News / National
Tsvangirai's 'diplomatic offensive' futile
10 Jan 2017 at 00:58hrs | Views
YESTERDAY readers woke up to a screaming headline extolling MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai's so- called diplomatic offensive during which he called on foreign nations to intervene in Zimbabwe's supposed "economic and political crisis."
Mr Tsvangirai, according to one of his deputies, Mr Nelson Chamisa, at the weekend held a series of meetings with African heads of states when he attended the inauguration of Ghanaian President Nana Nankwa Akufo-Addo whom he also engaged or rather pleaded with to intervene in Zimbabwe.
There is nothing new really in the calls for intervention in Zimbabwe which has punctuated Mr Tsvangirai's political life since they turned the trade union into the MDC in 1999.
Never mind reports that President Akufo-Addo in his inaugural speech, read some paragraphs reportedly plagiarised from speeches by former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush . . . that is not our business.
But Mr Tsvangirai has learnt nothing from his past actions of a similar nature, calling for intervention and forgot nothing from the hollow excitement of entertaining thoughts of intervention in a sovereign country.
With so many lawyers in his party, it is high time they took him for a few lessons in international law especially on the principles of statehood to understand that his actions no matter repeated a hundred times will always yield the same result, NOTHING.
This is simply because Zimbabwe is a sovereign nation with a legitimate government voted by the people in successive elections since 1980 when it won its independence from white colonial rule and the last being the 2013 polls where the ruling party won with a landslide.
What is instructive, however, from Mr Tsvangirai's calls is the reaffirmation of his and his party's electoral cowardice. This is one of the many tags that will stick around Mr Tsvangirai's neck and he has over the years shown preference for a foreign hand in elevating him to power than the Zimbabwean voter.
A year before elections, Mr Tsvangirai has already conceded defeat through attempts to invite foreign intervention in the domestic affairs of the country which will not happen in any case.
The move by Mr Tsvangirai should also appreciated against the background of recent efforts by opposition parties to form a coalition against the ruling Zanu-PF in next year's national polls.
The party's spokesperson Mr Obert Gutu is on record as saying that Mr Tsvangirai's office is the one handling the issue of a coalition and this act of desperation by Mr Tsvangirai opens a window into his views about the coalition of opposition parties.
Chances are high, judging from Mr Tsvangirai's actions, that the coalition will never happen or even if it does, the MDC-T leader has realised that the ruling Zanu-PF will still prevail hence the senseless act of inviting foreign intervention.
The much touted coalition with the Dr Joice Mujuru- led Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) has suffered a number of knocks with recent reports indicating that the MDC-T was divided on whether Mr Tsvangirai should hold a joint rally with the former Vice President to drum up support for the latter's candidate in the Bikita West by election.
It is clear that there is serious discord in Mr Tsvangirai's back yard over a coalition with Dr Mujuru, central among the reasons being the narrow, selfish issues of positions should the so-called coalition win against Zanu-PF.
Another divisive issue is the reported negotiations with the Professor Welshman Ncube led MDC to reunite with MDC-T.
The deal, according to informed sources, would see MDC being allowed to contest in some constituencies in Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South provinces with MDC-T not fielding any candidates.
Sources within the party have indicated that a faction led by Ms Thokozani Khupe, one of Mr Tsvangirai's deputies, is opposed to the reunification deal arguing that Prof Ncube should add value to the party rather than the MDC-T "donating" seats to him.
These above mentioned issues dog the MDC-T already reeling from deep seated divisions along factional lines as senior officials angle themselves to succeed the MDC-T leader with one faction led by Ms Khupe and another by Mr Chamisa now popularly referred to as "cobra."
Rifts widened last year when Mr Tsvangirai appointed Mr Chamisa and Engineer Elias Mudzuri as his additional deputies in what Ms Khupe's allies interpreted as a plot by the MDC-T leader to compromise and curb the powers of their matriarch.
It is against this background that Mr Tsvangirai's imagined Zimbabwean crisis is actually a crisis within his own party so deeply divided that a year is very little a time to mend those divisions and offer Zanu-PF any serious challenge.
On that realisation, Mr Tsvangirai, out of desperation, has in the year of our lord 2017 tried to breathe life into the barren strategy apparently simply because we are in the new year but the results will not be any different to his numerous previous "diplomatic offensives."
In 2015 for example, Mr Tsvangirai travelled to the United States again on a "diplomatic offensive" but interestingly this was not as publicised as his departure and it is anyone's guess the results of that offensive.
Nothing became of that offensive. It was as futile as other offensives that Mr Tsvangirai had engaged in before as will be the latest initiative in Ghana simply because no country, not even the so called mighty United States, can interfere with the affairs of a sovereign state.
Mr Tsvangirai doesn't realise that he has become the biggest enemy to his party. Both factions wished him gone as soon as yesterday as he has deteriorated from their super leader to a super stumbling block.
A simple reading of the conversations on the WhatsApp chat groups formed by his followers will quickly direct him to that fact. His political demise is nigh and no amount of "offensives" will revive his dying brand or delay his exit from the country's politics.
The voice of the political dustbin cannot be ignored anymore, it's calling out a name and that name is none other than Mr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.
Mr Tsvangirai, according to one of his deputies, Mr Nelson Chamisa, at the weekend held a series of meetings with African heads of states when he attended the inauguration of Ghanaian President Nana Nankwa Akufo-Addo whom he also engaged or rather pleaded with to intervene in Zimbabwe.
There is nothing new really in the calls for intervention in Zimbabwe which has punctuated Mr Tsvangirai's political life since they turned the trade union into the MDC in 1999.
Never mind reports that President Akufo-Addo in his inaugural speech, read some paragraphs reportedly plagiarised from speeches by former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush . . . that is not our business.
But Mr Tsvangirai has learnt nothing from his past actions of a similar nature, calling for intervention and forgot nothing from the hollow excitement of entertaining thoughts of intervention in a sovereign country.
With so many lawyers in his party, it is high time they took him for a few lessons in international law especially on the principles of statehood to understand that his actions no matter repeated a hundred times will always yield the same result, NOTHING.
This is simply because Zimbabwe is a sovereign nation with a legitimate government voted by the people in successive elections since 1980 when it won its independence from white colonial rule and the last being the 2013 polls where the ruling party won with a landslide.
What is instructive, however, from Mr Tsvangirai's calls is the reaffirmation of his and his party's electoral cowardice. This is one of the many tags that will stick around Mr Tsvangirai's neck and he has over the years shown preference for a foreign hand in elevating him to power than the Zimbabwean voter.
A year before elections, Mr Tsvangirai has already conceded defeat through attempts to invite foreign intervention in the domestic affairs of the country which will not happen in any case.
The move by Mr Tsvangirai should also appreciated against the background of recent efforts by opposition parties to form a coalition against the ruling Zanu-PF in next year's national polls.
The party's spokesperson Mr Obert Gutu is on record as saying that Mr Tsvangirai's office is the one handling the issue of a coalition and this act of desperation by Mr Tsvangirai opens a window into his views about the coalition of opposition parties.
Chances are high, judging from Mr Tsvangirai's actions, that the coalition will never happen or even if it does, the MDC-T leader has realised that the ruling Zanu-PF will still prevail hence the senseless act of inviting foreign intervention.
The much touted coalition with the Dr Joice Mujuru- led Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) has suffered a number of knocks with recent reports indicating that the MDC-T was divided on whether Mr Tsvangirai should hold a joint rally with the former Vice President to drum up support for the latter's candidate in the Bikita West by election.
It is clear that there is serious discord in Mr Tsvangirai's back yard over a coalition with Dr Mujuru, central among the reasons being the narrow, selfish issues of positions should the so-called coalition win against Zanu-PF.
Another divisive issue is the reported negotiations with the Professor Welshman Ncube led MDC to reunite with MDC-T.
The deal, according to informed sources, would see MDC being allowed to contest in some constituencies in Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South provinces with MDC-T not fielding any candidates.
Sources within the party have indicated that a faction led by Ms Thokozani Khupe, one of Mr Tsvangirai's deputies, is opposed to the reunification deal arguing that Prof Ncube should add value to the party rather than the MDC-T "donating" seats to him.
These above mentioned issues dog the MDC-T already reeling from deep seated divisions along factional lines as senior officials angle themselves to succeed the MDC-T leader with one faction led by Ms Khupe and another by Mr Chamisa now popularly referred to as "cobra."
Rifts widened last year when Mr Tsvangirai appointed Mr Chamisa and Engineer Elias Mudzuri as his additional deputies in what Ms Khupe's allies interpreted as a plot by the MDC-T leader to compromise and curb the powers of their matriarch.
It is against this background that Mr Tsvangirai's imagined Zimbabwean crisis is actually a crisis within his own party so deeply divided that a year is very little a time to mend those divisions and offer Zanu-PF any serious challenge.
On that realisation, Mr Tsvangirai, out of desperation, has in the year of our lord 2017 tried to breathe life into the barren strategy apparently simply because we are in the new year but the results will not be any different to his numerous previous "diplomatic offensives."
In 2015 for example, Mr Tsvangirai travelled to the United States again on a "diplomatic offensive" but interestingly this was not as publicised as his departure and it is anyone's guess the results of that offensive.
Nothing became of that offensive. It was as futile as other offensives that Mr Tsvangirai had engaged in before as will be the latest initiative in Ghana simply because no country, not even the so called mighty United States, can interfere with the affairs of a sovereign state.
Mr Tsvangirai doesn't realise that he has become the biggest enemy to his party. Both factions wished him gone as soon as yesterday as he has deteriorated from their super leader to a super stumbling block.
A simple reading of the conversations on the WhatsApp chat groups formed by his followers will quickly direct him to that fact. His political demise is nigh and no amount of "offensives" will revive his dying brand or delay his exit from the country's politics.
The voice of the political dustbin cannot be ignored anymore, it's calling out a name and that name is none other than Mr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.
Source - chronicle
