The Sunday Mail
Vukani Madida
The Sharpshooter
It is a good thing that Zanu-PF is headed for a special Congress this week. It is even better that the ruling party has presented a budget that is people-centric and futuristic. Even the 2018 elections are budgeted for.
Political prophets have the easy of task of predicting Tsvangirai’s final fall.Sadly, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai is pushing himself for yet another great crash.
He will just be another humpty-dumpty and this time no one at all will be able to put his back together again.
Sharpshooters would say he should simply take a break.
He should rest from pursuing the thankless opposition leadership role. There is no reward.
We are already in a new dispensation and there is no way in hell that President Emmerson Mnangagwa will lose that election to Tsvangirai and his alliance – or any other alliance for that matter.
In Zanu-PF, the succession debate is dead and buried and pursuit of puppet regime change agendas are now just but a sad and unrewarding political career.
Ndabaningi Sithole tried it and failed. Enoch Dumbutshena tried it and failed. Edgar Tekere tried it and failed. Morgan Tsvangirai tried it and is failing.
That Morgan needs to rest and let another takeover is no longer in doubt. At 65, he has already spent a third of his life fighting to remove Zanu-PF without anything to show for it.
Since 2000, Zanu-PF has swept him aside and there is nothing in the stars pointing to that narrative changing in next year’s harmonised elections or in any election after that.
It, therefore, boggles the mind why some misguided misfits may be of the spiteful notion that Zanu-PF, with its robust and refreshing policies of today will not win the election next year.
It goes without saying that Finance Minister Honourable Patrick Chinamasa was able to articulate material global issues with ease during the 2018 National Budget presentation while the opposition continues to pin its far-fetched hopes on an ailing leader.
Do not get me wrong; I do not wish ill-health for Tsvangirai but surely to make him stand against Cde ED in the 2018 elections is the sort of punishment a child feels is unjustified for stealing candy and cookies.
Tsvangirai is better of counting his losses, licking his wounds and, as his own Eddie Cross has advised, go home and concentrate on his health instead of wearing himself out further in an unwinnable pursuit.
Certainly, if there is anybody who should pull out of the 2018 general election race between, say, Joice Mujuru and Tsvangirai, the latter must at best seriously consider the option of passing on the baton.
Or he could just do what he always does when he sees he is failing – boycott the election.
The result will be the same. Tsvangirai will not be President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.
How the MDC continues to put forward the name of an ailing leader void of economic turnaround as a Presidential candidate in next year’s elections must be viewed as a betrayal of the imagined democratic cause that the opposition party alleges to stand for.
Zanu-PF really does not wish for a walk-over or an electoral fight against an unworthy candidate.
Zanu-PF is looking for credibility that will put to shame naysayers once they defeat a befitting opposition Presidential candidate.
There is no glory in beating Tsvangirai.
Let us be honest here, besides his health issues, Morgan Tsvangirai is a spent force and an unwilling participant in next year’s general election.
Those that continue to spur him on in spite of the clear evidence of his inappropriateness, gullibility and compromised candidature continue to do so at the peril of opposition politics and for the pleasure of those who enjoy watching Tsvangirai fail again and again.
Since Morgan is already no longer of sound body and soul, it would be grossly unfair to delve into his other less daunting weaknesses such as power hunger and refusal to relinquish leadership to other people.
One could say Zanu-PF has resolved its succession headache, the opposition is nurturing its own.
One can also say that while Zanu-PF moved quickly to restore its legacy in recent months, the opposition has been moving quickly to self-immolate.
The time has now come for Morgan Tsvangirai to call it a day.
His political sun has set. He should chose a dignified departure because no military is going to move in to restore legacy there.
He has not one, but three vice presidents, each of whom is fairly eligible to replace him.
For instance, Dr Thokozani Khupe is trying to improve her standing as seen by her recent capping with a PhD; while Mupandawana boys Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri have been positioning themselves by stealth and guile.
Everyone in Zanu-PF is all for strong competition from the opposition in next year’s fully-budgeted election; and Tsvangirai is quite simply not competition.
Dubulaizitha!
