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Takunda Maodza  News Editor
THE MDC-T family must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday. Publicly applauding an opponent is an exception in the political world.

This is a universal phenomenon. You go to South Africa and you will not bump into anything positive from the Democratic Alliance on the ruling National African Congress (ANC).

That is the nature and art of opposition politics elsewhere no matter the level of civilisation or lack of it.

The business of opposition is starving the opponent of recognition even where it is glaringly visible.

This explains why since its birth in September 1999, the MDC-T has unfailingly demonised zanu-pf’s decolonisation initiatives even though some of its senior officials were beneficiaries of programmes like the land reform.

What am I getting at? On Tuesday, one of the MDC-T founders, Mr Eddie Cross, broke tradition when he told Parliament that President Mnangagwa’s administration had within its first 100 days managed to change investor perception of Zimbabwe and Western capital in particular was now flowing into the southern African nation.

Mr Cross told the august House he had personally been involved in investment negotiations worth over $3 billion in the past two months.

“At least 49 000 business visitors have come to Zimbabwe since the beginning of the year,” Mr Cross told Parliament.

“I personally have been involved in contract negotiations valued at over $3 billion in the past two months.”

Of importance to note is the fact that Mr Cross is not just a veteran opposition politician, but an economist, who is into business consultancy. Love or hate him, Mr Cross likes telling it like it is no matter the consequences.

Last year, he almost dug his own political grave when he first broke with tradition and announced that MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai would not be fit to contest the 2018 elections.

“He is suffering from an aggressive form of colon cancer. He has been struggling with his treatment and the family is concerned that he might not handle the election and subsequently the responsibility of being president of a country in a deep crisis.

“After a lifetime of principled struggle, to have it all threatened by a disease in your body, is not fair . . . Life can be a bastard at times,” said Mr Cross then.

Mr Cross made the announcement at a time when the MDC-T leadership was telling the world that Mr Tsvangirai was recovering very well and was on his way out of hospital to lead the opposition from the front in the 2018 elections.

He earned himself many enemies in MDC-T, with very senior party officials dismissing him as a deranged political loner. Other party officials were secretly demanding his head on a platter for wishing their beloved leader death. Mr Tsvangirai passed away last month and was buried in Buhera.

It appears Mr Cross is fast maturing into a principled politician, a virtue that is missing in the rest of the MDC-T hierarchy. Contemporary times demand politics of ideas and not utopianism.

There is no need to promise prospective voters a trip to heaven on gossamer wings. As we prepare for harmonised elections, there is absolutely no need for anyone to crucify a nation for political ends.

The tendency by some opposition parties all along has been to create or balloon problems to attract international condemnation for Government.

Zanu-pf too blamed sanctions and forgot to address economic fundamentals to earn the vote. Rather than punishing Mr Cross over his candid assessment of the investment environment created by the President Mnangagwa-led administration – for I know some MDC-T officials are already whetting their axes for Mr Cross’s neck – the MDC-T must learn to be honest and truthful in its pursuit of the throne.

It must give credit where it is due for that is the art of civilised political activism. The time for feigned political violence and global condemnation of one’s country is past us.

An appealing election manifesto must win the ballot and not the old fashioned politics of condemning everything zanu-pf or everything MDC-T.

The youthful MDC-T leadership must therefore learn from the matured Mr Cross that soiling the image of one’s country because an election is pending is exercising ancient politics.

There was no reason therefore for MDC-T leader Mr Nelson Chamisa and the party hierarchy to lie to the Sadc Electoral Advisory Council on Tuesday that the environment was not conducive for the holding of harmonised elections and that the economy was in the intensive care unit when their own man, Mr Cross, is on record not only acknowledging that the economy was on the mend as evidenced by the volume of capital coming into the country – a whopping $3 billion worth of investment in just 60 days.

“Another concern raised to the SADC team was the parlous state of the country’s economy, which made citizens susceptible to the control of zanu-pf through partisan food distribution, among other voter manipulation methods,” said Mr Chamisa’s spokesperson, Mr Luke Tamborinyoka.

The contradiction in assessment of the economic environment between Mr Chamisa and Mr Cross tells a sad story.