Tsvangirai will be "an albatross round nation's neck," predicted US Ambassador - so it is. W Mukori

“A discerning man, when he eats grapes, takes only the ripe ones and leaves the sour,” said John Climacus.

You know what, John was right. In this world there are those who seemed destined to eat the sour grapes of life whilst others eat nothing else but the sweet ripe grapes! Not everyone has a discerning mind although no one will ever admit to not having one.

One of mankind’s greatest fortes that one cannot self-diagnose to see one’s mental shortcomings. The world is full of people claiming to be experts in matters in which they actually have no clue.

“Insanity,” said the great Physicist, Albert Einstein, “is repeating the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.”

The insane, having failed to discern their mistake repeat the same mistake over and over again; eating the sour grapes.

It is bad enough that they should be so many men and women of little intellect out there masquerading as genius; it because a serious nightmare if these deluded individuals should find themselves into positions of power and authority. If there was any lingering self-doubt in their minds of their own shortcomings there is nothing like holding high office to make all the doubts disappear like a mist in the morning African sun.

Those of us who met and knew Morgan Tsvangirai during his ZCTU days will tell you that he was a man of fogy ideas surrounded by men and women of equally fogy ideas. ZCTU swallowed President Mugabe’s socialism hook, line and sinker, for example, no questions asked. Tsvangirai and his ZCTU friends could not get their heads round the idea that the worker’s pay rises must be linked to productivity, inflation, etc.

“Morgan Tsvangirai a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment,” wrote then USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell in a Wikileaks cable.

"He is an indispensable element for opposition success … but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power. In short … Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country's recovery."

 Everything that Chris Dell had said has come to pass with disastrous consequences to the nation. Throughout the GNU Tsvangirai has advised by SADC leaders to implement the reforms, not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms in place, etc. and he paid no heed. As Prime Minister Tsvangirai, he considered himself wiser than King Solomon himself and so listened to no one.

If anyone thought Tsvangirai and MDC’s resounding defeat in the July 2013 rigged elections will force them to see reason, they were wrong. Tsvangirai and company continue to ignore the sound advice not to contest elections until the democratic reforms are implemented. In his single-track mindedness Tsvangirai has decided that bringing the opposition together into a coalition is more important than implementing even one reforms and there is no stopping him.

“For a long time, this is what the people of Zimbabwe have been clamouring for; in the hope that such a convergence would provide the much-needed fillip for change in a country now tottering on the brink of becoming a failed State,” wrote Tsvangirai in his Bulawayo 24 opinion piece.

“We were the first through the resolutions of our 4th national Congress in October 2014 to come up with two important resolutions. The first was urging all people to come under one big tent; the second was to publicly call for the coalition of like-minded groups in order to liquidate the palpable mis-governance and cluelessness that has overwhelmed the seat of government.”

The only sensible resolution MDC-T made in the October 2014 congress was that the party will not contest any future elections until the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote are finally implemented. The “No reform, no elections!” resolution was in fact a rehash of the advice SADC and everyone had spent the GNU years telling Tsvangirai and his MDC friends.

So, now with new national elections around the corner Tsvangirai has once again forgotten the still valid SADC advice but also his own party resolution not to contest the elections without the reforms!

“The huge task ahead is to ensure that the people freely express themselves in a credible election,” concluded Tsvangirai.

“We in the broader democratic movement are all agreed on one thing; that we cannot let this one chance slip or else future generations will not forgive us for letting them down.

“The democratic movement is on the resurgence and indeed, a new Zimbabwe beckons on the horizon.”

Many Zimbabweans believed that 2013 elections would bring about meaningful political change because of the new constitution, which Tsvangirai and company had feverishly promoted as the silver bullet to stop Zanu PF rigging. They were very disappointed when the change did not occur as Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the election. Although many Zimbabweans still do not understand what went wrong in 2013; they, nonetheless have becomes disillusioned by political leaders like Morgan Tsvangirai.

It does not matter how much Tsvangirai and others in the opposition camp try to promote their coalition as a resurgence of the democratic forces, even few people than in 2013 will see this a platform for change. Instead of leading the nation out of the political and economic mess Mugabe landed the nation, Tsvangirai is dragging the nation even deeper into the mess.

Ambassador Dell has predicted that Tsvangirai would be an “albatross round the nation’s neck” and so it has come to pass.

Tsvangirai is a man who was thrust into a position of power and authority, way above his level of intellectual competence, who cannot discern good advice even when his own past mistakes tells him so. However, because of his position first as Prime Minister and now as the leader of the country’s opposition party – deserved or not, that is now academic -; he wields a lot of influence to determine the destiny of the nation. Thanks to his undiscerning mind and poor leadership, this nation has had nothing but bitter grapes of life. He has led us into a vineyard with nothing but the bitterest variety of grapes!