Tsvangirai was at the 'forefront' when Joshua Nkomo's car was shot

That Zimbabwe once again finds itself on the edge politically and economically - and that the centre can no longer hold both within the ruling Zanu-PF and in government - is not a subject for speculation or conjecture anymore.

Indeed, it does not matter which way long-suffering Zimbabweans look, the damning evidence of the country's ever deepening rot abounds everywhere - all of it thanks to President Robert Mugabe and his useless minions.

Just consider the following snippet of evidence to appreciate the country's hopeless lot: the economy is dying as manifested by the severe liquidity and cash shortages; the government is stone-broke and cannot pay its workers; poverty levels are now shamefully higher than they were in minority-ruled Rhodesia; national infrastructure and social services, including the road network and hospitals have collapsed; companies are closing shop in their thousands; and job losses have reached catastrophic levels.

And the damnatory evidence goes on and on - amid truly frightening indications that the situation will get worse this year and beyond, as our clueless Zanu-PF overlords continue to demonstrate their gross incompetence and lack of capacity to fix the country's myriad crises.

Our heartless rulers' response to the problems bedevilling Zimbabwe - many of them man-made, manufactured, packaged and delivered via Shake-Shake House (Zanu-PF Headquarters to the uninitiated) - is their mindless infighting over who will succeed Mugabe, as well as their crass and patently corrupt policies.

All of which only serve to make our already desperate situation worse.

Lord, why are we so cursed, and what did we do as a nation to deserve these hyenas?

But it gets worse. The escalating level and brutal tone of Zanu-PF's ugly tribal, factional and succession wars is not only threatening a complete implosion of the troubled former liberation movement - of which not many will moan its demise, except for a few beneficiaries of the current corrupt system - it has also meant that there is now paralysis in government, which is causing further pain and suffering among innocent citizens.

The real worry though, as the inevitable end for this regime approaches, one way or the other, is that it could spawn more chaos and unravel violently - given the well-documented tendency by the ruling party to resort to violence each time its power is threatened - making life even more difficult for fed up Zimbabweans.

Remember here how Zanu-PF's unthinking supporters reacted in 2008 after Mugabe lost hands down to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in that year's disputed presidential elections.

Without wanting to sound alarmist, and notwithstanding the best, but futile efforts of the likes of Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya, our beloved country is now perilously close to being officially certified as a failed State!

We pray that things will not tumble that low.

Then we have people like the litigious and gaffe-prone Vice President, Phelekezela Mphoko, in the country's leadership mix, who never disappoint when it comes to disgorging a constant and consistent stream of horse manure. The VP is truly gifted in this regard, if this can be looked at as a talent!

In his latest display of his unmatchable intellect (no pun intended), Mphoko - who was in the news three years ago after he was quoted saying that Gukurahundi was a Western conspiracy - told journalists in Bulawayo at the weekend, without batting an eye or offering any shred of evidence for that matter, that Tsvangirai was allegedly at the "forefront" when the late revered Father Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo, was being hounded by Zanu-PF: the party in which he is number two.

"Let us not forget that when Cde Nkomo's car was shot he (Tsvangirai) was at the forefront, when an officer in charge was killed in Tsholotsho, he was there too. The same person wants to address the Gukuraundi issue now," Mphoko bellowed, to quote him verbatim as captured on film and in print by the trusted State media on such matters.

Really Cde Mphoko?

Without belabouring the point, we hope that the esteemed VP with the super distinguished liberation struggle credentials and immense national standing, as self-claimed by him, will now go on, at last, to tell us in detail what really happened during the era of Gukurahundi, when an estimated 20 000 innocent civilians were massacred by the government mainly in Matabeleland and the Midlands - particularly taking into account the fact that he was previously associated with national intelligence and is now in charge of national healing.

And while at it, we hope that he will also have the courage to ask his appointing authority what role he may or may not have played during these killings.