Zimbabwe politics is a rat race and the antagonists' trump cards are deception and betrayal

Zimbabwe's political system is not a caucus race but a rat race!

Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland explained what a caucus race is: "After swimming around in Alice's pool of tears, the animals need to dry off, and The Dodo recommends a caucus race. There are no rules; all of the participants run haphazardly around in no particular direction, and everyone wins."

At least the caucus race had a beginning, an end and a purpose - an unusual one admittedly - to dry off.

Zimbabwe politics is best described as a rat race in which the main political leaders talk endlessly about their "vision"; Zimbabwe is locked in perpetual election mode! The primary purpose of these never ending Sermon on the Mount visions is to confuse the ignorant and gullible electorate by setting them in the vaguely defined future. The mirage serves the double purpose of getting the gullible public to focus on a brighter tomorrow to take the attention away from their present miseries . And so the leaders have never ever had to acknowledge much less held to account for the many broken promised and unfulfilled visions.

Last week it was Mnangagwa in Dakar Senegal who told the Zimbabweans and the world at large that from next year onward Zimbabwe will be producing enough wheat to meet the nation's needs with surplus for export; come the severest El Nino come La Nina! The country will build dams, install irrigation plant and will have factories to produced all the fertiliser!

He did not want to be questioned on why Zimbabwe once upon a time the bread basket of the region had lost this laurel under Zanu PF rule? And no doubt, would have stormed out of the country in a huff is any journalist had questioned him on why both AU and SADC election observers had condemned Zimbabwe's 2023 elections as flawed and illegal.

Mnagagwa had promised to hold free, fair and credible elections when he took over from his mentor Robert Mugabe following the military coup of November 2017. Here was a promise - no, an obligation - he was duty bound to honour but failed to because he wanted to retain absolute power to himself and his fellow Zanu PF cronies for selfish reasons.

Today it Nelson Chamisa's turn to proclaim his mirage vision!

"My vision and mandate is to RADICALLY TRANSFORM Zimbabwe into a fully developed and advanced modern nation," proclaimed Chamisa from the highest ant-hill he could find!

He envisioned "a Zimbabwean democracy that is robust, transparent, and accountable, where the voices of all citizens are heard and respected."

Yeah right! And he would achieve by winning "big" rigged Zanu PF elections as he promised to do last year! "I have plugged all Zanu PF vote rigging loop holes." he insisted. "God is in it!"

All nonsense, of corse! Chamisa and company were hell bent on participating in the 2023 elections knowing fully well Zanu PF was rigging, that participating would give Zanu PF legitimacy but still they persisted because they also knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate in numbers. And they found the bait irresistible.

The plugging the vote rigging loop holes bulls**t was to hide the real reason for participating was greed. The tragedy is many Zimbabweans, nearly two million according to ZEC declared results, believed the bulls***t and participated in the flawed elections to give the election process some modicum of credibility and giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.

The nearly two million who voted for Chamisa have not even had the chance to ask him why CCC had failed to win last year, as he had promised. They have never asked why MDC/CCC had failed to implement even one token democratic reform to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and yet this was the number task the opposition was elected to do these last 23 years including the 5 years in the GNU!

The rat race of Zimbabwe politics does not allow the voters time to ask any searching question much less hold the leaders to account. There is no time for that - the leaders see to it that there is no time for it as the voters are whipped up into one political stampede after another.

"#AccleratedTransformation" Chamisa signed off!

On the ground the only accelerated transformation in Zimbabwe is the economic meltdown and political chaos. Mnangagwa's number one priority is not to feed the nation but to consolidate his own hold on power through political patronage and so corruption and mismanagement have gone into overdrive accelerating the economic meltdown. The price of one crystal sweet is Z$ 400, in keeping with Zimbabwe' runaway hyperinflation which is now over 2 000%.

Zimbabwe's present political system, this rat race, has produced corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless leaders; not the quality leaders the nation needs to prosper. We need a reality check; we must reject the failed system and end the 44 years of madness, of being dragging deeper and deeper into the abyss.

Both Mnangagwa and Chamisa, Zanu PF and CCC are the only ones benefiting from this rat race at the nation's expense. Povo gain nothing and lose everything! We must put an end to this madness and the tragic human misery it has brought!!