The frightening evidence of swelling MDC-T support and the vocal disrespect of Zanu PF officials at rallies in rural Zimbabwe are a telling sign of the benefits accruing to the party as a consequence of its presence in the coalition government.
The political acumen of the MDC-T leadership in deciding to participate in the flawed coalition government is beginning to yield healthy political returns for the party in rural Zimbabwe if events in Bikita, March 19, 2010 are anything to go by.
The party came under heavy criticism from mainly exiled Zimbabweans for accepting a junior role to Zanu PF in the coalition government when it became evident that Zanu PF had retained its stranglehold on power despite the cosmetic changes that emerged from economic stabilization and social improvements.
President Robert Mugabe’s unilaterally appointed Zanu PF Political Commissar in Masvingo Titus Maluleke who is disguised as a Provincial Governor and Resident Minister for the Masvingo province came face to face with political reality at Rozva business Centre near Nyika Growth point when he was sent on a damage control of the magnetic political attraction the MDC-T President and Zimbabwe Premier has throughout the country.
Maluleke had accompanied the Premier on his food security assessment forays in the Province and reported back to his Zanu PF handlers the contagion effect the Premier’s visit had on the rural populace in the Province whereupon he was told to counter the effects as demanded of him by his esteemed yet undeserved position he was given on the platter by President Mugabe.
He decided the best way was to retrace the Premier’s trails and inoculate the electorate with the hitherto effective MDC-T antidote that Zanu PF has used in the past to win rural electorate support –food handouts from President Mugabe and his Zanu PF Party.
The mission was to discredit the premier as an emissary of the President in his show of concern by visiting the rural electorate to assess their food security concerns.
The Masvingo Provincial Governor got more than he had bargained for as what used to be a political stroll in the park turned out to be an insurmountable climb out of a political ravine for the ill prepared Zanu PF Provincial Commissar mission he had embarked on.
''Yes the Prime Minister was here last week to assess the food situation but the food he promised is not going to come from his efforts alone but from the efforts of the government that is led by President Mugabe, so the PM was just an emissary send by the President who will look for the food,'' he informed the “captive” audience at Rozva business centre and paused expecting the usual Zanu PF adulation of ululations from the women accompanied by choreographed clapping of hands from the audience in bursts of appreciation for the generosity of the Party’s Supreme leader as President Mugabe is regarded by Zanu PF.
To his utter dismay there were no such adulations from the crowd who surprised him by demanding him to leave the podium and stop patronizing them with blatant lies intended to place a wedge in their faith and trust in the Premier’s political honesty care and integrity.
''Sit down you are lying to us. Mugabe is a liar who has been lying to us for the past 30 years. We know Save –Tsvangirai as he is adoringly known to his supporters by totem- will deliver the food to us he is the people's leader not you sit down. Sit down you stooge. We do not need your food we know Save (PM Tsvangirai) will give us the food as he promised. There is nothing new can you tell us now when you have been lying to us for the past 30 years,'' jeered the villagers spontaneously.
The reaction was unexpected and continued intermittently until the bemused and clearly puzzled Zanu PF imposed Provincial Governor gave up his speech and with his tail firmly tucked under his legs took his seat.
A Chief from the Rozva area who was present at the embarrassing meeting had no kind words for Maluleke’s obvious political backbiting mission on behalf of Zanu PF.
''I really do not understand you some of you in our leadership. Last week you came
here and introduced Tsvangirai to us. Why have you returned unaccompanied today to tell us that only the President can feed us? Is Tsvangirai also not part of your
government?'' he quizzed the Provincial Governor.
Answers were not easy to come out of the dry mouth of Maluleke who had obviously come to the villagers with the usual arrogance of a power deluded Zanu PF functionary unused to political challenges from lowly villagers.
Clearly the days when Zanu PF used to abuse government powers to further its political interest are gone and will never return thanks to the MDC-T participation in the coalition government which has opened highways into the rural electorate that hitherto was preserved for undiluted Zanu PF propaganda.
It is from these events that for all his failings and inabilities to read into the National mood 2nd Deputy Premier Professor Mutambara has become convinced that an election now will produce only one result.
An 88% to 22% anahilation of President Mugabe’s Zanu PF Party at the hands of the MDC-T.
Amazingly Professor Mutambara believes that such an electoral outcome will plunge the country back into the pre- June 28 2008 anarchy that characterized the campaign to restore President Mugabe back into office following his defeat in the March elections by Premier Tsvangirai.
To avoid that the 2nd Deputy Premier favours the continuation of the coalition government until 2013 in the hope that his party of renegades will make up for lost ground to MDC-T and Zanu PF.
The unfortunate folly of that miscalculation is that with each day that passes and the MDC-T remains in the coalition government, it is gaining rather than losing sympathy and affection from both rural and urban voters alike and notwithstanding efforts of other parties to demonise it.
If elections are delayed the MDC will consolidate its growing support base and win all Parliamentary seats and archive a one Party State without planning and campaigning for it.
That is a more frightening prospect than the fear of a Zanu PF electoral failure causing violence as there will be no one to use in the violence by the demoniac party.
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