Flix Kundishora
MDC Deputy Chairperson, Job Sikhala, who is known for bragging that he is a better leader and a more effective activist than the MDC president, Nelson Chamisa, is reported to be desperately trying to prove his leadership capabilities.
Sikhala reportedly wants to launch his campaign to outshine Chamisa by doing what he thinks the MDC president has failed to do so far, that is to effectively challenge President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the public media. Sources close to the ambitious Sikhala have revealed that he intends to publish an “open letter” to President MNANGAGWA which would be published in The Standard, The Daily News or Newsday.
Sikhala is alleged to have drafted the letter and showed it to colleagues who dismissed it as “hogwash.” Blow by blow, the colleagues dismissed his assertion that President Mnangagwa stole the 2018 elections and that, therefore, he is illegitimate. The MDC officials pointed out that the argument is sterile and frivolous and had few takers both in Zimbabwe and abroad. All MDC officials who read the draft “open letter” pointed out that local clerics, captains of industry, Southern African regional leaders, African continental leaders, US leaders and European leaders had all advised the MDC to abandon the infantile and hopeless illegitimacy narrative. The MDC officials said that even Chamisa now had little enthusiasm for that narrative whose chief advocates are Sikhala, Jonathan Moyo and Walter Mzembi.
They also dismissed Sikhala’s allegations that the President rose to office through a coup by pointing out that Zanu PF as a party removed the late former President Robert Mugabe from power by recalling him and expressing its readiness to cooperate with the MDC and other parties to impeach him if he refused to step down. The officials said that Sikhala was one of the leaders who were solidly behind the cross-party demonstrations that contributed to Mugabe’s resignation. They are therefore taken aback by Sikhala’s coup narrative.
Those who have discussed the issue of the letter with Sikhala, have expressed the opinion that the MDC Deputy Chair is motivated by four motives, the first being the need to outshine Chamisa and impress the Americans who are reported to be getting too close to Biti for both Sikhala and Chamisa’s comfort.
Sikhala reportedly wants to get sympathy from the public and perhaps the judiciary ahead of his appearance at the Masvingo High Court on 22 January 2020 for subverting a constitutionally elected government and treason.
It is also alleged that the bigmouth politician wants to enhance the narrative that he is a leader of “national stature” and that he is a presidential material. Sikhala is among those in the MDC leadership who believe that Chamisa’s days as MDC leader are numbered.
Sikhala, it is said, is also motivated by the need to deflect attention from the growing but unjustifiable narrative that he is from Swaziland (now Eswatini) and should therefore never be a Zimbabwean president.
