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Morgan Tsvangirai

THE Bible in John 11:43 tells the story of a man called Lazarus, who died and was buried for four days before being brought back to life by Jesus Christ.
The story of Lazarus in turn gave rise to the phrase, “Lazarus moment”, which denotes the salvaging of a hopeless situation.Events on our political scene show that the MDC-T, which suffered a cataclysmic loss to Zanu-PF in last year’s harmonised elections and is today riven by internecine fighting amidst donor and supporter flight, is in desperate need of a Lazarus moment.

This explains why party leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has been calling for a second inclusive Government with Zanu-PF.

The man stands battered and bruised from his teenage-style love life to questionable handling of party and public finances. More so the democracy credentials on which he sought to build his political career are in tatters as he has been exposed as a tin-pot dictator with scant regard for the party constitution let alone dissenting voices that he regularly silences with barbaric violence.

Since last year’s harmonised elections in which Zanu-PF scored a crushing victory much big than its inaugural 1980 landslide, the MDC-T has been in precipitous decline losing in all but one council by-election held since then.

MDC-T supporters are disillusioned, Western donors are disappointed and want a change of guard at Harvest House. And in the quest for survival, Tsvangirai in on the campaign trail albeit amidst ever dwindling numbers.

He has also been goading the police  with inflammatory statements at the rallies in the hope of inviting arrest and the screaming headlines that will bring.
Tsvangirai has been joined in this regard by the forgotten Job Sikhala who we believe couldn’t believe his luck at being summoned by police over statements he made at a rally in Kuwadzana urging people to declare war on President Mugabe.

The game plan is clear, MDC-T leaders are at their wits end, they do not know how to respond to the cold shoulders they are getting from supporters, donors and handlers alike.
They have no clue how to counter a resurgent Zanu-PF that has a clear roadmap to 2018, Zim-Asset.

They pray for a Lazarus moment which explains why some sections of the private media have been agenda-setting Tsvangirai’s arrest. At times Zanu-PF national spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo has unwittingly played into their hands by calling on the police to arrest the embattled MDC-T leader.

The police have hitherto tended to ignore Tsvangirai’s fulminations. We urge them to maintain that stance. There is nothing that the MDC-T can do now that it has not tried and failed to achieve since 1999.

MDC-T is in decline and in fact, as currently constituted, the party has no capacity to organise even a bun fight in a bakery.

If MDC-T had the organisational capacity, it would have rallied supporters to the voting booths last year.

Let Tsvangirai and gang shout themselves hoarse, they will soon tire if the strategy does not bring dividends. However, should they then break the law, then the law should take its course.