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Brace for ED, Chamisa’s Kenyan handshake

Opinion & Analysis
Infighting in Zanu PF has been the talk of the town for the past couple of years and it took a turn in the last few weeks.

Guest column: Cliff Chiduku

Infighting in Zanu PF has been the talk of the town for the past couple of years and it took a turn in the last few weeks. All hell broke loose when two Zanu PF young musketeers – Lewis Matutu and Godfrey Tsenegamu – came out guns blazing at a Press conference in Harare, accusing businessmen Kudakwashe Tagwirei, Billy Rautenbach and Tafadzwa Musarara, who are perceived to be close to the Presidium, for bleeding the country’s economy by engaging in corrupt activities.

The Zanu PF politburo then recommended the demotion of the pair to mere card-carrying members and for them to undergo re-orientation at the ruling party’s Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology. Tsenengamu, the more vocal of the two, vowed that he will only set his foot at the school as a lecturer.

The duo opined that dialogue between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and MDC leader Nelson Chamisa would rescue the Zimbabwean situation.

The country is facing fuel shortages, runaway inflation, unsustainable load-shedding and unemployment. Tsenengamu insisted that their planned anti-corruption summit next week will go ahead and that a week later, they expect Mnangagwa and opposition leaders to accede to dialogue and find a common position to take Zimbabwe out of the woods.

Knowing how cold it is outside Zanu PF, it would be folly of the pair to sacrifice their political careers if they had no backing of senior party officials, especially from Mnangagwa himself. Zanu PF being Zanu PF, the party withdrew perks and aides from the pair for their disrespect of party protocol in their fight against corruption.

Chivi South legislator Killer Zivhu was last year almost kicked out of the gravy train when he called Chamisa and Mnangagwa to dialogue, but he was testing the waters. It’s a taboo to say the truth in Zanu PF.

However, the ever restless and conspiring grapevine believes, as cunning and calculative as he is, Mnangagwa could be making a Hegelian dialectic call to Chamisa for dialogue.

To better appreciate the power behind the storm brewing in Zanu PF, which was sparked by the former youth league leaders, it is important to understand the “problem-reaction-solution” or the “Hegelian dialectic” matrix as coined by German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

First, a crisis is created, designed to elicit a certain reaction from the members of public. In turn, the people would demand answers and would willingly accept a pre-planned new order solution; a solution that always involves actions or legislation that never would have passed under normal circumstances.

The problem-reaction-solution entails a leader or government to create or exploit a crisis which it blames on others (false flags). The mass (povo) is then forced to react by asking the same government or leader for assistance. False flags are underground operations usually conducted by leaders or governments which are made to appear as though they have been performed by other entities. At this stage, people would be desperate for help and would be willing to give up their rights. The government then offers the solution that was planned long before the crisis.

Power-mad leaders have since time immemorial been manufacturing crises, only to emerge as knights in shinning armour and appear to be sorting out the problem.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler deliberately set on fire his own Reichstag (Parliament) building and shovelled the blame on his political enemies. The Nazi leadership used the fire to claim that communists were planning a violent uprising, so emergency legislation was needed to prevent this. The resulting act, commonly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, abolished a number of constitutional protections and paved the way for Nazi dictatorship.

Similarly, the ructions caused by the former youth league leaders’ utterances could have been deliberately manufactured and meant to justify the need for engaging Chamisa in solving the crisis bedevilling Zimbabwe.

Mnagagwa seems to be ready to embrace Chamisa, but a military clique in the ruling party is reportedly scuttling such efforts, fearing that this will give birth to a governing arrangement that can push them away from the centre of power.

So it would be ideal for Mnangagwa to manufacture a problem, wait for Zimbabweans to react and then emerge as the Messiah.

Corruption is being used to whip up people’s emotions and this could be his trump card.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who many hoped would finally help the country’s endless socio-economic crisis, has not returned to Zimbabwe after promising to come back before year end last year amid reports that a military clique in the ruling party is scuttling Mnangagwa’s efforts to engage Chamisa, fearing that this will give birth to an arrangement that would sideline them.

It is in no doubt Tsenengamu and Matutu addressed the Press conference with Mnangagwa’s blessings and just like Zivhu, the duo’s case will suffer a natural death. Their defiance is telling in many more ways than one. The Press conference was akin to the Sarajevo incident, meant to muddy the waters. Given the support the axed youth leaders got from some senior politburo members, the call for dialogue will grow louder each passing day. And Mnangagwa would use that as fodder to call the military to order and ultimately embrace his rival.

The fact that former Presidential adviser and war veterans leader Christopher Mutsvangwa met Chamisa in South Africa points to what is brewing.

Mnangagwa is alive to the fact that apart from gobbling public funds, his Political Actors’ Dialogue (Polad) project has failed and with the economy tanking, sharing a cup of tea with Chamisa would save his face. The illegitimate question has become a tall order on ED and engaging Chamisa is the remedy. This will definitely shut the door on Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga.

I can bet my bottom dollar that by mid-year, Chamisa and Mnanagwa would have exchanged the Kenyan handshake. I believe.

Cliff Chiduku is a journalist who writes here in his personal capacity. Feedback: [email protected]