The Sunday Mail
THE year 2024 is incredibly hyperpolitical.
They say close to half the world’s population — about four billion people — will be voting in more than 60 countries around the world.
This includes the more than 1,4 billion wananchi in India, the world’s most populous country, which is also referred to as the world’s biggest democracy.
And the vertiginous jockeying and politicking that comes with America’s long-drawn-out electoral process is already underway, especially after abortive attempts by the ruling Democratic Party to remove the presumptive leader of the opposition, Donald Trump, from the ballot.
Judging by the bitter recriminations between the leading candidates — Trump and Joe Biden — the November elections are going to be a rat race.
Voters in Bangladesh and Taiwan already made their choices in elections held on January 7 and January 13, respectively.
Closer to home, there will be plebiscites in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa.
The same ritual will be held in Algeria, Chad, Comoros, Ghana, Mauritania, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal, Somaliland, South Sudan, Tunisia and Togo.
It is the same in Europe, where voters will decide in Belarus, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom, among many other countries.
Suffice to say, 2024 is likely to be eventful. With politicians known for their mendacity, the Bishop’s prayer is for the year not to turn out to be a festival of lies.
Political animals
We, too, are not spared the angst that comes with elections. Just when we thought they were done and dusted after the August 23-24 harmonised elections, today we are waking up to results from the second batch of by-elections occasioned by the imbroglio in the imploding CCC.
You have to feel for the people of Binga North, who have had to vote thrice in the past two years for a representative in the National Assembly.
They went to the polls on March 26, 2022 after the by-elections prompted by Douglas Mwonzora, who had successfully wrested the MDC from Nelson Chamisa.
They voted again in the August 23-24 elections, before trooping to polling stations on December 9 last year.
It is the same for those in Mkoba constituency, where Amos Chibaya has had the ignominy of being recalled twice — first by Mwonzora and now by Sengezo Tshabangu.
After the resignation of CCC leader Nelson Chamisa from the party he founded, and with the imminent launch of his new blue-themed political project, we might see another round of meaningless by-elections.
And who can blame ZANU PF for profiting from this unremitting madness?
Even after winning 177 seats, compared to CCC’s 103, in the 280-member National Assembly last year — an absolute majority enough to govern unimpeded — ZANU PF has since added seven more seats from the nine that became vacant after Tshabangu’s first round of recalls.
This increased its tally to 184.
Hypothetically, if it manages a clean sweep in the six seats that were up for grabs yesterday, which is highly likely, the number of its representatives would soar to 190.
Conversely, this would naturally whittle CCC’s representatives to a mere 90.
Considering the current make-up of the Senate — 33 ZANU PF, 27 CCC, two representatives of people living with disabilities and 18 chiefs — this might put the number of pro-nationalist “voting bloc” (and Bishop Lazi uses this phrase advisedly) in the National Assembly past the “magical” 240 seats.
And if CCC MPs foolishly decide to resign from Parliament en masse and join Chamisa’s envisaged “new” party, thereby triggering another round of by-elections, this would stand the ruling party in good stead to further tighten its grip on the levers of power.
Remember, in the March 26, 2022 by-elections, which were essentially solely fought on the opposition’s turf, ZANU PF managed to wrest nine seats from the 28 that were on offer.
This scenario is likely to play out again.
Eyes on the ball
All this political drama in the opposition — Mwonzora and Tshabangu’s recalls — has come at a heavy cost. Treasury has had to spend more than US$11 million to fund both the December 9, 2023 and February 3, 2024 elections.
Well, perhaps it is a worthy investment insofar as it spells doom for the West’s political project to destabilise Zimbabwe through its quislings.
Chamisa’s missteps, miscalculations, naiveté and strategic blunders over the past five years have made him mortally vulnerable.
He is no longer the supposed political god he was thought to be by his followers, as his successive defeats have stripped him of the halo of an anointed political figure.
He is now a mere fallible man.
You do not have to look any further than the criticism that is now being directed at him by his former allies, not least from Philani Zamchiya, who recently wrote a scathing and thoroughly uncomplimentary appraisal of Chamisa’s delusional leadership qualities.
This is in keeping with the time-honoured wisdom from our forebears, which states that an injury inflicted by an enemy would make one vulnerable to even nuisance pests such as flies (Chakupa ronda chati nhunzi dzikudye).
And this could be good news for the ruling ZANU PF.
A degraded threat from the West and its proxies would give it carte blanche to drive its developmental agenda without any distractions and unhelpful rancour from a misguided opposition.
In Genesis 50:19-21, Joseph tells his ill-willed brothers: “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children . . .”
The current preoccupation of most, if not all, folks in the opposition is self-preservation and survival.
Instructively, even as the political drama, or circus, was continuing last week, the Government was launching another transformative project — the rehabilitation of the Harare-Chirundu Highway, which is a critical piece of the North-South Corridor.
Work on Lake Gwayi-Shangani is continuing.
All things being equal, the project might finally be completed this year.
Notwithstanding these notable milestones, the work that is outstanding is considerable, especially for a country that has lost close to two decades through sanctions.
So, as Martin Luther King Jnr counselled, we must walk where others crawled, we must run where others walked and we must fly where others ran.
We must keep moving.
Yes, the circus in the opposition might provide some comic relief, but we should not be distracted; let us keep our eyes on the prize.
There is too much to do and not enough time.
Bishop out!
