Zanu-PF propping up Tsvangirai

Let us be very candid, Zanu-PF is unwittingly doing their very best to prop up Morgan Tsvangirai's fortunes by continuing to attack him ceaselessly and viciously at a time that he has probably been at his weakest politically in the past 15 years.

The party of liberation appears to have forgotten its tortured history with the popular opposition leader that the more they savage him, the more they unwittingly raise his profile and standing. And by Jove, does Tsvangirai need this unsolicited support more than at this point of "cockpit" problems in his party?

Most rational Zimbabweans would have expected that after President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF retained power last year, albeit in very controversial circumstances, they would for once have the good political sense of letting the former trade union leader wallow in his misery on his own, and let him deal with the attempted leadership putsch in his party without appearing to aid his internal party opponents, and being seen to be too eager to finish him off politically.

But alas, that is not in Zanu-PF's genetic make-up.  Its leaders are well known for tending to snatch political defeat from a seemingly unassailable position!

With donors clearly moving away from him, at least for now, and fatigue beginning to have a noticeable toll on many of his battle-weary supporters, it is quite clear that Tsvangirai was running out of momentum until Zanu-PF decided to unleash their unnecessary war machine on him.

The result of this typical folly by Zanu-PF has been dramatic.

Boxing for months from a position of definite weakness, Tsvangirai now finds himself again - thanks to Mugabe, Zanu-PF and their propaganda machinery - not just as the pitiable and innocent victim of Zanu-PF's well-documented thuggery, but also as the only hope for the millions of down-trodden Zimbabweans desperately yearning for a change in their worsening fortunes under Zanu-PF's unmitigated misrule of the past 34 years.

One just needs to witness the crowds at his rallies, as well as the pro-Tsvangirai discourse on social media, in remote villages and at drinking places, for example, to realise that the charismatic MDC leader is well and truly on the ascendancy again.

And at this rate, the hunter (Zanu-PF) may well soon wake up to find that they have once again become the hunted -- as stunningly happened in 2008 when a similar set of circumstances saw Tsvangirai drubbing Mugabe hands down in that year's cursed presidential elections that saw authorities take nearly two months to announce the outcome.

The majority of Zimbabweans believe those elections were rigged to keep Mugabe in power.

It's really now a chicken and egg riddle for our rulers who have been recklessly riding on the back of a tiger for the past few months and can now not dismount from it, lest they get eaten by the hungry beast!

Whispers around the offices of the Speaker of the National Assembly,

Jacob Mudenda, are not helping matters for Zanu-PF, if they are true, amid allegations that he will soon be making a ruling on the case of the MDC's nine rebel legislators that perpetuates the suspicion that this was never going to go Tsvangirai's way.

Even if this were to happen, it would neither assist the rebels nor the blunder-prone Zanu-PF hierarchy as the MDC rank and file numbers are overwhelmingly on Tsvangirai's side.

If anything, this would only likely fire up more sympathy and support for the opposition leader, as is clearly happening now.

The next few months will be very interesting for political observers in this country, particularly as the economy continues to dive stubbornly and precipitously southwards, costing the nation tens of thousands of critically-needed jobs and causing untold misery to millions of already-struggling Zimbabwean families.

Watch this space!