RECENT events within the main opposition are living proof that the late founder of the MDC in 1999, Morgan Tsvangirai, was all but surrounded by insincere, dishonest and mean-spirited people.
by Learnmore Zuze
The tragedy of it being that he trusted some of them into highly confidential roles much to his detriment.
His life was in the full glare of his enemy. The events that have stood like a colossus in opposition political affairs in the past two weeks bear living testament that the new crop of politicians in the MDC are a far cry from the founding stalwarts of 1999.
The work painstakingly begun by Gibson Sibanda, Morgan Tsvangirai (both late), Welshman Ncube, Learnmore Jongwe (late), Tendai Biti among many others, today faces a possible varnish into thin air.
Undoubtedly, Zanu-PF today has a field day palpably laughing with glee at how things have turned out in the MDC.
Zanu-PF has not been and cannot be exonerated in the ensuing melee in the MDC.
Its hand and fingerprints continue to be cited. It is the joy of every political party to see another in disarray as has become of the MDC in its entirety.
Zimbabweans in general and the world in particular are not blind to the fact of what amounts to a formidable opposition party between Thokozani Khupe’s MDC-T and Neslon Chamisa’s MDC Alliance.
It is not lost on the people of Zimbabwe what has happened and what this Supreme Court ruling will lead to.
The law has chosen to favour Khupe, who unfortunately cannot stand in any election against any Zanu-PF minnow.
The powers conferred upon Khupe by the Supreme Court which bestowed upon her the right to the MDC throne after Tsvangirai’s death should frighten and prick her conscience.
How can she wake up with legislators who never campaigned under her name?
How could all the senators that were never subservient to her wake up at her disposal? How does she lead what she did not lead?
Chamisa, in the last election, garnered over two million votes which Khupe would never achieve by any stretch of imagination.
The MPs elected clearly knew the impetus in aligning to the Tsvangirai-endorsed young Chamisa.
Enough has been said and legal opinions on the Supreme Court ruling thrown around, but it must be borne in mind that politics has a mind of its own far away from the law.
The law in itself does not necessarily lead to justice. The law must simply be interpreted; it is not a means to justice per se.
The daggers that have been drawn against Chamisa and the mountain-goat like agility to clutch on to the ruling by some whom we thought were in the trenches with Chamisa should send a clear message that the MDC party even during Tsvangirai’s time was heavily infiltrated.
It is mockingly said of Tsvangirai that he took advice from the last person he spoke to. And we all know Tsvangirai was never short of advisors; they came in all shapes and sizes.
But what we have seen lately is that the MDC even from its foundations was made up of defective bricks.
It had and clearly has always had informers, people who dined and wined with Tsvangirai, but sent from the enemy camp.
It was never easy to build the MDC brand, but the possibility of the obliteration of the name is a nauseating reality.
The worst part is that this new crop of politicians in the form of Khupe, Obert Gutu, Elias Mudzuri and Douglas Mwonzora does not even seem to give a hoot in hell if MDC collapses.
The book Two Weeks in November by Douglas Rogers captures the point of this piece of writing that one senior politician who is now based in South Africa on Zanu-PF business was at one time a top aide of Tsvangirai.
It is no secret that some in Parliament have taken appointments by Zanu-PF and these were people who in the eyes of the world were with Tsvangirai through perceived thick and thin.
Even the manner of leakage of most of Tsvangirai’s secrets about his personal life had the late leader casually suspecting his inner circle.
In particular, the leaking of his affair in Bulawayo and how a confidante had arranged for him in South Africa were all let out by supposed allies.
Tsvangirai could simply not have risen to power with every detail of his move under the watchful eye of the enemy. Theories fly about regarding the nature of his cancer, whether it was planted or a natural ailment given the calibre of people who surrounded him.
The man paid the price because of trusting too much. Today, with hindsight given how things have turned out it is clear that the authentic MDC dined with the enemy from birth.
All the gains are threatened by people who were at the periphery of the struggle against the now late former President Robert Mugabe’s tyrannical rule back then.
Tsvangirai could not have ascended to power surrounded by vultures that have thrown away their masks today.
——
Learnmore Zuze is a legal officer. He writes in his personal capacity.
