by Welldone Tembo
The Zimbabwean youth will never again know a political let-down as big as the beleaguered MDC-A leader, Nelson Chamisa, whose reins at that party has brought unimaginable drama punctuated by immaturity, untamed arrogance and ultimately the demise of the political outfit. In short, Chamisa has dramatized the famous ‘Things fall apart’ by Chinua Achebe.
When Chamisa usurped Dr Thokozani Khupe and Engineer Elias Mudzuri, the youth at that party oblivious of the road map followed by Chamisa celebrated his ascendance to power. MDC’s western handlers also embraced the development as the rejuvenation and genesis of a better future and prospects for the opposition in Zimbabwe.
However, some of us pondered ‘hakusi kupembera ngozi muchiti mudzimu here uku.’
In no time, the political tussling and royal rumble ensued with press conferences and counter press conferences and eventually the political immaturity played out as Chamisa failed to cement the MDC. He literary forged that political party into an ill-conceived coalition, which he bet on by declaring that, come what may; it will beat ZANU PF in the 2018 harmonized elections.
Complacency as always, not political capital as it is; led Chamisa into claiming that he had won the elections basing on social media. In an unprecedented political tantrum, he turned down reasonable offers from ZANU PF under the stewardship of President Emmerson Mnangagwa who was geared to reverse the winner takes all approach to politics in Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole, in favour of progressive politics which is more encompassing.
The most significant offer in this regard was that of the position of Official Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. Chamisa could not figure this out, instead he thought it was a political gimmick ‘kwakudambura makumbo nehasha sehwiza’.
Besides this political drama which saw legal jargon find its way into street lingo ‘fulcrum of the pith’, something within the MDC was dying. Chamisa had no idea “Things were falling apart”.
He had scored a reasonable number of votes and it brought with it an important mandate to serve the people, in this regard the urban vote that initially thought he was a political messiah.
Almost all the urban councils belong to the MDC, a mandate that is so crucial and carries the face of Zimbabwe. Deep seated in the election mood, the MDC forgot of this mandate of paramount importance and the country’s urban areas turned into zones of perennial rivers of raw sewage. The smell of sewage has become a norm as children hop them as they go about their daily routines.
Hills of uncollected garbage have become prominent features as they continue to manifest in most townships. This goes without mentioning the threat of diseases that comes with such neglect.
Driving has become a nightmare to most motorists as they navigate in the pothole riddled roads and having to change or service the suspension of their vehicles at most after every two-three months. The potholes on our roads quickly gained resemblance to Government’s agricultural farming initiative ‘Pfumvudza’ trenches.
All this chaos in urban councils is happening at the hands of our so-called political messiah, soon irked the residents of most townships. The same social media that Chamisa had based his electoral win argument, was soon to be a platform used to judge him and question his position on the rot that is seeming going on unabated. Netizens began questioning Chamisa on this sorry state of affairs and as usual he sought to blame the central Government for sabotaging him.
It was playing out that indeed iyi ingozi than it could have been mudzimu. Councils collect monies from every registered household, business and building in town. Car insurances funds and parking lot fees also find their way into their bank accounts. However, there has been no service delivery after these collections. Garbage remains uncollected, sewer reticulation remains a nightmare and our roads continue to deteriorate. Instead, council employees continue to make headlines over their obscene salaries and allowances.
Questions soon rained on Chamisa as people asked whether it is central Government responsible for the awarding of these obscene salaries and allowances? If ZANU PF is also interfering by buying those luxurious vehicles for Council’s top management? Why don’t you just quit if it’s not really working?
The last question sold out MDC’s councilors who are unrepentant of their corrupt activities as they continue to illegally parcel out land punctuated by double allocation of residential stands. If indeed they did not benefit a thing or had no control of Councils, they should surely have simply quit.
Empirically, Chamisa was exposed. The immaturity and the arrogance led to the crumbling of the MDC leaving the electorate wondering over their real purpose of existence. Do they really mean to serve the people or they are just political antagonists bent on communicating the wishes of their western handlers? Because honestly, all they have been good at is criticizing Government, badmouthing Zimbabwe, yet they have nothing to show in spite of their mandate to make our towns clean for starters. Who can really trust Chamisa and his lot with the running of Zimbabwe as a country?
The MDC under Chamisa has been worse and have lost direction more than ever.
