Opinion / Columnist
Zanu-PF victory in by-elections good for democracy
13 Jun 2015 at 02:20hrs | Views
Bulawayo-Despite being in the game for more than 15 years,opposition MDC leaders and other pretenders don't seem to have learnt any lesson about politics.For them to boycott the by-elections complaining about the rough playing field was beyond stupidity.
They have participated in the same elections run by the same people since 2000 and managed to win in the country's major cities of Harare,Bulawyo,Gweru and Mutare.The conditions were the same in 2000,2008,2013 and this year.So what was their main reason for boycotting the polls this time?
The answer is the same-plain stupidity on the part of the MDC leaders of all the formations,MDC-T,MDC,MDC 99,MDC Renewal and MDC bani- bani, whatever the name is.It was just a betrayal of the electorate and people who have been voting for the party since its formation in 1999.
It was a complete betrayal of the electorate in general and their supporters in particular.Their boycott allowed the ruling Zanu-PF to win all the 16 parliamentary seats throughout the country.
Like experienced and cunning predators, the ruling party seized the opportunity created by MDC stupidity and romped to victory in all the contested constituencies.I am not a Zanu-PF fan but the party's victory in the by-elections is good for any democracy.
Its victorious candidates will now compete with those of the disintergrating and confused MDC formations for the attention of the voters in the major cities.The MDC formations and their backers should stop making noises about the outcome of the elections or accuse Zanu-PF of using unorthodox methods to win the elections.The MDCs knew politics was just like a game of chess.A wrong move gives your opponent an advantage and Zanu-PF,which has been stalking its prey for a long time, seized the opportunity and delivered a fatal blow to the opposition.
Like football or any game,whether the referee awarded your opponents a dubious penalty,a win is a win.No amount of after match protest by the losers will change the outcome of the game.But the MDC triplets or quadruplets don't seem to have mastered the rules of the game even though most of them were once members of the cunnng revolutionary party.
The MDCs should blame themselves for allowing the ruling party to come back into the big cities of Harare and Bulawayo 15 years after it was dislodged by the same opposition in the 2000 elections.
Harare and Bulawayo have been the political powerbase of the MDC since that time.However Zanu-PF's victory in the by-elections will change the political landscape in those cities where some MDC councillors have done more harm than good in their running of the local government.The b-elections were a result of the expulsion of 21 MDC-T legislators who had defected to MDC Renewal led by Tendai Biti.
In Bulawayo,the election victory of the ruling party brought in a credible leader, former Zipra chief military engineer and Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI),Tshinga Dube.Dube is a much loved individual in Bulawayo even though he has been in Zanu-PF since the unity accord in 1987.
He is from the crop of leaders president Robert Mugabe once described as "amadoda sibili." or real men of spine) unlike some of the MDC-Tsvangirai legislators who have brought nothing but confusion in the city.For the opposition Zapu,participating in the by-elections was another humiliation.This is the moment for the leader of the party,Dumiso Dabengwa to call it quits.This time there should be no going back to the drawing board for the party.
A true people's leader knows when its time to quit but it would appear most African leaders including our own have tried and failed to cure the "Angiyindawo" or "Handiyende " syndrome which has reached epidemic proportions in African politics.
In Tsholotsho,villagers are still celebrating Jonathan Moyo's crushing victory over two independent candidates who learnt one lesson after the results that politics is not for nonentities.Moyo is a darling of the people of Tsholotsho even those who don't support Zanu-PF.
The truth is most of those who voted for him were not members of his party but MDC supporters and undecided voters.His campaign was taken to facebook,the playing ground for the youths who responded by replacing their profile pictures with that of the professor who enjoys a pop star status in Tsholotsho.
Some call him the uncrowned monarch or self proclaimed King of Tholotsho.Once again congratulations to Team Zanu-PF and the final score- Zanu-PF 16, Opposition 0.
Source - Thabo Kunene
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