Tsvangirai's chief spin doctor chose to lie to the nation

MDC-T faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai was quietly hospitalised on Saturday, May 24, 2014 at the Trauma Centre, an upmarket private medical facility in Harare and discharged in the morning of Wednesday May 28, 2014.

Over that period, the party's spin doctors and family members maintained a tight lid on the ailment that the opposition leader was suffering from.

When Tsvangirai's chief spin doctor Luke Tamborinyoka decided to speak, he chose to lie to the nation that the opposition leader was in good health and "as fit as a fiddle."

When Tsvangirai decided to speak he had this to say: "What is wrong with journalists? Zimbabwean journalists have a problem. Munhu anorambidzwa kurwara here? It is now thou shall not fall sick."
 
By now it should have been known both to his family and party members that Tsvangirai is a public figure with everything happening, whether to him in person or those around him, generating some significant degree of interest.
 
In 100 years' time when history is retold, Tsvangirai's story would be incomplete without mentioning that he once served as the prime minister of our beloved country. This on its own makes what happens during his lifetime juicy news.
 
As Tsvangirai's health continues to be shrouded in secrecy, Zimbabweans should be reminded that it is the MDC-T that created an obscene media strategy bordering on obsession with wishing bad health to leaders of other political parties, particularly President Mugabe.
 
President Mugabe, in all private papers at home and abroad and in the minds of those in MDC-T including Tsvangirai himself, has "died" and "risen" several times.
 
Just recently and quite disturbingly to some, Zimbabweans woke up to see two WhatsApp photos purported to be that of Tendai Biti, MDC-T secretary-general being circulated in the social media. One showed the learned friend in apparent bad health and the other after he had purportedly recovered.
 
Through this obscene media strategy, the MDC-T's main agenda has been to paint those that they are opposed to, as being unfit to continue governing, in the case of President Mugabe or to aspire in the case of Biti, hoping to pave way for Tsvangirai. But now that he has been confirmed officially sick by his detention at the Trauma Centre where does this place him in terms of their obscene and un-African kind of media strategy?
 
Their media strategy has come full circle and is now haunting the MDC-T. Could it have been by sheer coincidence that of late one embarrassingly pro-Tsvangirai daily has been publishing articles "educating" political leaders on how to handle health-related issues, at the same time urging the media to resist the temptation of sensationalisation of the same?
 
Literary critics have since time immemorial postulated that the meaning of a given text does not necessarily lie in the words written, but also in the spaces in between the written words. It is up to the reader or the listener to then give meaning, filling up the empty spaces in between the written words.

After everything has been said credit should be given to Tamborinyoka. First, Tamborinyoka through the media told Zimbabweans that the former prime minister was enjoying good health and was, "as fit as a fiddle."  Then on May 28, 2014, shortly after Tsvangirai discharge Tamborinyoka made a turnaround and shot from the hip: "President Tsvangirai is resting at home in compliance with what his doctors ordered on Sunday.  His doctors said he was exhausted, a condition the medical experts attributed to overworking. They immediately ordered him to rest."

It could not have been better said. Well done Luke!

 Following the thread by Luke, no one would be far from the truth to conclude that the "overworked" Tsvangirai at least according to Luke, is suffering from stress.

A simple general clinical diagnosis would tell one that stress can be caused by anything either good or bad. The human body reacts to stress inducements with physical, mental, and emotional responses. The bottom line is that individuals have their own unique ways of responding to stress.

There are several causes of stress and some of them are as follows: death of a loved one, confrontation, marriage, deadlines, job loss, legal problem, illness, parenting, money problems so goes the endless list. Looking at the above mentioned causes of stress, which one has Tsvangirai not gone through within the last five years?

Marriage - he lost his wife Susan in a car accident. He has not been lucky in love having customarily married Lorcadia Karimatsenga before settling for a whopping US$300,000 divorce settlement. He went on to sire a child out of wedlock with a Bulawayo woman, Loreta Nyathi, and was failing or neglecting to take care of the kid until he was taken to court by Nyathi. Life has not be rosy with his later choice, Elizabeth Macheka, whom he married in September 2012.
 
Job loss - Tsvangirai got a lucrative job as the prime minister of Zimbabwe in 2009.  It set him as the second most powerful man in the country after President Mugabe, at least on paper.  There were a lot of packages that included his current Highlands mansion that came with his post in government. Like a deck of cards, all this fell away with the July 31, 2013 results of the general elections. Not only did Tsvangirai lose his job, all his benefits were washed away as well.

Money problems - having lost his job Tsvangirai lost that steady inflow of capital into his account. Deals struck in Nigeria that he was meant to fulfil using his government powers went up into smoke. The Botswana diamond deal is taking too long to bear any meaningful fruits.

Confrontation - the MDC-T Renewal Team led by Biti and Elton Mangoma are on Tsvangirai's case. They are threatening the only dear thing left for him, the narrow political power he is wielding in the MDC-T. This has been exacerbated by the continued recognition of the Biti-led renewal team by donors and foreign embassies.

Legal battles - Tsvangirai is aware that he cannot win the legal battle with the renewal team in any court on his bid to recall Members of Parliament he believes are sympathetic to Biti.

Surely, how can a mortal man, so "overworked" survive such a tirade of physical, emotional and mental attacks?