We’re now wide awake

IT is only after switching from the village to the city to advance his education that Bishop Lazi sadly realised that life is not a bed of roses and human beings can really be mean-spirited, coarse, caustic, uncaring and remorseless.

One quickly learnt that in the overly liberal melting pot of the city, which normally did not have any moral guardrails, courtesy, curtsy, manners and respect — cardinal values preached and valorised in the village — counted for nothing.

Life in the city was often a rat race, where wealth or material possessions — not the content of one’s character or what lay between their ears — defined one’s station in life.

So, foul was fair and the end always justified the means.

This was also apparent in the kid games that we played, particularly the much-loved soccer.

While we were usually content having a kickabout using balls improvised and fashioned out of plastic, which meant they could somewhat imitate the bounce of real match balls, nothing could beat the magical feeling of playing real soccer balls.

But there was one problem: They were invariably provided by impudent and egotistic rich kids.

As a quid pro quo for affording mere commoners like us the privilege to play real soccer balls, they were given the carte blanche to select the teams and players.

Those who did not see eye-to-eye with them were frozen out.

Their seemingly absolute power and sway also meant they could dictate rules of the game.

If you were lucky enough to be selected for their team, it was an unspoken rule that you always had to pass the ball to the thoroughly untalented lot.

And if you were unlucky enough to be in the opposite team, you suffered the excruciatingly painful ignominy of your bare feet being stomped by real soccer boots.

If you were the opposing keeper, it also meant you had to let in even the feeblest of shots just to massage their king-sized egos.

And whenever they felt tired or sensed the game was slipping away from them, they petulantly brought the contest to an abrupt end by taking their ball and walking away. You could not so much as show your frustration, lest you would be left out the next time around.

Whichever way the game swung, they always had to have their way.

So, in short, it was their way or the highway.

Wretched fumble

Bishop Lazi is beginning to see the same in the opposition, especially in Nelson Chamisa’s wobbly CCC, which is now sensing that this year’s election is slipping away, even before the ballot has been cast.

They are clearly in disarray.

Douglas Mwonzora’s MDC — which is presently battling for the right of its 87 National Assembly candidates to stand on August 23, after failing to successfully file their papers with the Nomination Court on June 21 — is clearly groaning on its deathbed.

Saviour Kasukuwere’s audacious gamble — ill-advisedly egged on by Julius Malema’s EFF — failed to take off, while CCC is now mortally wounded following the disqualification of 12 candidates in its stronghold, Bulawayo, after they filed their papers out of time.

The Bishop has always been saying the young politician was likely to bottle it, especially after wrecking Morgan Tsvangirai’s 2013 elections campaign by claiming he did not have to do much as God had revealed to him that he was going to win the polls. The opposite actually happened, when ZANU PF eased to victory.

What was really tragic for Tsvangirai — may his dear soul rest in eternal peace — was to have his then-organising secretary running a campaign based on hocus-pocus, and foolishly believing political victory can be magicked from nowhere without investing boots on the ground.

We are seeing the same thing in this year’s election.

The only difference is the peculiarity of having a formless and shapeless political movement — without a recognisable constitution, ethos, values and manifesto other than a desire to dislodge the ruling party — competing for State power.

Bereft of inherent organisational and institutional capacity, it has unsurprisingly already gifted ZANU PF more than 90 wards and three National Assembly seats in Cowdray Park (Professor Mthuli Ncube), Bulawayo Central (Tendayi Charuka) and Bulawayo South (Raj Modi).

The Bishop recently reminded you of the Parable of the Ten Virgins, in Matthew 25:1-10, which seems to be applicable in this case.

It reads: “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise.

The foolish ones took their lamps, but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves. But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.”

This deathly blow will likely deflate CCC and undercut the pretence of seeming traction that its campaign might have had.

This is not only ominous but dangerous when facing a well-prepared, battle-hardened, time-tested and consummate political gladiator such as ZANU PF, which now smells blood.

CCC’s wretched fumble — by failing to complete a simple task such as merely submitting papers for its candidates, including a party list for the provincial council in Bulawayo — now sets the ruling party on course to win an overwhelmingly two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, which is critical in governing and delivering on its mandate.

Jecha 2.0

But worryingly, those who are sensing defeat are becoming increasingly desperate and petulant; and dangerous so, too.

As we have seen before, the only available avenue to salvage their overgrown egos, particularly in the face of what seemed to be imminent defeat, is by investing in sullying and literally soiling the credibility and integrity of the polls.

Chamisa calls it “kudira jecha”, which means spoiling the broth by peppering it with grainy soil likely to irritatingly grate against the teeth.

It is premised on making it difficult or impossible for the victors to govern by attacking their legitimacy.

On August 1, 2018, we learnt painful lessons from the petulance of losers.

Never again!

At the time, Tendai Biti even told the Daily Maverick, a South African publication, that “we will make sure they don’t get a cent”.

As the desperation grows, the incendiary rhetoric is slowly building up.

New world order

But it appears the opposition is failing to read the signs, where geopolitical tectonic shifts in the world and the concomitant realignments in global alliances mean it can no longer rely on its trusted strategy of using its allies in the West to sabotage the ruling ZANU PF Government in order to collapse it.

One thing that has been apparent in CCC’s campaign is its woeful lack of resources, obviously born out of the West’s fatigue of sponsoring ill-fated campaigns often riven by internecine rivalries.

And this time, funding channels through some cunning non-governmental organisations and civic groups, which used to sponsor the opposition’s political activities, seem to be blocked and similarly disabled.

One day, Bishop Lazarus will tell you the intriguing story of Mali, where the bold decision that has been made by the regime to tell peacekeepers and French troops to leave, including banning activities of NGOs sponsored by France, has weakened formerly troublesome insurgents.

The curious nexus between these groups and the insurgents is now apparent.

Here in Zimbabwe, it is, therefore, unsurprising that the opposition no longer has the wherewithal to advertise its message or cover enough ground as the party it seeks to dislodge.

What makes it worse for the opposition is the fact that, going forward, it is not likely to hold sway over the fate of our politics and economics through its previously influential allies in the West.

Changing world dynamics — which have seen the United States influence in the Middle East waning, as evidenced by increased rapprochement in the region, where it used to play countries against each other, as well as an evolving multipolar world — provide Zimbabwe with alternative sources of resources and goodwill to sponsor its agenda to develop and modernise.

This makes President ED’s trip to Russia last week and his push to join the BRICS and BRICS New Development Bank consequential, as it is likely to provide succour to Harare, which has been frozen out of multilateral institutions controlled by the West, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, among others.

While we have been sponsoring our massive infrastructure projects from our budget, which comes with its own challenges, a new source of cheap capital will naturally provide the much-needed plinth to sustainably anchor our currency, economy and financial markets.

Those who think they will continue sabotaging us are either ignorant or foolish, or both. Never again will the West influence our politics, economics and destiny.

We will never suffer petulant spoilt skids again. We are now wide awake.

Bishop out!