Zimpapers Logo

Darlington Mahuku & Bowden Mbanje
Two men can equally succeed in doing two different things simultaneously, one being cautious and the other being impetuous. The two men work in opposite ways but they produce a similar outcome, one being victorious and the other being unwittingly very disastrous, one achieves his goal while the other does not. Such is the tale of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. President Mugabe has once again been given the mandate to lead Zimbabwe for another five years while Mr Tsvangirai’s political career is sinking into oblivion because the electorate has seen that his party has nothing to offer apart from political and economic discord.

Tsvangirai’s ill-advised methods of leaping from one political stance to the other while at the same time; “shutting his mind and opening his zip” were indeed very disastrous. As if this was not enough some members of his party serving in Government became too big headed and forgot the importance of humility. They became arrogant and failed to realise that this was indeed imprudent and unprofitable.

Contrary to the expectations of their supporters who had been voting for them since 2000, they grew too big for their political boots and forgot and failed to frequently be in touch with the electorate in their constituencies.

They did not realise that they were perforating uncountable holes in the hearts of their supporters. The electorate started questioning why they were not making an effort to follow up their electoral promises. They adopted a bourgeoisie attitude and the people started scrutinising this sudden change in their conduct.

They realised that they had grown rich overnight; they all of a sudden were no longer humane. They had become too arrogant and had changed from being easy to reach to becoming inaccessible. What a tragedy?

Their chameleon like behavior was so quick and illogical that all progressive Zimbabweans saw and read the falseness of their intent. It boggles the mind to note that they were always quick to mention that Zimbabweans would suffer if they dared to vote for the Zanu-PF party.

The irony of it all is that they as a political party continued to be politically and economically clueless like the proverbial frog that leaped from the water going further and further into the veld.

They as a party were unable to come up with laudable and well thought out party policy alternatives. For anyone who had ‘appeared’ to be sympathetic to the plight of the civil servants for a time and later turned to be doing that for their own purposes, they have no one to blame but their own stars. Because of their unsound party policies they failed to read the signs of the time and follow appropriate stages while being governed by prevailing circumstances.

They failed to fulfill the aspirations of their old supporters and scared any aspiring new ones in the process. Their authority and attractiveness diminished. It is therefore not surprising that the MDC-T found itself unmasked, without friends and in ruins. The Movement for Democratic Change invited scorn and inflicted defeat upon themselves when the people came to the realization that it is a party did not have the people at heart. Paradoxically the electorate has shown that they are able to tell genuine politicians from pseudo-politicians.

The crux of the matter is that free and fair elections never favor pseudo-politicians.
The opposition political parties never understood the ageless adage that “one can drown a plant by watering it too much.” By concentrating on criticizing Zanu-PF and demonizing it from left, right and centre without coming up with attractive alternative policies they were shooting themselves in the foot. They erroneously tried to force regime change in Zimbabwe through ‘ruptura’ rather than ‘reforma’. Morgan Tsvangirai failed to comprehend the fact that President Robert Gabriel Mugabe is an astute, visionary leader who possesses extraordinary abilities and that all progressive Zimbabwean citizens turn their eyes towards him and agreed to honor him in the 2013 harmonized elections.

We have no hard feelings against the former Prime Minister but it is a fact that he cannot match President Mugabe that is why in one of our contributions we pointed out that even if he went to any other planet and came back he would not be able to dislodge Robert Mugabe from power. By resoundingly winning the election the Zanu-PF party showed that like a lion it is still master of the forest and can never fear its domain.

Whatever the academic hairsplitting a fully grown up man must never be afraid of the light. The crux of the matter is that, not often in a family tree does virtue rise up to all its branches. That is what differentiates Robert Mugabe “the man” from Morgan Tsvangirai. The only common thing that they share is that they are all male and Zimbabweans and nothing more.

This is the reason why Christopher Dell in his paper “The end is Nigh” concluded that there are stark differences between the two men, Mugabe being a “moving encyclopedia,” and Tsvangirai “requiring a lot of hand holding and always remembering the advice of the last person he has spoken to.” Muchembere wedu Amai Jukwa was not far from the truth when she observed that “Tsvangirai risks being recorded in history as the witless black puppet that was used to fight land reform, to call for sanctions and to fight indigenization.” If not then he will be read in history books just like the infamous Moise Tshombe.

• Darlington N.Mahuku & Bowden B.C. Mbanje are lecturers in international relations and peace and governance with Bindura University of Science Education.