The tragedy of MDC-T orphans

The Sharp Shooter
Vukani Madoda
What reforms are you talking about Nelson? Political space has been opened and more than 100 political parties will contest in the elections, but you still want to cause confusion with the unsaleable mantra of so-called electoral reforms.

We have seen all too often the tragedy of orphans fighting over the estate of their late parents.

Many a time, the orphans jostle for property, power and possession even before the father is laid to rest.

One child rallies other family members against his/her siblings, sometimes against a stepmother, with the promise of sharing the loot with them.

That is what is happening in MDC-T. It is something many of us have long seen coming.

We saw the lack of compassion before Morgan Tsvangirai was on his death bed. It was clear for anybody who cared to follow the spectacle that the very day Tsvangirai would die would be the day MDC-T would die too.

The lack of empathy in otherwise well-to-do and promising opposition political candidates was there for all to see.

Obert Gutu, the then spokesperson, did not hide his disdain at the impending implosion within the opposition.

He openly defied whatever that so-called democratic movement stood for. He spoke willy-nilly at variance with the party position and even had the bravery to declare himself the parliamentary candidate for Harare East constituency.

But now he is gone. He is history. Expelled by his own party. A party he so passionately declared would form the next Government. He is now in political oblivion.

When the first MDC was formed in 1999, it talked of winds of change and gave Zanu-PF a run for its money in consecutive parliamentary and presidential elections.

But it quickly started eating its own children. Professor Welshman Ncube, Ambassador Trudy Stevenson, and now Dr Thokozani Khupe, Gutu and Abednigo Bhebhe have all been devoured.

Khupe refused to be bulldozed into paying allegiance to the back-door leadership of Nelson Chamisa who had been elevated by Tsvangirai to vice-president in spite of the humiliation of being defeated by Douglas Mwonzora for the post of secretary-general at MDC-T’s 2014 congress.

What remains of the legacy of Tsvangirai’s party is a stepmother called Thoko Khupe who has been expelled as orphans from another mother seize the estate.

It is a Humpty-Dumpty scenario and it does not need much to see that no alliance will ever be able to put this broken egg back together again.

We have said it before that MDC is party of splits and counter-splits but the naïve continue to prop it up as the next best thing after sliced bread.

The circus of splits involving Welshman Ncube, Tendai Biti, Job Sikhala, Arthur Mutambara, Elliot Mangoma and Thokozani Khupe is enough evidence to show the electorate the calibre of misguided opportunists and charlatans that have, for the greater part of this millennium, tried to lead Zimbabwe.

Khupe formed her own MDC arguing that she is the rightful opposition president instead of cabal leader Nelson Chamisa.

But did Khupe really win an election at congress in 2014? Records show that she was announced the winner after running a one-woman pots-and-pans race completely uncontested.

Now this boy, who convincingly lost to Mwonzora at the same congress, has contested her and pulled the rug from beneath her feet and she is foaming at mouth and will have none of that.

I pity the loyal MDC-T supporters who seem entrapped in this King Lear-like tragedy in which all their efforts to effect regime change have fallen flat on their face and played very well into the hands of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Zanu-PF.

There is no doubting that Cde Mnangagwa is having the last laugh as he revels in the manner in which the MDC-T orphans are tearing into each other.

ED will continue proudly wearing his scarf, open Zimbabwe for business and deliver free and fair elections that he and his party will win soundly.

In that respect he has been unwavering and the youth are going full steam ahead with the #EDHasMyVote strategy.

Of course you have Chamisa threatening protests if “electoral reforms” do not come.

What reforms are you talking about Nelson? Political space has been opened and more than 100 political parties will contest in the elections, but you still want to cause confusion with the unsaleable mantra of so-called electoral reforms.

Well go ahead, have your protests, and see whether Thokozani Khupe or Obert Gutu or Abednego Bhebhe will join you. See if Joice Mujuru will march with you. While you are at it wait for Ambrose Mutinhiri to join your protests.

But be warned that you could easily wait until you are twice your age before anyone will take you seriously.

Like all orphans who fight for an estate that they never built, we do not have much longer to wait until the entire estate disintegrates into small unrecognisable fragments, which the electorate will be at pains to vote for since each fragment will have little or nothing to offer.

As for stepmother Khupe, I think it is time to find a new home because the children of your late husband see no reason why you should call the shots when daddy is gone.

Dubulaizitha!