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THOSE of old said to be forewarned is to be forearmed, and we hope Zanu-PF is alive to the message delivered by the constituency of Norton where it lost to its nomadic, loquacious erstwhile son, Temba Mliswa. While Zanu-PF has won all parliamentary by-elections since the harmonised elections in 2013, Norton presented the first real challenge for the revolutionary party as it was pitted not only against its erstwhile son but also one who was provincial chairman and who had got the blessing of the main opposition MDC-T that had hitherto announced a boycott of all by-elections.

This, thus, made previous Zanu-PF by-election victories academic and Norton the real first challenge to the ruling party’s dominance since 2013. As such Norton is a wake-up call to Zanu-PF ahead of the 2018 elections. It is time to ditch the nonchalance and know that the pen is mightier than rhetoric. A simple stroke of the pen in 2018 can cause major reversals to the gains not only of 2013 but the gains of independence as it were.

To us the major lessons are quite simple really.

In 2013, Norton was the only constituency in which President Mugabe, on July 23, 2013, held a star rally, the other rallies were held at provincial level. And in his address President Mugabe walked in tune with the concerns of the people among them black economic empowerment, addressing the situation at the Chiadzwa diamond fields, assisting small-scale miners, improving service delivery in all sectors and cancellation of bills owed to municipalities by residents throughout the country.

This was not the case with some of the rallies addressed by principally national political commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere and Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko who effectively thumbed their noses at the electorate saying Zanu-PF leaders accused of corruption were untouchable as what they did was deemed to be for the benefit of the party.

Such utterances not only went against the party’s 2013 election manifesto but also the 10-Point Plan for Economic Growth enunciated by President Mugabe in his last State of the Nation Address all of which identify corruption as an evil that needs to be eradicated.

Zanu-PF thus lost the Norton by-election because its message was at variance with the expectations of the electorate, and we hope going forward the ruling party will not pay lip service to the scourge of corruption that has worsened the effects of the West’s illegal economic sanctions regime. While sanctions, in the words of Cuba’s founding president Fidel Castro Ruiz, have the effect of silent atomic bombs, it is a fact that corruption worsens their effects.

As such economic sanctions and graft are the two biggest evils that have had a deleterious effect on our economic fortunes. However, while we do not have the power to revoke the West’s economic sanctions regime, we certainly have the power to contain corruption to be in a position to bust the sanctions.

We thus take great exception to the utterances by Zanu-PF Secretary for Youth Affairs Kudzai Chipanga who seems to have a penchant for shoving his size 10 shoes in his mouth, to the effect that Zanu-PF lost Norton because of The Herald and its sister papers’ exposures on corruption. Chipanga, who is himself implicated in both the stands and Zimdef scandals, should know that one does not have to open one’s mouth to breathe. Sometimes it is wiser to be silent.

To the contrary we believe Zanu-PF lost because it failed to show the electorate that it was serious about curbing the scourge of corruption among other ills. It was indeed suicidal on the part of senior party leaders to defend those accused of corruption, instead of letting them prove their innocence in court. The other lesson to learn from the Norton debacle is also closely tied to the first, namely, that the interests of the voter not the so-called chefs are supreme.

Cde Chindedza was reportedly imposed on the people of Norton by some senior leaders. We cannot over-emphasise this point because it is not the chefs who count at the end of the day but the votes of the grassroots whose choices should always be supreme. We hope the Zanu-PF leadership has been put on notice, and such nonchalance will not be entertained going into the 2018 harmonised elections.