Shun goblin power and go back to the people

By Sibanengi Dube

The MDC-T committed the cardinal sin of accepting a non-returnable goblin (tokoloshe) from a witch-doctor by going into the Unity Government with Zanu PF.

A tokoloshe is powerful muti which is believed to bring truckloads of money to its host (murombi), but is accompanied with bloody conditions. What seems to be clear about the nymph, also known as Chikwambo in Shona is that they have a predisposition of demanding human blood of murombi’s relatives?

To make matters worse it is not returnable to the n’anga even upon the collapse of the working relationship. It is a permanent take-away; it doesn’t have a reverse jive. Ritual acceptance of the creature means perpetual bondage to it on its own terms and conditions.

It will stick around forever bringing both cash and headaches. These grubby boys are not gentlemen at all and are as unforgiving as a bank. It has a tendency of departing from agreed terms and conditions and starts behaving in a complete opposite of the initial agreement.

It might also demand conjugal rights from the host’s wife or daughters. Of course I neither have one nor came into contact with the corporeal but have listened to tales of people who erroneously accepted them.

Most Sangomas who create tokoloshes own none and are visibly poor. Their life styles are a far cry from the short-lived vast opulence of their clients. Money generated by Tokoloshes is not real and flies away from murombi’s pockets like air.

By going into partnership with Zanu PF a hard working young man and qualified job-seeker MDC, ignored lucrative offers from the employers (electorate) and elected to accept the services of a Chikwambo.

In the process MDC protagonists started enjoying proceeds of a Chikwambo and forgot that Zanu PF only pulled them closer enough to paint them dirty. The power they got is not real just like Tokolosho cremation.

Just like a goblin its agenda is not necessarily to bring money to the host but to suck the murombi dry. Zanu PF’s agenda was never to share power with MDC but to dilute the strength of the Tshisa Mpamas.

No wonder why several surveys conducted recently show that MDC-T’s support base was dwindling.

The MDC leadership publicly acknowledges that they neither have power nor authority in the inclusive government but surprisingly pushed the majority of its key personnel and strategic drivers of the party into coalition government. In the process they surrendered the streets, where the genuine power is, to Zanu PF.

Does anyone remember the period towards the formation of the inclusive government? Cadres deserted Harvest House foraging for ministerial posts from their boss Morgan Tsvangirai, literally leaving the party, exposed and vulnerable to sluggishness and torpor.

What were they rushing for? Tokoloshe power! Yes! That is fake power.

The real power lies with the people in the streets. The real meaningful political office is at Harvest or Chester House and not in government building like Kaguvi and Munhumutapa. MDC ceased to seek real power and eased the momentum they had gathered from 2000 upon accepting hollow ministerial offices as if they had taken real control.

As the leading political commentator Dr John Makumbe puts it: “The Party went into the corridors of power and abandoned the work in the streets. People are found in the streets and not in the corridors of power. We have all seen that even though it was in the corridors of power, Zanu PF never left the streets.”

MDC shakers and movers like the rubble-cox Party Secretary General Tendai Biti and the crowd-puller Organising Secretary Nelson Chamisa should have been confined to Harvest House to maintain the genuine intimacy which MDC had been enjoying with the masses.

Throwing them to the deep end of shit ministries whose filament was fretted out by Zanu PF ministers was not the best option. MDC-T will not drum-up public support by making wonders, improvements, or miracles in the current inclusive government.

No! The Zimbabwe government operations and machinery are too shredded to be redeemed within the life span of the Inclusive government. People want to see a concerted effort towards expelling the former guerrillas from the corridors of power and anything short of that will only serve to raise suspicions among the electorate.

It is suicidal for MDC to continue cohabiting with Zanu PF. There is also a frightening blame game being played within the government circles. Zanu PF seems to have successfully applied fats of meat on MDC’s lips.

Varikuzodzwa mafata enyama yavasina kudya. Now Finance minister Tendai Biti is being blamed for failing to increase salaries of civil servants. Biti has also courted hostility by raising doubt over the government’s ability to pay civil servants bonuses this year.

Vava kuluma (they are now also eating) sentiments are growing louder by day as MDC leaders’ opulent life styles begin to surface. People are saying vatikanganwa ava vavakutodya zvavo nezanu.

Loosely translated as MDC leaders have forgotten the masses and are now eating with Zanu PF. Most public representatives of MDC cruise around in three litres diesel guzzling German sedan beasts much to the annoyance of grass roots supporters who are getting killed every day by Zanu PF thugs for putting on Party T-shirts.

MDC councillors, Mayors, MPs and ministers are attracting stinging media headlines which are similar to the ones generated by their Zanu PF counterparts, thereby eroding the high moral fibre of the Chinja maitiros.

It has become a norm for MDC leaders to have their hands caught in the cookie-jars in clear contrast to the ethical righteousness which the Party enjoys ahead of Zanu PF.

I am not suggesting that MDC leaders are thieves but the kind of adverse publicity they are generating surrounding the Constituency Development Fund is not health for a young political party which is still undergoing a rigorous fitness test.

It is not yet an opportune time for MDC leaders to start erecting mansions on hill-tops at a moment when everyone is still in the trenches. This is clear dissonance. Those who made their money, through the back-door or front entrance, must honestly post-pone exhibiting their millions, to avoid sending a wrong message.

Mayors and councillors who are overtly selling residential stands to people in Diaspora at exorbitant prices must park their Hummers in closed garages and desist from the habit of displaying their sumptuousness at each and every opportunity, corner, turn and event.

Vanhu vane meso. Vachabvunza kuti ko makadziwenepi. It is not yet time to make merry and marry. It can’t be business as usual under such circumstances.

Sibanengi Dube is a former student leader who later became a journalist in both Zimbabwe and South Africa. He has also previously served as MDC-T spokesman in South Africa.