When Corrections Fail: Part 1

Michael Mhlanga

To some, 2017 was going to be a year of novel fortunes with a remodelled government made up of faces from the resistance, civil society and social movements since they own all the legitimacy of ruling this country in the absence of Zanu-PF.

We shall always remember the month of June 2016 as the month of tryouts when anarchy almost overtook sanity with spirals of mob activity instigated by video uploads of a discontent pastor whose struggle overtook him and he failed to handle it. To this day, I always think of Evan Mawarire as an accidental public servant whose fame dazzled him that he could not manage it.

Protests are not new — they are successful failed corrections
The model of redressing our national plights has been nothing short of failed corrections stretching before last June and complemented by a current limping attempt to dislodge Zanu-PF using a regrouping of failed alternatives-CODE; MoM; NERA. I believe that it is important to remind my humble readers that it’s over a year now and the country has not been shut down. The conundrum impelled by social movements to make you believe that Zimbabwe will be no more in 2017 was a well curated fallacy, successful to be imprinted on the walls of the World’s Greatest Lies.

Here we are today, a year over, with better harvests, good weather, command agriculture, bond notes working fairly well, Zanu PF still in power and democracy still prevailing, in fact we are registering a new political party every day since that failed intent of national discord.

From exclaiming the exit of Zanu-PF, they now scream for a colossal voter registration which indeed is a good prescription for their loss come 2018. We shall vote and they shall shut up: The part when some shall shut down their personal ambitions and institution doors as funding will be immediately shut — 2018 will shut down some dreams. Happy 1st anniversary of failing. See you next year.

I thought about how the infamous shutdown failed as a corrective measure to all the socio-political ills we have as a nation, still lodged in that process, I discovered that there is a horde of failed corrections which we do not take time to think about because we fritter much of our time either laughing at the abrupt failure or hating one party for no perceptible reason.

This article is directed to the undecided voter whose schisms of decision are constructed by a popular narrative that; vote anything but Zanu-PF without constructive reasons.

In that lieu, the undecided voter knows no other party except to continuously vote for thieves, crooks and incompetent people in MDC-T who have been excellent at theft delivery.

I need not remind you of the pilgrimage of them who have been sacked from the Bulawayo City Council chambers, it’s a shame that the Democratic change’s movements have been robbery steps, robbing the masses of accountability, robbing the residents of Zimbabwe credible opposition tenacity, robbing its supporters electoral promises but successfully imposing candidates in Bulawayo — oh how undemocratic! The irony of the party’s name and how the tenets of democracy are dispelled is a monumental insult to everything political liberalism stands for.

Professors fail too
The first failed correction is the movement itself. For a little over 17 years MDC has failed to dislodge Zanu-PF because the movement was not conceived on a shared ideology which protects the Zimbabwean idea but was a conglomerate of convenience — a bunch of angry men and women.

Because of varying individual political aspirations divorced from national identity, ideology and political stamina, 2005 became the first iconic blow when either Welshman or Gibson were sacked or Tsvangirai was expelled — but sacking happened.

No one acknowledges the truth except that they extensively and irrevocably varied on political principle — which one? I wonder because they have none. Word has it that Morgan Tsvangirai and his cronies despised the idea of contesting in Senate elections yet the constitutional Professor forecasted better yields for the party should they run.

At that turn of the epoch, MDC bore a movement which was tattooed with personal names. One became “yaTsvangirai” (MDC-T), the other “EkaNcube” (MDC) I also know of MDC-99 formed by Job Sikhala — another failure.

The nation should remember the hostilities between the two, the maiming and perhaps killing of either members and how violent the Tsvangirai youths were towards the Ncube or should I say Mutambara-led MDC. Surprisingly, an expelled Tsvangirai left with a congregation, almost the whole population of the opposition.

Has someone ever asked why an expelled Tsvangirai would have such a throng of believers yet he was a political outcast? Is he more charismatic than others? As if that was not enough, Welshman failed to sell his “morally” upright ideas to Zimbabweans in contest with Tsvangirai. He has never won against Morgan — that is a fact — has anyone ever asked why MDC failed to draw political sympathy even with their claim of having the most learned leaders — questionable though, and their championing of devolution in the Copac? We would expect a breakaway by the “smart” to display a show of a remodelled political approach which attracts more believers, especially those from the “uncouth” MDC-T. This has never happened, Tsvangirai, in his expulsion still dominates the opposition political scene. Did the first breakaway party succeed?

Even lawyers too
After enjoying the cuisines and flight trips in the GNU, MDCs were never ready for what came their way in 2013. I vividly remember how a colleague of mine who was in the MDC led by Professor Welsh suddenly became a Zanu-PF supporter in the morning of the results. I always laugh when I see him and remember that those elections beamed to him that he had to revive his Zanu-PF contacts so that he appears like a “comrade” by congratulating them — such is the behaviour of ramoras — a flesh eating fish which has vulture behaviour.

2013 led to another expulsion of Morgan from MDC-T because he had consistently failed to correct the national plight which MDC aggressively possessed as their mandate to fix. Like in 2005, Morgan refused to leave but instead expelled those who expelled him. It’s like a comedy at the expense of people’s lives. Let’s assume that Morgan was expelled, but still, he left with a horde of supporters which left Tendai Biti licking his wounds I should say.

His first attempt of renewal is a clear indication of a failed project and now his PDP (Political Dismemberment Project) is nothing but a political farce. For a learned lawyer who expelled a political despondent, he sure should have remained with the majority, but here he is, with nothing, going back to ask for forgiveness from Tsvangirai.
Teaboys are smarter than those two

It is funny how both Biti and Welshman sacked Morgan but ended with nothing for a political run. It’s more amusing to see how Morgan has recurrently refused to be democratic but the proponents of democracy still believe in him, how hypocritical is that?

What is more puzzling is how attempts to correct Zimbabwean problems have continuously failed because the methods and the drivers of the corrective ideas are successful failures. We have to take note of how Welshman left Tsvangirai to correct despondency yet he, himself has been in power for a very long time.

In that light, he has failed to regain the trust of the people he used to lead when he was Secretary General of MDC back then so his exit from MDC to correct tainted democracy has failed because here he is, negotiating for his share in the opposition political slice.

He has suddenly become mum about the clashing principles he has with Morgan for over 12 years, the masses now matter, so we didn’t matter all along? Isn’t this an early winter shopping after reading the chilly political weather report that there is nothing for him further next year?

Like Welshman, Biti, who after being called a ‘briefcase’ party is keen to dine with Morgan, the one he expelled. Has he realised that his exit was a failed correction — fatal mission. After claiming that Morgan has failed to win the presidency does he suddenly believe that in 2018, magic will modify and sway poll results? Isn’t Biti a big, fat failure? I may ask a lot of questions, but the underpinning one is, did Biti succeed in winning the Presidency since he left Tsvangirai to correct that?

Will Biti and Welshman vote for Tsvangirai’s presidency in the coalition? Their vote for him means two things: 1- they failed to correct what they meant to, just like when they were a united front with Tsvangirai, and 2-They are electing a despot, a dictator, one person they will fail to remove in power should an impossible miracle happen — which is highly unlikely. I remind you, my reader, be vigilant of these three men, they failed when they were together, they split to correct the failures and they still failed.

Now that it’s established that they have failed to correct what they failed, should we then not consider them as failures who will fail again? Vote wisely. #2018willtell.
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