Tsvangirai's tragic 'winning' formula

There is a common saying that, if something is not broken then do not fix it. A variation of it is that you do not change a winning formula.

Zanu-PF seemed to appreciate a combination of the two when it crafted its successful strategy for the 2013 harmonised elections that coasted it to a commanding victory.

The party realised that its abysmal showing in the 2008 polls was down to trying to fix something that was not broken. This was widely referred to as the "bhora musango" strategy, and its disastrous results told the party loud and clear that you don't change a winning formula.

Zanu-PF had a winning formula from back in the days of the liberation struggle.

This formula was premised on the basics: land to the people, one man-one vote, broader economic participation and - generally speaking - equality for all.

In a nutshell, it was a prototype of socialism that is better described as "gutsaruzhinji".

An arrogant Zanu-PF lost that grounding in gutsaruzhinji in 2008 and it almost paid the ultimate political price: becoming an opposition party. And in Africa, losing parties rarely resurrect.

So it went back to the basics in 2013; the people were put back at the centre of national politics, they decided not to fix what was not broken and to keep a winning formula intact, a formula that saw the party through the liberation struggle into the new millennium.

Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, too, has his winning formula.

Lets face it: Mr Tsvangirai is not the brightest crayon in the box. Everyone knows that, including his closest aides in MDC-T and his erstwhile financial backers in the West.

In fact, it is this less-than-sharp intellectual capacity on the part of Mr Tsvangirai that has prompted more than one of his backers to stress the need for "massive hand-holding".

Mr Tsvangirai's formula has been simple. When he is challenged, he alleges Brutus-like conspiracy, lashes out at anyone questioning his wisdom and lack of it, lets his goons - well-oiled on marijuana and whatever cheap booze is trending at the time - and then adorns himself in the tried and tested robes of victimhood.

It has worked for Mr Tsvangirai since 1999.

He will not engage anyone, whether in MDC-T or any other Zimbabwean, on the level of ideas. Ideational engagement is not a formula he is familiar with, and he has been quite successful with his way of doing things that he really would not bother fixing that which is not broken.

He has been so successful at it that he even became prime minister of Zimbabwe!

So anyone who thinks that Mr Tsvangirai is going to change his primitive brand of politics now is hugely mistaken.

Anyone who opposes Mr Tsvangirai must expect more of the same now and in the future. And who can blame him? It has worked before and it will work again. There is a tragedy, though, in this "winning formula".

Mr Tsvangirai is almost single-handedly - of course with the assistance of the likes of "Morgan-is-God-Anointed" Mr Nelson Chamisa who probably hopes he will hang on the coat-tails long enough to lead the party after 2018 - destroying an opposition party required to keep Zanu-PF on its toes. Well maybe not this type of party.