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12 September 2012 By Reason Wafawarova In Nelson Chamisa's world Zimbabwe "saunters
towards the demise of the ultimate phase of a hard
transition," and he believes the people of this
country have "subliminally" long stored decisions
about an ideal future. But have they? It is just as good that the MDC-T organising
secretary realises the pending MDC-T demise coming
with the last phase of the misnamed Global Political
Agreement, and the confession that the MDC-T has been
in Government for three years doing nothing but
"subliminally" stalling decisions about an ideal
future for the country is quite telling. Dear reader, something subliminal is something
inadequate to produce conscious awareness. So in
reality the MDC-T is hardly conscious of its presence
in Government, and that explains a lot of the
behaviour portrayed by the leadership of the party. Nelson Chamisa, Morgan Tsvangirai and one Abednico
Bhebhe have all said something to the effect that the
MDC-T is in the constitution-making business only for
political expediency but are totally uncommitted to
the process since the party envisages a day in the
future when it will be in power and able to write for
Zimbabweans a Constitution democratic enough to meet
the standards of MDC-T sponsors, whose code name is
always "the international community." Chamisa's October 21 2010 contribution to this
unpalatable rhetoric reads like this: "Zimbabweans
will be given another chance to write a Constitution
in a free environment after elections. "That's why we
want a transitional constitution now to create a
conducive climate for elections, after which a new
charter will be written." His boss Morgan Tsvangirai was more brazen about
it. He said on December 20 2011: "a new Constitution
for Zimbabwe, which is now with Government drafters
(meaning Copac), with a referendum to follow, will be
abandoned as soon as the MDC party wins power". The political climate created by the presence of
the MDC-T in Government guarantees that no patriotic
Zimbabwean will vote for the reckless indiscipline and
corruption now synonymous with the MDC-T leadership,
with Tsvangirai's character now written hopelessness
all over it, not least because of his scandalous
sexual lifestyle. The man is probably the fastest
zipper of our times, albeit done with a completely
shut mind. Nelson Chamisa recently wrote in an article titled
"MDC-T: Last mile towards real change," that the MDC-T
is "a force for real change and a locomotive for real
transformation." The only explanation given to what this change and
transformation is all about is the vacuous statement
that it will be about "a decisive response to
hopelessness, disempowerment and break down of the
rule of law through state-sponsored violence." The economic crisis of Zimbabwe between 2000 and
2009 was a direct result of the isolation of the
country by the major Western economies through illegal
sanctions imposed on the country at the instigation of
Nelson Chamisa's party, and this is the hopelessness
that Chamisa says his party is worried about. The only decisive response to this hopelessness is
for the MDC-T to start joining every other sane and
patriotic Zimbabwean in defending the motherland by
calling for the unconditional lifting of these illegal
and irrational sanctions. The fight against Western
sanctions is a national cause, which the MDC-T
leadership needs to embrace with all others. It is ironic to read Nelson Chamisa saying the MDC-T
has a plan to change and transform the state of
disempowerment for Zimbabweans, especially when one
takes into consideration the position of the MDC-T
regarding economic empowerment as implemented by
Minister Saviour Kasukuwere. Morgan Tsvangirai was quite explicit about his
party's position on the indigenisation policy when he
addressed a rally in Marondera in March this year. He said: "We are totally opposed to this programme
being undertaken by (Minister of Youth Development,
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Saviour)
Kasukuwere and Zanu-PF. There are some people who are
moving around saying: ‘indigenisation, indigenisation'.
How can you implement a party programme hiding behind
the Government? Ours is a job plan. Our plan is of
jobs and starts by encouraging investment." The MDC-T was never formed because its founders had
an idea what to do in terms of policy formulation or
solutions to the challenges facing Zimbabwe. The party was formed as a reactionary movement
whose sole occupation was protesting the rulership of
Zanu-PF. Chamisa explained it all in his little and
exciting essay. He wrote: "The absence of a
people-framed Constitution, weak growth by industries,
poor economic policies by Government gave birth to the
MDC." Chamisa believes his party "stands for the
supremacy of the nation and its people over partisan
and individual interests," and he writes this at a
time his MDC-T adamantly prides itself in having
disregarded the national report on the views of the
people about what should constitute the Zimbabwean
Constitution — an abrogation inspired not only by
selfish partisan interests, but also by the influence
from Western imperialist interests. Indeed the MDC-T stands for the supremacy of the
nation and its people over individual interests, and
this is precisely why the MDC-T leader sees no
contradiction in moving into a multi-million dollar
mansion barely ten kilometres from a national
university failing to operate because of critical
water shortages that could easily be eradicated by a
fraction of the dollar value of his mansion. This is a pro-poor people party that finds it
logical to align itself with disparaged whites bidding
to reverse the pro-poor land redistribution program,
when it is not vehemently opposing the indigenisation
policy designed to transfer majority ownership of
business into the hands of indigenous Zimbabweans. The MDC-T is indeed a labour-founded party, but
white interests sadly hijacked the party when Morgan
Tsvangirai was openly bought out by white capital from
ex-white commercial farmers and Western moneybags way
back in 2000. A social democratic and human-centred party that
openly calls for the sanctioning of its own country in
order to strangulate the populace to a point of
rebellion against the incumbent government is an
insult to the philosophy of social democracy, and it
is a mockery to humanity. Chamisa candidly wrote that his party had a real
prospect of attaining "political power" by "walking on
dead bodies (of starving Zimbabweans) to State House."
He aptly describes in his essay what the Western
sanctions imposed at the instigation of his MDC-T had
done to the people of Zimbabwe. Nelson Chamisa wrote, almost braggingly: "People
were dying of cholera, bread was being bought from
South Africa, prices were changing every second and we
had no food in shops." That is the ungovernable state
of affairs his party has always advocated for. The young politician was quite audacious in
crediting his party for every little success
associated with the lifespan of the inclusive
Government, even boasting that tobacco farmers are now
in good business because of the MDC-T presence in
Government, and not because of the land reform program
that gave them the land on which they are doing
tobacco farming, of course at the expense of the white
commercial farmers. The daring contriving of glory in the restoration
of the welfare fund for war veterans stands in sharp
contrast to Minister Biti's efforts to frustrate the
disbursement of the same fund, and is a stark
contradiction to the vilification of war veterans by
the MDC-T, as evidenced by Chamisa's own utterances in
2000, when he told a gathering in Harare CBD that
"Chinotimba, Hunzvi and the so-called war veterans are
thugs. They are the ex-combatants, and we are the
current combatants. They can take Zimbabwe back to
colonialism and we will fight and free it better than
they ever did." The admission by Nelson Chamisa that
"the ‘party of excellence' is not full of angels" is
the summary of the MDC-T to most Zimbabweans today.
Nelson Chamisa's explanations and excuses will never
make up for the missing angels. Morgan Tsvangirai is not angelic from any angle of
imagination, and moralists would dare say the man is
in fact diabolic. Emmanuel Chiroto, the Harare deputy
mayor who built himself a 24-bedroom house as soon as
he made it into the local council, stands out as a
prototype example of MDC-T councillors across the
country — a corrupt lot that loots with reckless
abandon. Here is a party whose winning candidates brazenly
compete in the game of self-aggrandisement, corruptly
parcelling pieces of land to each other to the point
of not sparing even football fields and public parks. Chamisa writes about something called the "New
Zimbabwe blue print Vision 2030 JUICE Plan," and one
is tempted to think that this is a plan to juice up
the lifestyles of MDC-T politicians. Apart from coming up with fancy names for its
policy documents, the MDC-T has never really impressed
in articulating what it stands for, much as the party
postures very impressively on what it stands against. The mediocrity in MDC-T leadership is encyclopaedic;
to borrow Nelson Chamisa's complex vocabulary. The
party leadership stands tainted as keener on
corruption than its rivals in Zanu-PF. Morgan Tsvangirai has transformed himself from a
fiery opposition leader to a sexual weakling throwing
himself wantonly on all manner of women, when he is
not displaying his shortcomings on political etiquette
like he did in Germany where he made a perfect fool of
himself; saluting a guard of honour meant to salute
him, and speeding away from his host in a walk to the
podium, only to end up standing bouncingly under the
wrong flag before a packed auditorium. If there is one thing the GPA has done, it is
exposing the MDC-T as a party of hopelessness, even in
the context of a habitually blundering Zanu-PF. We
have at the very most about nine months before the
country goes for elections, and the MDC-T is indeed
sauntering towards a well-earned demise. Zanu-PF, in all its numerous shortcomings, is
capable of defining what it stands for, and its
policies often attract international attention,
controversially or otherwise. The MDC-T has, on the
other hand, publicly stated what it stands against,
only to fail to practice the gospel the party so much
preaches about. Unholy people never really make good listening when
they preach against sin, and the MDC-T stands naked
whenever they chant this rhetoric on change and good
governance. The only change that has happened since the MDC-T
came into office is the increasing fatness of its
leaders and, of course, their mobility up the social
ladder, drifting away from the voting masses. The
credibility of the MDC-T in matters of transparency is
currently no more than that of a pastor preaching
holiness in front of a congregation that includes his
mistresses. The MDC-T has become a party too used to people
following its pursuits, not because the pursuits are
noble but because people are hunting for an
alternative. Now the time has come for the MDC-T to start
following the pursuits of the people and the party
simply has no idea how to do it. Barring a radical miracle, the MDC-T may in fact be
walking its last mile towards real demise, and no
amount of blame apportioning will be good enough to
revive the lost myth of glory that the MDC-T used to
enjoy as an opposition political party. The aura of
invincibility that was part of the myth around the
name Tsvangirai has been replaced by the raucous
laughter of citizens watching the unmasking of a fake
hero. Zimbabwe we are one and together we will
overcome. It is homeland or death! Reason Wafawarova is a political writer based in
Sydney, Australia. |