The trouble with our politics

By Tino Chinyoka

In my first year at the University of Zimbabwe, l saw a scrawny young man, barely 5’5″ create a legend around himself through sheer determination and zeal.

Wearing a helmet wrestled from a riot-police officer during one of our demonstrations, he would stand in front of the Students Union and thunder with his unexpectedly strong voice: “From here we rise!”

Tragically, Fambainesu Lawrence Chakaredza, known to all as Warlord, died before his potential could be harnessed for the good of our country. Love him or hate him, but one thing is true: Warlord was committed to Zimbabwe.

I can just imagine how he would react to Morgan Tsvangirai’s bizarre statement that if Amai Grace Mugabe was the Zanu PF candidate in 2018 he would boycott the elections (sometimes you get the feeling Morgan feels his heart might just stop if he does not get to use the word ‘boycott’.)

So the 2018 elections might be a walkover after all? I mean, your house is imploding and you run around saying if my neighbour uses corrugated iron on his roof handidhle sadza! Please. l imagine Larry would go to the nomination court and put himself forward as the MDC candidate.

The trouble with our politics is that it does not have people like Larry. Committed, selfless, driven by a love for the good of our country. He was the guy who, with others, went on a hunger strike for something that had no benefit to himself. Just on principle. Who saw beyond mere rhetoric about owning our destiny but wanted people to go out there and actually claim it, by any means necessary.

The trouble with our politics is that it has lost such people. It has become petty because all the serious people have been driven out or are being driven out by clowns eager to occupy spaces they do not deserve. Take Welshman Ncube. What does he stand for?

Aside from betraying Learnmore Jongwe by advising him to turn himself in (not a bad thing) on the promise to stand by him but then not helping him with his legal defence, having promised to do so, what contribution has Welshman Ncube done to Zimbabwean politics that can make people in the opposition stop and think: ‘you know what, back when Welshman wanted to kick out Morgan Tsvangirai we should have let him.’

And you know you are not worth much when you are not even better than Tsvangirai and his boycott anything mantra. But you see, such is what happens when you drive away all talent and are left with chaff.

And that, is the point of this piece. Certain characters within the ruling party, seeing a chance to run against a clueless opposition, are engineering a defeat in any upcoming election by tarnishing the image of their second most senior leader.

National elections are no longer won by the proverbial ‘even if we put a donkey there they will vote” of Muzenda lore. Instead, elections are won through people comparing candidates and deciding who they would rather see as President

While one might have sympathies with Tendai Biti deciding that Morgan Tsvangirai had become too comfortable in his role to win any future election, one sees no parallel in Jonathan Moyo or his G40 colleagues thinking that Mnangagwa is someone that needs to be pushed aside.

For while Biti could point to specific points of difference between him and his erstwhile mentor, the most that these ambitious “young” Turks appear to have against Mnangagwa is that he is Karanga. Otherwise, how can one explain the totally baseless and uncalled for questioning of a liberation war career that is a matter of public record?

How does one explain the completely rabid social media campaign against someone untainted by the corruption that tarnishes all of them? Without speaking ill of the dead, one finds it ironic that Zhuwawo talks with pride about his mother buried at heroes acre alongside other liberation war heroes and yet denigrates the same war veterans as having nothing to say to today’s youths.

The trouble with our politics is that people do not learn that you do not build a solid base by undermining your leadership. Without a credible opposition to fight against, the ruling party must spend its energy solving the economic problems facing our nation instead of targeting people just because of where they come from.

Having gotten rid of the gamatox team and their rabid anti-Karanga agenda, it would appear that those left have caught the same infection and have now started sneezing in the direction of those Karangas left standing.

For, in the absence of any credible reason for targeting a colleague, that seems to be his only sin. We are being pushed into a situation where once again, where you come from matters. Only that it is being done cleverly by a Machiavellian political science professor who calculates that his best chance to lead comes in setting everyone against each other, until he and a few choice friends are the ones left standing.

Stuffing the state media with cronies to silence his targets, then watching like a puppet master as they go about boycotting a Vice President’s newsworthy activities while exaggerating his cronies’ activities.

The trouble with our politics is that we have too many people thinking that intelligence is a precious jewel that resides only in their heads. That we are all too dense to see through their plots and know what they plan to do. News to the wise: we know.

First, in phase 1, you sponsor some pseudo-research to start questioning a person’s past, then in phase 2 you go after their friends, with phase 3 seeing you start questioning their credentials, before you finish off, in phase 4, by throwing in a few allegations of seeking to suggest that your target wants to get rid of President Mugabe so that you have the latter do your job for you.

So we know that when you start peddling unfounded allegations about Mnangagwa printing 2018 campaign stationery with his likeness, you are already in phase 4. Quite why we are expected to believe that someone who was bypassed for promotion in 2005 but waited his turn is suddenly trying to sabotage himself is beyond comprehension.

But that is their trademark strategy. Misdirection by claiming to stand on principle: quite like Welshman Ncube claiming to be a democrat by deposing Morgan Tsvangirai and looking for a Shona-for-hire to lead ‘his’ party while all the while knowing full well that he wants the top job for himself but is too timid to come in the open.

The trouble with our politics is vacuous people like Welshman Ncube and his kindred professors in the ruling party thinking that just because they can string together a few long winded sentences satirical to the ear then they are somewhat qualified to disqualify perfectly suitable people from leadership.

We can all read and regurgitate political science tomes. But that does not make us particularly suitable to lead political parties or the country. And one does not need to look further than the fact that anyone who thinks that the possible death of a citizen is stuff to joke about is not suited to lead no matter what personal tragedy they also then suffer.

In the absence of a credible opposition, who leads the ruling party matters a great deal. In that regard, the choice must belong to the people. Not a privileged cabal with a sense of entitlement led by questionable characters of no substance that think that it is okay to joke about exotic crocodile burgers at a time when people have no idea where their next meal will come from. How is that different from the opposition leader who campaigns for a boycott of Gushungu Dairies yoghurt and ice-cream when people have no money to afford their next morsel of sadza?

Those that seek to lead our country should stop to think about these things before those they lead start thinking that the trouble with our politics is that we have too many professors. Just saying.

Tinomudaishe Chinyoka: ZANU PF UK – definitely writing in a personal capacity. Naturally