The battle for Zimbabwe - ED vs Nero!

ROBERT MUGABE LEGACY

ED speaks less and acts more--- he has also assembled a team with army background. Generally army personalities the world over are strategists, highly disciplined, resolute and work with clear objectives and time-frames. Military personalities in the Zimbabwean context have all the qualities above plus one other powerful quality---- they have the hind-sight of high education. The fact is that education permeates every facet of Zimbabwean life, including the army. PHDs and Masters' Degrees some fake (like Grace Mugabe), but mostly genuine, are part and parcel of every nook and cranny of Zimbabwean society! Usadheerere! Zimbabwe ine zvinhu zvayo panyaya dzefundo and Bob ndicho chikubababababest chacho! It's who we are and if there is any unquestionable legacy of Robert Mugabe then EDUCATION IS HIS TRUE UNADULTERATED LEGACY!

ED FOREIGN POLICY

With his exceptionally competent team, ED went to work tackling the most difficult and important task for Zimbabwe----getting accepted as a decent nation among other nations. Experience is better that precept---- ED and his team realised from the Mugabe experience that being isolated was a terrible weakness. So he went first to SADC, then AU and all individual African countries and he was welcomed with open arms. ED told everyone his story and they accepted it. From there he went to the EU, UK, China and did the same. He then dispatched one plucky fellow S B Moyo as his foreign minister. Moyo stated from the word go and I quote---"the foreign policy of a nation is merely an extension of its domestic policy".  So, acting with military precision, ED had,  within 3 short months, surrounded Zimbabwe with international friends--- from Africa and the whole world. He was extremely meticulous to make sure that he created no enemies but attracted friends, new and old! At Davos he was asked a tricky question about what message he had for Donald Trump considering that the USA was imposing illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe--- to which ED replied—"if I meet Mr Trump I will invite him to come and build a golf course at Victoria Falls as I understand he is an avid golfer---ZIMBABWE IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS!"--- very smart! A self-righteous character like Mugabe or Chamisa would probably have replied with anger towards Trump which would have caused guaranteed instant freezing of relations with the "flammable" Trump! (Chamisa is on record for saying that when he comes to power, Europeans, Chinese and Americans will be our domestic workers and head-boys!)

After running around all over the Globe attracting stinging criticism from opposition back home, ED effectively completed his foreign policy in record time and with military precision and accuracy! The result was that, before the opposition realised it, he had taken all their traditional backers, EU, UK, Commonwealth, and put them on his side--- he had also maintained his own traditional backers like China, Russia, SADC and AU. The USA remained doubtful having been convinced by Chamisa and Biti to maintain sanctions. When the US renewed the sanctions, ED commented "mildly" that it was strange for the USA to do that without confirming the situation on the ground in Zimbabwe. Mildly stated but very loaded statement--- he doesn't have time for rants and angry vitriol, this one----no no no no, if you observe him carefully, he is the essence of Mr Cool! Trump or someone in the US took note immediately that they had been called to order, and without being insulted at all in the process----thus a record 5 senators were promptly dispatched for the first time in the history of Zimbabwe. What they saw and heard, made a paradigm shift in US policy towards ED in particular and Zimbabwe in general. Foreign policy is not for noise makers and weak egos that burst at a mere prick of a needle like a balloon --- so the US did not make any announcements contrary to their sanctions policy, but they gave ED the benefit of the doubt---and the sting would hit Chamisa much later!

ED DOMESTIC POLICY

Like a grandmaster of chess, ED went about surrounding himself with the pillars of society. He charmed the chiefs who live with the majority of voters. Then came the business community who have deep pockets for funding a mega election campaign! Then came the churches who are associated with a huge chunk of the voters--- at Mbungo there were over 50 000 people in one sitting addressed by ED and at Marange over 250 000 were addressed by ED at exactly the same time Chamisa was celebrating a "bumper" crowd of 20 000 people at Sakubva stadium!---these are only two examples from the many he courted! Then ED met with his comrades-in-arms --- the war-veterans! One of the key skills taught war veterans during the liberation struggle was RECRUITMENT---they are very good at it! Then ED met the youth in general since 60% of the registered electorate is in that age band. Then he met with the students. Then he granted general amnesty to languishing prisoners who are eternally grateful to him. Then he met the disabled. Then he met the Islamic society, the Indian society and the White and Coloured community. Then he met with women who constitute 55% of the electorate and are more reliable voters than men!

And thus ED out classed Chamisa in strategy and execution on both domestic and foreign policy--- home and away!

ELECTIONS!

 When White City Stadium terrorist attack happened, ED remained calm and maintained high visibility in the media and consistently preached his peace and love mantra. This had the dramatic effect of reducing a potential anarchy situation to a mere flea-bite on an elephant--- whoever initiated the attack must be an extremely disappointed person today! Peace trumps violence and love trumps hatred!

An expert hunter chooses his prey carefully---- ED had the ‘choice' of competing against Elias Mudzuri, Thokozani Khupe or Nelson Chamisa. I assume that sophistication took centre stage in making this choice--- maybe ‘innocent' media interviews over lengthy periods of time by the three characters above were collected and dispatched to friendly foreign countries far or near----there, the information from those interviews were fed into powerful mainframe computers with psychological data analysis software----maybe these computers spewed out their psychometric evaluations of the said characters and the most suitable ‘prey' was selected. Please note that I am an ordinary professional member of society and I have had three psychometric evaluations which many companies use when selecting managerial personnel--- the results for me have always been breath-takingly accurate--- if I was in ED's shoes I would do that without hesitation--- considering the high stakes---- I have reason to believe that Nelson Chamisa was deliberately selected as a 'soft'opponent because of three events:

• The dust had hardly settled over Save's grave and Chamisa was still tussling with Khupe when ED quickly acknowledged Chamisa and congratulated him for being chosen by his party's National Council--- even while Khupe was still protesting that appointment--- THAT WAS FAST!!.
• The mercurial Speaker of Parliament quickly ejected Khupe from the house in almost indecent haste--- even while Obert Gutu was profusely protesting that the matter was not yet conclusive at party level—THAT WAS FAST!!
• The govt quickly released the election funds to Chamisa's faction even while Khupe was hastily submitting her account number to the relevant govt department--- THAT WAS FAST!!

It is therefore my conclusion based on logical facts that Chamisa was literally hustled and pushed into this election after he was psychologically evaluated as a ‘soft' opponent.

An expert hunter does not chase his prey because by chasing he is 'lead' by the prey and he therefore loses the initiative. So a true hunter makes the 'prey' feel like the hunter while the real hunter pretends to be the 'prey'. When the rallies started, Chamisa took the 'lead'--- which was important to ED for two reasons:

• ED could study Chamisa's methods, performance and election campaign psychology.
• Separating events prevented supporters of opposite parties from clashing in the streets thus maintaining the peace

Up until now Chamisa thinks he is chasing ED but in fact he is falling into a deadly trap. His White City Stadium rant confirms his psyche that he is the hunter and his bold proclamation for violence on Tuesday confirms this fact but below is a summary of facts at the periphery of his vision---they are there but not crystal clear.

SUMMARY

• The USA cut off funding to Zimbabwean NGOs which forced Chamisa into an unholy alliance with Grace Mugabe--- this is totally unacceptable to all the prospective investors --- so, even if he wins the election, Zimbabwe will be in a worse place than with Mugabe in charge---- his win is a loss
• Every international group that has come to assess the election has commented against his tactics--- so if he goes ahead with violence and the law is unleashed on him, he will not have any sympathy from anywhere--- it will be entirely up to ED how he wants to deal with the situation
• The world and Zimbabweans are tired of a problematic Zimbabwe and are impatient to exploit her resources and Chamisa's threat of violence is getting in the way of business---and again that isolates him. Chamisa has not helped the situation by picking unnecessary fights with Paul Kagame for example, whose support he now needs at AU!
• His campaign has been more effective at the rallies and chaotic in administration, resulting in 90 unregistered council seats, 14 duplicated house seats, 3 unregistered house seats and numerous bhora musango independents.
• He has no admin structures and logistics for ferrying voters to polling stations---an appalling lack of organisation--- on voting day, the stadiums will be silent while the polling boxes speak.
• The opposition was never ready for this election while ED has set the pace throughout
• By comparison, ED is playing a concoction of chess and poker while Chamisa is playing draft----and draft will surely turn to DAFT on Tuesday 23/07 2018!
• The minority communities; Indians, Islamic society, Coloureds and Whites as well as the churches have firmly formed behind ED--- these people are crucial in two ways----
• they don't generally attend rallies in stadia and their vote is therefore unaccounted for to the nak*d eye---and yet its substantial enough to swing a party to win a majority
• they have critical contacts that unlock investor confidence after elections---- in fact it was the contacts of these minority groups and their skilled financial touch that was the magic behind the rapid economic recovery during the GNU---- a performance which Biti now claims to be his sole ability---sad!