The Sunday News
Micheal Mhlanga
Serendipity is an infidel and its children are denial, hypocrisy and ignorance. These triplets are a giant bout complementing the animation of pitiable decision making and gluttony.
Once you get acquainted to them, escape is an alien neighbour in your lexis because your worst fear is infamy. Everyone is scared of shame, the fear grips even the most intelligent of the society because they are barricaded by ego and they think retraction from debauched decision making is a mistake, not knowing that clinging to ignorance and believing in a mistake even when you know that it is, is much personality destructive.
Dear reader, a lot is happening around us, from North Korea enforcing a new world order to the inhumane owners of the Pearl Harbor trembling and quivering at the continuous responses and adamancy of a small nation declaring that it will turn daylight into darkness. USA fears a non-geographical eclipse soon to befall them should they continue “bullying” the small boy in global-politics. Oh! How bendy the turn of events is.
World history told us of how the Orient was sniggled to a tiny pile of smoke on a fateful day in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, again, history reminds us of how France, Britain and USA controlled the fate of post World War II, we had to fear them, the small and poor nations were not certified to possess or create nuclear weapons because the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the three, USA,UK and France dodged again just a few days back in New York was their creation which protected their inferiority complex as they continued controlling the narrative of nuclear weapons, energy and development, until now, Kim Jong-Un recreates the discourse, it’s the big-boys now shaking, tasting their own medicine. North Korea is now controlling the narrative of conflict and military conflict. The super powers are like a Hammer (the car), big body to compensate for its weak power and balance all to cover its inferiority complex.
My point, when the narrative shifts, the progenies are in disbelief and they shift goalposts to accommodate their regret. All they believed in and protected is suddenly ignored to suit their rhetoric and such is the nature of the main opposition in Zimbabwe. As time has unfolded and revealed true political characters of the “democratic” characters in our midst, it has become a burden to cling to a fatigued memoir of any political ideology they used to flaunt back then in the wee years of the millennium. Once upon a time Zimbabwe had political “saints”, those hailed to be champions of sending shivers down Zanu-PF’s spine. It was healthy for democracy and the turnout of events made politics interesting. I bet, Zanu-PF enjoyed the political challenge then such that the political culture in Zimbabwe took turns and curves in attempts to address and redress the competition.
That joy did not last long as traits of political insatiability, hallucination and ruse started to protrude from the opposition sack. As the old mesmerise us with wisdom, “okulempondo akufihlw’ emgodleni” “rinemanyanga hariputirwi” (that which has horns cannot be covered), sooner than we expected the opposition could not hide its illusive nature from all of us, making the political space less interesting and unrefreshing.
From a series of expulsions because of corruption in local governments to intra-party violence, from a colour cut clarity testimony of tribal triggered violence and exclusion, to a tattooed membrane of dictatorship. All these among a horde of social ills they possess and display, many of them still refuse that opposition has failed and is a demon among us.
I cannot over-emphasise that Morgan Tsvangirai has refused to step down as a presidential candidate for over 17 years and counting. It goes without saying that in many instances when his party has attempted to “democratically” change as a movement he has refused and at sometimes called himself the “main actor” in a movie, which movie? I wonder. The man takes 12 million people like casts and crew together with extras in his film production.
We are not more than a box office product no matter how much we can try to spin his analogy, its circular, we are trivial, it’s all about him.
Sad enough is how many still think he is democratic, or maybe, ironically, the movement of democratically changing Zimbabwe meant rethinking democracy itself, I wonder. In their camp, they decided to make him the face of the party and the party became him. He assumed ownership of a struggle such that his absence insinuates the oblivion of the challenge they imagined. They clung to him to create looting spaces of influence for themselves whenever a chunk was expelled. Such is a trait of many of them and they still do not see it. Hypocritically, they deny the existence of democracy even in its minute strains but they still call themselves democrats, someone help, what is the new definition of democracy? What is the true meaning of accountability and what do we mean by democratic change?
Airlifted or flown, who cares?
A little over a week the president of the opposition was “airlifted” to South Africa on life support. A few hours later, news broke out that he was dead.
The panic, confusion and insults transacted in groups, threads and inboxes were a classical symbol of how MDC-T supporters now worship the man.
MDC-T supporters have been champions of creating and believing death news whenever His Excellency travels abroad. I remember in 2016 alone the President was unofficially reported dead more than six times until the wise man parodied about it. This time the tides shifted and it was their president reported dead, you should have seen how puzzled many of his faithful were and worse off when it was discovered that it was a hoax.
Insults were hurled at everyone who had believed the hoax, shared it and passed condolence messages. This was a show of how people shift positions when they are in the same situation they created. From merry jingling about His Excellency’s “death” to them being on the receiving end of a hoax and feeling the scuffle which millions of Zanu-PF legions experience every time a hoax was peddled.
Heightening the comedy is how his spokesman is desperate to control the narrative disputing that his boss was “airlifted” but instead, was “flown” to South Africa. Luke Tamborinyoka knew the effects of “airlifted” even if true, that it gave the impression that Tsvangirai was helpless and could not be counted on so his best shot was to rearrange the words to a subtler verb-past participle “flown”. That is the desperation which fawned the camp to the extent of challenging registers in desperation of calming a possible factional clinch.
With the man being airlifted to South Africa on a stretcher bed, one would think he would be silent for a while, possibly “undemocratically” pass the button as he is used to, alas! He never comments on his health but tells the world that MDC-T/Alliance should I say, is ready for next year’s plebiscite with him as the presidential candidate.
This is a terminally ill man, who has lost three elections and counting, not sure about his health a few hours later let alone next year, “airlifted” or “flown” to South Africa declaring that he will run again next year, someone point me to the day and time he was democratically mandated to preside over his faithful. I know for a fact that many of them are scared of challenging him, should their democratic character land them as an opposition of an opposition.
Democracy for age or ignorance for terminal illness?
My question is, how does MDC-T find it normal to dispute the democracy in Zanu-PF of choosing a 93-year-old candidate because they believe his possession of acute and mesmerising wisdom and physical staunchness yet they are ruled by a man who is terminally ill? My understanding is that a terminally ill person becomes a national burden because there is little guarantee in him finishing a term and much of his time is spent in a nursing home than in office. Moreover, mentally, the person is in constant fear of his ailment and a definite gasp halt. If I am to favour, terminally ill would not be a wise choice, in fact I would immediately detach myself from it. Instead, Tsvangirai should rest and anyone who refuses that has a big problem.
Little Tsvangirai up next
With Tsvangirai not well, a new narrative of replacing him with Nelson Chamisa is emerging. The marvel of Chamisa taking over is hinged on age, eloquence and his ethnic background. Analysts have argued that he is a fresh face in politics and that’s what Zimbabwe needs, but another million-dollar question is, who groomed Chamisa?
Is it not Morgan, the one you deprecated as the worst choice Zimbabweans can ever make? Nelson is a little Tsvangirai, from his heydays in college to the day he lost elections to Douglas and Tsvangirai embraced him to dilute Thokozani Khupe, he has become an A++ student of Morgan studies. You are what groomed you.
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