Smell of 'death' in Zimbabwe opposition parties

One thing is certain for Dabengwa: he is set to join other failed and fallen Zanu-PF members such as James Chikerema and Ndabaningi Sithole.

A suicide. Mercy killing. A stillbirth. A slow death.

For watchers of Zimbabwe's politics, these are distinct possibilities that in fact may play out right before our eyes in the following weeks and months.

First, the suicide/mercy killing scenario:

There is a politician called Dumiso Dabengwa who broke away from the ruling Zanu-PF purportedly to revive Zapu.

He has not met any success as a politician, despite his pedigree as a liberation stalwart and former Home Affairs minister, and is actually one of those people that are often held as examples of how cold it is outside the ruling party.

Now, Dabengwa wishes he were dead - long dead in fact.

Dead before independence perhaps.

Zimbabwe this week woke up to this death wish from Dabengwa as he told a local newspaper of his disillusion- ment.

He told Daily News: "I often think of the many colleagues who died in the trenches, who probably could have done better than me had they survived and that's one thing that I always accuse myself of and say why am I still here to watch this chaos that is taking place in the country and be unable to do anything about it?

"What did people like Nikita Mangena and Josiah Tongogara die for? Are we as a country, as a people, fulfilling those values and ideals for which they sacrificed their lives?

"These are the things that pain me most to the extent that at times I ask myself why they left me behind. I should have also gone.

Perhaps I could be better off then than remaining impotent and not be able to actually fulfil those ideals they died for," opined Dabengwa.

A cursory analysis of the story shows that Dabengwa's death wish stems from his failure as a politician, having failed to break even with his ahistorical Zapu project which he principally wanted to be a tribal niche, regardless of the fact that he had long been rejected in his home area.

One thing is certain for Dabengwa: he is set to join other failed and fallen Zanu-PF members such as James Chikerema and Ndabaningi Sithole.

To sum up this failure, he reckons he will not be accorded the national hero status and has already come to get used to the idea of being eventually buried in Ntabazinduna where his relatives and ancestors were laid to rest.

One can imagine this coming from a long and agonised suicidal letter!

It now remains to be seen whether Dumiso Dabengwa will take his own life soon or be killed for mercy by some god.

In Zimbabwe euthanasia is not allowed by law and medical practice, is it?

But the death of Dabengwa, by whatever means, is symbolic in at least two ways.

First as highlighted above, that it is cold outside Zanu-PF.

Secondly, the timing of the wish is also telling.

Dabengwa is so disconsolate and hopeless just at a time when an outfit of other "struggle stalwarts" calling themselves People First, is emerging.

These struggle "stalwarts" include Joice Mujuru, Didymus Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo while some characters such as Parker Chipoyera have come to be identifiable with the nascent outfit.

Now, why has Dabengwa not felt at home with these guys of his era and newfound opposition to President Mugabe and Zanu-PF?

Rugare Gumbo has long been saying that they are willing to welcome anybody and everybody to build a coalition against his former party.

Why has Dabengwa felt lifted?

The answer is that he has not found anything inspirational, motivating or with potential in the so-called People First which for all that is known, does not have structures and is not either planning or does not have any capacity to do so. Its lay resource persons being two men called Gumbo and Mutasa who are basking in the fading halo of Joice Mujuru who as we indicated in these lines is either an unwilling or incapable leader of the project; or both.

This leads to Scenario Two: the stillbirth of People First.

It is becoming clear by the day that the People First project is going nowhere, hard as Rugare and Mutasa may try, with the aid of their media hacks.

And if you listen to Temba Mliswa speak, the stillbirth of the project becomes a reality.

There is scant doubt that Mliswa knows better the inner workings, or lack thereof, of this band of Zanu-PF rejects and from his tone nothing is going to come out of this project because it has suffered death before its birthday.

One may have the feeling that that other Zanu-PF offshoot, Mavambo, could yet show to have fared better than this.

And soon enough, it will show.

Lastly, the Slow Death Scenario.

This applies to the mainstream opposition represented by Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC-T.

Everything is pointing at trouble in the opposition camp and in particular another split.

The main trouble is with Morgan Tsvangirai himself who is no longer inspirational to the opposition supporters and members.

Internally, there are genuine fears of Tsvangirai being torpedoed by senior politicians, the leading of whom is Nelson Chamisa, a young politician long considered to be the natural heir to Tsvangirai. He is a smooth, charismatic and likeable character.

He has the youths behind him.

He has the goodwill of the diplomatic community one of which pinpointed him out as a number within the very thin talent in the opposition.

Tsvangirai is afraid of Chamisa.

He may decide to fire him soon and lead an implosion.

Another congress is being planned meanwhile, calls for which greatly trouble the opposition leader.

Whatever is happening and may soon happen points to the weakening of the opposition; even mortally.

The biggest and once formidable opposition in Zimbabwe approaching its 20 years, since 1999, is in mortal decline and suffering a slow death.

What is ironic is that the ruling party, for its seeming troubles which the opposition and its media are wont to tout, has the capacity to stand longer and stronger - at least by the standards of the dying opposition.