Tafi Mhaka

By Tafi Mhaka As a potentially long, extensive and brutal battle against COVID-19 heats up in South Africa, it is clear that to contain the spread of the Coronavirus, Africa’s most developed nation must confront its unequal past and present economic and social realities by establishing an immediate, unprecedented focus on rectifying the abysmal lives of people residing in neglected shantytowns and townships.

By Tafi Mhaka Stung by the intense squabbling provoked by Elias Mashavira’s legal action, Welshman Ncube has come alive from a comfortably enjoyable political slumber. The MDC Alliance Vice-President has come out all guns blazing, boldly insisting the recent Supreme Court ruling confirming the nullification of Nelson Chamisa’s appointment as MDC-T president in February 2018 is of no consequence to Zimbabwe’s largest opposition party.

By Tafi Mhaka Two days after former President Robert Mugabe fired Professor Jonathan Moyo, I received a meeting request from the former information and publicity minister. It was a crazy, unpredictable time. Professor had just been dropped from cabinet and expelled from Zanu-PF, right after registering as an independent candidate for the March 31, 2005 parliamentary election. I felt slightly anxious about going to a government house in Gun Hill in the midst of widespread consequences over the so-called Tsholotsho Declaration, but went anyway.

By Tafi Mhaka It is well within the realm of imagination to believe that a newly-formed political party can win a presidential or parliamentary election. The MDC nearly did so in the 2000 general poll and the 2002 presidential election. And in May 2017, roughly 13 months after he had left the Socialist Party, to form a movement named La République En Marche, a 40 year-old politician named Emmanuel Macron won the French presidential election with 66.1% of the vote. So it stands to reason that even without the benefit of considerable financial resources or a lengthy track record, a candidate's strength of character and policy proposals can drive a new party to power.

By Tafi Mhaka When Nelson Chamisa rode roughshod over the MDC-T constitution in a bid to succeed the late Morgan Tsvangirai as president of the party in February 2018, he didn’t quite anticipate the extensive political damage such an unconstitutional, at times violent, highly divisive and obviously undemocratic grab for power would have on progressive politics in Zimbabwe.  Today, the chickens, as they say, are coming home to roost for Chamisa and the MDC Alliance. Indeed, today, most surprisingly, he stands dumbfounded, angered, disappointed and plainly embarrassed by a Supreme Court ruling that he should have anticipated.