by Nobleman Runyanga
For the past three weeks, the MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa derailed Zimbabwe’s progress through a poorly-thought out court petition against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s electoral victory on 30 July 2018. This delayed the President’s inauguration.
By now the President would have named his Cabinet which would have already begun working to drive the country’s economic turnaround if the inauguration had been held on 12 August 2018 as planned.
Despite the temporary setback, Zimbabwe is poised for greater things and an exciting future following the inauguration of the President over the weekend. And what an occasion it was! The acceptance, support and endorsement of the President put to rest the ill-advised electoral challenge at the Concourt by Chamisa and his team.
Every stratum of the Zimbabwean society was represented – school children, adults, traditional leaders, church representatives, captains of industry and the opposition among others. These social groups endorsed President Mnangagwa’s elections despite the opposition’s court petition which was driven more by the desire to advance its kudira jecha musadza (spoiling the broth) politics of sabotage. This is not the first time that the MDC has displayed its lack of grace in defeat. In 2013, it drove a similar project code named tongai tione which was calculated at getting back at ZANU PF for its (MDC’s) electoral defeat by attempting to make it difficult for the ruling party to exercise its power to rule the country.
Even former President, Robert Mugabe, who had over the past nine months made President Mnangagwa his sworn arch-enemy, could not resist the new and refreshing whiff of political air wafting throughout the country and spontaneously made a climb down from his pre-poll “I won’t vote for my tormentors” vow. He came back to himself, found his statesmanship again and assigned his daughter and son-in-law Bona and Simba Chikore respectively to represent him at President Mnangagwa’s inauguration with a congratulatory message. And what a beautiful sight it was to behold Bona congratulating her father’s successor in such a harmonious atmosphere! It was a major milestone in Zimbabwe’s democracy. That was a scene, which one would want to watch again and again. It was just heavenly.
Nothing was more demonstrative of the private sector’s support for the President’s economic recovery thrust than the presence of various companies such as Doves Funeral Services, MetBank, KDV Bedding, Faramatsi Motors and Varun Beverages (Pepsi bottlers) among others’ congratulatory message banners. Even industrial associations such as the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) also affirmed their support for the President as did some captains of industry such as Imperial Refrigeration chief executive officer, Callisto Jokonya and others.
The region was represented by heads of states, former heads of states, special representatives and ambassadors and so was the African Union (AU) whose Chairman, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda was present and expressed the union’s support for President Mnangagwa and Zimbabweans. The region and the continent demonstrated their desire to see Zimbabwe pick up the pieces of the two decades of debilitating sanctions and the resultant economic crisis and, Phoenix-like, rise again to stake its claim on the global arena like any other respectable global citizen. Africa stood by fellow Africans while those diffident politicians among us, who need America’s nod of validation, attempted to place hurdles in the people’s wishes by coming up with a hare-brained court petition which only served to delay the President’s inauguration and the nation’s progress. Africa stood with its own while some Western countries shamelessly stood uncomfortably in the unreasonable Chamisa’s corner.
The overwhelming groundswell of support and endorsement for the President sharply contrasted with Chamisa’s desperate and dismal attempt to earn the country’s top job through a court action after failing to win the polls due to outright lies. President Kagame is the same person who Chamisa blatantly lied about during his (Chamisa’s) campaigns. Chamisa claimed that during his tenure as a Government minister he advised Rwanda on its information technology communication (ICT) policy, a falsehood which President Kagame’s government dismissed as a blatant lie.
The endorsement of President Mnangagwa was not just an affirmation of his ascendance to power but a rubber stamp of the process under which he was elected. This means that whatever amount of Western conditions for re-engagement and recognition cannot stand in the way of his acceptance by both his own people and Africa. No amount of opposition challenging the Zimbabwean Constitutional Court ruling by appealing to the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) can stop Zimbabwe’s progress juggernaut, which President Mnangagwa irreversibly set in motion on Sunday.
Chamisa is no doubt recovering from the effects of the inauguration, which effectively indicated that Africa and some global progressive nations only stand with and support the right and just thing. This conversely casts him in the negative and it is likely to affect his political career. It is, however, not too late for him to renounce his headstrong stance and heed the President’s call for all to work together for the good of Zimbabwe.
