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Tsvangirai has lost plot
By Patrick
Mlambo
THE mention of Morgan Tsvangirai’s name evokes various emotions
for various people. Some see through him a determined opposition leader
who was to topple the current government and become president.
Others see a determined labour leader turned politician. Others see the danger he poses to their continued stay in their high political offices in the current government. Others see a would-be president turned villain.
I see many things too and am sorry to say this – I see someone who has outlived his usefulness in opposition politics. I see someone who has no stable mind. I see someone who is as power hungry as those he seeks to topple. I see someone who only wants things to start improving for Zimbabwe only when he gets into power. I see someone utterly confused. I see someone who requires someone else to always follow after him correcting what he does wrong. And I see someone who thought he might become the next Zimbabwean president, but who will not ever be one.
Let us go back so where I started. Yes Tsvangirai evokes many different emotions whenever he is seen and whenever people hear his name mentioned. He, without doubt has led a formidable opposition to the current government and people respect him for that. Well and good. It is respectable to speak against the government. It is even more respectable to lead an opposition party that has won so many seats against the current government. But this for me is where it ends for Tsvangirai. I have debated on various fora about this man’s suitability as a leader. While various colleagues came up with strong motivations for this man becoming leader, I still cannot see him effectively being one.
For starters, Tsvangirai’s life has been for the betterment of workers’ salaries at all costs whether or not the companies in question had made some profits. He has therefore been only a shop floor employee who has been vocal enough to represent his cowardly fellow workers. We all know managers, I mean real managers, don’t belong to the unions. The point is he probably was never a manager.
This takes me to another important point. He therefore was always arguing with the managers, and would not have been able to learn that skill. The skill of management has therefore not been part of his life. If therefore this man has not been a manager, I find it difficult to understand how he could ever be the kind of man to lead Zimbabwe. Not that I take sides with those currently in power – the evidence of a lack of this skill has been there for all to see.
We are all told the learning process never ends. Political leaders have to learn more and even faster. You remember the Ben Menashe/Mugabe/Tsvangirai issue. Yes it was over dramatised, but the thing is this man Tsvangirai was said to have attended the meeting overseas and we know he knows the truth in his heart about what was said then
With that court case proceeding, Tsvangirai goes on the podium again and tells everyone that he would remove Mugabe violently and goes on to talk about the ‘final push’. Despite the court case for which the MDC and its supporters were paying millions of dollars to defend this man, the same man goes on to say things that any reasonable man would have known were to land him in trouble and result in him going before the same courts on charges nearly identical to the ones he was facing. It couldn’t be any clearer that the man never really learns.
Much as people would want us to believe the contrary, I have seen one thing that he has in common with the current Bob. He wants power. Mind you every politician wants power. John Howard of Australia is in his fourth term as prime minister. Helen Clarke is serving her third term in New Zealand and would probably want to continue serving until she gets toppled. The same thing happens in Zimbabwe. Morgan wants to remain the MDC president at all costs. And I believe he wants things to start improving for Zimbabwe when he comes to power.
This is precisely why he is against participation in senatorial polls. Any right thinking Zimbabwean knows this is time for everyone to get involved. You don’t play on the fringes and expect to have an impact on the happenings in a country. Everyone should pull together. If government policy on an aspect of policy is right, then they deserve everyone’s support and they need to be congratulated when they do things right and not to be criticized unjustly.
In a country as run down as Zimbabwe, one wonders how sane anyone is when they call for a work boycott for the suffering workers. The companies that still operate in Zimbabwe need to be congratulated. The managers have been able to keep their companies afloat which translates to enabling their employees to have some wages during these difficult periods. And yet someone in their ‘right senses’ calls for boycotts and such other stuff, to cripple the already struggling companies. It’s not the government that suffers. It is your kith and kin Tsvangirai! I am not worried about who rules Zimbabwe as long as he rules it well. That it may never be Tsvangirai does not bother me at all because he has shown he cannot do it.
This man’s involvement in court proceedings has cost the party billions in today’s Zimbabwe-dollar terms. I am not too sure he sees that. That typifies the often reported diversions of Air Zimbabwe flights by the president. I therefore see two sides of the same coin in these two men.
The very last straw for me came after the MDC polls deciding if the party was to contest the senatorial elections. Tsvangirai showed he lacks wisdom. It might be a fear of defeat. If the MDC does not contest those elections it means all senators would be Zanu PF ones. That would make it absolutely difficult for the incumbent MDC MPs to function in areas where their powers can easily be diluted by the senators. As a party, it is in their best interests to field the candidates. The success of previous boycotts has always been questionable. As if his opposition to these elections was not enough, he again gives another shocker.
He, as Father MDC announces to the country the MDC will not participate after using his casting vote. He tells the world that the polls were rigged or that there was vote-buying by those in favour of participation. That, from the president of a party that has always complained of election rigging! He is saying it also happens in his party, because his position was defeated at the MDC polls. He is implying therefore that as long as the MDC is defeated at the polls by Zanu PF, it is because of rigging, but if his party wins, it is alright – madness eh? Now the world knows even his own party has people who rig elections.
After such outbursts, I find not one reason why Tsvangirai should remain the MDC president. He deserves to be fired. The MDC is bigger than him. It has right thinking people like Welshman Ncube and those in favour of participation in the senatorial polls. Zimbabwe now requires inclusive politics than ever before and those who choose not to get involved should be left by the wayside. He has led campaigns in two elections and lost and he should vacate the seat and let others take over.
In the US when an aspiring president loses an election, he vacates that office. In Britain, that man Michael Howard lost and left, the same as Iain Duncan Smith before him. In Australia, Latham lost and left. Real Revolutionaries are never really leadership material. What he has done shows the man does not think and has no respect for the party and his colleagues and for that he deserves the kick on his backside. He has always called for the Bob to voluntarily vacate office. Tsvangirai should set the example.
He is unsuitable as a leader.
Mlambo writes
from New Zealand
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