The prophesy has now come to pass!

It is now exactly a year since the August 23-24 elections that Bishop Lazi described as “consequential” insofar as they were going to radically reshape Zimbabwe’s political landscape.

As the Bishop called it, the plebiscite marked the demise of the Douglas Mwonzora-led MDC; the beginning of the end of Nelson Chamisa’s CCC, which is now as good as dead in the water; and the entrenchment of the ruling ZANU PF party as a pre-empt political force.

That prophesy has since come to pass.

What was, however, novel yet again in last year’s elections was the use — abuse, rather — of the regional body, Southern African Development Community (SADC), as a Trojan Horse in a calculated assault to delegitimise our polls and open a window for the opposition to sneak into power, not by upending ZANU PF but by creating yet another power-sharing arrangement to give it life and vitality, particularly at a time when it looked woefully unprepared for the elections. How foolish! The mistake they made, make and continue to make is to think and view ZANU PF as a political party. Well, it is more than that.

It is a liberation movement wrought out of the crucible of a long-drawn-out brutal and painful armed struggle against a determined, organised and entrenched racist system.

So, you better believe that these comrades are made of sterner stuff.

Harare’s more-than-robust response to the preliminary SADC Electoral Observer Mission report authored by Nevers Mumba — which, in an unprecedented move, sought to question the probity of sovereign State institutions and also administratively review judgments of local courts — was instructive.

Former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano even described Mumba’s shameless antics as “unheard of” in the history of the bloc.

Having been aware of Mumba’s planned play, Harare effectively and emphatically blunted the plot, which is part of a broader and active campaign driven by the Brenthurst Foundation and its allies to get rid of liberation movements in this part of the world.

Surrogates of this overweening foundation do not even make this a secret.

They have written countless literature designed to besmirch and degrade liberation movements, and also use every public debate and discourse to talk them down.

And sadly, some of these surrogates are even former Heads of State. As Africa, someday, if not as soon as yesterday, we need to talk about the need to support and guarantee the livelihoods, welfare and general social security of our former leaders. Failing that, some of them would conveniently find themselves selling their soul for 30 pieces of silver to do the bidding of those who wish us ill from faraway lands. But attempts to weaponise SADC institutions and processes are not unique.

We have been down this road before.

Our enemies should have known that we also hold the distinction of dismantling the SADC Tribunal after it made that notorious November 2008 ruling in favour of 79 white commercial farmers, led by Mike Campbell, who wanted to reclaim land they had lost through the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme.

The last rites of this misguided tribunal were administered at the 2018 SADC summit.

Good riddance!

Fast forward to recent developments, when President ED assumed the helm of the regional bloc and Madame Samia Suluhu Hassan took over the reins of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, the obtaining situation is now far from what the Brenthurst Foundation either envisaged or bargained for.

With ZANU PF and Chama Cha Mapinduzi now holding sway in the region, this can only be more ominous for those who burn the midnight oil scheming against revolutionary parties, particularly with three other liberation movements — SWAPO in Namibia (November 27), Frelimo in Mozambique (October) and Botswana Democratic Party (October) — set to hold elections and inexorably extend their incumbency this year.  The Botswana Democratic Party was formally accepted as a permanent member of the Former Liberation Movements of Southern Africa at the group’s meeting in Victoria Falls on March 19 this year.

Psalm 21:11 is comforting.

It says: “Though they intended evil against you and devised a plot, they will not succeed.”

Psalms 37 adds: “A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity. The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright. But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.”

The end of rancour and mischief

But the fortunes of ZANU PF, whose Government it leads now helms SADC, and the opposition, particularly CCC, which now finds itself leaderless, radarless and clueless, could not have been any starker.

Chamisa, who extricated and banished himself from the party he founded, is now down in the dumps.

The successful hosting of the 44th SADC summit and President ED’s crowning moment upon assuming the bloc’s chairmanship rubbed it in. Can you believe that, up until August 17, there were actually grown-up CCC starry-eyed supporters who could swear by their mothers that SADC was going to order fresh elections in Zimbabwe based on Mumba’s report?

They even believed the regional indaba was going to be moved from Harare on the strength of Chamisa’s representations to regional leaders, who we were made to believe were his friends.

But it was all a big, fat lie that was mendaciously sustained to keep Chamisa and his CCC relevant after last year’s shellacking.

“I had a meeting with leaders of SADC asking me how I see things and what should be done because this country now has two governments,” Chamisa told his supporters at a party meeting in September last year.

“I told SADC that the people of Zimbabwe are clear on what they want and are saying what is called an election is the ability of people to make a decision about who should lead and guide the country, and not the chaos we witnessed here.” Kikikiki.

But Chamisa so? Kikikiki.

It, however, all came crushing down at the SADC summit, which left the opposition dispirited.

You should have seen the mournful, self-comforting messages on social media in the aftermath of the summit.

It was pathetic in every sense of the word.

The melancholy was obviously prompted by the painful realisation that they had been lied to and led down the garden path all along.

Bishop Lazi told you last year that Chamisa’s chastening defeat in the elections was going to have the fatal effect of removing the halo that came with being considered by his followers as the putative political messiah of Zimbabwe.

However, most worrying for Chamisa and his acolytes such as Gift Ostallos Siziba, Amos Chibaya and Takudzwa Ngadziore is the growing inquest over malfeasance involving party funds.

What internal party critics have been hinting at and now publicly stating after the elections is the disappearance of millions of dollars, including about US$3 million donated by the European Union, which the cabal reportedly salted away.

CCC interim secretary-general Mr Sengezo Tshabangu told us as much last year.

This year, on February 12, a senior member of the party, Charlton Hwende, made the same allegations against the cabal when it tried to launch Chamisa’s mulled blue political project.

“People who stole money for election agents are the ones driving this deception,” said Hwende in a loaded tweet directed at his former comrades.

There are other funds that also disappeared in CCC’s structureless dark hole.

Do you still remember Ngadziore?

Yes, that young chap who made a skit purporting to have been abducted by spooks.

We are told he put money sank by “donors” — some say it could have been more than US$250 000 — to “good use” through his pet project, Register Elect And Protect (REAP), which was ostensibly meant to mobilise the youth vote.

He even organised sporting tournaments for the youths. Kikikiki.

Well, a fool and his money are soon parted.

While CCC supporters continue hurting and sulking, their leaders might not have to work another day in their lives as they enjoy the creature comforts of their political enterprise.

Wide berth

For a party aligned to foreign interests, whose values were alien, counter-revolutionary and anti-progress, CCC’s misfortunes and decline, therefore, gives us a wide berth to press on with developing our country without the encumbrances of political rancour and mischief.

By literally lighting a previously dingy Harare and sprucing up roads that had been neglected for years, ED has emphatically shown many what the capital city could be under bold, wise and visionary leadership.

As Bishop Lazi once said, ED will not stand aside and look while the opposition villagises Harare. Our city, our country will be great once again.

The future is exciting.

Bishop out!