Research body say Mujuru has 'clout' to defeat Mugabe but that is plan B

"A regional research unit, NKC African Economics, has described that Joice Mujuru as "Zimbabwe's realistic hope of salvation", saying the veteran politician had more political clout than current opposition party leaders," reported the Zimbabwe Independent.



NKC's report is titled "Mujuru Has Sights On Power, Not Alliances With Those Who Threw It Away"

NKC is spot on two points: Mujuru and People First (PF) are the only one with a realistic chance of defeating Mugabe and his Zanu PF if, and it is a big IF, elections are held in the present political atmosphere with no democratic reforms implemented. PF's political "clout" comes from the fact as ex-Zanu PF members themselves.

Although they do not the sophistication of rigging the elections they, nonetheless, they will know enough it make it very difficult for Mugabe to rig and have a clean sweep as in the past.

Didymus Mutasa has already started giving details of how Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa bussed in voters in the 2013 election. In the next elections Mutasa will have a lot more at stake and the last thing Zanu PF want is a nationwide election scandal!

Second, yes Tsvangirai et al had the chance to win power but throw that away by failing to implement the democratic reforms throughout the five GNU years. Tendai Biti, Tsvangirai's right-hand man throughout the GNU had since admitted that failing to implement the reforms was an act "collective idiocy" by the MDC leaders. MDC has lost a lot of political credibility especially with SADC leaders and the international community.

Some of the MDC supporters have kept faith with the party but that is only because they have never understood what the reforms were about and the political consequences of failing to implement them have never sunk in. However as more and more Zimbabweans have understood what happened, they have walked away from Tsvangirai and the other MDC factions. It is hard to gauge MDC's support now but there is no doubt MDC has been haemorrhaging supporters.
Since the rigged July 2013 elections MDC has lost more and more supporters as the party blundered from pillar to post. In June 2105, for example, Tsvangirai recalled MPs from the breakaway MDC faction only to gift the seats to Zanu PF.

So, naturally Mujuru, has not been under any pressure to form a coalition with Tsvangirai et al given MDC has lost political credibility and is losing supporters with each political blunder.

The mistake the NKC researchers have make however is to assume that the only thing Zimbabweans want out of the political situation is to remove Mugabe and his Zanu PF friend out of office. Yes we want to see the back of Mugabe and his thugs but not only to have the regime replaced by an equally corrupt, incompetent and oppressive one in the name of PF led by Mujuru. We want the dictator removed but also the whole autocratic system of government dismantled and replaced with a healthy and functional democratic system of government.

We KNOW to dismantle the dictatorship we need to implement ALL the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA. Just because Tsvangirai and his MDC friends did not know and appreciate the critical importance of reforms NKC researchers must not assume everyone else in Zimbabwe does not know.

Zanu PF is under great economic pressure from the economic meltdown on the one side and political pressure from the dog-eat-dog fighting tearing the party apart on the other. The pincer action is going to force the regime to accept political reform and we will push for the implementation of ALL the reforms then.

Our plan A is to get all the democratic reforms implemented and the new democratic political dispensation will allow quality leaders to emerge and the corrupt and incompetent ones will fall by the wayside.

If we fail to get any reforms implemented then elections will be held in the present atmosphere where Zanu PF will try to rig the elections once again. We will then deplore our plan B - Mujuru and her PF clout!