THE agony and futility of any progressive writer is to draw comparisons between President Robert Mugabe and the perpetually beleaguered Morgan Tsvangirai.
The two are simply incomparable.
President Mugabe is the ultimate pan-Africanist, a liberator and a true hero of the struggle for freedom.
Tsvangirai, on the other hand, is a typical example of modern quislings, a willing tool for neo-colonialism and an ossified interpretation of the West’s destructive tendencies.
He represents the real value of a post-independence state willing to bow down to the West’s sodomising Africa.
This is the situation confronting this writer in the aftermath of Tsvangirai’s much touted mass demonstration last Thursday and the huge turnout at the National Sports Stadium for the 36th Independence Anniversary.
What was supposed to be a moment of catharsis for Tsvangirai characteristically turned out to be a big yawn.
It was meant to be a grand occasion for Tsvangirai to finally show the world that he is capable of taking President Mugabe’s stellar ZANU PF cast head-on.
However, in the end, the odyssey ended with President Mugabe going about with his business, not bothered by the nonsense that Tsvangirai was exhibiting in the busy streets of Harare.
Perhaps Tvangirai wanted to make an application to Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi to also take part in his delightful annual carnival show.
But on Thursday Tsvangirai was trying to do something.
To repeat a history that has since been overtaken by events.
Tsvangirai was seeking a repeat of March 11 2007 mass action that nearly made his dream of occupying State House a possibility in the March 29 2008.
On that day in 2007, after the mass action had failed, Tsvangirai provoked the police who duly gave him a thorough hiding resulting in his images being posted across global media outlets.
Tsvangirai rode on the sympathy vote and led the first round of the vote in the 2000 harmonised polls.
A rejuvenated and recharged ZANU PF regrouped and thumped Tsvangirai’s MDC in the historic July 31 2013 election.
This time around, on Thursday last week, there were no such favours from the police for Tsvangirai in what had been dubbed the ‘mother of all demonstrations’.
Not even attempts by his sympathisers from the so-called independent media to put a glow on the damp squib demonstration could help his cause.
It eventually ended up in embarrassment as some senior MDC-T officials posted pictures of Julius Malema’s march in South Africa last year in a futile bid to prop up their embattled leader’s fast waning fortunes.
Consider the following.
From March 2006, right up to March 2007, Tsvangirai and his faction of the MDC embarked on a whirlwind tour of Zimbabwe’s cities, all the time making it clear this was a build-up to the mass action.
An indicator of the rising Western belief in the inevitable success of his new strategy was a major prognosis published by Harvard’s African Policy Journal which projected the unseating of President Mugabe as foregone, urging the West to urgently prepare for a post-Mugabe era.
Titled ‘After Mugabe: Applying post- conflict recovery lessons to Zimbabwe’, the article, authored by two neo-liberal policy advisors to the Bush administration, Todd Moss and Stewart Patrick, predicted ‘a major transition anytime’, with ‘change (coming) without much warning’.
It warned the US government and other donors against being ‘caught flat-footed’ by this change, urging them to ‘start planning now for possible responses to a transition in Zimbabwe’.
Describing Zimbabwe as a ‘post-conflict situation’, the paper intimated that such preliminary preparations would be ‘catalytic’ to the transition itself.
The study was very clear in its advice to Western donors:
“No donors should provide assistance to the Government (of Zimbabwe) at present time since recovery is impossible with the current leadership.”
The only lesson of the March 11 2007 fiasco was that Tsvangirai was cut down to size, but at nearly a cost to ZANU PF.
On Thursday there was no repeat.
Tsvangirai’s premature celebrations and the supposedly lost mojo he is alleged to have ‘found’ were duly cut short on Monday at the National Sports Stadium.
The giant stadium was filled to capacity, with many failing to gain access.
The man on show there was President Mugabe.
And the party presiding over the event was the ruling ZANU PF.
The message from President Mugabe relegated Tsvangirai to his rightful position.
“My Government is determined to translate political independence into meaningfulness by attending to the socio-economic needs of our people,” said President Mugabe.
“Today as we celebrate our 36th Independence Day Anniversary, let us re-dedicate ourselves to serve Zimbabwe at all times, always striving for peace, respect, tolerance and goodwill towards others and to tirelessly work for the unity and development of our beloved country, Zimbabwe.”
The issue of the pull factor was settled on Monday.
Tsvangirai and his discredited team can hold their kitchen parties, but it is the ballot that will speak.
ZANU PF, the ballot is yours for the taking, but never sleep on duty.
Let those with ears listen.