Opinion / Columnist
Death celebration exposes MDC-Alliance's shallowness
01 Feb 2021 at 00:33hrs | Views
The third week of this month was perhaps Zimbabwe's darkest as the nation lost four national heroes, who included three Government ministers and 70 Zimbabweans dying in one day due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
From January 15 to 22, the country was plunged into mourning as it was robbed of national heroes, former Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) Commissioner-General, Major-General (Retired) Paradzai Zimondi and Manicaland Minister of State for Provincial Affairs, Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Dr Sibusiso Busi Moyo and the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Joel Biggie Matiza.
While the nation mourned the late heroes, the country's loss presented an opportunity for the MDC Alliance and its members to expose their moral depravity by rejoicing over the deaths of the heroes.
It was only after that party's leader, Nelson Chamisa, in a rare and random show of political maturity, tweeted a condolence message to the families of Dr Gwaradzimba, Dr Moyo and Morton Malianga on 20 January that the opposition members relented.
It was after this that the party used its Twitter handle to pass condolences on the passing of Dr Gwaradzimba and Dr Moyo. For once, Zimbabwean social media users were pleasantly surprised by a rare constructive message from the bitter opposition party extending its "heartfelt condolences to their (late heroes) families and loved ones and their party, Zanu PF."
It soon became very clear to most Zimbabweans that Chamisa and MDC Alliance's condolence message were mere window dressing and perfunctory statements calculated to control the damage caused by their abominable celebration of the death of some senior Zanu PF and Government officials.
Two days after the messages, the party's co-vice president, Tendai Biti, tore off from Chamisa and his party's damage control scheme and struck again. While making an attempt at politicising the pandemic and its effects in Zimbabwe for cheap political mileage, Biti inconsiderately tweeted on January 21 that "with compatriots dropping like flies" Government did not have a plan to deal with the pandemic.
This was at a time that the nation was still mourning the heroes who were still to be buried. It was clear that the MDC-Alliance which claims to be "the party of excellence" did not regret celebrating the death of fellow Zimbabweans in the name of scoring points against a political opponent.
It became clear that the party was not just callously celebrating the deaths of the heroes, but the pandemic as well. We may have our political differences as Zimbabweans, but nothing should justify bringing out drums to celebrate the death of a fellow human being, especially a fellow citizen. Nothing justifies equating a fellow Zimbabwean to a fly.
This demonstrated the shallowness of the group of Zimbabweans who are striving to take over power and lead this great nation someday. The MDC-Alliance may get likes and cheers on social media from the likes of the rogue medical doctor who uses the moniker, Skilled Rebhara, who admitted (whether true or not) of playing a part in aiding the death of Zanu PF cadres suffering from COVID-19, but it failed grossly morally and spiritually.
Due to its lack of basic political tact, the MDC unashamedly resorted to using the pandemic as a weapon to fight Zanu PF and Government to make up for its own glaring shortcomings.
After the MDC-Alliance spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere, contradicted herself by insinuating that she had contracted COVID-19 in prison despite the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services' best efforts to keep her safe by placing her in an isolation cell in the Chikurubi Prison's quarantine section, she, like Biti, also desperately sought to scrap some political glory by using the pandemic against Government.
Fadzayi Mahere Surely, she could have contracted the virus before her Chikurubi stint where it developed and only manifested its symptoms when she left the institution.
On the same day that she tweeted her party's condolences on its Twitter handle, Mahere took to her own handle to tweet: "Now is the time to show leadership, pragmatism & humanity. We must demand accountability for every Zimbabwean life under the supposed care of the State."
Look who was now talking of humanity, yet a few hours earlier she and her fellow party members were celebrating the death of fellow Zimbabweans. The opposition, especially the MDC Alliance, has been at the forefront of pushing the unfounded narrative that Government was using the pandemic to its political advantage.
Nothing is further from the truth. No one is desperately trying to use the Covid-19 pandemic for political ends than the MDC-Alliance.
On January 22, Biti tweeted: "The IMF under its Catastrophe Containment Relief Trust (CCRT) has disbursed over a trillion dollar relief. Some of the recipients are real basket cases. Zimbabwe being the mother of all pariah States missed this bus."
He tried to blame Government for missing out on IMF funding and conveniently omitted his own role in the IMF's decision. Biti wrote the Bretton Woods institution discouraging it from considering Zimbabwe, citing non-existent issues such as lack of transparency.
In future when the nation looks back at the events of January 2021, one thing is going to stick out like a sore thumb. The period will be remembered as the time that the MDC-Alliance threw away all the pretences of being a normal political party and showed the world how shallow-minded it was.
Its celebration of death and the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated that it is not about Zimbabweans, but about using Zimbabweans to get power. This further confirmed what the world already knew - that the party's leaders are soulless individuals who stand ready to use the death of fellow Zimbabweans against their political opponents.
Modern politics should be about ideas and the MDC-Alliance in its 21-year existence has shown that it is deficient in that area, hence the appropriation of the death of fellow citizens as a weapon.
The events of January 2021 exposed the party as being woefully incapable of competing on the basis game-changing ideas.
They showed that in terms of modern politics, the MDC-Alliance is out of its depth. Only the barbarians of the bygone centuries would be expected to celebrate death and use it as a weapon against their adversaries.
The MDC-Alliance has been involved in many lows, but this one should go down as the lowest of all time.
From January 15 to 22, the country was plunged into mourning as it was robbed of national heroes, former Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) Commissioner-General, Major-General (Retired) Paradzai Zimondi and Manicaland Minister of State for Provincial Affairs, Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Dr Sibusiso Busi Moyo and the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Joel Biggie Matiza.
While the nation mourned the late heroes, the country's loss presented an opportunity for the MDC Alliance and its members to expose their moral depravity by rejoicing over the deaths of the heroes.
It was only after that party's leader, Nelson Chamisa, in a rare and random show of political maturity, tweeted a condolence message to the families of Dr Gwaradzimba, Dr Moyo and Morton Malianga on 20 January that the opposition members relented.
It was after this that the party used its Twitter handle to pass condolences on the passing of Dr Gwaradzimba and Dr Moyo. For once, Zimbabwean social media users were pleasantly surprised by a rare constructive message from the bitter opposition party extending its "heartfelt condolences to their (late heroes) families and loved ones and their party, Zanu PF."
It soon became very clear to most Zimbabweans that Chamisa and MDC Alliance's condolence message were mere window dressing and perfunctory statements calculated to control the damage caused by their abominable celebration of the death of some senior Zanu PF and Government officials.
Two days after the messages, the party's co-vice president, Tendai Biti, tore off from Chamisa and his party's damage control scheme and struck again. While making an attempt at politicising the pandemic and its effects in Zimbabwe for cheap political mileage, Biti inconsiderately tweeted on January 21 that "with compatriots dropping like flies" Government did not have a plan to deal with the pandemic.
This was at a time that the nation was still mourning the heroes who were still to be buried. It was clear that the MDC-Alliance which claims to be "the party of excellence" did not regret celebrating the death of fellow Zimbabweans in the name of scoring points against a political opponent.
It became clear that the party was not just callously celebrating the deaths of the heroes, but the pandemic as well. We may have our political differences as Zimbabweans, but nothing should justify bringing out drums to celebrate the death of a fellow human being, especially a fellow citizen. Nothing justifies equating a fellow Zimbabwean to a fly.
This demonstrated the shallowness of the group of Zimbabweans who are striving to take over power and lead this great nation someday. The MDC-Alliance may get likes and cheers on social media from the likes of the rogue medical doctor who uses the moniker, Skilled Rebhara, who admitted (whether true or not) of playing a part in aiding the death of Zanu PF cadres suffering from COVID-19, but it failed grossly morally and spiritually.
Due to its lack of basic political tact, the MDC unashamedly resorted to using the pandemic as a weapon to fight Zanu PF and Government to make up for its own glaring shortcomings.
After the MDC-Alliance spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere, contradicted herself by insinuating that she had contracted COVID-19 in prison despite the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services' best efforts to keep her safe by placing her in an isolation cell in the Chikurubi Prison's quarantine section, she, like Biti, also desperately sought to scrap some political glory by using the pandemic against Government.
Fadzayi Mahere Surely, she could have contracted the virus before her Chikurubi stint where it developed and only manifested its symptoms when she left the institution.
On the same day that she tweeted her party's condolences on its Twitter handle, Mahere took to her own handle to tweet: "Now is the time to show leadership, pragmatism & humanity. We must demand accountability for every Zimbabwean life under the supposed care of the State."
Look who was now talking of humanity, yet a few hours earlier she and her fellow party members were celebrating the death of fellow Zimbabweans. The opposition, especially the MDC Alliance, has been at the forefront of pushing the unfounded narrative that Government was using the pandemic to its political advantage.
Nothing is further from the truth. No one is desperately trying to use the Covid-19 pandemic for political ends than the MDC-Alliance.
On January 22, Biti tweeted: "The IMF under its Catastrophe Containment Relief Trust (CCRT) has disbursed over a trillion dollar relief. Some of the recipients are real basket cases. Zimbabwe being the mother of all pariah States missed this bus."
He tried to blame Government for missing out on IMF funding and conveniently omitted his own role in the IMF's decision. Biti wrote the Bretton Woods institution discouraging it from considering Zimbabwe, citing non-existent issues such as lack of transparency.
In future when the nation looks back at the events of January 2021, one thing is going to stick out like a sore thumb. The period will be remembered as the time that the MDC-Alliance threw away all the pretences of being a normal political party and showed the world how shallow-minded it was.
Its celebration of death and the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated that it is not about Zimbabweans, but about using Zimbabweans to get power. This further confirmed what the world already knew - that the party's leaders are soulless individuals who stand ready to use the death of fellow Zimbabweans against their political opponents.
Modern politics should be about ideas and the MDC-Alliance in its 21-year existence has shown that it is deficient in that area, hence the appropriation of the death of fellow citizens as a weapon.
The events of January 2021 exposed the party as being woefully incapable of competing on the basis game-changing ideas.
They showed that in terms of modern politics, the MDC-Alliance is out of its depth. Only the barbarians of the bygone centuries would be expected to celebrate death and use it as a weapon against their adversaries.
The MDC-Alliance has been involved in many lows, but this one should go down as the lowest of all time.
Source - the herald
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