by Charles Motsi
The late famous American singer/ songwriter, Tom Petty, penned a song titled ‘Time to move on’ way back in 1994 and in his song he says that “It’s time to move on, it’s time to get going.” He goes on to say that even though he does not know what the next day holds he knows that under his feet the grass is still growing as greener as ever.
To this writer this message resonates very well with the state of affairs in our very own opposition outfit calling itself the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It just needs someone to get the message to them because on their own they have been blinded by political greed and selfishness to realise that themselves.
Zimbabwe has been through a lot since its birth in 1980 and now it is the right and opportune moment to move away from petty politicking and start thinking of how to develop the nation and build a better nation for future generations. This has been the message from President Emmerson Mnangagwa from the day he took an oath to serve this great nation of ours in 2017.
Somehow the President’s message seems to be a very hard and bitter pill to swallow for the opposition who find relevance in inconsequential political squabbles.
It is clear that the opposition knows without any shadow of a doubt that President Mnangagwa is the rightful constitutionally elected Head of State even though they try to play dumb when it comes to recognising this in public as it would not properly dovetail with their agenda of “kuzvidira jecha” and “making this country ungovernable” as they promised before they resoundingly lost the 30 July election to Zanu PF.
The opposition movement’s deputy treasurer, Chalton Hwende, this week let the cat out of the bag as he referred to President Mnangagwa as “a whole president” in a tweet which was meant to be an insult to the Head of State. Hwende let the whole world know what we have already suspected, that the motives behind the MDC refusing to publicly recognise the president were nothing more that cheap politicking and showboating.
This comes just after the MDC president, Nelson Chamisa, and his deputy national chairman, Tendai Biti, appeared before the August 1 Commission of inquiry which was constituted by none other than the man they say they do not recognise, President Mnangagwa. This is further evidence that the whole party is just pretending not to know what the whole world has come to know, accept and be happy about- the fact that Zimbabwe is moving on under the stewardship of President Mnangagwa.
Petty’s words that the grass is growing greener under his feet, to this writer, are meant to mean that the whole world will keep on moving with or without someone who refuses to accept reality.
This is a very important point for the MDC as the whole nation has moved on without their blessings even though they have certainly tried to marshal their supporters to try and shut down the nation in their failed march held last month. Which by the way, did not produce any meaningful outcome serve for Chamisa getting a chance to embarrass his rival, Elias Mudzuri. But that is an issue for another time.
President Mnangagwa has rightfully and honourably extend an olive branch to the opposition and invited them to a seat-down with the condition that the talks not be about politics but about future developments for the country.
If the MDC ever had advisors this would be the time for them to tell their youthful leader that it is all over and the fat lady surely has sung and now it is time to move on.
