Chiwenga takes a dig at Chamisa

Vice President Constantino Chiwenga brushed off the main opposition MDC Alliance and its youthful leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday, as ambitious figures promising pie in the sky, in a trademark moment of the ruling party’s manifesto launch focused on the old guard’s bid for a five-year term.

As Chamisa’s upstart candidacy gains traction ahead of keenly watched presidential elections, the ruling party has unleashed an extraordinary propaganda and cyber campaign against the centrist insurgent’s promises to build bullet trains, spaghetti roads and establish village airports.

In the latest twist in Zimbabwe’s highly contentious presidential election, Chamisa — an outspoken 40-year-old centrist who is packing crowds on the campaign trail and who has pitched his dream to nudge Zimbabweans  to imagine endless possibilities — is now soaring in the polls.

With less than four months before the election, his unexpected rise is already sending jitters and shock waves though analysts have likened the upcoming Zimbabwe election to “Europe’s Stalingrad,” a crucial turning point that will determine the future of a country.

And the ruling Zanu PF, at its manifesto launch at a local hotel in Harare yesterday seemed to focus on Chamisa, who has vaulted into the picture and has pushed his desire to drastically alter Zimbabwe’s economy into a first world country.

Chamisa is running as the candidate of the MDC Alliance, in an alliance with six other opposition parties.

While Chamisa has promised to build bullet trains, spaghetti roads and establish village airports, Chiwenga yesterday said those were outrageous dreams.

He suggested Chamisa cannot be taken seriously given that MDC-run local authorities have vandalised local municipalities.

Chiwenga said “we must ask ourselves why pretenders who sell us such convoluted dummies cannot manage small traffic in our real world cities and municipalities which they control and run”.

“Why reach Bulawayo in 40 minutes when Harare workers can’t reach Kuwadzana in five hours?” Chiwenga asked in an apparent dig at the Kuwadzana East MDC Member of Parliament’s promise for bullet trains.

“Why open cans of spaghetti when potholes strangle single lane roads in the city centre,” Chiwenga said referring to Chamisa’s promise of spaghetti roads.

“Shouldn’t these starry-eyed juvenile politicians take us to Mabvuku after a hard day’s work before they put us on Apollo II to the moon?” the former Zimbabwe Defence Forces general asked rhetorically.

Chiwenga said Zanu PF would be unfurling its campaign pretty soon, and will “dismantle” the opposition promises.

“We shall have time to dismantle their little make-believe dreams as we get down to real campaign work.

“Before they tackle our icon could they do their supporters a favour by resolving ridiculous issues that dog and hound them,” he said referring to the recent MDC split over leadership struggles that have seen one of the vice presidents Thokozani Khupe walk out to form her own movement.

But all is not lost for the opposition.

Chamisa is now engaged in coalition talks with former Young Turks of the ruling party, dubbed the Generation 40, currently in orbit.

The ruling party is unlikely to hand over power voluntarily if it loses elections. But because of the plunging state of the economy and unprecedented splits in the ruling party, Zanu PF has a lot to worry about.

Chiwenga, a retired military general, said that Zanu PF would rule forever, and that the greenhorns had not ideas the sacrifices made to liberate the country.

“We excuse them for being too young to have participated in the struggle but we can’t excuse them for mounting a bid for national leadership from a pilfered party count,” Chiwenga said without elaborating.

Analysts have said the opposition would need to win big and make conciliatory promises to the old guard, most likely including amnesties, in order to avoid a repeat of the 2008 violence. Daily News