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Jabulani Sibanda

Mukachana Hanyani Correspondent
The former national chairman of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA), Jabulani Sibanda, has lost touch with reality by assuming that ZANU-PF under the leadership of President Mugabe will be defeated at the 2018 harmonised elections. His rants against a party which gave him prominence shows that he is desperate and has a score to settle with the revolutionary party.

In an interview with the private Press recently, Sibanda intimated that ZANU- PF would lose the 2018 harmonised elections and that as an individual he would make sure that President Mugabe was not re-elected in those elections. He urged those who cared to listen to him that they should join him in making sure that ZANU-PF and President Mugabe were voted out in the 2018 harmonised elections. The former war veterans leader claimed that ZANU-PF without him was like “mincemeat”. Sibanda boasted that he had no match in ZANU-PF who ccould stand against him in any election as he was assured of victory.

However, Jabu should realise that ZANU-PF is bigger than individuals and his political ranting against the same party which exalted him from the political wilderness into the person he is today will not help him. Jabulani should realise that ZANU-PF is a party with over 10 million supporters and his stature is like a drop in an ocean. He needs to realise that ZANU-PF does not rely on desperate people like him who are quick to lose direction when faced with political difficul- ties.

It is a fact that individuals who before Jabulani’s rantings against ZANU-PF thought that they were bigger than the party are now fighting for political survival in useless political organisations outside ZANU-PF. In fact, Jabulani Sibanda should take a leaf from what happened to some of his political predecessors who thought they could do without ZANU-PF.

Names like Edgar Tekere, the late once powerful secretary-general of the revolutionary party who thought he had matured enough to leave ZANU-PF in the late 1990s and formed his Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), was swept away by the turbulent wind of the mighty ZANU-PF. Tekere’s heroes status was helped by the intervention of President Mugabe to have him interred at the national shrine.

We also cannot forget people like Margret Dongo of the Zimbabwe Union of Democrats (ZUD) and Dr Simba Makoni of the Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn (MKD) who before Jabulani Sibanda’s rants thought they could challenge ZANU-PF’s supremacy. As fate and history would have it, both Dongo and Dr Makoni have been thrown into history books viewed now as some failed political individuals. Dongo and Dr Makoni are aware that ZANU-PF is there to stay and that there is nothing from its former members that can shake it from its political dominance. They are both aware that ZANU-PF is bigger than individuals.

So Jabu should not fool himself to believe that he can remove ZANU-PF from power. It is common knowledge that Jabulani’s statements are coming from a disgruntled someone fond of making the private media get something to write about. His statements are devoid of any real meaning in the public domain. His views and thinking remain a wish and nothing of substance.

In fact, Jabu should not boast of winning elections against any candidate from ZANU-PF when he has never contested in any political elections to test his popularity. Maybe the private media should also ask him what makes him believe that people should vote for him now when he has never been elected in any political position. The former war veteran leader should not fool himself into believing that leading a social organisation can translate into leading a political organisation and then get liked by the electorate.

Individuals get prominence when they are attached to powerful organisations and tend to lose such prominence once that authority is removed from them. Louis Coarser, a renowned sociologist, is aware that authority resides in power and once that power is taken away from you such authority ceases to exist.

So Jabu should be aware that his power resided in him when he was the leader of the war veterans and now that he has lost that leadership to Christopher Mutsvangwa, he is like anyone in the streets. The sooner Jabu realises this the better.