The Sunday Mail
Vukani Madoda
The Sharpshooter
Last week on Wednesday around 1700hrs, Mr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai breathed his last.
With his last breathe, he left a huge opposition legacy.
No one will exhaust the memory of his contemporary opposition for the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, I fear that Mr Tsvangirai was bigger than the MDC and with his demise, the MDC is set to wither with him.
Mr Tsvangirai faced adversity and demonstrated courage in the face of danger. However, more often than not, he was faced with an inevitable downfall.
When a hero confronts his downfall, he is recognised as a tragic hero. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, characterises a tragic hero as someone who confronts his downfall due to fate, or by his own mistake, or any other social reason.
Mr Tsvangirai was a combination of all three.
Aristotle further defines a tragic hero as “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment.”
A tragic hero’s downfall therefore evokes feelings of pity and fear among the audience. That is the memory of Mr Tsvangirai.
He was able to elicit emotions in people. Being able to see ourselves in his position is what makes him capable of bringing out the appropriate emotional responses through both his life and his death.
Whether you like it or not, Mr Tsvangirai had a plethora of tragic flaws that caused his downfall.
First, there was no reason for him to become president of the MDC when he was a much better politician as Secretary-General of the ZCTU.
Mr Tsvangirai was charismatic. He was the MDC equivalent of Border Gezi. Unfortunately, that actually made him believe he could lead the MDC to their promised land.
His greatest tragic flaw was that he was better as a leader than as a mobiliser.
The late MDC-T leader did not have the intellectual stature of a national presidential candidate but regrettably, he stubbornly believed he had the qualities.
It was clear that he awaited an unavoidable punishment for his various tragic flaws and excessive, albeit blind, pride. The flaws led to a series of embarrassing electoral defeats.
Mr Tsvangirai died without ever becoming the President of Zimbabwe. Indeed, he was ill-advised by the criminals around him.
The elevation to party president magnified excessive pride in him and he inevitably ended up disrespecting the natural order of things.
He campaigned for sanctions against his own people. He urged reversal of the land reform. He boycotted critical elections. He became increasingly dictatorial.
The various tragic flaws all compounded to result in the reversal of a presidential fate that he and his party had long envisaged.
In 2016, he then announced that he had colon cancer.
His announcement and eventual demise invoked feelings of both pity and fear from amongst both his rivals and supporters.
Yet the hero of opposition politics in Zimbabwe was at the precipice of his inevitable and tragic downfall.
In the end, he was a tragic hero in the mould of Oedipus who struggled against the forces of his fate and was pitiable due to his weaknesses. He was a Hamlet, whose constant contemplation and brooding over presidential ambitions ultimately caused his destruction.
And after realising Mr Tsvangirai is indeed dead, the MDC will commit suicide, just like Romeo.
The tragic waste of his party is how it is going to destroy itself unnecessarily with its leader’s demise.
Mr Tsvangirai’s countless tragic flaws will bring a tragic end to his party.
Zanu PF can also pick a lesson from this. Members of the ruling party should avoid such flaws in their everyday lives.
Remember the words of Brutus in the Shakespearean masterpiece Julius Caesar:
“If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer – Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him.”
Perhaps like all tragedies, the prevailing circumstances in his party, where the three vice presidents are fighting for control while one of them has viciously abrogated the party’s constitution by declaring himself president, may somewhat bring some comic relief to lighten up the mood as the catastrophe unfolds. — Dubula’zitha!
