'Coalition of zeros doomed,' says Chombo

Zanu-PF already has a solid coalition with the people of Zimbabwe ahead of the 2018 harmonised elections and a mooted alliance between Western-sponsored political parties is certain to lose, the revolutionary party's senior members have said.

Zanu-PF secretary for Administration Ignatius Chombo yesterday said politicians such as National People's Party leader Dr Joice Mujuru, angling to reverse the land reform and indigenisation programmes, would not win against Zimbabweans.

The revolutionary party's National Commissar Saviour Kasukuwere also said Zanu-PF remained unfazed by the purported coalition between Dr Mujuru and the MDC-T.

Dr Mujuru, in an interview with BBC in London last week, said her new party was close to a coalition with Mr Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC-T.

She said the two parties were drafting a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

Said Dr Mujuru: "Between Tsvangirai and myself, we are working together, we have done some addresses together and right now we are working on a MoU so that we are able to work together."

She said her party would also reverse Zanu-PF's indigenisation and empowerment programme as it was "anti-investment".

Chombo said a coalition of rejects was clumsy.

"It's a marriage of rejects," he said. "Tsvangirai has been rejected by the people for the past 20 years and was further rejected by groups within his party. Mai Mujuru is a reject from Zanu-PF. She formed her own party and within a few months she was rejected by that party. They are not genuine opposition parties, but individuals using opposition politics to front for Western imperialists," said Chombo.

"One reject plus another reject will never give you acceptance. As the ruling party, we have always represented the aspirations of the people and will continue to march forward to improve the people's livelihoods while they continue campaigning for the intensification of sanctions as if people are not suffering enough."

On Dr Mujuru's plans to undo empowerment programmes, Chombo said: "By reversing indigenisation you are reversing the land reform yet the land issue was the main reason why the liberation war was fought. In the same interview, she talks about her sole business being the farm that she is running. She is a beneficiary of the land reform programme and if she is genuine she should move away from the farm."

Kasukuwere said politics was not about MoUs, but resonating well with the masses.

"Two zeros entering into an MoU what do you expect? It's all about having a greater understanding of the people," he said.

"In politics, if one is to sign an MoU it has to be with the masses who matter most and as Zanu-PF we are solidly on the ground delivering service to the masses. The two are spent forces and even if they were to merge, it won't change anything."

Political analyst and lawyer Mr Tendai Toto said "kindergarten political players" couldn't unseat Zanu-PF as they lacked a common ideology.

"These crèche players are a greedy, selfish and ungrateful lot that will not pass the test of truthfulness and uberrimae fidei on issues of national interest," he said.

"They are bound to unbundle as soon as they sign their so-called common understanding agreement bound on non-tangible and a sellable agenda that addresses national interest. It is wrong to mislead Zimbabweans to believe that this political bloc will carry the country into any promised land because the greedy and glutinous political appetite that they all have will inevitably attend to self-interests than national, satisfying their political hungers."

Another political analyst Mr Tafadzwa Mugwadi said previous marriages of convenience had failed to remove Zanu-PF from power.

"This is because despite the challenges that people are facing, they are intelligent enough to see that the coalitions have no solid foundations to salvage the economy," he said.

"It is a desperate arrangement built on the ambitious will to power template than a shared trajectory to take the country forward. More so, the biggest threat to this coalition is its foundations. Now that it is not being pushed or driven by indigenous fundamental realities and considerations nor the people, but by Washington and Number 10 Downing Street, who have made it categorically clear that they will fund a coalition only and not individual groups. Given the several by-elections that have taken place which Zanu-PF has won, the writing is on the wall that it is the only party grounded in the masses."

During his 93rd birthday interview, President Mugabe also described the purported coalition as a blend of weaknesses.

"My teacher ndichiri muGrade One aiti ukaisa mazero maviri haaite two, rinongoramba riri zero. Kana ukaawanza kusvika gumi it just amounts to a huge pile of zeros, nothing, you see."