Zimbabwe opposition parties gutted by Clinton loss

LOCAL opposition parties should stop seeking foreign support in a bid to attain power as foreigners have no role to play in domestic politics, political analysts said yesterday.The analysts said instead of relying on foreigners, opposition parties should be advocating homegrown solutions to the country's problems.

This comes after the opposition parties' hopes were dashed when their preferred United States presidential candidate, Mrs Hillary Clinton, lost to Republican rank outsider Mr Donald Trump in elections held on Tuesday.

MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday saw salvation in Mrs Clinton, telling pirate radio station Studio 7 that his party was "strongly" behind the former US Secretary of State.

People's Democratic Party president Mr Tendai Biti - who attended the Democratic Party's National Convention in July which endorsed Mrs Clinton as a presidential candidate - also pinned his hopes on Mrs Clinton.

Mr Biti was two weeks ago boasting about his party's relationship with Mrs Clinton saying "if she wins, we will know that we are in".

Said Mr Biti while addressing a rally in Bulawayo: "We've friends that you don't know we have. We enter some offices that will make you wonder how we entered them. These days, we're meeting some grannies and you should at least shake my hand because it was shaking some granny running for the US presidency. If she wins, we will know that we are in," Mr Biti bragged.

The New York-headquartered Clinton Foundation has also been implicated as funders of pressure groups in Zimbabwe among them #Tajamuka.

The pressure groups, using the dirty funds, tried to unseat Government a few months ago but failed dismally.

Tawanda Musekiwa, a political scientist based in South Africa, said it was clear that the opposition's confrontational attitude towards the State was designed to set an agenda for Hillary Clinton's in-tray.

''The orgies of violence that were being orchestrated by the MDC-T and its appendages like #ThisFlag and #Tajamuka were clearly designed to provoke the State into a heavy-handed response which would have given Clinton an excuse to seek a UN Security Council resolution on Zimbabwe reminiscent of Libya prior to the Nato invasion,'' Mr Musekiwa said.

Mr Musekiwa's sentiments dovetail with utterances made by the ailing Tsvangirai who was quoted on Sudio 7 urging people to rise against the Government.

Political analyst Mr Maxwell Saungweme said no amount of foreign support could unseat the Zanu-PF Government.

"If any African political party thought either Trump or Clinton would help them unseat their own governments then that is chimerical and nonsensical," he said.

"No one will unseat any African party than its own people. Only Zimbabweans on their own will unseat Zanu-PF. No amount of foreign support can unseat a local political party and leave behind social cohesion and development. Where foreign players are involved, trails of destruction and vicious cycles or violence and poverty perpetually haunt people of that country."

Another political analyst, Professor Sheunesu Mpepereki, said the dependence opposition parties had on foreigners was clear evidence they were puppet organisations.

"They are agents for foreign intervention and subsequently regime change," he said.

"If you see the way they were banking their hopes on Mrs Clinton, you can see that opposition parties have no legitimate agenda to take power and move Zimbabwe forward. They are simply singing for their supper, without any message to the people of Zimbabwe who choose leaders. They have no ideological stance and are simply people doing piece jobs meant to demonise and destabilise the country. They should be told that it is not foreigners, but locals who control local politics."

Mrs Clinton was at the forefront of supporting the 2001 US sanctions law, Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA).

The sanctions law expurgated Zimbabwe's lines of credit from all multilateral lending institutions.

As Secretary of State Mrs Clinton also sought to have Zimbabwe destabilised by abusing the United Nations Charter's Chapter 7 responsibility to protect only for China and Russia to veto the move in the UN Security Council.

Said political analyst Mr Goodwine Mureriwa: "The visits opposition parties have made to the Western countries is evidence enough that they were being funded from there and as for Zimbabwe People First leader Joice Mujuru, she was angling for funding from the Clinton Foundation.

"Their hopes have been dashed and they should know that Zimbabwe will remain Zimbabwe and we have not been affected by the election. American politics have been there since the George Bush era. As for the President-elect Mr Trump, he has made imperialistic pronouncements but should now sober up and know that Africa is a mineral gulf. If he wants to make America great again, he has to cooperate with Africa in particular Southern Africa and locally, the Zanu-PF Government because it is here stay."