"MDC preoccupied with opposition itself" said Moyo - no substitute for quality, especially with life at stake W Mukori

 “The political opposition in Zimbabwe, particularly the MDC, is stuck in the middle: between making news headlines and making reform headways,” wrote Professor Jonathan Moyo.

“This is not new.

“Being stuck between making news headlines and making reform headways, has been the bane of opposition politics in Zimbabwe as far back as one cares to remember.”

The article made good read but was otherwise irrelevant because Professor Jonathan Moyo attributed to MDC leaders intellectual quality they did not have. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends saw the popular demand for democratic reform as an opportunity to get themselves elected into power so they can claim a share of the spoils of power. They were never going to implement any reforms because they did not know what they are then and still don’t, to this day. 

In all the 20 years of MDC’s existence no one, absolutely no one, has never ever articulated even one democratic reform and how it was to be achieved because no one has the intellect to think through any such niceties. They have all gone for the cheap headlines and slogans because that was the apex of their intellectual ability. 

It is not surprising that when MDC did get into power, in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, the party failed to get even one democratic reform implemented.

“MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU, they forgot why they were there!” remarked one SADC diplomat in sheer exasperation at the lost opportunity to implement reforms. He was right, MDC leaders sat, ate and enjoyed themselves for five years on the gravy train. He was wrong; Tsvangirai and the banded mongooses did not “forgot” why they were in the GNU - one does not forget something they have never had in their head. 

Of course, Professor Moyo knew the MDC banded mongooses had shot themselves in head by failing to implement even one reform in the five years of the GNU. This was the clinching argument Zanu PF used in rejecting the  SADC leaders’ demand for Zimbabwe to postpone the 2013 elections to allow time to implement reforms.

Patrick Chinamasa, who was the Zanu PF Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, argued Zimbabwe did not have any outstanding reforms to be implemented! The banded MDC mongooses had never submitted even one reform proposal in the five years of the GNU.

Professor Moyo was the one sitting next to Chinamasa when he dropped the bombshell; of course, he knew this was the biggie! He quickly jumped to 2017.

“The second original sin of the MDC is that its reform agenda was not informed by the structural impact of Gukurahundi on the Zimbabwean body politic,” argued Professor Moyo.

“Zanu-PF securocrats, led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, who saw himself as their political leader and future President of Zimbabwe right from the beginning in 1980, sought to build a Gukurahundi state in the country in which state security trumped state politics.

“If the MDC had factored this right from its formation, it would not have supported Mnangagwa's November 2017 military coup.”

Yes the securocrats wield a lot of political power in Zimbabwe but what Professor Moyo should have also said is that it was none other than Robert Mugabe himself who formed the Joint Operation Command (JOC). The Junta bring together the top brass in the country’s Police, Army, CIO and Prison Service plus a few select individuals from the party headed by Mugabe with Mnangagwa as his assistant. 

All Mugabe and his Zanu PF conies cared about was to secure absolute power and they were doing by hook and by crook. They knew the party did not have the intellectual finesse to retain power for long in a healthy and functioning democratic Zimbabwe. And so the party imposed a de facto one-party dictatorship as the only sure way to secure power and JOC was the ruthless enforcer of the dictatorial powers.

Both the GNU cabinet and parliament were aware of the lucrative diamond mining concession awarded to securocrats resulting in the wholesale looting that has gone on for the last 20 years. It was Mugabe thanking the JOC members for supporting the dictatorship but also to secure their blind loyalty to the dictatorship - a democratic government will never allow the looting. 

The 2017 military coup allowed a number of military personalities to emerge out of the shadow, yes. However the coup did not militarise Zimbabwe’s body politics or create a dictatorship; these two evils were already there. 

What Tsvangirai and his MDC friends should have was to implement democratic reforms designed to end Zanu PF’s strangle hold on the security sector, end the looting of resource and free all the security services to carry out their statutory duties properly and honourably. This should have been done and dusted by the end of 2008 to 2013 GNU after that MDC was just a toothless poodle.

MDC supported the November 2017 military coup and accomplish nothing. It is doubtful if condemning the coup would have accomplished much other than being right in principle, give the party was weak and feeble!

40 years and counting of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule has left Zimbabwe in economic ruins. Millions of Zimbabweans living in abject poverty, they cannot afford one decent meal a day much less other necessities such as education for the children and health care. The need to implement the democratic reforms to pave the way for free, fair and credible elections and an end to bad governance is now a matter of life and death. 

All Zanu PF thugs care about is to retain power at all cost. They believe they have the divine right to rule and would rather burn the country, make it ungovernable than allow some one else to rule.

After 20 years on the political stage and countless wasted opportunities we must now accept that MDC leaders are incompetent and will never implement the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for. 

“As things stand, the political opposition in Zimbabwe is preoccupied with opposing itself,” concluded Professor Moyo. He did hit the nail on the head, there. 

It pays in the end to get the best in the beginning! When it comes to political leaders, there really is no substitute for quality! 

Zimbabwe is bleeding, literally, to death for lack of competent leaders who know what the reforms are and have the political will and vision to implement them!