What kind of sale for Zanu-PF?

It cannot be the equivalent of selling a 37-year-old jalopy, but it comes pretty close.

In 2018, Robert Mugabe and his political party will be gunning for power for the umpteenth time since this former British colony achieved independence in 1980.

Many thousands of lives were lost during the combat between the white colonialists and the black brothers and sisters of the revolution.

More than 20 000 others - all black - were massacred in cold blood by other black people.

Its name - Gukurahundi - provokes a particularly turgid anger among one ethnic group of the population.

The prediction of a victory for Mugabe's party in 2018 has been made by his supporters, some of them motivated by a love of the party, rather than a well-calculated strengths of the respective combatants.

Meanwhile, the debate continues unabated of  the chances of a Zanu-PF repeat of its thumping victories since 1980.

There have been suspicions of these victories, some of them suggesting chicanery of one sort or the other.

Above all, however, is the almost universal suspicion that if the ruling party wins at all, it would have used subterfuge of some sort to achieve that victory.

Mugabe's party has been dogged by charges of duplicity of one sort or another.

The entire administration, at one time or the other, has been branded as corrupt.

Many of its leaders have been suspected of massive wrong-doing to do with money.

So far, ordinary people have not been entirely satisfied that all the crooks have been handed the just punishment they deserved.

Mugabe has denied most of the allegations of corruption among his clique.

What remains to be proved by the people is the oft-repeated allegation by ordinary citizens that the government has paid little attention to the massive material needs of ordinary people, preferring, instead, to enrich its own members and lackeys.

Before 2018 dawns, there may be hurried actions by the ruling party to improve its image and posture as a champion of the masses, rather than this elitist guardian of the rich and corrupt circle.    

For the moment, we shall leave the final verdict to fate - humans will probably be extremist in their judgment of Zanu-PF's reign since 1980.

The final verdict will be rendered at the polls. To some analysts, a verdict in favour of Mugabe and his party would be a travesty of human justice.

There can be no doubt that a majority of the people of Zimbabwe have had it to their necks with the lack of respect displayed by the Mugabe regime for the people of this country - particularly those who have longed to speak of their country's respect for them as noble, rather than incidental.

The evidence is abundant in a calculation of the rich and the poor standards of living.

Most of the rich are people of the governing party.

The poor are to be found mainly in the opposition parties, people who may have previously belonged to the ruling party, but left in despair, when they were told there was no room for them.

All people who have campaigned for the equal distribution of wealth among the people and equality in the distribution of services to all sectors have sided, politically with the opposition.

It was almost inevitable that most opposition groups would coalesce into one huge organisation to challenge Zanu-PF in 2018.

We have yet to see its reaction.

In the past, we have witnessed blood on the floor.