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Tichaona Zindoga
So Job Sikhala is back in MDC-T.
No one will begrudge him that, or envy him either.Neither are there any echoes of a grand occasion that should have been February 13, the day on which Sikhala, a fiery politician who once deserted Morgan Tsvangirai, was welcomed back in the “tent”, the favoured word these days for people referring to Tsvangirai’s bosom in his fractious party.
Joubert Mudzumwe, founding member of the MDC who followed Welshman Ncube and company in the 2005 split — frantically fighting in the corner of Arthur Mutambara before vanishing into thin air — came back even more inconspicuously on the same occasion.
This may yet sum up what fate holds for the “grand coalition” that Tsvangirai may have in his mind as he tries to both marshal his hold on the opposition deck and challenge the Zanu-PF status quo.
Any coalition that the opposition is trying to come up with at the present moment is going to be neither grand nor able to make the grade; it’s going to be just bland. And there are plenty of reasons for saying this.
First of all, we have been down that road before: ahead of elections last year, such a “grand coalition” suffered a stillbirth as what was billed to be a united buffer of opposition parties comprising of Mavambo Kusile Dawn, Zapu, Zanu-Ndonga and MDC-N ended up not materialising. This was mainly due to the fact that the only significant member, MDC, did not show up.
Prof Ncube had been predicted to be a kingmaker of sorts until he failed to even get one elected seat on July 31, 2013, would have none of going to bed with Tsvangirai due to underlying and deep-seated differences.
Zapu and its leader Dumiso Dabengwa, a former Cabinet minister, also stayed away.
The coalition thus became that of MDC-T, MKD and Zanu-Ndoga led by Reketai Semwayo.
It expectedly did not amount to much.
MKD leader Simba Makoni, one-time member of Zanu-PF who in 2008 notched a significant eight percent in the Presidential vote, would prove useless, too, failing even to secure a Parliamentary seat in Makoni Central with MDC-T support.
It would have taken a miracle for Semwayo to surprise anyone. And there was to be no miracle.
Today, the tragedy in Tsvangirai’s bringing back Sikhala and Mudzumwe lies in that the two do not seem to bring any value to the party besides superficially shoring up Tsvangirai’s support within the leadership.
As a matter of fact, in their private moments the two gentlemen may be rubbing their hands in glee anticipating, being Tsvangirai’s newfound cronies, some “safe” Parliamentary seats en route to political reckoning.
Suffice to say, they are the ones that appear set to benefit from rejoining Tsvangirai.
Talking about the calibre of opposition politicians, one would really scratch their heads to come up with more credible names which Tsvangirai may yet bring in the “coalition”.
Prof Ncube is unlikely to be interested, and he has said so many times over.
The latest turn of events in the MDC-T in which dissenting voices are being ruthlessly crushed and thugs hired to assault officials holding ideas that are at variance with those of the leader, is bound to leave Prof Ncube with a sense of déjà vu.
The academic was once an unfortunate subject of such skullduggery. He can be trusted to shy away from rejoining the hell house. Prof Ncube could be the “credible” figure that Tsvangirai wanted at the moment yet it is inconceivable he will be able to lure the academic into bed.
Maybe the other professor, Lovemore Madhuku, who having waded into the political field where his prospects look dim, might take the bait.
The problem will be that Madhuku himself does not have a constituency and cuts the figure of an opportunist rather than a serious national politician.
And beyond these people, who are other politicians worth the mention?
If one may be tempted to think that professors are wooed by ideas, then it is to be wondered what new ideas, paradigms would Morgan Tsvangirai present to the world.
Not the Mugabe-must-go mantra, surely?
And how are things going to be done differently in the opposition?
The cult of personality is still very much alive – Tsvangirai even seeks to entrench it by bringing in loyalists and allies from outside.
The MDC will remain the personalised outfit that it is today for the foreseeable future because Morgan Tsvangirai, and even some of his supporters, cannot imagine an MDC without him.
It may be contested that politics is his only viable employer at the moment, and in his situation that lacks either letters or skills.
The personalisation of the opposition may work out to turn off those in and outside the party that believe in a clear, democratic and “depersonalised” opposition movement.
Tendai Biti, the MDC-T secretary-general, only a fortnight ago was calling for such “depersonalised” alliance of opposition, although he did not specify who would be leading it.
The issue of timing may also militate against Tsvangirai’s “grand coalition”.
If the idea of a “grand coalition” failed on the eve of an election, it can be negligible at a time like this when the environment not politicised enough.
The situation today is different from the late 1990s when socio-economic problems provided the gel that hold disparate groups together: from peasants to students and labour unions, to white farmers, white businesspersons and their acolytes.
In the post-election period as Zimbabwe is, opposition is at its most lethargic. Not even some dark horses from the Diaspora, or wherever else, are likely to ghost into the political field now. There have not been any outrages by the new government to warrant any mass action or outcry, which it must be clever to avoid, so the situation may remain subsided. In another year the current expose of corruption would have been earth shattering and play into the hands of the opposition.
That such an issue has not been fully taken advantage of by the opposition reveals that now is not time for any ambitious project. It will take one cataclysm, with a Zanu-PF face, to form and precipitate the kind of situation that will change the face of the country’s politics for the benefit of the opposition.
The timing of this “grand coalition”, if it will materialise, is also tricky in so far as the next elections will be held.
Four years from now, in 2018, the shaky party would probably have mired itself further in contradictions.
Four years is a very long time in politics.
It will be interesting to see how Job Sikhala, for example, will turn out to be in 2018 and how far the gaffe-prone Tsvangirai will have gone.
Online Reporter