Opinion / Columnist
The 'Madhuku Strategy' 2.0: Nelson Chamisa and the art of perpetual becoming
2 hrs ago |
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The comparison between Nelson Chamisa and Lovemore Madhuku has shifted from a basic analogy to an analytical necessity. What the late President Robert Mugabe once derisively labelled the "Madhuku strategy" – a pattern of opportunistic activism designed to trigger international headlines and donor funding – has found a contemporary heir. Both figures embody a political model defined less by institution-building than by episodic mobilisation and the systematic monetisation of hope.
Chamisa's political trajectory has descended into a repetitive cycle of strategic ambiguity that looks less like a path to political victory and more like a sophisticated fundraising circuit. By abandoning established structures for a series of ephemeral brands – moving from the MDC-Alliance to the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), and now to a nebulous, structureless movement – Chamisa has perfected the art of the political "rebrand" as a means of bypassing accountability. Much like Madhuku, who morphed the National Constitutional Assembly from a civic platform into a personal political vehicle, Chamisa's solo-preneurship treats the Zimbabwean electorate as a captive market rather than a constituency.
The outcome is a loyal but perpetually disappointed base, recycled from one formation to the next. Supporters are emotionally mobilised and financially solicited, only to be discarded once their utility wanes. Failure is never owned; it is outsourced to "stolen elections", unnamed saboteurs, or abstract forces. In the process, politics becomes a solo enterprise centred on personality and spectacle rather than a collective struggle grounded in discipline and organisation.
What makes this model particularly corrosive is its aversion to the unglamorous work of compromise and institution-building required to actually win power. Instead, leadership remains trapped in a loop of perpetual victimhood and donor-baiting. While the grassroots do all the dirty work, these formations appear designed to sustain a profitable state of "becoming". If Madhuku perfected politics as motion without destination, Chamisa has refined it for the social media age, using supporters as fodder for headlines that trigger crowdfunding appeals and international donor sympathy.
The tragedy is not merely electoral loss, but the systematic sale of a premium product – hope – with little intention of delivering on the promise of change. By prioritising personal relevance over structural strength, Chamisa cements his legacy as the ultimate heir to the Madhuku strategy: a career revolutionary whose most consistent achievement is the professional management and monitisation of failure.
Chamisa's political trajectory has descended into a repetitive cycle of strategic ambiguity that looks less like a path to political victory and more like a sophisticated fundraising circuit. By abandoning established structures for a series of ephemeral brands – moving from the MDC-Alliance to the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), and now to a nebulous, structureless movement – Chamisa has perfected the art of the political "rebrand" as a means of bypassing accountability. Much like Madhuku, who morphed the National Constitutional Assembly from a civic platform into a personal political vehicle, Chamisa's solo-preneurship treats the Zimbabwean electorate as a captive market rather than a constituency.
The outcome is a loyal but perpetually disappointed base, recycled from one formation to the next. Supporters are emotionally mobilised and financially solicited, only to be discarded once their utility wanes. Failure is never owned; it is outsourced to "stolen elections", unnamed saboteurs, or abstract forces. In the process, politics becomes a solo enterprise centred on personality and spectacle rather than a collective struggle grounded in discipline and organisation.
What makes this model particularly corrosive is its aversion to the unglamorous work of compromise and institution-building required to actually win power. Instead, leadership remains trapped in a loop of perpetual victimhood and donor-baiting. While the grassroots do all the dirty work, these formations appear designed to sustain a profitable state of "becoming". If Madhuku perfected politics as motion without destination, Chamisa has refined it for the social media age, using supporters as fodder for headlines that trigger crowdfunding appeals and international donor sympathy.
The tragedy is not merely electoral loss, but the systematic sale of a premium product – hope – with little intention of delivering on the promise of change. By prioritising personal relevance over structural strength, Chamisa cements his legacy as the ultimate heir to the Madhuku strategy: a career revolutionary whose most consistent achievement is the professional management and monitisation of failure.
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