by Taurai Mazwi
So, it has always been a curse within the MDC party that everyone wants to lead. The death of its founding leader, Morgan Tsvangirai two years ago seem to have opened up a Pandora’s box as aspirants for the post continue to make clandestine manoeuvres despite the fact that Nelson Chamisa was elected at their Gweru congress last year. Chamisa who seem to lack the mettle that the late Tsvangirai had is finding it difficult to protect the throne from the vultures who are already labelling him a weak leader.
This has prompted some disgruntled MDC leaders to call for MDC national vice-chairperson Job Sikhala to lead the party. This will not only cause tension in the MDC house but escalate divisions which had already emerged between the old guard and Chamisa’s chosen blue eyed boys who constitute the younger generation.
Sikhala is joining a long list of interested parties to the throne which saw Douglas Mwonzora and other from the old guard being pushed to the periphery. Not long ago, people were calling for MDC Vice President Tendai Biti to lead them and afraid to have his fingers burnt, he is now plotting underground.
Obvious to Chamisa’s obsession with the throne Sikhala is now making headlines and has become a topic of discussion whilst harbouring ambitions for a takeover. A Johannesburg-based writer and commentator Tafi Mhaka wrote an article over the weekend calling for people to support Sikhala as he is a better politician than Chamisa. Mhaka has pictured Sikhala as having embodied the formidable spirit of 1999.
“Sikhala’s retained that founding tenacity Morgan Tsvangirai and Gibson Sibanda imbued the MDC with. To speak eloquently of change, as Chamisa does so well, is one thing,” wrote Mhaka.
Chamisa has been making empty promises to his supporters because he honestly does not have anything to offer. He incites people to go to the streets during his popular pressers, but does not join them when they engage in these illegal demos, instead he calls them stupid.
However, it seems Sikhala is no different from Chamisa, he is all talk and when push comes to shore, he just an ambitious coward who wants already suffering people to sacrifice themselves in needless protests for them to get into power.
In an interview Sikhala had with Newsday Journalist Blessing Mhlanga, Sikhala said people sacrificed their lives for Omar al-Bashir to get into power. What MDC and all those who are egging them seem to be forgetting is that Zimbabwe is no Sudan, Zimbabweans are well aware who called for sanctions which have wreaked havoc in their lives.
Hence, for close to two years now Chamisa has been talking of a “spark” to ignite spontaneous protests which to date has failed to materialise. Sikhala is also labouring under an erroneous assumption that a duly elected government can be removed from power through protests as witnessed in other parts of Africa. NO it will not happen.
Valuable advice to Chamisa and company, focus on the 2023 election and mending divisions within your party which if not addressed will witness the party spitting yet again.
From the foregoing, the 2023 elections are something the MDC party is not ready for as they are busy with their in-house divisions and leadership wrangles.
I do not know what the United States is planning with MDC as a party but they are also causing divisions in the party. Gradually, the party is losing the little support they had from party members with the likes of Grace Kwinje and Tracy Mutinhiri having resigned recently, more are surely to follow.
Chamisa might be going around the country on his tours but that does not guarantee that he will the MDC leader during the 2023 elections if the scrabbles continue.
They are also not prepared for the election at all because all their energies are being expended in fighting President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s legitimacy, an issue they lost at the polls and at the Constitutional court. MDC is just full of childish, greedy people, hence, it’s only fair to conclude that the party obviously has no aptitude to rule Zimbabwe.
