How Zimbabwe's opposition falters and deceives

How Zimbabwe's opposition falters and deceives

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By Tatenda Mukudzei

THE saying that “people oft times get the leadership that they deserve” can never be true for Zimbabwe.

We are a proud people, educated and socially aware. Our value system is entrenched in our cultural diversity and the experiences of the struggle for liberation. We are a peaceful nation; we extol diversity in opinion and respect the attainment of common good. Indeed we are a civilised nation.

Today Zimbabwe finds itself gripped in the painful vice of inept leadership. A leadership bent on destroying the very fabric of what makes us Zimbabwean, our very sense of “ubuntu”. The people of this land have consistently rejected unjust rule and will continue to do so for it is in our nature to do so. We have a proud tradition of resistance dating back to the first Chimurenga and the struggle against colonial occupation. Our patience is legendary and should never be taken for docility.

Zimbabwe today is in a crisis, a crisis of governance -- we have a leadership that we do not deserve. A leadership that has plunged the nation into a political and socio-economic crisis! A leadership that is bankrupt of ideas as to how to restore social cohesion and economic prosperity to its people. A leadership bent on destroying our value systems. Today, more than ever, the people of Zimbabwe are troubled, burdened with dictatorial misrule and plundering of their energies and spirits. This proud nation does not deserve to be pauperised by inept weak willed leaders and will reject them in the fullness of time.

The peoples' patience wears thin each day. The ravages of death disease, poverty and continued subjugation give birth to a new breed of fighters. Fighters for social justice -- men, women and children committed to attaining economic prosperity and restoring their political freedoms.

We are an angry people, betrayed by the government of Zanu PF and Robert Mugabe. A government that showed so much promise at independence but quickly settled into a routine of pillaging the country. A government that exalts liberation war credentials, which itself has long since abandoned. A mob of hooligans and thugs who shamelessly latched onto the issue most dear to the people of Zimbabwe -- the land -- and completely vulgarised it for their selfish benefit! That is the leadership we have, that is the leadership we do not deserve.

Enter Morgan Tsvangirai, for a while the hopes of Zimbabweans were rekindled, here was the saviour, the one to take Zimbabweans to the promised land of abundant democracy and economic prosperity, so quickly did the hope rise, so quickly did it fall.

A series of blunders coupled with now a trademark penchant at self discrediting were enough to show Zimbabweans, hope lies elsewhere. A man with an uncanny ability to display intellectual bankruptcy and heady bouts of dictatorial tendencies, Morgan Tsvangirai sat and supervised the disintegration of his own party, clearly not a leader Zimbabweans deserve. Zimbabweans need a statesman, not a once upon a time populist, a unifier, not a leader bent on achieving personal political glory at all cost. Such a leader will never warm the hearts of the people.

Someday hopefully soon, Morgan Tsvangirai will learn this message. His rejection of the peace pipe offered by Arthur Mutambara will sooner rather than later come back to haunt him. By rejecting unity, Morgan has put self interest before national interest, the latter being the removal of Mugabe. A divided MDC can wallow in wishful thinking until the cows come home, for it can never remove Mugabe.

In one stroke, Morgan has done what Zanu PF and the CIO have been trying to do for years, divide and continue to subjugate the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s hope, Mutambara’s proposal of a one candidate philosophy aimed at making every vote against Mugabe count, thus dies a natural death. Thank you Morgan for condemning us to more years of Zanu PF hegemony!

Stage two, enter Arthur Mutambara, full of venom and lofty ideals of the liberation struggle, speaking the language of land to the people, again the hopes of the people rise, finally a son in the mould of Hebert Chitepo, JZ Moyo and the long list of freedom fighters. One not prone to running to the west, like Morgan, one seeking to unify!

How hope rises so fast for a suffering people, only to be painfully crushed. Just when the people were beginning to see him as an alternative, he is rushing off to far flung places in Europe and the West, dining with the former colonial masters in the company of none other than Tsvangirai. Shame on you Arthur, to join Morgan’s merry band, promising land to the white man! What happened to your beliefs in the ideals of the liberation struggle, what happened to your Pan-Africanism, did you want to please Morgan, the friend of the white man so bad that you ended up eating at the same table and forgot your promise to the people of Zimbabwe?

Arthur, we the people remember your one candidate philosophy, whereto now that Morgan has rejected it? Did you feel so inadequate that you have decided to throw in you lot with Morgan? We beg for answers, the people of Zimbabwe will never forgive those who seek to deceive, did you ever mean what you said or you simply sought to deliver Morgan to us having attempted to sanitise him? Somewhere along the line did you strike a deal with Morgan or you were always cut from the same cloth?

So here we are again Zimbabweans with our bungling leaders and wishful thinking for a new and brighter future. Wherein lies our hope, when will the next phoenix rise from the ashes, when will Nehanda’s bones rise again to save the people of this blessed nation, where is our hope?

I am but a simple man, devoid of the inner workings of political trickery, but one thing I know and feel in my bones, MDC divided, or united under one Morgan Tsvangirai will never defeat Mugabe, a new visionary leadership is needed, without the tag of the MDC, a leadership capable of inheriting the support base of the MDC and luring a substantial portion of Zanu PF, only such a leadership will be wholly accepted by the people and will remove Mugabe, till then we falter and deceive.

Tatenda Mukudzei can be contacted via e-mail: mukudzei3000@yahoo.com
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