The Sunday News
Vincent Gono
EVEN when it is evidently clear that the whole family of rats is dying from peanut butter laced poison it seems impossible for the remaining rats to resist the temptation of not feeding from the same peanut butter.
Politicians like rats are helter-skelter creatures too. They keep returning to the same poisoned feeding troughs that claimed the political lives of many before them, wherever they get their courage from, they learn nothing and forget nothing from so many examples or maybe they see themselves different, clever.
This unlearning attitude in politicians finds expression in the Dr Joice Mujuru led National People’s Party (NPP) where the flame of confusion seems to be far from over even after the departure of the founding members. Efforts to douse the flames are proving futile and that the house is on fire is there for all to see as the party is continuously losing its support base making it a useless outfit to anyone thinking of serious opposition.
Recent resignation of members in Matabeleland South that left the party with close to no structures at all further weakens the party and leaves it with little negotiating power in the yet to materialise dream called a coalition that is still to take shape and structure. Are the goings on in the NPP vindicating Didymus Mutasa, Rugare Gumbo, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti and a few others when they opted out or is it when they expelled Dr Mujuru alleging gross ineptitude in her leadership abilities, or they are a phase that only goes to show that the party requires a real democratic rebirth.
The cabal as it was known in the media proved that the history that unfolded in their eyes did nothing to open their minds to lessons that it offered. They laughed off history but isn’t they say, he who laughs last laughs longer and even louder too. It’s time for history to laugh at her, at them.
For they were all there when Edgar Tekere, Simba Makoni, Dumiso Dabengwa and others who were not very influential opted out of Zanu-PF for different reasons. Unfortunately and coincidentally too, those that opted out were soon to find their political stars, which were illuminated by Zanu-PF, fading at an alarming rate.
Their political lustre never lasted once they were out. And what is happening to Dr Mujuru is nothing different. Evidently she has found the going tough. Her case was just similar to that of Simba Makoni who thought he had backers only to find that they have developed cold feet.
Resignations, expelling each other, defections and name changing have always littered the little story of the grouping that calls itself a political party that is uncharacteristically angling to tussle for political power in next year’s elections. Allegations of factional fighting and tribalism were fingered as the main cause of the recent mass exodus of the little support the party had garnered in Matabeleland South where interim chairperson Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo and several others tendered their resignations.
The resignations comes hard on the heels of confusion in Bulawayo where the political outfit dissolved provincial structures with allegations of factionalism and tribalism raised.
Dr Mujuru has failed to unite her party along tribal lines. Her attempts to use the template modelled by Zanu-PF in 1987 with the Unity Accord where Dr Joshua Nkomo was made Vice-President and followed by MDC-T where Ms Thokozani Khupe is also Vice-President has proved difficult to Dr Mujuru as her candidates do not have the necessary following and is likely to see her lose what remains of her shrinking national appeal that she only enjoyed when she was still in Zanu-PF. Interestingly all this is happening at a time when other political parties in the country are busy oiling their wheels ahead of next year’s general elections.
Zanu-PF which has become the common political enemy because of its ruthlessness in defeating opposition is sending shivers down the spine of other parties with its youths interface rallies where President Mugabe is going around the country’s provinces meeting the youths. The rallies are a sure sign of how popular the party is among the country’s youths where the majority of the electorate is expected to come from come 2018.
Unbeknown to political novices like Dr Mujuru who is proving to have learnt nothing from the political tutorials in Zanu-PF, is that not all so called supporters are after serious political influence. Some are just about glory and others are wealth-hunters who seek self aggrandisement while some seek to enjoy cheap publicity and further their political CVs and nothing else.
These are people who are ready and willing to join any party that comes, run with it for as long as it is providing the money and what other things they want other than propping the leader and dumping it later for another outfit. They are simply opportunists who do not look for the collective good of the party, what they want is self-satisfaction and to someone like Dr Mujuru whose political clout has always been tied to a party like Zanu-PF it’s something new.
This was the point that NPP spokesperson Methuseli Moyo seemed to be making when asked about the defections when he said the party was not sad at all at the departure of Fuzwayo and others. His sentiments however, remain a subject of discussion on whether he was being honest or he was trying to save face and down play the issue.
“To be honest we expected this to come given the internal dynamics in the party. I do not want to say we welcome their departure, but we are not sad at all that they left. We expect others to follow suit,” he said.
He added that NPP would emerge stronger after the resignation of Fuzwayo and others whom he accused of fanning factionalism.
“Believe me NPP has just emerged a stronger and healthier party with some of these purported resignations. Some of the people seemed to be in the party to engineer antagonism and factionalism. They found the going very tough because we refused to allow them space to execute their agenda,” said Moyo.
It is however, ironic that a party with no significant numbers sounds so much unworried by the resignations en masse of members when the time is now only a quarter to elections. The respect of any politician in any serious political organisation is derived from the number of people they have, it is the real constituency that is of value and not the dream of having one.
And when big stage performers like Zanu-PF are already warming the stage for the elections, the timing for putting issues of internal democracy in order is just not right and goes to show the lack of seriousness in the party. To say therefore that Dr Mujuru is a serious politician with both wit and political humour will be a fallacy. She has no charisma and her party can be defeated by a harem of old maids in any serious election.
Maybe she is banking on the coalition whose particular structure is still a mystery and if reports that MDC-T’s deputy presidents Nelson Chamisa and Khupe are against it then she is doomed politically. She, just like a number of other political parties that were formed either by power hungry individuals or groups that would have broken ranks with their leaders or simply fronted by the white regime to scuttle the spirited revolutionary movement that Zanu-PF stands for will quickly fizzle out just like paraffin fire on a rock.
Dr Mujuru is therefore waiting to fall into a political abyss and her tale will be that of high office leading to high ambitions where she begins to see real political power within her reach. And history is waiting not only to laugh loudly at her for not taking political lessons from those that followed the same path before her but to record her failure in politics as well.
