“ZANU, in the last elections, had a very simple message, ‘bhora mugedhi’ . . . Perhaps we were too sophisticated, but what was our message? Because the message of 2000 is not the message now. When we were selling hope and dreams, ZANU PF was selling practical reality … I don’t think we did well in 2013. But a message is just a slogan, it’s mascara, it’s make-up, what is the substance? What is the substance? And this is where we need to articulate an alternative value system. We failed…” (Tendai Biti, March 2014)
March 2014 at SAPES Trust, Tendai Biti, now a member of the so-called MDC-Alliance, a coalition of seven political parties seeking to outdo ZANU PF in the July 2018 harmonised elections, was giving a post-mortem of the disaster that met the MDC-T on July 31 2013.
Biti was giving an honest assessment of how ZANU PF easily steamrolled past a bemused MDC-T.
He was raising fundamental points on how the ‘simplicity’ of the ZANU PF message won the revolutionary Party that landslide victory.
ZANU PF came prepared, armed with real tangibles, not make-believe fantasies that the MDC-Alliance is trying to sell to the electorate.
Politics is a game of deliverables.
It is a game where he who connects with the electorate will carry the trophy home.
It is as simple as that.
You do not expect any pleasantries when Biti speaks.
He is as brutal as they come.
Brutal, reckless and aggressive.
That is an issue that has been given prominence by this column and other writers.
Biti is a person who is readily available with titillating sound bites.
That is his style.
Young Nelson Chamisa has been trying to pursue the same and there is no guessing who the mentor is.
And the tragedy with Chamisa is that the tutor, who is seemingly ‘imparting’ political strategy to him, is in dire need of polishing himself.
So too does the MDC-Alliance.
We are now fully in that season of political contestation, a season where the best message, policy and idea will carry the day.
Campaigns, which started on a relatively snail’s pace, have in the past week or so gained momentum.
We look at the prospects of the ‘real’ contesting parties not the mere ‘pretenders to the throne’ who have been trying to steal the thunder from their battle-hardened opponents.
This election is for ZANU PF to win
ZANU PF, the ruling Party, goes into battle on a high.
November 2017 and the recently held party primary elections have allowed the revolutionary Party to regenerate and reinvent itself.
Having successfully launched its manifesto late last month, the ruling Party has promised what it says will be a full throttle campaign.
This is something akin to what Liverpool FC coach Jurgen Klopp calls ‘high octane football’, where the team goes on all-out attack until the opponent is destroyed.
ZANU PF has thus far given tit bits of what its strategy is going to be.
Those who play soccer refer to this strategy as kumbumbisa/kufemesa munhu.
On May 19 2018, when President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa took the first steps on ZANU PF’s electoral campaign, few were surprised by the huge turnout at the two rallies he held in the Manicaland Province.
The Party has been working hard on the ground, demonstrating its mobilisation capacity as it did in the July 31 2013 harmonised elections.
Indications are that yet another resounding victory is in the offing.
We will be giving our predictions as we head towards the elections.
Nightmare in paradise for the MDC-Alliance
Soon after his embarrassing defeat in 2013, former MDC-T leader, the late Morgan Tsvangirai, gave Zimbabweans a very interesting sound bite; “Takarohwa nezveusiku (We don’t know what hit us).”
He was spot on.
The MDC-T had underrated ZANU PF.
It is repeating the same mistake — again.
Having drawn first blood, with what those in the MDC-Alliance have frantically tried to convince us are ‘oversubscribed’ rallies, the zeal and mojo have since died.
ZANU PF has entered the fray with a bang and as reality sinks in, we are into a period where cries of ‘rigging’ have begun to ring long and loud.
The prevailing reality is that ZANU PF has put the MDC-Alliance in sixes and sevens.
With no manifesto, no clear message and no practical issues that Biti raises in the prognosis quoted above, it is surely one way traffic for ZANU PF.
Add to that the confusion surrounding the opposition party’s primary elections, then you have a recipe for disaster.
Khupe who belongs to everyone
It must be difficult being woman in the MDC.
Such is the sad story of one Thokozani Khupe who has been subjected to a barrage of criticism and physical harm by Chamisa’s marauding supporters.
Having been threatened with unspecified action last year, and having been almost burnt alive during Tsvangirai’s burial in Buhera in February, Khupe was once again up for ‘Chamisa people’s’ anger last Tuesday.
Soon after the Supreme Court ruled that factions led by Khupe and Chamisa will continue using the same party name, symbols and logo until the High Court determines the legitimate successor to the late Tsvangirai, angry ‘Chamisa people’ took aim at the hapless lady.
They subjected Khupe to derogatory chants of ‘hure! hure!’ (prostitute! prostitute!).
Khupe has been accused of many things from being a ZANU PF ‘project’ to being a ‘silly’ Ndebele woman as was the case in Buhera, but to call her that (hure) is surely taking matters too far.
She deserves respect.
She is a Zimbabwean like Chamisa who is eyeing the country’s top job.
She has a right to do as she pleases as long as she is not breaking the law.
We hope that Chamisa keeps his hoodlums under control before the situation further deteriorates.
Toisiira ipapo!
Let those with ears listen.