The Sunday News
Dr Obert Moses Mpofu
MORE often than not, people tend to hope for things that may never come to fruition.
Even the great book once mentioned that “faith without works is dead”. The undoing of the opposition is that they believe they have the divine right to be in power. Well, entitlement will only get you so far.
This country was not liberated through entitlement, but sacrifices and practical works wherein a great number of our comrades lost their precious lives. They paid the ultimate sacrifice!
So many have wished, hoped and dreamt of occupying the highest office in the land but they have all been found wanting. After losing in each and every election they have participated in, they console themselves by foolishly believing they will emerge victorious in the next poll.
And so, what was dubbed as the “next election” way back in 2018 has come and gone, albeit with similar results as many times before — and so will future polls. Zanu-PF, as a colossal party, will still stand firm and those who oppose it will continue to scratch their heads, trying to find ways to unseat it. This has been the story of opposition politics in Zimbabwe.
The script is always the same. We are likely to have seen all the colours of the rainbow by the time we reach the next election. Red, yellow, blue and who knows which one will come after.
Parties will be launched from all angles and possibly by one man who has become synonymous with launching new political parties in a casual manner. It seems forming political parties is his new pastime. However, it does not matter. Whatever colour there is, the result will always be the same: Loss!
The amount of ideological reconditioning that our stray counterparts in the opposition may need to go through to find their bearings is unimaginable. Even then, nothing will come of it, for they have allowed their minds to be corrupted beyond measure.
It is truly a madman’s world within the opposition ranks. And Zanu-PF has never been anywhere near the chaos that is prevailing within opposition ranks. The key to political success is simple.
It starts with planting the right seed in the form of a sound ideological footing. Zanu-PF’s ideology, which stemmed from the founders of our great party, is what has resulted in its perpetual existence.
We have made every effort to maintain it since then. This is why the Chitepo School of Ideology is one of our most important institutions within the party. It lies at the heart of our movement.
We understand the value of the right ideology so much that we also invested and have a vested stake in the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Tanzania. This is a school designed to entrench the ethos of Pan-Africanism as put forward by our founding fathers and liberators.
Stories will be told long after all of us are gone of how, in a land far away and in the heart of Africa, there emerged and existed a party called Zanu-PF that defied the odds. Zanu-PF defied all odds when it freed the people of this land through the barrel of the gun, earning genuine independence for its people.
Zanu-PF further achieved another historical feat, a first of its kind, by managing to keep the country afloat amid the barrage of illegal sanctions targeted at its people by the ruthless and shameless regimes led by our detractors. Indeed, it is the hope that kills, the hope of thinking that power can be served on a silver platter or won through social media theatrics.
Zanu-PF’s win in the 2023 harmonised elections left many — who have no clue how politics is done — writhing in anguish and excruciating pain. By clinging on to this false hope, the opposition and those ill-fated to believe their lies and promises of some unknown future to come will forever be trapped in uncertainty, while those who have followed the Zanu-PF path of enlightenment enjoy the fruits of uhuru, unimpeded and untroubled.
Very few among us seem to have the understanding of the sheer amount of work that has to be put in for people to rally behind a movement. It takes years; decades even.
The path is often long and arduous. The goal is never to lust and hunger for power, but to wish and long for your people to do well.
This is what drives Zanu-PF — the desire to see people prosper and have their livelihoods improved.
As everyone is now fully aware, it looks like Vision 2030 will indeed be achieved by 2028, which is well ahead of its intended time. This is attributed to the focus and firm determination by the Zanu-PF Government led by President Mnangagwa. The New Dispensation’s polices are a masterstroke that has turned Zimbabwe’s fortunes around.
ν Dr Obert Moses Mpofu is an academic and the Secretary-General of Zanu-PF. He writes in his own capacity.
