Guy Scott, demons and the ringmaster
Politics could well be like a scene taken from a  Zombie-killing script

Politics could well be like a scene taken from a Zombie-killing script

It is hoped that the reader may find in his or her heart the indulgence to be once again taken across the Zambezi River, the home of the Nyaminyami snake god. Last week in this column we talked about “A Zambian Guy called Scott”, who happens to be that country’s acting president following the death of his superior — a former sweeper at the Victoria train station called Michael Chilufya Sata.

The reason Scott became subject of discussion here was his unique and increasingly uneasy role as the acting president — a white president, itself a rarity in Africa.

But there was another interesting dynamic: Scott was caught in the succession battle in that copper-rich country of Kenneth Kaunda.

He had, apparently to consolidate his power — having been something of a ceremonial vice president and, in his words having been regarded as some kind of political mascot — fired a party stalwart Edgar Lungu.

It is now public record that the move backfired spectacularly with riots erupting in the country to protest this politically motivated, unAfrican move at a time when the country was mourning King Cobra, as Michael Sata was known.

Scott backed down and reinstated Lungu, not before counter-measures were being planned against him: during this same time of writing last week, there were moves to expel Scott from the party, the Patriotic Front.

“It’s bound to be interesting in Zambia, if this comes to pass — the acting president being booted out from the party,” I wrote.

Adding: “Now that’s political drama. With instructiveness, too, in our circumstances. Succession. The ceremonial ones seeking to be executive. There is also an interesting story of a goblin that becomes too powerful and dangerous to the liking of its owner. This is of immense interest to us Zimbabweans.”

Well, that which was speculated to happen did actually happen three days later when Scott was purportedly suspended for “unconstitutional conduct and for abrogating the party constitution,” whatever that was.

(We were never fully furnished with the details, but did that matter?)

Scott’s suspension did not affect his incumbency as acting President although it is now quite an uneasy situation for him, being a leader without a constituency, without a party.

For him there are other things that may weigh against him: he is a lonely white man of foreign stock. In fact, there have been even rumours that he may be expelled from Zambia.

Not that he has taken it all lying down. In fact, acting on the advice of a certain clique within Patriotic Front referred to as the “cartel” fronted by one Fred M’membe, he has in turn suspended the Central Committee members that suspended him.

It is confusion and there is clearly a power vacuum in Zambia — and an even more interesting thing has happened.

A report yesterday said the military had warned, “(t)hat if the PF was not ready to govern, it is ready to take over effective Thursday forcing Scott and the cartel to grow cold feet on their numerous schemes to hold on to power.”

There is a word for what is happening in Zambia and like circumstances. It is called intrigue.

Power politics involves a lot of such intrigue. You can bet that if our Guy Scott had not suffered the biological and genealogical or even geographical error of being white and born of expatriate parents, he would have done more and worse already.

His pedigree weighs him down.

And legitimacy is one thing that he seems to be lacking, even inherently so.

His case contrasts sharply with the story of a certain Prince in a particular unnamed kingdom who would emerge victorious where guys like Scott failed.

A brief background.

The Prince in this kingdom in question is a man who patiently built his house through years of hard work, dedication and commitment to a just cause. He is a self-made man whose house stands as it is because of what he has wrought.

He has even made institutions and personalities out of nothing and has taken everyone into his tent — more like the “big tent” which a bete noire of his often touts.

His house is something that has taken about three decades to build but, suddenly, both the builder and the building are threatened with mortal destruction.

Weakening of the house’s foundations.

Weakening the hand that built.

Eliminating the builder himself, ultimately; inevitably.

The builder is slow to react — even when he may have seen that the foundation was being gnawed at, shaken.

You can blame him for being indecisive or too patient for his own good; for the good of his own house.

Then suddenly things begin to move and the Prince begins to use his long unused teeth.

He looks the enemy in the eye: if it’s war if you want I give you war. Like in the old days.

A war. Someone falls. Another. And Another.

The whole structure of rebellion crumbles slowly and painfully. Decisively.

It is like fighting a legion of demons, starting with the small ones; the restless ones, the resistant ones, the daring ones, the dangerous ones, the bigger ones: ranks upon ranks of little demons.

Those that have played games about zombies and mortal enemies may picture this scenario.

After a trail of destruction of little demons, the path is left open to dispatch Mother Demon.

Isn’t it interesting that this could be a scene taken straight from the script of the ongoing Zanu-PF politics?

Foreign newspapers, forever curious and eager to dramatise and intrigue, are a useful port of call to demonstrate this point.

One Alan Cowell, writing for the New York Times, citing a local blogger, states that what is taking place “would take a person like William Shakespeare to write a meaningful script on this episode.”

Cowell says, President Mugabe may face mixed fortunes on the international stage “. . . but back home, he is presiding over — and possibly choreographing — an increasingly fierce internal scramble for the rewards of high office.”

(Africans don’t rule for the good of their people but for rewards of high office!)

Cowell divines that “The land (Zimbabwe) is seething with intimations of conspiracy and counter-conspiracy.”

Cowell also sees President Mugabe having “long succeeded in playing rival factions against one another to protect his own position”.

But that is not the dramatic of all.

Cowell refers to yet another American newspaper, the Economist, which concludes that: “The president, meanwhile, looks and sounds in fine form for his age.

“Regardless of who will be elevated or demoted, he has shown himself to be the ringmaster.”

And, boy, is he not!

If only Guy Scott had such pedigree, Zambia would be a far more interesting place!

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