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The then opposition had to insist on recognition of the March result which gave Morgan Tsvangirai an initial lead, stressed the media, well against the constitutional position of 50 percent-plus, which necessitated a run-off. The media, in other words, was inciting political parties to act outside of the supreme law of the country. Or to get to power through avenues other than the lawful ones. It was a posture of and for conflict. Happily, the GPA was signed and the Inclusive Government launched thereafter, in spite of that incitement. The media did not lead. It followed.

What amount of power?
The Inclusive Government in place, the media focus shifted to testing the materiality of Tsvangirai’s power, which translated into testing the extent to which President Mugabe had either lost or ceded power. Could and did Tsvangirai chair Cabinet? Could and did he act in the absence of the President? Did ministers from Zanu-PF obey him, etc, etc? Was he going to stay at State House? For a very long time the country was caught up in such a discussion, a small-minded discussion if you ask me.

What is worse, it was a discussion founded on sympathies for the MDC formations, on antipathy for Zanu- PF, never on a grasp of the instruments of power as pro­vided for at law, indeed on governing power as con­stituted institutionally.
For instance, if one considered that the constitu­tional position is that Vice Presidents deputise the President, it should have been obvious to anyone with a little bit of brains that the Prime Minister was two rungs removed from the grasp of executive power, both by processes and by symbolism. Simi­larly, it should have been only too clear that com­manders of the security establishment would salute only President Mugabe, or his representative in an acting capacity.

Our laws provide for only one commander-in-chief. The media took too long to finally reluctantly accept that Tsvangirai was a minister, albeit a prime one, in relation to the President and his deputies, and in relation to the rest of Cabinet. He could not appoint any minister, which is why he could not dis­miss any minister. In fact, so much ink was spilled on whether or not he himself should be sworn in by the President. So that way, unreasonable expectations were developed and encouraged by the media, less from ignorance of the law, more from a reluctance to accept the ordained order of things. Of course things went ahead and ran as was appropriate at law and in practice. As before, the media followed. It did not lead.

Would a coalition ever work?
When the Inclusive Government took off, you read a real media refusal to accept that coalition pol­itics could work in Zimbabwe. The media did their damnedest to validate this thesis which when tested against history, was patently false. This country had had a long history of coalition politics and coalition governments, starting with Whitehead’s Southern Rhodesia, ending with the ill-fated Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, if one limited oneself to pre-independ­ence. And at and after Independence, inclusive poli­tics and governance characterised our whole era, which is how ZAPU came in, how the Rhodesia Front personages featured prominently soon after Independence.

So, 2009 was nothing new to the country’s political tradition. Except our media did not know that. The media lived and worked in the frame of expectation of collapsed inclusive politics. That never came, except the playful shadow-boxing by way of false boycotts, false stay-aways. In terms of chemistry, Tsvangirai upset this dominant expectation by pro­fessing real love and respect for President Mugabe, a sentiment soon to be echoed by virtually all his min­isters, (Tendai) Biti and (Nelson) Chamisa foremost. The media was surprised. It could not lead.

The comfort from gold that rusts
As the inclusive time wore on, myths and expecta­tions began to wear out. The MDC formations could take bribes. The MDC formations could abuse real estate under local authorities. The MDC formations could mismanage, could make the social conditions much worse: by way of clean water supply, rubbish  collection, power outages, food prices, depressed wages, drug shortages, cutbacks of social pro­grammes, unbalanced budgets.

The MDC formations could also lie to the elec­torate, amass wealth, steal money, accept bribes, take kick-backs from large corporates. The formations could also turn their backs on their constituencies. Oh Tamburlaine, thou art a mere man, cried the povho, all along wedded to the idea of MDC forma­tions as some magical panacea to national woes. For a very long time, the media was in denial, in fact would cry foul each time an errant minister, mayor or councillor was netted by the law enforcement authorities. The MDC personages were incapable of doing evil: could only see it in Zanu-PF, could only talk it in respect of Zanu-PF.
Again, the media could not lead, in fact reluctantly they started to languidly look and wake up to the reality of MDC formations moral turpitude when the rot had hit the head. Up to today, there is reluc­tant admission, a craving for comfort through sug­gesting a corrupting association with Zanu-PF, or by drawing parallels with allegedly corrupt Zanu-PF officials. The message is very clear: we have been cor­rupted; after all Zanu-PF does it wani! You are redeemed from your own foibles, or from develop­ing them by the very evil that gives you an inverse right to exist, an opposite mission. Or is it a Chaucer­ian iron, which finds comfort in that gold has rusted?

When little power corrupts absolutely
Of course like all things, unconditional succor, mindless loyalty and gratuitous presumption of virtue, got the formations to rot, rot and rot. And the rot moved beyond resources to personal characters and integrity. Cheap cellphones were stolen. Reckless sexuality kicked in. Minors were abused. Incest was committed. Little girls were infected. Girls young enough to be daughters were laid, impregnated and jilted. Babies were born, are still being born, well out­side the blessings of priests, well outside wedlock.

Legendary seas were crossed, heads resting on tired but tender breasts.  Marriages were done, col­lapsed, new ones done again. Court actions devel­oped, sleazy details were spilled. Settlements were eventually struck, big sums involved, leaving many wondering whose money was passing hands. Mar­garet Dongo, all along so quiet, has risen, gnawed by so many questions. She suggests an inquiry. Today the MDC formations make a lie of Lord Acton’s aphorism that power corrupts, absolute power cor­rupts absolutely. For here were the nearly men and women of power, but already corrupted, and cor­rupted absolutely, all against a pampering media. As before, alibis were manufactured: it must have been the CIO, it must have been a sting operation, etc, etc. So the CIO unzips politicians’ well penned, un-intending limbs? Isadarowozve CIO iyi!

An outstanding myth
We moved on. We move on. We had a whole debate around areas of agreed reforms, agreed to under the GPA. Lots of agitation around this one matter, creating a formidable momentum for reforms in the body-politic. Amendments were done, both constitutional and statutory. New institu­tions were created. Persons were made ministers, some of them undeserved. Zimbabwe put up with mediocrity, suffered absurd and grotesque creatures, all in the name of inclusive politics. Then the agreed reforms were exhausted. We thought this reform mantra would finally come to an end. No, it didn’t. The media lurched onto the refrain of “outstanding issues”, without pausing to ask outstanding from when, where, what. As it emerged, the formations had an elastic definition of outstanding, and would daily invent a new issue in the hope of more, greater concessions. Again, the media obliged and negative energy went into that whole debate.

Diminishing sovereignty
We moved on. We move on. The issues of media­tion. Another huge debate, all of it media-led. South Africa would come to our rescue, and “our” denoted the MDC formations. Then it became a cry to Presi­dent Zuma to rescue “us”, which was a cry for exter­nal intervention, really. After all the call for external intervention was acceptable for as long as the inter­vening powers were not western. Zuma, Zuma, Banda, Troika, SADC: the gradations of craved-for intervention scaled up to the AU itself. And of course such a call amounted to self-doubt, to an acceptance that there was not enough internal momentum for settlement. The media would lead on this one, and would also be the last one to leave it! Of course the facilitator realised that he could only operate within mediation parameters acceptable to Zimbabwe. Of course SADC made it clear Zimbabwe had to solve its own problems through an internal dialogue.

Frivolous media
By which time the inclusive Government was well settled, in cruising mode. The going was now smooth and new comforts, new pleasures and opportunities, were beginning to be enjoyed and seen by the late-comers. Unfortunately the trip is short and no sooner had the cruising mode been reached than the cabin crew was being advised to prepare for landing. The constitution-making process, followed by elections. The horror, the hor­ror! It is quite obscene that the current debate in the media has become one on the desirability of elec­tions, which means the desirability of ending the inclusive era! Argh, except this is now coming from the same media that denounced inclusive politics at their discussion, at their inauguration? They now sue for timeless continuity in respect of an arrangement they denounced only yesterday as undemocratic, as undesirable? Today they now find elections inappro­priate, elections which themselves are a stock-in-trade for all democrats? Where are we with the media? Can it ever be trusted as an estate in State formation, in State elabo­ration? What is its real viewpoint? Can politics and political matters and decisions change so quickly and so frivolously as does editorial policies? Is the media watching over national politics or confusing them? Are national politics any worse by rejecting the shifty media perspective? Who governs the media, what gives it impetus? Key issues in our social formation.

Moulding the mould
I go back to my original question: are politicians prisoners of the press or manipulators of the media? Or is the media genuinely confused? Or ignorant? Can it be trusted? Relied upon in decision-making in the life of a nation? Zimbabwe’s politics have become quite complex. Regrettably, the media has been left behind, framing things in the old simplistic, Manichean fashion. Even where politics have melded, they still expect and build black and white opposites. Even where erstwhile heroes have become mere men, they still have saints and sinners. Yes, even where antagonists have since joined hands, they still have rulers and opposers. The mould can no longer carry the material, let alone durn it. The mate­rial is now larger,  has become brittle. Much worse, the mould is itself being moulded. And the current debate in the MDC formations in respect of the draft constitution is very illustrative.

The end of history?
The draft has exposed the superficies of the so-called inter-party politics. Its politics have been shaped more by a shared professional sense than by loyalties to political parties. Just see how lawyer-politicians have now emerged as closely-knit contras, across the political divides. The draft politics have been shaped more by shared, professionally founded fears of a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe, than by the desire to be loyal to partisan politics. Need we wonder that it is mecha­nisms of succession, mechanisms of future executive powers, not current dispensation, not current gover­nance, which is splitting the constitutional effort? If I were to read our politics from the constitution-making exercise, Zimbabwe has got to that stage of shared fear of a future without Mugabe, and thus a wish for a prolonged Mugabe presidency whose smoke­screen is prolongation of the GNU, is a plea for deferred elections. Mugabe can smile.

He may have re-united the country, after a bad, post-1999 cleavage. We have entered a phase of fused politics, but one whose end is indetermi­nate. Compare it to Fukuyama’s end of history, only that from the angle of party politics, it could very well be the beginning of new politics.

Great auguries
Just picture this: Biti, Mwonzora, Matinenga, Ncube, Mangwana are reluctant to have the draft handed over to Principals. For Mangwana, it’s less opposing his principal and more defending his draft as a lawyer. For Biti and company, it is both opposing their principal and opposing Mugabe, as indeed they should. And both find themselves on one side. Mangwana cannot personify a trend of dissent in ZANU(PF).
He is too much of a lightweight to do so, too much of a maverick to represent any faction.
The real spotlight is on MDC-T. There, one finds  important names involved, sufficient numbers or swallows to make a summer.
The fracture traces an old fault line. If these dissenters have decided they will break ranks over the draft constitution, whereto? Tsvangirai is the face of the MDC-T, of opposition even. If they demolish him, as I notice they are already doing, what with the latest assault on him via Elizabeth’s debacle, what now?

Between now and March they could not have invented another candidate for the opposition, surely? Or have they decided this coming election round is already lost? Have they embraced the Madhuku argument, namely that of not pitting themselves against Mugabe, but resorting to either using Tsvangirai to dislodge Mugabe, or using Mugabe to clear Tsvangirai from the deck, all for a generational shift in Zimbabwe’ politics? Of course from such a perspective, the winner of 2013 elections might not matter to this ambitious generation. This round is not their time.
It is the round that follows after this one. And such subtle, attrition politics do not need an alternative political home, even a name, or a face.
They only need a media so willing to be used to manage and manipulate naive politicians, so abrasive to degrade statures, to trigger a search for alternatives.
Here is too much demolition politics going on in the country, but one wonders demolitions to make way for what? That is the key issue, the key question. The Prime Minister must really be wondering who is with him, who is against him. It is a year of great auguries. Icho!

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