Obert Gutu a sickening bootlicker

Politics is a contradictory game, deceptive, and has an uncanny tendency to reveal the worst in humanity. The private media and the opposition, particularly the MDC-T, and netizens have been making jokes ridiculing the appointment of Cde Webster Shamu, as the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs in Mashonaland West.

In their prognosis, they ascribed the appointment to his alleged bootlicking of President Robert Mugabe, drawing banter on his alleged "Cremora" joke.

The very same critics have been at the forefront of criticising ZANU-PF for constantly and religiously endorsing President Mugabe as the sole Party presidential candidate since 1980. In their warped thinking this is an indicator that no one is capable of replacing the veteran politician in the Party.

All this is well and good, after all this is politics. Fast forward to 2017, MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is  a man fighting for his life, facing a potent and formidable foe in cancer, itself an irony since he is a man fighting for his political legacy in the opposition against a formidable opponent – ZANU-PF.

His suitability to continue in the trenches of opposition politics, worse still, leading a fragmented, and disintegrating party, as well as a shaky coalition going by the moniker MDC Alliance.

The most visible sign and symptom being the honest and upfront indictment by that party's Secretary for Local Authorities, Eddie Cross affront, where he called on Tsvangirai to get real and pave the way for his successor. Cross threw the cat among the pigeons, and boy oh boy, are they ruffled.

In his justifiable and reasonable opinion, Cross noted that Tsvangirai's family, which is close to the poster boy of opposition politics, was unconvinced that he could muster sufficient energy to campaign ahead of the 2018 presidential election, and worse still, lead the country if he upstages President Mugabe for the first time.

"Just as we expect a wave of support for our 2018 Chakachia Programme, he [Tsvangirai] is suffering from an aggressive form of colon cancer. He has been struggling with his treatment and the family is concerned that he might not handle the election and subsequently of being President of a country in crisis," wrote Cross.

Exhibiting his sycophantic bootlicking skills, which would make the best of them green with envy, Gutu shamelessly tweeted that "fact is there's no one in the MDC who has got the charisma & popular appeal like the one Morgan Tsvangirai has got. Absolutely no one!!"

What hogwash coming from an unrestrained hero worshipper, who is failing to see that the man is now a shadow of his former self, on account of his visibly diminished demeanour, thanks to the debilitating effects of a combination of chemotherapy and the corrosive effect of the cancer itself.

How Gutu, who prides himself as an astute and well discerning character, suddenly, and without a tinge of shame, nor embarrassment, publicly proclaims that he himself, and everyone else in that party, are useless bridesmaids in the MDC-T, who are incapable of leading, nor surpassing, the leadership qualities of Tsvangirai is plain ridiculous.

What is so good about Tsvangirai that makes him irreplaceable? He has presided over countless splits; been the architect of internal fissures in that party; uses violence against internal foes; is dictatorial vetoing collective decisions and imposing his; imposing party candidates; tinkering with the party constitution to extend his leadership; making un-strategic decisions, which have led to donor-fatigue; superintending a party drowning in debt and lack of funding; a reckless womaniser who has fathered children with various women; and most damningly, losing to President Mugabe since 2000.

If the foregoing defining traits of Tsvangirai's leadership is the best of the MDC-T, God help that party as it would die after Tsvangirai since it is stacked with mediocrity. Gutu, you have just confirmed to the whole nation of the leadership deficit in your party.

I hope Zimbabweans get the message that MDC-T is Tsvangirai, and Tsvangirai is MDC-T, after all that party bears his surname, Tsvangirai – it is his personal pet project, not a people's movement as the likes of Gutu would want the world to believe.

Gutu has even promised that Cross would be censured for stating the obvious, that Tsvangirai is no longer fit – Movement for Undemocratic Change indeed!