Wishful thinking by the Legend of the Seas

The statement by MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai that he will not work with President Mugabe again exposes the height of wishful thinking by the beleaguered former Prime Minister. Or it could be that the cancer he is suffering from has deteriorated to the point of interfering with his normal thinking.

 For starters, on what basis and on what platform does Tsvangirai expect to work with President Mugabe again? The scenario that obtained in 2009 has gone and there are no reasonable prospects of that situation coming up again.

President Mugabe convincingly won the 2013 elections. He got an undisputed mandate to govern the nation. Tsvangirai lost that election. For someone who lost an election to come out in the public refusing to work with the winner is mind boggling. It should be President Mugabe telling us that he is considering inviting the loser to assist him in executing his mandate.

If Tsvangirai desperately needs to remain relevant on the political scene, he should address the issue of corruption rocking urban local authorities under the MDC-T stewardship like Harare and Bulawayo City Councils than to purport to exercise some non-existent discretion.

Furthermore the ideological orientations of President Mugabe and Tsvangirai are worlds apart. President Mugabe would rather be unpopular among the Western countries while pursuing people-centred policies at home. On the other hand Tsvangirai is so desperate to court Western capital to fund his waning political career to the extent of denouncing everything done by ZANU PF since 1980. So on what basis can these two be expected to work together? This explains why the 2009-2013 Government of National Unity was dysfunctional. While the ZANU PF element in the GNU was focusing on stabilizing the economy, Tsvangirai and company were pre-occupied with the benefits of office. The "open zip shut mind" shenanigans by Tsvangirai are known by all and sundry.

Tsvangirai cannot purport to exercise a mandate that he doesn't have. He is trying to prop up the crumbling violent Nera on which he had placed his hopes of attaining political power.

Tsvangirai is further seeking to embroil the military in partisan politics. He said that "when you hear them (military) talking about corruption, you will know that indirectly the military will have a say in Zanu PF's succession wars. It is fair assessment to say very little takes place in Zanu PF without their involvement."

These statements by Tsvangirai are calculated to incite the military leadership to dabble in Zanu PF and national politics. It is on record that recently Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) Commander, Lt-Gen Phillip Valerio Sibanda categorically stated that "field is for the political parties…..in this particular case I guess you are talking about Zanu PF. In Zanu PF the military has no role to play in terms of succession politics, and that is the long and short of it".

Prior to this categorical pronouncement, Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander, Gen Constantino Chiwenga had also distanced the army from involvement in political matters.

In contrast to Tsvangirai's wish that the military be involved in politics to provide him with a scapegoat to justify future electoral losses, the same military commanders are condemning corruption. Gen Chiwenga, Lt-Gen Sibanda and Major General Douglas Nyikayaramba have all openly issued statements against the scourge of corruption. This is the constructive approach being pursued by the military, instead of the parochial interests Tsvangirai would have them pursue.

Tsvangirai needs to be advised to focus on winning support from the people who are ultimately the guarantors of political power. To see faults in everyone except oneself is to fail to understand the Biblical teaching on seeing specks in other people's eyes when you have a log in your eyes.