Chamisa's lack of a unique vision and plagiarism has left me despondent and rudderless

Perhaps we always knew but didn't want to believe. Since the last elections in 2013, many from within the MDC had complained about Nelson Chamisa. Many blamed him for the loss of those elections.

"The majority of the MDC-T membership has not forgiven Chamisa for the 2013 election defeat which they blame on him," said political analyst Rashweat Mukundu in 2014. "The thinking is that Chamisa went into the 2013 elections focused more on his own ambition than the broad goal of the party winning."

However, we were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially, as we were told, Chamisa's youth and charisma would look good opposite Emmerson Mnangagwa.

We forgave him some indiscretions like the bare-faced lie about meeting the American President and receiving a promise of $15 billion. We overlooked his bizarre statements about impossibly-fast high-speed trains and internet access. We looked on in bemusement when he would try and show off his physical fitness by randomly doing press-ups at a rally for electoral reform. We tutted and shook our heads when he put down women, including his own wife and members of his own family.

However, we kept saying to ourselves that he was an agent of change and he could lead us forward.

Nevertheless, it seems the naysayers were correct all along.

The last few months could be forgiven and overlooked if Chamisa has a very real, sophisticated and inspiring vision of what Zimbabwe would look like over the next five years. All else could fade into the background if the new MDC leader's first manifesto galvanised us and mobilised the party's core and beyond.

A party manifesto is a clear expression of guidance and vision. It is meant to enunciate the dreams of leadership. It is meant to be a very carefully calibrated and researched document that has real answers for very real challenges.

Above all it is meant to be a serious piece of work.

However, we now learn that parts of the Chamisa-led MDC manifesto have just been copied directly from elsewhere.

A whole portion on a "Corporate Governance Act", which is meant to inspire proper standards in the way that public entities conduct their day to day business operations and ensure efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery, was taken directly from the South African Constitution.

Each item of this portion, the language used, and the intention of the passage are almost completely identical.

For those who may not believe such an astronomically unconscionable act could be true, please look at the two side by side. I found it almost impossible to believe that such an obvious and lazy act was undertaken by Chamisa's people. However, after checking it back and forth, it is sadly and humiliatingly true.

Unfortunately, this episode has become indicative for those who are now throwing up their hands in desperation over Chamisa's rule.

It means that the current leader of the MDC has no unique or independent vision, is lazy by merely stealing ideas from others and can offer very little to our country at such a critical juncture.

I don't know where this leaves the MDC under Chamisa, but for me it is one mishap too many. I need a leader, Zimbabwe needs a leader, and the MDC has brought us someone for whom all the alarm bells were ringing from 2013, perhaps screaming, that he is not fit to lead our movement.

This has left me extremely downhearted and in despair, only a few weeks before a make-or-break election.

I can't vote for Chamisa. He has given me nothing to persuade me that he can lead our country through our challenges; in fact, the opposite has now proven true.

Chamisa's lack of vision and plagiarism has left me despondent and rudderless.