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Yes, it is, and that old love is the MDC-T party, which the Daily News title is almost synonymous with – to the extent of appearing as though they were cousins in an incestuous relationship.

Let’s say they are – sharing more than, as they do, the desire for regime change in Zimbabwe which is Western-driven and translates into hatred for the ruling party, zanu-pf.

Not least, they were born in the same year, 1999.

The fortunes of the party have been acutely rubbed onto the paper and its moods, too, have tended to affect the paper.

They have been together in the vicissitudes of their short lives.

Yet until quite recently, the relationship seemed headed for the rocks.

The fortunes of the MDC-T were rapidly dwindling.

The party appeared to lose its ground and the leader appeared clueless and increasingly moribund.

He was getting old; impotent, even.

He is sometimes ill, physically, and sometimes he is a complete embarrassment because of his foibles which have tended to revolve around matters of the heart – and passions.

New flame

Things were appearing to get worse for Tsvangirai.

He lost elections in 2013, dismally so, despite the utmost backing of the Daily News which ran unashamed editorials and “news” in support of Tsvangirai and his party.

Not least, Western countries had characteristically poured millions of dollars into MDC-T coffers to ensure the party carried the regime change project home.

It failed and despite claims about rigging, the message soon sank home that the party had not been able to go past the hurdle, a sense that was later to be conveyed by then secretary-general Tendai Biti who, ironically, had initially peddled the same falsehoods about vote rigging.

After those elections, the party split with Biti and Elton Mangoma moving out and eventually separating on their own.

There was a palpable sense of disappointment and despair.

The ever-splinting MDC, having undergone two major splits since 2005, nosed down to further ruin in its fragmented state.

Another election and the MDC, in its terminal descent, would be history.

Then a new flame flickered.

It came by way of a rebellion in zanu-pf that eventually gave us what today is known as the Zimbabwe People First party led by Joice Mujuru.

Suddenly, the Daily News was in love again, the runaway flame that is flirtatious, infatuated and adulterous.

Daily News embraced People First way before the pod was a seed and nurtured it till it was a tree.

The paper appeared to shout in the wilderness as it went out of its way to prop up the nascent project.

We at some point took contemptuous exception at the doggedness in this pursuit, especially when all that appeared to be the project were the faces of two gentlemen called Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa, who were chucked from zanu-pf along with Mujuru as part of what we called the putschist cabal.

Even now, the two gentlemen are veritable expendables and their status at their newly formed outfit where they have been given some dubious roles as “elders”.

Love, no love . . .

But the Daily News seems to be back to the old enduring love for the MDC.

Concomittally, the passion for the new love is dying.

There is one reason: Tsvangirai, that old and fading man, has apparently got his potency back!

We are being told he has reclaimed his mojo, that is, by way of politically speaking.

Last week, Tsvangirai rallied a few thousand people for a march in central Harare.

The sympathetic amongst us said the people numbered up to 10 000 while figures were thrown in between down to a severe 800.

But those who had begun despairing at the political currency of Tsvangirai and his party had a lot to cheer about.

In fact, they were over the moon.

The Daily News is one of those that got so titillated and its orgasmic excitement oozes in the news and editorials of the last few days.

Tsvangirai is the man!

A look at the last nine days since the march will show that while People First has but disappeared from the front pages of the newspaper, Tsvangirai has reclaimed that warm bosom, dominating the last week with headlines such as, “Tsvangirai is the real deal: Mliswa”; “You can’t stop me: Tsvangirai”; “Tsvangirai takes war to Mugabe”; “Tsvangirai’s MDC flexes muscles”; and “Harare tense as MDC ‘toyi-toyis’” – in that reverse order since April 14.

The only significant abeyance to People First was a story, “Mujuru’s ZPF backs mass protests” on April 21 which, ironically was just to buttress Tsvangirai as the man of the house.

Cruelly, the Daily News uses the one-time, fleeting lover Rugare Gumbo to endorse Tsvangirai.

The paper quotes him saying: “I am not one of the people who believe in writing manifestoes and talking, Zimbabweans need to act and stop talking. What I mean is peaceful demonstrations. Mugabe, like any other leader, is sensitive so do not underestimate the role of demonstrations.”

You cannot miss the little grudging jealousy in this cruelly contrived opinion. Poor PF!

Is this you, Stanley?

No story, however, backs our remit that the Daily News had abandoned Tsvangirai to run after Mujuru and back, than an opinion piece by the Daily News stable -Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe’s Group Editor, Stanley Gama.

Gama wrote the piece, “Morgan Tsvangirai deserves credit” on Thursday in which he backed Tsvangirai as the face of the opposition and complained about the criticism directed to the latter.

He writes in part: “If an alien from outer space were to suddenly land on planet Earth and, per chance, plug into Zimbabwe’s political discourse, the poor extraterrestrial would definitely believe that Morgan Tsvangirai is the architect of Zimbabwe’s decades-old political and economic problems.

“Indeed, such is the venom and gusto with which some commentators consistently savage the dogged opposition leader, that often it appears as if these confused members of our punditocracy actually believe that Tsvangirai — and not President Robert Mugabe and Zanu- PF — is the author of the country’s myriad crises.

“And to compound the error of their ways, many of these Tsvangirai critics want Zimbabweans to think that it is the job of the former prime minister in the Government of National Unity alone to fight for a more democratic dispensation in the country — while all they have to do is moan from the sidelines and shellack him.”

He goes on and on complaining about the ill-used Tsvangirai.

He says: “In fact, one is often left with the distinct impression that some pundits (and here I don’t mean Zanu-PF apparatchiks and their hired guns) now have such a low regard — nay, hatred — for Tsvangirai, that they have actually come to believe that if he were to exit opposition politics then Zimbabwe would come right!”

He even stands Tsvangirai as a Jesus among Pharisees!

Gama then avers: “Let us be clear: the fact that Zimbabweans don’t often bother to focus on the many errors and misdeeds of Tsvangirai’s political competitors and his other churlish critics, just manifests these peoples’ relative insignificance in the lives of long-suffering citizens.”

Luckily, it is not only us who noticed this volte face – unfaithful Daily News running back into the arms of Tsvangirai.

On the paper’s website one reader by the name Masimba Wa Mugovera on the comments thread responded: “Is this you Stanley? When did you come back to your senses? Was it April the 14th? What has become of your party ZimPF? Are you no longer the PR Manager? Nonetheless, this is refreshing.”

We rest our case.