By Tawanda Musariri
Sympathisers, supporters and opponents of the MDC Alliance have taken to Twitter to vent their dismay at Nelson Chamisa following his unchristian like prayer at Gwanzura Stadium during his party’s 19th Anniversary celebrations on Saturday.
Chamisa, who earned notoriety after violently and illegally grabbing power from Thokozani Khupe after the death of founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was busy preaching self importance and self entitlement throughout the event where 19 reluctant birds were released into the skies. One of the birds refused to go, choosing instead to perch on Chamisa’s head after it was given its deserved freedom after a long time in captivity.
In the opening prayer, which he chose to take, Chamisa rumbled about him being a defenceless peace warrior while he made veiled attacks on the Government and Zanu PF as merchants of violence. He accused Zanu PF of having bloody hands.
In response on his twitter page, followers lashed out at him for the mocking prayer. They went on to attack the origins of his power. @George57244782 said, “@nelsonchamisa Mdc T turns 19 not MDC alliance for chamisa.” Another netizen, Tatenda Gono weighed in saying, “Matthew 6:5. And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say to you, they have their reward. @nelsonchamisa, it’s not only about you.”
Insinuating Chamisa’s power grab and his subsequent attempts to appear like a champion of democracy, an unamused twitter trail said, “God is not a liar, a thief, a power grabber, a wife abuser, a hooligan, an idiot, a scandalous man to mention a few and wamba Chamisa is all of that, stop this hypocrisy and using the name of the Lord in vain.”
Kachepe Aleck Maraini @KachepeM said, “Kunyangwe vanyengeri panguva yaJesu vaipfugamawo vachidaidza zita raMwari. Asi Jesu paita zvishamiso vaippikisana naye. Kunyangwe vaiporeswa vaigadzwa dare vachitongeswa. Therefore zviri mumoyo zvino zivikanwa namwari nearikuzvitaura. Chenjerai kubatwa kumeso.”
@ChishangaNgoni went on to teach the teacher. He said, “Why judging others during prayer nhai Chamisa?” thrashing his sense of self importance.
Chamisa is reportedly in cold war status with the party secretary general Mr Douglas Mwonzora. It is not clear whether Mwonzora will contest in the 2019 party congress. Mwonzora stands realistic chances of upsetting Chamisa’s chances. To Mwonzora’s advantage is his seniority in age, maturity, eloquence and experience in law practice. Chamisa is also a lawyer like Mwonzora but lacks experience. On the natural side, Mwonzora is a man with a steady temperament, the opposite of which Chamisa is.
Chamisa has not made his intentions to bar contestation for his position a secret. Together with openly talking about it, he has also sent out powerful teams in the party’s organizational mesh to cow down any dissenting voices on his agenda. All threats against contesting Chamisa are ending at Mwonzora’s door.
In his speech at Gwanzura, said Chamisa of the presidency contest, that it was not time yet to seek the leadership of the party as he had a mandate to take the party somewhere, without elaborating which ‘somewhere’ he meant. In so saying, he was ring fencing the presidency against open democratic contest.
With all these theatrics, Chamisa openly wins the mampara of the week contest without contest.
