MDC-T circus is here to stay

Cassaray Makuyana
The MDC-T circus has not come to town. It has always been around entertaining townsfolk with comic antics far removed from what would otherwise characterise a political party worth mentioning, let alone one that has all along touted itself as an alternative to Zanu-PF.These gaffes have cast serious doubts about MDC-T’s capacity to make rational decisions because party declarations are, more often than not, followed immediately by capitulations.

It is this inconsistency and unpredictability that Zimbabweans have refused to identify with for the simple reason that people admire loyalty to principles.

Yet a party can only be as strong as its leadership.
Zanu-PF, under the stewardship of President Mugabe, has stayed true to its founding principles that include black economic empowerment and Pan-Africanism.

No amount of pressure, local or external, has been able to shake the Party’s fidelity to the people.
Therefore, one may be forgiven to think that the charade that has characterised MDC-T pronouncements and capitulations on anything under the sun has been calculated solely to inflict maximum embarrassment on Morgan Tsvangirai.

This could be a ploy to expedite his demise in line with the so-called Project 2016, considering that MDC-T leadership is purportedly filled with technocrats whose contribution to the party has been nothing but sorrow.

In 2002, Tsvangirai was captured on video discussing the possible assassination of President Mugabe with political consultant, Ari Ben Menashe, leading to his indictment on treason charges.

The meeting was a collective decision.
Tsvangirai’s subsequent acquittal in 2004 amid his claim of being framed as well as token attempts to flip-flop and denounce Menashe does not diminish the indictment on the capacity of the party and its leadership to make sound judgements in the cut-throat business of politics.
Imagine if the party could blunder monumentally through a mischievous adventure, what more of the country’s resources, both on and under the land!

The misdirection of the MDC-T election petition to the Electoral Court instead of the High Court poses stern questions about the credibility of law practitioners within the rank and file of the party.

Thank God for Zanu-PF’s victory because such ineptitude would leave the country vulnerable to incalculable losses, particularly where bilateral or multi-lateral issues of the State are at stake.

It did not require a Damascus experience or rocket scientist among Western imperialists to determine that the MDC-T leadership required massive hand-holding, but a disillusioned Rhodie, self-exiled Bennett, who aptly concluded that the party in general and Tsvangirai in particular always heed the advice of the last person they listened to.

That the party could allow its president to cast doubt and aspersion on the credibility of the Constitutional Court, which was yet to hear the Presidential election petition that the MDC-T subsequently withdrew, is indicative of the serious indolence within the party.
The selection of Mayors in Bulawayo and Harare is another frivolous indulgence by the MDC-T.

Whereas the party has resolved to appoint non-councillors to the mayoral posts ostensibly on the advice of its learned members and in defiance of hitherto erstwhile allied quarters such as constitutional law expert Professor Lovemore Madhuku, it is suicidal to believe that these chaps can be entrusted with the correct interpretation of the law, given their previous numerous bungling.

Tsvangirai’s open zip and shut mind approach to any moving skirt is a constant pain and reminder for the party of a dearth of credible leadership whereas Biti’s amorous shenanigans with office staff, which are as long as an arm and a half, are an embarrassing matter of public record.

Morgan Komichi, who was Tsvangirai’s chief election agent in the harmonised elections and Douglas Mwonzora, the MDC-T spokesman, run the risk of incarceration for various infractions of the law.

Komichi, who has been dumped by the party, faces a solitary battle to redemption after letting his zeal get the better of reason by attempting to implicate the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in electoral fraud.
Mwonzora stole and converted to private use Trust funds.

With an opposition like this, who needs allies?