The Sunday Mail
IT is axiomatic that if you hire a clown, you get a circus.
Those who voted for CCC in the August 23-24 harmonised elections can only watch in bafflement as the opposition party — riven by deadly factional fights — continues to split asunder.
Judging from the bitter recriminations and deep-seated intrigue of the current cloak-and-dagger politics characterising CCC at the moment, only one outcome is certain: mutually assured destruction.
Bishop Lazi believes that, as the fights become hot, heavy and heady, the belligerents will be forced to resort to the nuclear option, sooner rather than later.
Tendai Biti
When our wise forebears coined the idiom that described the conundrum confronting a mythical knitter called Tizirai, who suffered the ignominy of knitting a jersey that would always unravel at the other end — making the task unendingly frustrating — they probably had the opposition in mind.
The November 4 ruling by High Court judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi, dismissing the application by some CCC National Assembly members to have their recalls by the trigger-happy Sengezo Tshabangu, who claims to be the party’s interim secretary-general, will likely have profound ramifications and consequentially shape local opposition politics going forward.
Unhinged
But the High Court ruling is quite revealing in more ways than one, particularly insofar as it shines a light on the depravity and unhinged character of the CCC, which, in its court application, shamelessly and indecorously deployed “liberal insults” to attack Tshabangu, the Speaker of the National Assembly, the President of the Senate, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and ZANU PF — all of whom it alleges are involved in a sophisticated conspiracy to destroy the opposition.
Sengezo Tshabangu
Even Justice Mutevedzi was unsurprisingly not amused by what he described as the use of “nauseating profanities”, “expletives”, “ridiculously puerile disrespect”, “infantile insults” by the CCC in its court application and affidavits.
For instance, they accused the presiding officers of Parliament — Advocate Jacob Mudenda (Speaker of the National Assembly) and Mabel Chinomona (President of the Senate) — of having acted “unashamedly, irrationally, capriciously, whimsically and in a biased manner” to give effect to the recall letters written by Tshabangu.
“I pause here to comment on the employment of the above nauseating profanities in an affidavit.
“An applicant who displays such ridiculously puerile disrespect to respondents whom he/she has dragged to court does himself a complete disservice by clouding his/her argument in revulsive insults,” wrote the displeased judge in his judgment.
Welshman Ncube
“An affidavit which is full of infantile insults may easily lose its essence and detract the party deposing to it from properly putting across his/her/its case. In addition, my view is that it is inappropriate for a litigant to denigrate a person or institution which he/she has deliberately neglected to cite in court papers with the full knowledge that whatever aspersions he/she casts on that person/institution, he/she/it will not have the opportunity to answer back.
“The applicants’ attack on the political party called ZANU PF appears completely off side,” he added.
Bishop Lazi can only imagine the learned judge disapprovingly shaking his head as he wrote the judgment.
And the lawyers who represented the CCC legislators — Amanda Sihle Ndlovu and Alec Muchadehama — duly apologised to the court for the use of “intemperate” and “over-the-top” language.
Matthew 5:22 tells us: “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery
hell.”
Mendacity
It is not only the use of gratuitous insults in court by the opposition that is worrying, but also the mendacity displayed by none other than CCC leader Nelson Chamisa, especially after he misled the world into believing he had written a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly before the recalls, notifying him that he was the only designated official who could communicate with Parliament.
This was calculated to impugn the reputation and probity of Adv Mudenda by creating the impression that he deliberately ignored the letter and proceeded with the recalls regardless.
It was equally designed to sustain the narrative of the existence of an active conspiracy to destroy the opposition.
The court, however, seemingly saw through this chicanery and rightfully questioned why Chamisa’s purported September 11 letter only arrived at Parliament on October 5, a day or two after Tshabangu’s letters.
“There is no doubt therefore that Nelson Chamisa’s 11 September 2023 letter was only received at Parliament almost a month later on 5 October 2023.
“If it is not a contrived document, then it only serves to demonstrate his tardiness,” added Justice Mutevedzi.
Such disingenuity from a person who claims to be a pastor is quite unfortunate, but telling.
Proverbs 6:16-19 warns: “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”
Payback
Perhaps the most consequential finding made by the High Court was the inescapable need for a serious political party — “one which envisages running the affairs of the State” — to have administrative structures and constitutive documents through which it is run.
This is eerily reminiscent of the March 31, 2020 Supreme Court judgment through which Chamisa lost control of the MDC after the nullification of his appointment as vice president and subsequent takeover of the party in February 2018 after Morgan Tsvangirai’s demise.
Back then, the court also noted that, “given the vagaries and vicissitudes of political fortune, that it (MDC) might someday be electorally elevated to become the ruling party in Zimbabwe”, it was paramount for the opposition to uphold the core values of “solidarity, justice, equality, liberty, freedom, transparency, humble and obedient leadership and accountability”, which were enshrined in its constitution.
But it seems Chamisa and the opposition have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing from this past episode.
And it is indeed both this formlessness and inchoateness of the CCC as a political party that has opened the window for Tshabangu and his not-so-discreet handlers to stage a successful palace coup.
The great Chinese general, San Tzu, once said:
“Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.”
Now, Chamisa’s faction has to play catch-up.
And if Tshabangu, who claims to derive his power from the party constitution that he has pre-emptively produced, manages to successfully get his hands on Government funding disbursed through the Political Parties (Finance) Act, which he is clearly determined to do, this would deliver a mortal blow to the rival faction.
It is a mess!
It seems the origins of ambitious Chamisa’s curse is his determination, in his quest to be the undisputed leader of the opposition, to crash his formidable former senior political cadres — Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube, for example — who also claim proprietorship of opposition politics.
Dodging the bullet
You see, the issues that continue to be red-flagged by the courts, particularly in terms of the probity and conduct of the opposition as a putative future ruling party, naturally invite scrutiny into its internal affairs.
This should make all of us concerned, especially now that we have to cough up US$5 million to finance by-elections occasioned by the messy fights in CCC.
That money could be better used for other developmental pursuits.
In any case, how can such unsteady hands effectively control the levers of power?
How can such a party that serially violates provisions of its own constitution be expected to respect the country’s Constitution?
How can a party that continues to exhibit such intolerance, toxicity and brazen contempt of State institutions be expected to be future custodians of the country’s values?
Imagine if such people were to somehow capture State power.
It would have all been a circus by now.
Was it not French philosopher Voltaire who once said “the rule of one lion is ever better than a hundred rats”?
Bishop out!
