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We have always known that MDC-T is a clueless, puppet party that was founded by the West to achieve what its white masters sought: the removal of President Mugabe from office.

We all know that the party has no ideological grounding, is not organic and was cobbled up together from disparate groups who happened to oppose the Government and the ruling party, zanu-pf.

In the absence of any ideological glue or basis, the one message that has bound the party is, “Mugabe must go”.

Well, President Mugabe has not gone anywhere and he is not going to go anywhere soon, especially at the behest of the meddlesome foreigners that are fronted by the opposition.

This is frustrating enough for the opposition and this is one singular reason why the MDC-T has fragmented into smithereens in the last 10 of its 16 years of existence.

The Mugabe-must-go mantra has lost relevance, which even the garrulous and Tsvangirai defender Obert Gutu, who is the MDC-T spokesperson is now admitting.

A week ago he had an interview with News24 which pointed to him the staleness of the Mugabe-must-go mantra.

He said: “Our plan going forward is basically to come up with sustainable and bankable alternative policies that will help in extricating Zimbabwe from the prevailing economic malaise. We are crafting alternative policies on health, local government, agriculture, education, youth and women empowerment etc and we are pretty confident that our policies are good enough to take our country to the next level.”

The irony is that a serious opposition only realises now that it has to proffer alternatives as a “plan going forward”!

What did they think they were doing all along?

Killing off the MDC

Which brings us to the next point.

You may be aware that the MDC-T as a clueless, stagnant party is facing death due to the fact that it has failed the test of its handlers.

It has been useless as an instrument; as a puppet.

You see, for all its puppetry, the party should have demonstrated usefulness, especially as it was given loads of money and had a lot of talent that would make one believe it is a strong institution, being peopled with lawyers, economists, trade unionists and other professionals.

These have, however, failed themselves and their masters.

The invincibility of Zanu-PF is another of their problems, especially when the party was supposed to defeat the revolutionary party for all its invincibility.

It’s like in a football match when you know that your opponents are strong, but you need to win.

You have to defeat them, all the same.

An excuse about the opponent’s perceived invincibility is not good enough.

MDC-T is faced with this dichotomy, and it is failing.

Now it faces imminent death at the hands of zanu-pf.

We heard Tapiwa Mashakada being foreboding about the prospects of the MDC-T.

He was afraid that the party would face irrelevance.

Government has had its 10 Point Plan for Economic Growth, which has rattled the opposition party.

There are basically 10 points or reasons why MDC–T faces imminent death.

These are:

1. Economy: The economy is likely to boost in the following months and years due to the new economic thrust that Government will put in place and openness to investors. This will result in the vote of confidence in zanu-pf and take away disgruntlement— the hat that feeds the protest, pro-MDC vote.

2. Lack of leadership: Morgan Tsvangirai has become an albatross around the neck of the party because while there are no alternatives, he has reached his ceiling. Sixteen years and three elections are not a good return. But because he is likely to stick in there, the party will fall with him.

3. No policies: The paucity of ideas in the MDC-T is as evident as ever. With the current lot, MDC-T will lose elections consistently because they lack strategy, strategic planning and implementation of inspiration, vision and creativity.

4. Donor fatigue: This is what the party is facing at the moment. Nobody would want to continue to pour their money down the drain. Not in these times.

5. Financial starvation: Connected to the above, while the West may cut down funding on some opposition project, it may decide, which it has already began to do, to channel those resources to the Government directly. While it is possible that the west can afford to double-dip between opposition and Government, it is mostly logical that its interests will lie with the Government while using the opposition as pawns, which will eventually frustrate opposition politicians as presently configured.

6. Rise of the complementary civil society: Very soon a document will be published by the civil society that will seek to proffer an alternative to Zim- Asset but critically also seek to show how the civil society can help the Government. The civil society used to be paid to be anti-government but western capitals have sought to move away from that which will expose the MDC-T.

7. Re-engagement: The EU and the US will soon likely foster more substantive re-engagement mechanisms with Zimbabwe. This is anchored on three points: First, the futility of the current opposition as currently configured; and secondly, a new thrust of re-engagement by the civil society which will still drive the interests of the West, but in a tampered manner. The third and most important point will be the belief by the West, and perhaps evidence that, a transition will be underway in Zimbabwe.

8.Alternative leadership: It is certain that some leaders in the diaspora are being primed to take over the leadership of the opposition movement. It has long been in the works. In the next few years the plan will consummate, and leave Tsvangirai in particular out of the question

9. Another opposition split: It is a safe guess that very soon, the opposition will head to another crisis. Tsvangirai is the elephant in the room. Everybody knows he has failed. It will take one decisive moment for us to see another schism which will strike the party right in the middle. An issue like participation in elections or boycott is such tinder.

10. The Mujuru factor: The decision whether to join the emerging opposition front led by disgraced former Vice President Joice Mujuru could be definitive and most probably break the opposition. But even if the issue about joining Mujuru and all the other scenarios postulated above are eliminated, the Mujuru factor as an opposition, a “moderate” zanu-pf is likely to snuff out the prospects of MDC-T and Tsvangirai forever.

That is our 10-Point Plan for the demise of MDC-T.