adminPOLITICAL developments that occurred prior to and in the aftermath of the Zanu-PF December congress were quite historic and the history is still unfolding.
They were historic in the sense that unlike the usual congresses before it, there were some marked changes that saw the revolutionary party departing from the culture of its congresses being predictable in formula and where nothing significant could be written home about.
And perhaps because of that, the shock of the outcome of the congress that ushered in a new political dispensation was felt far and wide. The party showed that contrary to the popular belief that it was incapable of renewing itself, it was all too smart and too good at that albeit at an appropriate time.
Shock to some, maybe an understatement to what happened to former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, former Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa, former Secretary for Information and Publicity Rugare Gumbo and those that they lead. And in trying to wriggle themselves from their predicament and gain the sympathy of the electorate they employed language that obfuscates the reality but in the midst of that, they met others who revealed the truth that they were all too eager to hide.
They were shocked. And beyond shock lies fear, the paralysing uncontrollable terror that can carry over into madness. They got into a state characterised by a complete lack of comprehension and perception and up to now they are still not yet capable of rational thought.
It was a political season where Zanu-PF was shedding off. Yes, just as trees shed off their leaves in preparation for a new season, the party also had to shed off its old and unwanted leaves and pruned its branches as a way of invigorating itself.
The problem, however, was that in the tree Zanu-PF there were some leaves that thought they were the trunk and roots simply because they had stayed too long. They never entertained the hope and idea of them being shed off like leaves or pruned like branches, they fooled themselves into believing that they were the life and blood of the party yet if history has to be told they joined it just like anyone else and through means that are both conventional or unconventional rose through the ranks to be cadres who could be relied upon.
And because they, at some stage wielded power both in Government and the party they mistakenly believed that they were now the epicentre from where the wheels of power are oiled and revolved giving some kind of momentum to the party.
That was very wrong. They were lucky or is it that the real author and principal was patient enough to let them live that long in the party or he was simply giving them a long rope that they finally used to hang their political careers that are currently in decadence.
Their political bargain failed to take off and their dreams of getting to the country’s pinnacles of power were thwarted when they was just a quarter to their power hopes. They realised they were so near yet so far and just as they were seeing themselves in the corridors of real power in real fact it was all a mirage.
And yet even after they were busted they remained unrepentant. They are bitter. Bitter that their plans were known, after all they had been known for a very long time and their purging was long overdue.
They have become known as the Mujuru cabal. And the cabal was very big but some repented and were spared the agony of being thrown out of the party where they were likely going to be exposed to the vagaries of the harsh political conditions associated with disorganised political options.
Some decided to hibernate into their political holes and have never said anything since their purging while their principals led by Mr Mutasa and Mr Gumbo have been given generous coverage and space by the private media to vent their anger for their recklessness with borrowed power.
They have been spitting venom with Mr Mutasa often wearing a facial expression that berates and intimidates, understandably on behalf of Mai Mujuru whose fall from grace came as a shocker to many who believed Zanu-PF was all too lenient to those that it groomed. Yes, the December congress was a political page turner in the party.
The alliance of the three former Zanu-PF stalwarts proved that in their entire political lives they learnt nothing and forgot nothing. Or are they so dull? They forgot that politics is not a profession; they have learnt nothing from those that rebelled against the revolutionary party.
Their mistake was that of the proverbial counting of chicks before the eggs have been hatched and some of them failed to have a mania for secrecy. Maybe they forgot to swear them to the oath.
They proved that they learnt nothing from the likes of Edgar Tekere, Simba Makoni and many others who before them and in their eyes chose the same path. The three have become a triple alliance and their constituency is yet to manifest.
Interestingly their unholy triple alliance is about to go into another triple alliance with other equally confused political formations. Yes, they seem to forget and need to be reminded clearly that although the idea of trinity is very popular in Catholicism, it can be laughable in politics.
The touted alliance with the Mr Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC and the Cde Dumiso Dabengwa led Zapu and any other political establishments to form the so-called grand coalition against Zanu-PF is equally laughable. It will be a coalition of old, tired and unsellable political ramshackles that will only add fun and drama on the local political scene.
Their coming out to join other oppositional political outfits is a decision made out of anger, embarrassment and the hunger for power and their joining other political parties only serves to confirm that they have always bedded their former political enemies even before their expulsion from the party.
Besides, the issue of positions will certainly cause a splitting headache, as has been hinted by the media and recently confirmed by Mr Tsvangirai in Masvingo at the burial of former MDC-T mayor Alderman Femias Chakabuda.
“People haggle over positions, but it is not about positions, but conditions for the people of Zimbabwe. Do you get me, vaMavhaire?” Tsvangirai said to applause and laughter from the mourners.
Mr Dzikamai Mavhaire is former Energy and Power Development Minister who was fired for his involvement with the Mujuru cabal on allegations of wanting to oust President Mugabe from power. The question is who will lead who and who will take which political position in a coalition of rejected political misfits. Or the idea of a grand coalition will just be aborted on or before 2018 after the power squabbles that are rearing ugly heads even before anything substantial has been put down.
Mr Tsvangirai will argue that he is tried and tested and Mai Mujuru will say she knows the internal systems of Zanu-PF while Mr Dabengwa will lift the tribal balance card and seek to revoke memories of the late Umdala wethu, Joshua Nkomo, albeit wrongfuly. The Mujuru cabal’s political options are therefore very limited although suggestions from Mr Mutasa that they stand for the original Zanu-PF or a movement that they have christened People First are not only laughable but confirm their political insanity.
And now his face is always a mask of anger or is it his portrayal in the papers, much so because with the power he used to have, he was not used to people who did not fear him, who did not grovel in his presence. And they never dreamt that they will like ordinary citizens watch President Mugabe at various national holidays delivering his keynote address without them putting a hand in the organisation of the various functions. They have become so used to sweet power, so used to command authority and so used to sitting next to the real power point.
But in Zanu-PF they have adopted the Shona saying, “kufa kwemujoni kamba haivharwe,” loosely translated to mean the death of a police officer does not necessarily mean the closure of the police camp. The business as usual approach in Zanu-PF continues unabated. The December Congress was therefore a political game changer. Those with the moral code of gangsterism were disengaged from the party and they will never be sadly missed. And the doomed fate of the unholy triple alliance is beckoning. Those that are cultured know better that when you have nothing to say, you better keep quiet than continue bubbling.
The unholy triple alliance has worn out its welcome for it has committed the three cardinal political sins which are mendacity, abuse of power and corruption. Some in the party are still doing this but they should be quick to learn that the page has turned, that guilt is no longer innocence, that malfeasance no longer bring honour to office and that obsequious poseurs are no longer heroes, that to be absent is not to be present and that the revolutionary party is revolutionising.
Online Reporter