MDC supporters throng to meet Mnangagwa - willow tree sway in lightest breeze

"President Emmerson Mnangagwa has shown a shocking popularity amongst Zimbabweans living in South Africa as almost ten thousands Zimbabweans turned up to meet him in what was meant to be a business briefing of an expected 100 people," reported Paul Nyathi of Zimeye.

"The Diaspora has traditionally been an opposition stronghold with Morgan Tsvangirai enjoying unfettered support which has now been shaken by Mnangagwa's visit."

Why are you shocked?

The same Zimbabweans had remained loyal to Tsvangirai even in the face of the mountain of evidence that MDC had sold-out during the GNU by failing to get even one democratic reform implemented. Tsvangirai & co. had proven beyond all reasonable doubt that they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent and many Zimbabweans still remained as loyal to MDC as before. This proved that their loyalty to Tsvangirai was not founded on ideological or admiration of Tsvangirai's leadership qualities, these were clearly lacking here. This was just blind loyalty a blind man who give to whoever happen to be holding his hand.

Many Zimbabweans, both in Zimbabwe and in the diaspora, have come to the conclusion that the GNU did not deliver the free, fair and credible elections, as MDC leaders had promised; they have never figured out that it was because MDC had failed to implement even one democratic reform. They have never asked Tsvangirai & co. what happened and the MDC leaders were shrewd enough never to offer any explanation.

The only trouble with having blind followers is that it will not take much to persuade them to baby dump you and follow someone else. They are like branches of a willow tree, the whole branch swings one way then the other even in the lightest breeze.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies have done to deserve their new-found popularity. Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs and the events of the last three years have shown just how ruthless these thugs are. Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and the rest staged the coup that forced Mugabe to resign not out of concern of the long suffering masses but as the last throw of the dice to wrestle power from Grace Mugabe and her G40 faction.

Yes, Zimbabweans everywhere were overjoyed to see the back of Robert Mugabe, regardless of the circumstances of his demise. By to herald Mnangagwa and his thugs as heroes for staging the coup is to miss the very important point that they are the ones who had imposed Mugabe on the nation all these years. Worse still, the coup was about removing one dictator but only to replace him with another.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that would lead anyone to belief Zanu PF is no longer a party of thugs just because Mnangagwa and not Mugabe is the new leader. Mnangagwa has moved swiftly to ruthless silenced his G40 faction rivals. He has kept the same oppressive laws and practices he himself had perfected when he was Mugabe's henchman. He has been quick to promise free, fair and credible elections although he has not implemented even one democratic reforms to make this possible.

The Zimbabweans who thronged to hear President Mnangagwa in SA are no different from the thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans, up and down the country, who marched in support of the coup on 18 November 2017. They are like a slave who mistakes the replacement of one slave-master for another with his freedom! Zimbabweans are equating the departure of Mugabe with the end of corruption, vote rigging and tyranny and arrival of a new Zimbabwe of competent government in which all their individual freedoms and human rights have been restored. The penny will drop when they realise the corruption, vote rigging, etc. of the Mugabe days have not gone away and it is business as usual!

One only hopes that the penny will drop soon enough before the people make the mistake of giving President Mnangagwa and his cronies the mandate to rule in next year's elections. If next year's elections are free, fair and credible then the people must vote Zanu PF out of office because that is they one chance to make sure future elections are free, fair and credible.

If Zanu PF are allowed to stay in office and the party's ambitious economic recovery agenda start to falter as did Mugabe's "Gutsa ruzhinji!" (Mass prosperity!) the party will resort to the same dirty tricks of intimidation, harassment, vote rigging, etc. to stay in power. No doubt, the Zimbabwe electorate, the branches of the willow tree, will swing back to supporting Morgan Tsvangirai or whoever happens to be the new flavour of the day, with the same blind loyalty of sheep to the slaughter!