Is imperialism faltering or restrategising?

IMPERIALISTIC activities of western industrialised countries in Africa have since 1990 subtly changed, bearing violent objectives and consequences.

Colonialism and imperialism today in Africa have mutated into many variants threatening continental stability through socio-political movements, western-funded political parties and more so, through civic society organisations.

By the admission of one parliamentarian, last year in September British emissaries engaged a local teachers' "union" with the agenda to organise subverting the State's structural mechanisms through covert operations.

That is how unashamed imperialism is! It breaches and violates international norms.

In such operating environments, those that represent the interests of the colonialist and imperialist have confused the awareness of an alert, conscious and ideologised broader citizenry with "panic".

Last week's "birth" of an opposition outfit named the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) was a declaration of Zimbabwe's acceptance and acknowledgement of multi-party democracy and the actualisation of political pluralism under the New Dispensation.

A word of caution, however, exists. What was "born" in the CCC is nothing new except it is imperialism taking a new form, new twist and is regrouping after many years of defeat.

Defeat has become a symptomatic condition in the opposition political ecology that exposes the imperial faces they wear.

History does not pose problems without providing solutions and the import of this discussion is to touch and awaken a truth that has been long dormant in the minds of many: "The leopard will never change its spots."

After failing to dislodge the strength of the Zanu-PF party after being rejected by the people, the CCC under Nelson Chamisa is now manufacturing non-existent compatibility with the people whose interests it has not been caring for from its days as the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC Alliance).

The book on strategy, Art of War, by China's Sun Tzu written over 2 500 years ago, provides timeless practical wisdom on how to overcome opponents with maximum skill and minimum exertion of effort. From corporate leaders to politicians, military commanders and football coaches, the book provides leads   among many others in the art of subduing contenders with ease.

From Loss to Defeat

People who study the rise and fall of political movements query the pattern in which they falter. They are a futile and quixotic political organisation.

Principally they have been difficult to sustain because after spending so much time and energy, the enthusiasm of the leader fizzles and they wane.

On average, a political movement's span is between five to eight years or less. The activities around its existence in these years are characterised by bickering, disorganisation and revolt.

Movements are only mere revolts because they do not change institutions. It explains the disappearance of the #ThisFlag, #BlackLivesMatter, #OccupyCentral among others. They are short-termists, for lack of diction.

The "transformation" of the MDC of Chamisa to CCC is moving from one unsustainable territory of movements to another of coalition politics.

Coalition politics are politics without methodology.

It is a temporary arrangement no longer viable because of potential vote losses that the "citizens" who are constituting the ‘coalition' have endured such under the MDC and will, under the CCC.

Because coalitions have severe problems from decision-making, they are a conflict-ridden exercise. Unlike Zanu-PF, the CCC is unmindful to the development that circumstances have changed.

The edge of political fertility is shifting towards Zanu-PF. It is a political axiom that no revolution can take place without a methodology suited to the circumstances of the period.

Circumstances here do not warrant coalitionism. The choice of the electorate in the CCC is just, but strengthening a fatally-wounded ensemble that has faltered even at inception.

Soon there will be internal conflicts.

The momentum will die. The "yellow coalition" will not live beyond 2025 because it is just, but temporary.

The "coalition" populism is a bubble, set to burst. Time is the master.

Unity of Treacherous Rivals

The quartet of Tendai Biti, Job Sikhala, David Coltart and Prof Welshman Ncube are visibly subservient to the man who is starting a project whose philosophy and modus operandi they never believed.

They are being kept close so they are thoroughly monitored by Chamisa's runners. They are close yet living in the periphery.

Chamisa plans a political life with characters like Gift Siziba, Makomborero Haruzivishe, Chalton Hwende and Advocate Fadzayi Mahere, who cannot control any political narrative, but only survive on his benevolence.

He is willing to risk dissociating himself with the history he shared with his colleagues and feed his millennial inner-circle with a umbilical cord that ingests political cultism.

Biti broke ranks with Chamisa in 2013. Sikhala and Prof Ncube are scared to come in the open that they do not believe in Chamisa's political philosophy, they even doubt if he has one, but are afraid of the wrath of his intolerant disciples.

They have been gagged from talking to their European funders unless authorised by a paranoid Chamisa. They are leashed despite Biti being favoured by the West more than Chamisa.

Sikhala remains the leader of the MDC-99, Prof Ncube with his MDC faction.

As for Coltart, the unfolding script will only make him survive under the politics of pity being played by Chamisa.

Without any policy framework, constitution and ideology, Biti and company are on board just to sanitise the CCC project by providing institutional mascara drawn from their days since 1999.

Originally, these people are not friends, they are a constituency hoping to dislodge Zanu-PF in a relatively short space. They are a treacherous entity willing once again to be agents of Western imperialism using a new name.

They will never change the course of their language, they will never condemn sanctions but will always champion the neo-colonial subjugation and warfare on the economy.

Zanu-PF instead has a covenant, not a coalition with the citizens. It is a covenant that is embedded in values of nationalism and bearing a relationship that will be defended for the sake of the motherland through the sacrifices of toil, tears and sweat, as before.

‘New-born' wearing old clothes

After the defeat of western-backed nationalists in China by the fighters led by Chairman Mao, he said "if you know your enemy and yourself, you can fight a hundred battles without disaster."

What Zimbabwe witnessed on January 24 as the "birth" of a new party was in actuality the advancing face of imperialism, neo-colonialism and capitalist cannibalism.

In this atmosphere, conscious citizens should expect no uprightness or righteousness from the CCC. The ruse is they appear a "new-born" baby. That is how imperialism operates, it takes new forms and changes formats.

For nearly two decades, the United States, Britain and their European Union validated Morgan Tsvangirai as their horse, today they raise Chamisa.

This "new" is changing in name, but the deeds and attitudes are inclined to damage Zimbabwe. They neither change nor ask for forgiveness wearing clean clothes.

The opponent of the government is not the CCC project, but the imperialists beyond that face.

Zimbabweans have a gift of political discernment.

An awake electorate cannot be swayed unintelligently by the birth of a "new" baby that seeks to reverse the gains of the country's progress.

A grand-strategy by Zanu-PF has always been in place since 2000 on how to defeat imperialism with all its complexities.

The analogy in Jeremiah 13:23 here fits: "Can an Ethiopian change the colour of his skin?

Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil."

Imperialism and its local middlemen will neither change nor do good, for what they represent is malevolent!