Chronicle Editor
Ranga Mataire, Group Political Editor
We are in the election season and as usual the media is in an overdrive of covering political parties’ campaign rallies throughout the country.
As has become the norm since the birth of opposition politics in the country, it’s a two-horse race pitting the ruling Zanu-PF led by incumbent President Mnangagwa against the opposition CCC led by Nelson Chamisa.
It’s the first election since independence where Zanu-PF has had to contest against a one man-band of a party, where no one except Chamisa is leading the campaign.
It’s the first of its kind where Zanu-PF has had to fight it out with a political entity that has no structures, constitution or discernible membership. Chamisa calls this brand of politics strategic ambiguity.
It’s half-way through to full-time and it’s the right time to take stock of what the parties are offering, which one is faring better; what are the take-aways and where does this leave the voter?
Unlike before, when parties would compete to sell their Manifestos to the electorate, Zanu-PF has this time around adopted a different approach. Its Manifesto, it says, is imprinted on the ground where massive impactful infrastructural projects have been completed while others are in different stages of completion.
Although Zanu-PF initially wanted to launch its Manifesto at Mutema Secondary School in Chipinge, where it launched its campaign on June 24, the idea was shelved as the party felt that the 2018 one spans across terms.
As articulated by one Zanu-PF top official, a Manifesto “meets a need, concrete conceptual need in a governing matrix. It also reinforces an ideological position through interpellation.”
The thinking behind the no-hardcopy Manifesto is informed by the reality that the 2018 one “spans across terms and its delivery agenda has become palpable and a common idiom among the governed” and thus needless to reissue it.
An observer following the Zanu-PF campaign trail can easily see how its course is well-set — running on continuity of developmental programmes outlined in the previous Manifesto, and fine-tuned as the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) and the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).
Besides the infrastructural projects, Zanu-PF says there is a lot on the ground that shows that the Government’s policies are working particularly in agriculture, mining investments and making government services accessible to the majority of people wherever they are.
With its rallying call of “Nyika Inovakwa Nevene Vayo” and “Leaving No one and No Place” behind, the Zanu-PF led Government has made sure that it devolves power to provinces where development is initiated at local level. This has seen a lot of people-oriented development taking place throughout the country. A case-point that quickly comes to mind is accessing and procuring identity documents and passports. Unlike before where people used to queue for days for passports, now it’s a matter of hours.
The revolutionary party clearly has an upper-hand in thought leadership in this election. It has crafted governing ideas encapsulated for mass consumption, mass endorsement and mass mobilisation. There is the Brick by Brick, Stone by Stone, Engagement and Re-engagement foreign policy strategy, Friends to all and Enemy to None. These are ideas that move national sentiment and prove eternal and enduring across generations. In short, the underlying message remains the one coined by ZANU founding president Ndabaningi Sithole: “We are our own liberators.’
One can see a clear campaign strategy on the part of Zanu-PF. The President addresses star rallies in provinces, articulating the party’s vision and what it has so far done and what it intends fulfilling if voted into power. Star rallies are then followed by rallies addressed by the Presidium, the two vice-presidents and the party’s national chairman.
This, however, does not stop aspiring parliamentary and local government aspiring candidates from mobilising party supporters to vote for the party. Every star rally convened by the President is preceded by a musical gala to commemorate a prominent political luminary in the area.
In short, while Zanu-PF’s focus is on economic deliverables, it reminds everyone that its soul and roots are found in the liberation ethos. It reminds the electorate of the connection between modern day Zimbabwe to the struggle for majority rule. And it has done this in a smart and systematic way through music.
First, it was Ndabaningi Sithole in Manicaland, then Joshua Nkomo in Matabeleland, followed by Simon Muzenda in Masvingo and later it was Joseph Msika in Mashonaland Central. One can easily see that some people really sat down and strategised how best the party’s message can resonate with the electorate.
Judging by the massive numbers of people attending the star rallies and the musical galas, it’s safe to say that the ruling party’s message is indeed resonating with the electorate.
It’s really difficult to discern bluster from substance from what the CCC leader has been saying. In fact, it is actually becoming a hard-sell for opposition inclined media to pick an underlying message from CCC leader. Each rally is becoming a charade of jokes and innuendos with no vision being articulated.
If the underlying message was change; then it seems it is not coming through as clearly as the one being pushed by Zanu-PF. The revolutionary party has clearly articulated that it’s a New Dispensation. This implies that it is doing things different from the Old Dispensation led by founding President Robert Mugabe.
What is making the CCC campaign more of a charade is that it lacks a convincing message to the electorate. It is finding it hard to convince the electorate that it is a better alternative to Zanu-PF. The manner in which it selected its parliamentary and local government candidates makes it a mockery of its claim of being a democratic party. Candidates were single-handedly endorsed or confirmed by Chamisa as he moved to purge potential threats and ensured that only his friends or close associates got the right to represent the political entity.
Besides Amos Chibaya, who looks like the only visible high-ranking officials kowtowing with Chamisa, most senior members of the political entity are conspicuous by their absence. It’s proving to anyone who cares that all is not well in the cockpit.
CCC had put their electoral hopes on the weakening Zimbabwe dollar, which would have precipitated price hikes of basic commodities and forced the electorate to rethink its support for Zanu-PF. However, this strategy has failed as the Zimdollar is now firming resulting in basic commodities being adjusted downwards in accordance with the official exchange rate.
Online Reporter