interrogated. One wonders whether they are happy or unhappy, but the bottom line is that there is more to it than meets the eye. They seem to be privy to some nicodimous tête-à-têtes. Their silence will speak for itself one day. Only time will tell.
After all has been said and done, one still wonders what the actual borne of contention is between warring factions in Zanu PF. Is it a crime to have presidential ambitions? One also wonders why Mugabe and his hangers-on take umbrage to constructive criticism if the recent solidarity protests by Zanu PF youths is anything to go by. Ironically, the youths are the ones hardest hit by Zanu PF’s ruinous policies.
However, events taking place in Zanu PF would force even a hardcore atheist to read the Bible and meditate: are these the end-time signs for the regime typical of an era of stolen dreams and vandalised aspirations?
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