With all the drama that is happening in ZANU PF, one would expect a noisy opposition concerned about exposing the ills of a failed system and giving hope to a hopeless nation.
By Trevor Makonyonga
Alas, that is not the case with Zimbabwe’s strongest opposition party MDC. The Tsvangirai led party has been showing signs of being virtually unfit to assume office given their displayed incompetence in terms of standing for the masses and being the voice to unite the people. The major role of an opposition party is to put pressure on an existing government to meet the needs of the populace but this has not been what Mr. Tsvangirai’s contingent has been doing.
It is perhaps the hope of every Zimbabwean that one day a serious party with the genuine interest of national growth will arise. If that party does not come, maybe a Julius Malema kind of leader with an Economic Freedom Fighters sort of party would do to move the nation. Of course people laugh at Julius but they do not realise how relevant he is given the fact that Zuma has given in to the ‘pay back the money’ call. Now he has been joined by a huge number of citizens calling for what he calls the Zuptas to fall. The Zuma administration and their allies, the Gupta family, have come under pressure from the opposition and these little stunts are giving Malema more and more relevance. This is contrary to the opposition in Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean biggest opposition has been asleep for a long time. The only time they become vocal is when they are towards elections. Instead of using social networking platforms as twitter, facebook and google+ to tell the nation what policies they have crafted, the party’s leader can only come to defend some embarrassing pictures of him with some ladies. In any case one would question the seriousness of whoever advises Mr. Tsvangirai. The only logical question is, if the pictures were not serious, why did he rush to defend himself when a section of the nation was already defending him? Why couldn’t he make it a subject for discussion rather than commenting on the issue? He did the same thing again when he rushed to defend himself about Locardia Karimatsenga in the MDC newsletter when that November marriage scandal surfaced. Why does the opposition leader always dwell on his personal life?
The fact that he has been in power for 16 years is also scary. He has seen his party suffer from the heartbreaking ailment of splits on a number of occasions and still he stay put in power. His continuous clinging onto power would attract the thought that maybe he sees no one fit to succeed him. Which when properly calculated would give the exact answer as the one ZANU PF has today. No one seems good enough to succeed President Mugabe and given the path Tsvangirai is walking on, he is following in the same tracks. The way the MDC has been harboring factions defeats the purpose of an opposition party. The essence of unity of purpose has been lost and the need to lookout for personal positioning has reigned supreme. Most of the MDC public office holders are too corrupt to trust with the country’s resources.
It is an open secret that most people in Zimbabwe are tired of the current regime. It is disturbing, however, to record that a structure deemed to be a failure is more willing to engage the people more than the one which the people would prefer. The other disturbing thing is the way followers view Tsvangirai. He has songs sang for him, people dance when he is around as if he is some sort of deity. The story of African leaders! The nation obviously appreciates the great minds in the MDC that is why they have managed to garner so much support but then why would someone vote for a counterfeit system to the existent one instead of simply sticking to the original one? It would be silly to replace a flawed system with a potentially flawed system. The bottom line is that Tsvangirai has overstayed and if the MDC hopes to be different they have to find a way to let him step aside from presidency. Right now it seems as if he owns the party and he is the face. Who knows maybe in the future his party would also be the state. There is a need to change or it will be safe to say that the MDC could just be another ZANU PF.
