adminAT 16, the Movement for Democratic Change supposedly led by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai is without leaders. All the so-called leaders that the party has are ineffectual, but surprisingly the lot somehow boasts that it has the gifts of true leaders — authenticity, originality, integrity, credibility, service to the people, and sacrifice. But they are fooling no-one anymore, even some of their most gullible followers are beginning to see that the main opposition party are so insane that they are hard to satirize.
They lack both vision and character — nutcases that are beyond redemption. When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980 who would have thought that an opposition party made up of casanovas, liars, thieves, criminals, crooks and imposters would want to preside over the affairs of Zimbabwe? Come to think of it they almost did. There even was a time when Mr Tsvangirai was Prime Minister.
From the moment MDC-T came to being it still baffles how some Zimbabweans convinced themselves to cast a vote for a hostile, anti-people, and no-good political party run by asylum inmates.
Witness their disruptive behaviour in Parliament and it will dawn on you that Zimbabweans are in an abusive and unequal relationship with these people. Democracy, which is a good thing by the way, has resulted in us, especially the urban folk in urban areas where the opposition has the majority of seats, being abused and neglected by an assemblage of below par people.
From the moment the doors of Parliament were opened to the MDC-T, things have never been the same. Every Parliament session thereafter has been a truly remarkable circus characterised by interacting absurdities remotely controlled by Mr Tsvangirai in his $3 million mansion.
Mr Tsvangirai, whose life will one day inspire the writing of a book about how not to be a leader, has turned the party with second highest number of representatives in Parliament into a bedlam of lunatics. There is no other way to describe the disorderly actions of the MDC-T.
The extent of their lunacy was clearly exhibited during the burial of the late Nkulumane MP Thamsanqa Mahlangu. Instead of working to unite the mourning and warring families, the MDC-T leadership chose to use a platform meant for grief to display their soiled briefs. Mr Tsvangirai, who never fails to disappoint his detractors or to miss his foot when he shoots, chose to stay away from the burial even though he had come all the way from Harare to bury one of his lieutenants.
The backlash for that boycott has been fierce and unrelenting. The unspoken tension and disappointments of Zimbabweans scraping around in the parched opulence of a country ravaged by illegal sanctions supported by MDC-T is an indication that there is a leadership crisis in the MDC-T — the blind are still leading the party and 16 years on they are still groping in the dark.
But this kind of behaviour is no longer unexpected. Whenever such embarrassing acts happen Zimbabweans now shrug their shoulders and continue with their daily lives. These lunatics went bananas long back. They cross-fertilised their collective insanity with shared delusions and are divorced from reality of the Zimbabwean situation.
They behave with all symptoms of mental illness: confused thinking, detachment from reality, paranoia, hallucinations, inability to cope with the nation’s problems, trouble understanding and relating to Zimbabwean problems and to the people.
The drama of the action of the lunatics is a sad commentary of what Zimbabwe’s biggest opposition has become in its 16 years of existence — a ghost — a party that does not cultivate anything save to continue embarrassing itself. The decision by Tendai Biti and others to leave the sunken ship serves as a mirror that reflects the true image of the MDC-T.
This image, it must be emphasised, is seen best in Parliament where MDC-T representatives create chaos for the sake of chaos. This unnecessary and unjustified reactionary response, whose sole purpose is to prevent Zanu-PF from governing Zimbabwe, is not surprising — it is the last kick of a dying horse. They are inflamed with fear that this could be the last time they set foot in Parliament — 2018 is around the corner. It’s no surprise that they have become most unruly, undisciplined, and hysterical.
Judging by the crescendo of insanity of the MDC-T parliamentarians, it is evident that they inhabit a different planet from the rest of Zimbabwe. They have no interest or understanding of the needs of our people. They have no respect for public opinion that is overwhelmingly against them. They are lost as it were, in their psychopathic obsessions and delusions.
Despite the fact that Mr Tsvangirai has shown that he is way better chasing skirts than leading a party that somehow still believes it has a chance of governing Zimbabwe after the 2013 mauling by Zanu-PF, MDC-T officials and other members are convinced that Morgan is the best they can offer to run for President.
You just have to listen to one of their senior officials, particularly MDC-T secretary general Mr Douglas Mwonzora who never fails to claim that Mr Tsvangirai is the best foot forward for the nation. We defeated Zanu-PF in 2013, he says, but when you ask him for proof he goes on a lengthy diatribe that is rich with unfounded allegations. When you remind him that his party boasted that they had used their time in Government to ensure that the elections were free, fair and credible he becomes careful not to admit that they lost fair and square.
Like Werner Herzog, I feel despair so terrible that I always consider slitting my own wrists, or bludgeoning myself about the head with a steel pipe or baseball bat whenever I am made to listen to MDC-T officials trying, but failing to justify sticking with Mr Tsvangirai. Fortunately, like Herzog, I have no blade to cut my wrists or a pipe or bat to bludgeon myself.
What’s so special in Mr Tsvangirai that makes senior party officials keep following and protecting him? For 16 years, Morgan has shaped the way some Zimbabweans think and play politics. He has done so from an unrivalled pulpit of intimidation and corruption. He has the sheer ability to drive the political conversation of the MDC-T. He fostered some of the most unbelievable political narratives of modern Zimbabwe.
Mr Tsvangirai has proven time and time again that he is deluded, incompetent, second-rate, and hypocritical. Yet, Mr Tsvangirai is worshipped, revered, feared, and loved by his party. Here is why: most of the people around Mr Tsvangirai today follow him because they stand to be rewarded with personal gains and seats in the party’s executive. They don’t have his interest at heart. It is all about them and their families. If they had his interests at heart they would have advised him to step aside long back. Their sycophantic embarrassing behaviour is a means of getting posts that will allow them to get some of that donor money that is poured into the coffers of the MDC-T in every election season.
MDC-T members are committing suicide by backing Mr Tsvangirai who is despised by the majority of Zimbabweans. Mr Tsvangirai has lost every Presidential election he has contested, but somehow his backers are still salivating at the thought that Morgan will be president — by doing so they are inadvertently writing their political obituary. They are going to sink with their captain and not one will survive because there are no lifeboats on their ship.
The executive leadership of the MDC-T has built a firewall around Mr Tsvangirai but it won’t shield their leader from facing the wrath of the people who now see him for what he truly is — a paranoid man on an ego trip with self delusions of adequacy who could have been a disaster at State House.
Online Reporter