Msipa seeking cheap political fame

When Cephas Msipa announced his retirement from active politics, the expectation was that he would steer clear of any political shenanigans and would remain on the self-chosen terraces of a retired cadre, but his hyper-active comments in the media, particularly on matters to do with ZANU PF, are a cause for concern.

For someone, who has opted to resign from politics, Msipa's derogatory comments on ZANU PF betrays a person who feigns disinterest in politics yet is desperate to remain relevant to the country's politics and get recognition as a most vocal critic of ZANU PF.

It is puzzling that Msipa, a senior member of the party for a long time, now berates ZANU PF for allegedly using violent means to remain in power yet all along he was content with the party.

He did not for a day, during his tenure in the party, express his displeasure to the supposed violence and neither did he cite the issue of violence in his retirement letters from ‘active politics'.

He now wants to paint a grim picture of violence in ZANU PF and expects us to believe it.

The route he is taking has been trodden by other opportunistic politicians who previously sought to build their moribund careers on the back of falsehoods on ZANU PF.

Activists and politicians in the opposition and in civic society groups have previously tried to play this card before but have failed.

All of them are consciously playing to the gallery of western donors, who are ready to dole out funds to anyone seen as challenging the electoral mandate of ZANU PF.

Opposition political parties, faced with a bleak electoral future, now regurgitate the mantra that there are irregularities in the country's electoral system in a bid to justify their back to back defeat by ZANU PF at the polls and careless comments from a supposed party elder are timeous fodder for their propaganda.

The discourse of violence, which Msipa has now joined, is used to perpetuate the opposition cliché that the electoral system is unsustainable and requiring reform.

It is also intended at casting ZANU PF's tenure in Government as illegitimate, having supposedly been attained through a violent campaign.

This has also become the bane of those who were expelled from the party or those who excluded themselves for spurious reasons such as Msipa's excuse of ‘retiring from active politics'.

Most of them now seek to project themselves as courageous politicians who now want to confront the unassailable ZANU PF juggernaut.

To be credible, they now seek to lend credence to long-held and unsubstantiated opposition claims that ZANU PF is a violent party.  

We have previously seen disgraced and violent politicians such as Jim Kunaka, seeking to redeem their soiled political record by blaming ZANU PF for their violent demeanor.

It is all about political gamesmanship.

But it is interesting that Kunaka was to be embroiled in a violent clash outside of ZANU PF, as a member of Zimbabwe People First (Zim PF).

His trademark use of violence against rivals was manifest at a ZimPF rally held in Glen View recently.

Violence is in Kunaka's DNA and it had nothing to do with ZANU PF as claimed.

This is the point that should not be ignored.

Although ZANU PF openly condemns violence, it cannot be discounted that there are undesirable elements such as Kunaka who want to spoil the name of the party.

President Robert Mugabe is on record publicly condemning political violence and urging security agents to arrest those found on the wrong side of the law.

As the principal of the party, the President represents the party position and for people like Msipa to claim otherwise would be misleading.

By claiming that ZANU PF is a violent party, Msipa is seeking cheap political fame and that is opportunistic.