No room for politicians without identity

In the House of Assembly or the Senate, the only members you see there either belong to Zanu PF or the MDC-T. The political matrix in Zimbabwe entails that you are a member of these two dominant parties if you want to be a politician of substance.

Temba Mliswa wants to defy this order of things by attempting to enter parliament through his own ticket. Those who are politically literate can tell you that gone are the days when an independent candidate can win an election. People need a representative who come an organization that can assist him with resources to develop their area. Even those who vote for the MDC-T candidates have hopes that one day it might get into power where it will spearhead development in their areas.

Temba Mliswa himself knows that, having been thumped heavily in the Hurungwe West Constituency by elections held in June last year after he was recalled by Zanu PF for being part of the Mujuru cabal that was plotting to unconstitutionally oust President Mugabe from power.

 He entered the elections with all the confidence thinking that the people who had voted for him in 2013 harmonized elections were his personal supporters.  He learnt a big lesson that every supporter belongs to the party. Some of his expelled colleagues were not lost to this fact, thus they did not risk embarrassing themselves at the ballot box. They simply let their erstwhile constituency go without putting a fight. At least they left people conjecturing that they could have won had they participated.

Mliswa knows there is no room for independent politicians in the Zimbabwean politics. The last beneficiary of that system was Professor Jonathan Moyo. The fact that Mliswa is canvassing opposition support is a pointer to his awareness that he cannot make it to parliament on an independent ticket.

Mliswa does not learn. He must know that the support base of all the opposition put together will never outnumber that of Zanu PF. The 2013 winning margin can testify to this assertion. All opposition political parties, including sympathizers of Dr Mujuru rallied behind Mliswa in Hurungwe west by-election but that did not help him.

There is not much positive change in the opposition camp that can help Mliswa this time around. On the contrary, the support base of the opposition has waned considering a myriad of defections to Zanu PF that have been taking place since the Hurungwe west by-election.

Christopher Mutsvangwa, the expelled former Zanu PF cabinet minister who held that constituency did not even attempt to contest because he is aware that he won that constituency riding on the popularity of Zanu PF.
There have been speculations that Mliswa has the support of war veterans in the constituency. The propagator of this warped notion failed to tell the nation how many these war veterans are. Of course there are one or two disgruntled war veterans who might sell their soul to the devil. However, that one misguided war veteran should not be pluralized. He does not represent the rest of the war veterans and his vote will not be a game changer in Norton constituency.

We have war veterans who thought they matter in the political dynamics but they are now political has-been. Look at Parker Chipoyera. Ever since he revolted during the liberation struggle, he is still making senseless noise. He has just joined ZimPF in a bid to regenerate himself politically. Some of them like Dzinashe Machingura died practically coinless.

The opposition parties are not contesting in the by-election because they know for certain that Zanu PF will retain the seats. How then does Mliswa expect to get their support when they have chickened out themselves?
Probably they might want to use the forthcoming by-elections as a barometer to measure the popularity of Zanu PF in the wake of the internal tiff. They might want to do that strategically by fronting Mliswa so that in the sure case of a defeat, they will not shoulder the embarrassment.

Mliswa is frantically attempting to bounce back into parliament for one reason. He was removed from a strategic position that sustained his relationship with the US intelligence agency. Don't forget his unholy alliance with CIA's Eric Little. They cannot continue paying him when he no longer has access to the desired information. His presence in parliament will make it better. From the  is a politician one cannot rely on.