“IN painting a tiger, one can paint the skin, but it is impossible to paint the bones.” – Famous proverbs and sayings.
Opposition parties in Zimbabwe can draw a lesson from the above Chinese saying which informs that ZANU PF is a formidable juggernaut which can only be dismantled the day the ruling party alienates itself from the masses.
But such is the inescapable reality with our politics that the revolutionary ZANU PF has cultivated a bond with the masses through its values, ideas and ideals that current spirited efforts to split it are now turning into echoes of frustration built around the idea of pressuring President Robert Mugabe into making a premature announcement of his successor.
There are overtures such as found in an article in The Economist issue which sought, as expected, to whip people into what they say is ‘post-Mugabe era’.
“Meanwhile, Western governments and the EU are acting as if the transition has begun,” reads The Economist report in part.
“The International Monetary Fund is negotiating for Zimbabwe to clear its arrears and let it gradually borrow again in the international markets.”
A few days after Chinese President Xi Jinping came to Harare and signed deals worth over US$4 billion and also announced an eye-catching US$60 billion package for African countries, it is not difficult to draw the import of The Economist article.
It is equally not difficult to sniff out the frustration emanating from Western capitals with regards to the route Zimbabwe is taking both economically and politically.
With such reportage, one gets the feeling of a West defeated, a West whose inflated ego has been battered by President Mugabe’s way of doing business in a country, that should in the eyes of the West, be burning.
But here is the catch, again drawn from The Economist report.
President Mugabe’s legacy must be tarnished at all costs. The plan is to scare away whoever comes after the Zimbabwean leader not to pursue the policies of his predecessor.
“But this (re-engagement) depends on Zimbabwe’s government sorting out two of its most toxic issues: an ‘indigenisation’ law which deters foreign investment because it calls for all businesses to be at least half-owned by black Zimbabweans; and the question of commercial farmland, whose owners, black or white, have no security of tenure.”
But how will ZANU PF survive by erasing the policies, projects and programmes that won it overwhelming endorsement in the July 31 2013 polls?
There is no way ZANU PF, with or without President Mugabe, will ever forge ahead without the programmes that took it to war against the Ian Smith regime.
This is why there is nagging, but genuine fear within Western corridors and locally in the opposition MDC-T ranks of a successor who will carry on with President Mugabe’s ideas.
This is why MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu, who fervently claims in The Daily News on Sunday that ‘ZANU PF is dead meat’, is deafeningly calling for coalition to defeat ZANU PF.This is why the opposition and some within ZANU PF join hands with the so-called ‘independent’ media to present a picture of a fractured ZANU PF; a ZANU PF headed for the cleaners.
Their fear for ZANU PF is genuine.
A person who carries on with the President Mugabe torch is bad news to them.
So in order to avert another embarrassing defeat in 2018, scenarios must be built around ZANU PF’s conference which by no means is an ‘elective congress’ as they prefer to call it.
Day-in and day-out, Zimbabweans must be fed with fictitious mantras centered on the supposed tussle for power between Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and First Lady Amai Dr Grace Mugabe.
Even when Amai Dr Mugabe denies harbouring any ambitions of taking over from President Mugabe, things are twisted to perpetually keep Zimbabweans occupied with petty succession issues when the biggest game in town are the deals signed between Beijing and Harare.
There is a concerted push to ward off another impeding disaster for the opposition in 2018 manifesting through persistent and foolish calls for President Mugabe to step down.
How does he step down when he is in the middle of the mandate given to him by the people as recently as July 31 2013?
This is where ZANU PF needs to stand firm and not to be pushed into falling for this unnecessary succession talk when the economy has just been boosted with much needed stimulant.
The talk must be on the economy and new measures to grow it.
Yes the party can be painted black through frivolous attempts even by those within it to divide it and subsequently destroy it, but one area that enemies of the party have failed to make headway in is turning the people against their party.
The thousands of supporters who turned up at the Harare International Airport to welcome Chinese President Xi must surely bear testimony to the bond between ZANU PF and its supporters.
ZANU PF must continue with its mandate of serving the people and avoid being caught up in the West’s not-so-hidden agenda.
Yes the time shall come for succession, but the only succession issue to talk about is how the local economy is gaining a foothold in the previous white-owned and controlled economy.
Let those with ears listen.