WHAT a year it has been for Zimbabwe.
A year replete with twists and turns, spectacular come backs, upturn of fortunes, high and low drama that had all the ingredients to make a best-selling novel.
It has been a year that has seen what ousted ZANU PF Political Commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, at one point described as ‘seismic’ changes on the political front coming to the fore.
He was spot on.
Indeed, the changes were seismic but they also consumed him, one of the architects of the confusion that was now reigning supreme in the country.
But before we give an orderly account of events that took place in the country, the MDC-T, now the MDC Alliance has been there to ensure that our pages are filled with ink.
Nelson Chamisa, one of the opposition party’s vice presidents, calls what we write against his stuttering party ‘propaganda’.
Surely it cannot be propaganda that a political party goes all the way to the United States to beg Uncle Sam for the maintenance of the illegal economic sanctions that have been wreaking havoc on the country’s economy.
It is, in fact, sad and a sign of political naivety to believe that people’s suffering can catapult one to power.
This is what we at The Patriot and other progressive minds in the country and all over the world have been trying to tell the MDC-T that elections are won by wooing the electorate with pragmatic, sound and sensible policies.
You don’t catch the electorate’s attention by rubbing salt into their wounds.
You caress them with tangibles, visible policies that drive and feed into the country’s agenda for development.
This is where they have failed to grasp basic fundamentals of the economy and politics.
And last week is when their coalition of inept political misfits veiled as the future of Zimbabwe died.
They forgot that the future belongs to those who believe in the colour of their dreams.
Our dream, as Zimbabwe, is slowly manifesting and 2018 shall see it coming to pass.
No political writer can ignore the MDC, the Western founded party is ever blundering, doing all sorts of unbelievable things one cannot help but go to town about.
This year can best be described as one that was full and never short of drama.
January gave us the usual news about the success of the Command Agriculture Programme which was initiated by President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa who was then Vice President but whose thunder was nearly stolen by vile political opportunists.
Few believed the statement that the successful programme had originated elsewhere.
President Mnangagwa has said the programme will anchor the country’s economic revival programme.
From February to June, the country watched in horror as former First Lady Grace Mugabe, ably supported by the now defunct G40 grouping in ZANU PF, literally ran the show in the country.
Matters came to head on July 29 2017 during a rally in Chinhoyi when she dressed down senior civil servants at the same time exonerating the likes of Saviour Kasukuwere from any wrongs despite being rejected by nine out 10 provinces over his conduct as the Party’s Commissar.
Professor Moyo, who is facing charges of siphoning funds from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF), was also exonerated to the chagrin of all those who despise corruption.
The duo of Kasukuwere and Moyo have since fled the country and are now believed to be holed up in Kenya.
The economy, meanwhile, continued to tumble as Government business halted due to the incessant infighting in the ruling ZANU PF Party and the so-called Youth Interface Rallies.
In September, prices shot up and Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa and President Emmerson Mnangagwa were accused of sabotaging the economy despite their tireless efforts to right the ship.
A Cabinet reshuffle soon followed with Minister Chinamasa and President Mnangagwa losing their ministries.
Members of the G40 were given key ministries.
The opposition was having its fair share of problems.
On August 6 2017, hardly a day after the so-called MDC Alliance was signed at the Zimbabwe Grounds, Thokozani Khupe, the other MDC-T vice president, in a video that went viral on social media, was brutally assaulted by youths who had been allegedly sent by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Meanwhile, the situation in ZANU PF got to a tipping point that saw President Mnangagwa fleeing the country fearing for his life but promising to return in a few weeks time to lead the country and correct all the wrongs that had been committed.
And he has begun righting the wrongs.
What is critical is that he be given the opportunity to work for the motherland.
Evidence on the ground is encouraging.
His is not mere rhetoric, his words are being backed by action.
While naysayers might speak and howl, he is focused on turning around the economy and transforming the fortunes of the country.
As Zimbabwe emerges from a thick fog of confusion and despondency that was reigning supreme, the future looks bright, the new administration is hard at work, let us all make our contribution.
Let those with ears listen.