Nelson Chamisa is a dictator unfit to lead the Integrated MDC

Word on the street and in the opposition circles is that the MDC-Alliance is going to re-integrating and morph into one political party, reverting to something resembling the original 1999 MDC project led by the late Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. I believe I was lucky to have lived in and be led by the late iconic opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, a great leader and true democrat may his soul rest in eternal peace. However, my story for today is pointed at Nelson Chamisa the advocate, the pastor and de-facto leader of the Movement for Democratic Change. It has become apparent that Chamisa is simply a bad guy because of a number of reasons that I am going to lay out starting with his construed divine pastoral background and political exertions providing the perfect paradox of our time like that of a virgin mother if ever there was one. It is my strong contention that Nelson Chamisa should step down from the helm of that outfit and at most should allow for internal democratic processes to take place in for of an elective congress.

It all began two years ago when President Morgan Tsvangirai appointed a then 38-year-old Advocate Nelson Chamisa as one his two additional Vice Presidents following his diagnosis with cancer of the colon on 27 June 2016, which appointment was very noble in all earnest if issues of grooming and continuity are to be taken into consideration. Ironically, no one would have thought the same young would turn villainous a few months later through carrying out a de-facto palace coup that catapulted him to the helm of the MDC-T. Nelson Chamisa is the reincarnation of Iago in the Shakespearean tragedy Othello. He gleefully identifies with this villainous character.

It is a disgrace to the democratic ensemble, housed at Morgan Tsvangirai House today that echoes are already ringing loud and far that there is no vacancy for the presidency when it comes to the forthcoming 2019 elective congress, because Nelson Chamisa is the brand of the party. Respect for the constitution should be uttermost in the democratic movement but Nelson is tearing the party constitution into smithereens.  Democracy does not work that way leader Wamba. We know they don't call you King Cobra for nothing but this act serves to expose the uncouth and unbridled ambition in you but I reiterate that it is foolhardy and equally dangerous to be led by such a viciously ambitious young man bend on his knavery whose allegiance is only to his own selfish political interests and retaining power by hook or crook. Chamisa cries foul of being rigged in the last election but he is the master in the art of rigging. Chamisa must legitimize his unconstitutional takeover through an elective congress where all positions, including the presidency would be open for contestation.

Word abound is that, Alliance partners are going to be incorporated into the structures from provincial, district, ward and even branches. The Alliance partners are being offered piece-meals and a sort of reprieve through the reintegration and would feel grateful and indebted to Wamba for taking them back from the cold. Remember Jonathan Moyo once saying it is cold out there, Tendai Biti must have felt the same way too. Currently, Tendai Biti and Nelson Chamisa are well tuned strings on a musical instrument, just to portray their current harmony but let us not be fooled into forgetting the 2013 events that led to the split that is now being embroidered back together for convenience purposes.  Biti's strength lies in his ability to distort and pervert other characters' most positive traits.

Nelson's dictatorial tendencies are explicit if one interrogates the "Chamisa chete chete mantra" which was the MDC-Alliance rallying call in the run up to the 30th July polls. Next we heard Alliance partners routing for Nelson Chamisa as the Alliance leader in the absence of the then ailing Morgan Tsvangirai and even declaring that not even the then Acting President of the MDC T Vice President Eng. Elias Mudzuri should not address any Alliance rally or even getting the acknowledgement he deserved at these rallies. This was a clear coup. Chamisa is trying to use the Alliance to claim a stake in MDC leadership race. And as if that is not enough we now see where Chamisa is Tendai Biti is also. It is not coincidental that Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube, former rebels find themselves back in the fold as Deputy Chairperson and Deputy President respectively of the intergrated MDC. These appointments explains the drama playing out in the party under the guise of integration. It is just a regrouping of a team of power mongers to fortify Chamisa's throne and to quell any perceived probable challenge from both Douglas Mwonzora and Eng Elias Mudzuri in the forthcoming elective party congress. It is all part of an elaborate long term plan to nip the challenge in the bud. King Cobra as his moniker is angling for the kill as we gravitate towards the party's next elective congress. My dislike of Cobra's leadership is not about age but pure immaturity because other young leaders like Julius Malema across the Limpopo are faring much better than King Cobra. The current imposition of mayors is testament that shiri ine muririre wayo haiuregi. I know and have witnessed is the serious shoving shenanigans for powerful posts up for grabs and already Nelson has begun parceling out positions to his preferred acolytes in preparation of an uprising when congress comes and the rabblerousing maneuvers began during the party's primary elections and candidate selection process.

Along with weakening the opposition, the subsequent death of Tsvangirai brought with it the ugly head of factionalism within the MDC-T, an enduring malaise in Zimbabwean polity: the fear of being democratically challenged. How ironic that Luke Tamborinyoka after his stinking factional political skullduggery, was ditched in favour of little known Nkululeko Sibanda. Luke Tamborinyoka was Chamisa's co-conspirator and his predicament encapsulates the keen sense of the ironical adage, having a taste of your own concoction. Chmais manipulates just about everyone else and every situation for example Tsvangirai's illness and subsequent demise to colon cancer in February early this year. In all earnest, his so-called appointment letter was fake because with the help of Luke Tamborinyoka, the former presidential spokesperson, they faked Tsvangirai's signature and used his twitterhandle to announce the appointment when actually Tsvangirai was in a South African hospital on his deathbed breathing his last.

The use of violence must never be condoned and Nelson resorted to the mafia style of grabbing power and claiming territories at Tsvangirai's funeral. We have suffered enough violence at the hands of ZANUPF and its militia apparatus such that is spine chilling when one turns against his own kith and kin. I continue to question his respect for the democratic process because he instigated roguish elements masquerading as the so-called Vanguard to unleash violence against other party presidential aspirants in the party. If truth be told, not many in the MDC leadership for example the then co-vice presidents Elias Mudzuri and Thokozani Khupe, Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora together with the then party Chairman Moyo included, do not know where Tsvangirai was buried and laid to rest because they were shamelessly chased and heckled in the full glare of all the local and foreign dignitaries at the funeral in Buhera and left the burial before paying their last respects to their departed leader. I vividly remember on the day, the Swedish envoy asking us how we were going to get funding as a party if we behaved thuggishly like this. This act instigated by Chamisa himself was abominous and if the wrath of the dead is anything to go by, this regrettable act is also going to haunt him to his grave.

Nelson's diabolical courtship with the NPF was shameful as it was equally appalling. The conflation of 3 roguish elements in Nelson Chamisa, Robert Mugabe and Grace Mugabe was the greatest betrayal of the people's movement and one cannot help but reminisce of Judas Iscariot's greatest stinking betrayal and the crinkling of thirty dirty pieces of silver. Nelson went on to cut deals with the dethroned former president and his wife Grace Mugabe who have gone on to ditch him now to safeguard their farms, properties and business empires against the Mnangagwa administration. Mugabe went as far as calling for a presser on the eve of the harmonized elections endorsing Chamisa's candidature against those whom he termed his tormenters, much to the chagrin and surprise of the electorate who have suffered ceaselessly at the administration of the former first family.

That coupled with candidate imposition in various constituencies was the recipe for disaster that for lack of a better term, led to the Alliance's vanquishing loss to ZANU-PF and equally regrettable was his flagrant manipulation of the party's constitution and candidate selection template guidelines in favor of his team of power mongers. Speaking truth to power, Nelson's ruthful characteristics are emerging in a very dark caricature of false reality that makes many relax into an easy deception just like the false intimacy that the electorate fell into before reality hit us hard with the 30th July election results. In this manner, it is apparent that we have been colluders, silent witnesses of his evilness and our blind trust keeps us from our dear leader's malicious machinations. I hearken that this is going to provide a closing irony to the tragedy because nothing will be well in the MDC with Nelson Chamisa at the helm because his unchecked ambitious tendencies if allowed to continue to manifest are a recipe for disaster and will spell doom in the MDC as an alternative to the incumbent government.

Nelson Chamisa is definitely an orator who has managed to draw huge crowds at his rallies but he has never been averse to controversy. For all the charisma that he exudes, lies and immaturity are his Achilles'' heel. Although Chamisa is regarded as a populist which is true but he is clearly not the Messiah that this country needs to break the 3 decades chains of   ZANU-PF bondage. Crowds who thronged the MDC-Alliance rallies where fascinated the most by Chamisa's rhetoric on his campaign trail yet, to some of us it was just another high sounding election gimmick, void of proper policy to turn around the fortunes of this nation. His personal attributes of eloquence, oratory and erudite articulation of trivialities, fables and dreams notwithstanding, Equally preposterous too, are his continued peddling of lies and his emotive talk rather sounded like pub talk to me and many sober minded individuals. His fixation on assuming power while Tsvangirai was on his deathbed were the first signs of his colossal mistake. If Chamisa listens to his conscience, the tragedy of inaugurating himself the rightful winner of the July 30th Presidential poll can be avoided. It has been witnessed that once Chamisa sets upon destructive course, he is relentless, completely unwilling to let go of his grudge against his imagined and perceived enemies.

Nelson Chamisa destroys everyone perceived to be against him, including himself in the process but considering that MDC-T has been the umbilical code of the Alliance hence Nelson must be stopped from imposing his cronies into the party because these are manifestations of authoritarianism and only serve to expose the naivety of Zimbabwean politics. As it stands, the party needs a leader who will unify the fractured opposition structures and put the party and country first before personal and selfish gains for the sake of cheap political points. Morgan Tsvangirai was an adored leader. We have other capable leaders in the party to take the party forward. The past elections have considerably shown that the MDC-Alliance was a fragmented political patchwork born out of convenience. Zimbabweans should be able to put their country first before personal and selfish gains. I therefore hope that my brothers and sisters in the MDC will know that no political leader need be elevated to the status of a semi-God and that no life is worth being lost for any politician.

There are those among us who never got carried away by the Chamisa chete chete awesome mantra and chose to adopt a wait and see attitude. However, life is never as black and white as history so often tends to paint it. You see, the simple truth is Chamisa has been at war with his running mates and not against Mnangagwa and ZANUPF, the enemies of the people. We all need the silver linings that remind us, even for a brief moment, that every step is not in vain as long as we keep moving towards what we believe is the greater good but indeed Nelson Chamisa betrayed Zimbabwe and the democratic struggle. For my sanity, I am never under any illusion that Chamisa is a man of the people. In reality, in Nelson Chamisa we have a liability to our quest for change. Many in the MDC were kicked out like they didn't matter and it is this cohort left dazed and disillusioned by cyclone Chamisa in the wake of the chaotic primary elections and subsequent brutal election outcome who must regroup and kick out Wamba. Should you not understand me now just wait for time to judge me. Time is the perfect judge.