The Sunday News
Tinomuda Chakanyuka, Sunday News Reporter
MDC-T and its beleaguered leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai remind me of English football club Arsenal and their manager Mr Arsene Wenger.
The two leaders are technically insolvent, overtly so, one does not need rocket science to diagnose their want for a winning strategy. If being clueless was a disease, it would be one that Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Wenger share.
A rival once labelled Mr Wenger a specialist in failure, a description that also inch-perfectly fits Morgan Tsvangirai.
The beleaguered opposition leader has over the years carved himself as an expert in disappointing his equally delusional supporters.
A learned colleague likened Mr Tsvangirai, to a manager of a football team who is good at courting publicity prior to a big match, engaging in psychological warfare and overhyping his chances against the opponent only to be severely drubbed come match day. Some call it delusions of grandeur.
Mr Tsvangirai, just like Mr Wenger, has a voluminous and well documented record of flattering to deceive despite prior hype and being fancied to roll past his opponents. His party’s demonstration in Harare almost two weeks ago vindicates the above analogy.
There were conflicting media reports on the actual attendance of the demo with some publications, mostly those sympathetic to the MDC-T, estimating the crowd at about 10 000. Other media estimated the crowd at 5 000 and some chose to be cautious and did not give estimates, while some suggested poor attendance to the event.
Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Mr Luke Tamborinyoka was left fuming at suggestions that the demo was poorly attended and labelled such assertions as “cheap, cheap, cheap propaganda”.
To massage Mr Tamborinyoka and the rest of the MDC-T’s egos, we may concede that indeed more than 10 000 supporters of the opposition party turned up for the demo.
Their egos obviously need some serious massaging after being bruised at the hands of Zanu-PF in many a plebiscite since the formation of the MDC in 1999.
Some newspapers suggested that by attracting many supporters at the recent march, Mr Tsvangirai had regained his mojo. Others said the march showed that the opposition leader “flexed his muscle” by leading “a massive demonstration”.
The private media seemed to suggest that the demonstration was a wake-up call to Zanu-PF that the MDC-T was still alive and remained a huge threat to the ruling party. Some armchair political analysts went with the bandwagon, sadly oblivious to the numbers that Zanu-PF has commanded before at its events across the width and breath of the country.
The private media and their political analysis seem to be suffering from selective amnesia and conveniently forget that President Mugabe met over 10 000 war veterans at City Sports Centre in Harare just a few days before MDC-T’s demo.
And to factor in that war veterans are just a constituent part of the entire Zanu-PF support and not all of them attended the meeting, yet they still could match if not even surpass the numbers mobilised by MDC-T for the much hyped protest.
If there is anyone who should fret now, based on these figures, it is the MDC-T. There is nothing new and extraordinary about MDC-T mobilising thousands of supporters for rallies, final pushes, cross overs and all that sort of jazz. Nothing at all about such a feat should warrant an iota of worry in the Zanu-PF camp. MDC-T supporters have done this before, gathered in thousands and courted massive publicity but crashed at the last hurdle, dismally losing elections to a formidable Zanu-PF. The demonstration by the claimed “more than 10 000” MDC-T supporters is a typical case of history repeating itself.
An Italian philosopher, Mr George Santayana once opined, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it”.
The MDC-T and its supporters fit Mr Santayana description and the party’s actions over the past 17 years bear testimony. In 2013, ahead of elections that year, the MDC-T held what they termed a crossover rally in Harare which drew more people compared to the recent demonstration, but the party went on to lose the elections in emphatic fashion. They have held similar gatherings before and took false comfort in attendance figures only to come face to face with the reality of their thin support base come voting time. Interestingly yet equally baffling, the MDC-T continues to repeat the same fatal error of judging their formidability against Zanu-PF by the numbers that attend their gatherings.
Their recent demonstration confirms the party has not learnt anything from history, its own history, as they continue without hesitation engaging in impotent political strategy. And oh dear, they are planning yet another “mega demo” in coming weeks.
Political analyst Dr Lyton Ncube concurred that the MDC-T’s demo was a brutum fulmen and mere repetition of a history that has not brought any joy to the party’s supporters. “We can submit that history is reproducing itself where Morgan (Tsvangirai) is good at mobilising huge numbers especially in urban centres but failing to deliver when it comes to the game.
“On several occasions he has aborted and abused expectations of a now disillusioned MDC support base and it explains why they red-carded him during 2013 elections,” he said.
Dr Ncube added that MDC-T’s repeated use of similar tactics that have not yielded fruit for almost decades was sign that the party lacked ideological clarity, tact and political ethic.
“Zanu-PF has nothing to worry about, in fact the revolutionary party should continue with its people centred policies and programmes. Other opposition parties, should learn that, politics is not about street performances, being staged by Morgan (Tsvangirai) attempting to distract the populace from the fact that he begged for sanctions,” he opined.
Another analyst Dr Nhlanhla Landa said the “huge turn outs” at MDC-T rallies and marches despite the party going on to lose elections were a sign that the party was an establishment of chancers who take part in activities just for fun.
“What it means is that those who take part in the MDC-T causes are just doing it for fun. They don’t vote. This whole thing is a pass time for losers. MDC-T is a party of chancers who do not have confidence in their leadership when voting comes.
“The party should desist from making noise and come up with sound policies that inspire confidence in their supporters in the same way Zim-Asset has done for Zanu-PF,” he said.
Politics has since time immemorial remained a game of numbers, but in the 21st century numbers alone without influence have proven to be futile, a lesson the MDC-T is yet to learn in all its 17 years of existence.
Speaking of numbers, the 10 000 people claimed to have turned up for the MDC-T demonstration should worry other opposition parties more than they should concern Zanu-PF. Actually it is the other opposition parties that have appeared miffed by the demonstration more than did Zanu-PF, if at all the ruling party was moved.
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mr Tendai Biti’s criticism of the demo, much as it was sound and on point, is sign that MDC-T’s demo shook the opposition camp more than it was expected to rock Zanu-PF’s boat.
The ability by Mr Tsvangirai to mobilise “scores” of people for his party’s events is a blow to other political parties whose hopes of growing support bases are anchored on Mr Tsvangirai’s waning popularity.
Opposition parties in Zimbabwe will never bother attempting at wooing Zanu-PF supporters who have over the years proven loyal to the revolutionary party and its ideologies. The demonstration was less of a wakeup call to Zanu-PF but a sign to other emerging and already existent opposition parties that claiming a support base is a Sisyphean task.
With the MDC-T reported to have abandoned coalition talks, the demonstration might have been a ploy by the party to gauge its strength against other political parties in terms of drawing crowds.
Having seen that the “mojo” is still alive, the MDC-T is now under no pressure whatsoever to negotiate with smaller opposition parties and take false comfort in being the dominant opposition political party, though not necessarily a formidable one.
