Faced with the reality of massive electoral defeat which could precipitate aggregate disintegration of the former revolutionary party, confusion within ZANU PF has intensified particularly in the last few days.
There has never been a time in the recent past that the moribund party has appeared so fragmented. One would be forgiven for thinking that the party has now metamorphosed into several competing sub-parties.
In an episode reminiscent of Saul’s faith-changing journey to Damascus, Professor Jonathan Moyo, in his article to commemorate heroes day, spoke as if he had just landed from the moon where he had been hibernating for the past thirty years “The time has come for comrades in the nationalist movement to understand that there is an important difference between change and transformation”
This, he said while agitating for ZANU PF’s takeover or reinvention by what he curiously described as “Generation 40” – probably the new term for Dinyane or Third Way considering that there are not may in the their 40s within ZANU PF leadership.
If the above had been said by somebody else, it would have been swiftly rubbished as the work of agents of regime change or puppets of the West. Surely, Prof Moyo listens only to his voice as he strongly believes that he has the monopoly of wisdom; probably the typical mental model for those who spent a long time floating in space!
Why he chose to deliver a soporific lecture on the constancy of change to everyday life without even attempting to explain the difference between change and transformation, remains a mystery.
If anything, what ZANU PF needs and needs urgently is transformation. There has to be a paradigm shift, a totally new direction as opposed to modicum change which often borders on recycling the same deadwood every election. By virtue of being part of the rot, Jonathan Moyo knows very well that in a transformation, very few will survive, himself included. The fact that he once took a “sabbatical” (to quote a friend of mine) disguised as an independent MP, will not exonerate him.
Nevertheless, if there is one talent that this man is blessed with, it is knowing which side of his bread is buttered. A victim of what I would call Perpetual Dependency Syndrome (PDS) who lives one day at a time, Jonathan Moyo fervently agitates for an early election where President Mugabe is likely to be used as a mere pawn or placeholder by the vultures that are ready to pounce onto the carcass.
Moyo argues that the next election should be held before 2013 because not doing so will give credence to the strategy that “at that time it will not be practical and reasonable for President Mugabe to be a presidential candidate given the allegations that are being made about his age and alleged poor health”
Why the learned professor doesn’t see some contraction between this postulation and his argument for change, beats the mind. Until I read his article, I never realised that President Mugabe’s age of 87 was not the truth but only an allegation or a figment of the enemy’s imagination.
Such professorial inadequacy coming at a time when the nation is still mourning the passing on of a luminary professor and silent achiever, Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, could not have come at a worse time. If this was an attempt to recover from the damaging serialisation of his acerbic articles by the independent media, then the self-appointed ZANU PF spokesman has probably gone too far in reinventing himself.
As for the threat to take over firms such as Rio Tinto in an act of retaliation for targeted sanctions, we can only say good luck. It would appear that running a simple transport business such as Air Zimbabwe with less than five serviceable aeroplanes or ZUPCO with less than twenty buses should be much easier than operating a complex venture such as mining. Also, who doesn’t know that our country is starved of foreign investment?
It is for these reasons that I would call the last few days a season of ZANU PF confusion.
The writer Moses Chamboko can be reached on [email protected]
