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For fear of sounding monotonous or overkilling the subject of the goings-on in Zimbabwe People First party, which recently underwent a severe bout of convulsions that saw seven senior politicians being burped out unceremoniously, I had decided not to write further about the party.

While reflecting on the latest development, the significant talking point of which was the dismissal of Messrs Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa, in a piece last week I mapped scenarios for this Joice Mujuru-led outfit importantly pointing her desirous readiness to jump into bed with Morgan TSVANGIRAI of MDC-T, albeit with her own preliminaries such as an elective convention in the next 90 to 120 days, some coquetry in the intervening days leading to a consummation, a pre-electoral pact circa October/November.

I had not wanted to talk about the fate of Gumbo and Mutasa, the two gentlemen who led the charge for the formation of People First, on the back of their rebelliousness in Zanu-PF.

The men are down.

They are on their way out — not even a miracle will save them, a cruel fate for people of such age and pedigree.

People First was supposed to be some kind of redemption, some kind of soft landing for topsy turvy political careers.

Things have gone awry, almost irredeemably.

You should have seen that picture of Didymus Mutasa at a Press conference holding his cheek in his hand in the manner of the bereaved.

His face was bereavement.

It was death.

It was death of glory, of a career, of power.

DNE Mutasa, that man who used to be such a powerful politician whose word, as people who interacted with him say, was law, is just an ordinary man now.

You cannot distinguish him from any villager at a ndarira, the village brew.

Give him a slap or a dismissive shove and nothing will happen to you from or courtesy of the man who used to be the country’s security chief and powerful Speaker of Parliament.

Not that we are advocating for any harassment or violence against this senior citizen.

It is not for Africans to do so.

And we do not think he is a particularly bad fellow. You can see in his poignant eyes that he is an ordinary person like us,who at one point — or rather much of his life — was drunk with power.

He never thought it would go away, and when it did, he did not quite lose hope. We are not sure if he holds any belief in himself anymore.

Look at that picture again.

There are a neat thousand words to illustrate how he has fallen from grace: his poignant visage, graying and shrinking face, the dishevelled shirt collar and body language steeped in stories of tragedy. The last time, in 2014, when his political fortunes took a nosedive, he spent a couple of months on the sick bed.

We tend to fear the worst in the present predicament.

Let’s pray for Didymus Mutasa.

And you get this feeling that his comrade in arms, Rugare Gumbo, is not taking it as heavily as Mutasa.

Maybe it is because he was never as close to the levers of power as Mutasa, both structurally in Zanu-PF or in practice. Or because Gumbo actually has a cause to be a rebel.

We all remember that interview that he gave to The Rhodesia Herald when he came back from Mozambique and his unforgiving nature, especially to those in power.

This makes him sterner, a lot stiffer.

He can even have his head up — even on that picture in which Mutasa cast a forlon figure.

He is resigned to his fate.

He is the guy who will today walk to the gallows with equanimity (and Mutasa would long have crumbled on the way).

See, Gumbo even affords some humour in it all.

In the last interaction I had with him, he coolly asked me whether I had not been tired of writing about Gumbo and Mutasa.

He chuckled.

I chuckled, too, and said something about how he should know about the “game”.

I do not think he is a bad human being.

Not least, I heard about and he said a lot of commendations to me, until, in his words, I became a “Mampara”.

Only he has shown to be a bigger, political Mampara all the way to old age!

Which brings me to the main point of this piece.

I stated above that I would have wanted to steer clear of further discussion on People First and in particular its unfortunate personages — until time gave us more fruitful turns and developments.

However, one Whitlaw Mugwiji, a blogger and columnist, decided to celebrate me in a piece titled, “Tichaona Zindoga was right, Mutasa and Gumbo are thieves in giant robes”, which has since been reproduced on a number of online platforms.

Not that Mr Mugwiji and I agree a lot: in fact, we seldom agree on the country’s politics.

And even when he cites me, it is to a different goal altogether.

But here is what Mr Mugwiji wrote as he reflected on the fallout in People First:

“It therefore comes as no surprise that Rugare Gumbo, Dydmus Mutasa, Margret Dongo and four other expelled members from the ZimPF were not keen to form a coalition with the opposition. I say good riddance to bad rubbish, many of these leaders were riding high on Mujuru’s back. They might be big names but as individuals they have little followership in the country.

“Tichaona Zindoga from the Herald was right when he described them as dwarfs in large robes. Instead of belittling Mujuru’s leadership they should go to the people and let them be the arbiter.

“Unfortunately, my opinion carries little or no weight at all but I would rather suggest they go into retirement. I am sure the citizenry would be most grateful to learn about the liberation struggle and the Zimbabwean government through their lenses.”

It will be recalled that at the material time of this dwarf description, Mutasa was so livid that he is said to have complained at some authoritative political platform of how “his” newspaper could dare call him a dwarfish thief in giant robes.

It marked the incremental end of his relationship with the paper.

But history is a cruel judge.

If a person is deemed excess baggage in quick succession as has been suffered by Mutasa and his band, including Dzikamai Mavhaire, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti (who has not learnt how to belong to the correct basket) and Munacho Mutezo, something must be wrong.

Very wrong.

It must be remarked with cruel humour that these guys have been thrown outside from outside!

And Mutasa had no power to stop it despite the huge robes history clothed him in.

They are gone forever.