PIC: Mugabe Mutambara and the People whose plight they champion?
A political leader who gains power by appealing to people's emotions, instincts, and prejudices in a way that is considered manipulative and dangerous is described as a demagogue.
Such a statement would to a large extent describe Prof Arthur Mutambara leader of a shelf political outfit that broke away from the MDC party on 12 October 2005.
The outfit now dubbed MDC PF because of its perceived and in many instances proven leadership alliance with the loathed Zanu PF party which alienates the party’s leadership from the majority of “its” bankable assets - MP’s, Senators, and Councillors -other than those holding a portfolio in its Executive, is a political Trojan horse in Zimbabwe.
It has the dubious distinction of claiming kingmaker status in the hung Parliament that emerged from Zimbabwe’s March 2008 elections which failed to demonstrate that muscle in elections for Parliament Speaker but its leader has cynically positioned himself to be king (Deputy Prime Minister Designate) from the ashes of his defeat in Zengeza West Parliamentary elections and also secured 3 Ministerial posts 2 Senatorial Appointments and is poised to land a Provincial Governorship, 3 Permanent Secretaries, 3 Ambassadors, 1Provincial Administrator for his electorally dumped National Executives.
Zimbabweans are at loss of words to explain how an electorally vanquished political Party without any visible electable leader in its ranks can end up supplying a significant contingent of the next Government officials as envisaged in the foregoing.
Prof Mutambara who fronts the Party boasts being the most academically educated political leader in the world and by extension the best political strategist.
Achievements as he has accomplished for the shelf political outfit he leads are to him a day job with no sweat at all.
His strategy is very well defined. It is the attachment and detachment strategy. One fundamental principle guides the execution of the entire strategy for his success in adversity.
Align and conquer. That is the strategy he has effectively used to remain visible in a political arena where he has absolutely no following of his own making.
It is a dynamic strategy but is also highly unreliable, reactionary and unpredictable. One would opt to support a more stable national strategist than a reactionary and risk all inclined Prof Mutambara for National leadership.
But it will not worry Prof Mutambara who has everything to gain from going for brook than hold on to nothing.
In his 2008 Heroes day celebration commemoration message he made it clear that his strategy is premised on implementation before planning.
There is ample evidence to show that he was not buffing. When he accepted Presidency of the MDC PF faction from out of the blue there is mounting evidence he had not analysed the power dynamics within MDC.
When he realised he had joined the weaker faction and it was impossible to lead it to an electoral victory he reacted by seeking to realign his faction with the one that remained loyal to Tsvangirai in vain.
His strategy then was to exploit the political popularity of the original MDC and get as many of his loyalists elected using a one opposition candidate per Constituency model that would, if it had carried, landed his faction a credible 45 seats in the 210 seat Parliament leaving Tsvangirai with 64 of the 99 seats his Party garnered and that would have spelt political doom for Tsvangirai as Prof Mutambara would have aligned with Mugabe’s Zanu PF to form a Government not withstanding his now proven unpopularity with the electorate.
Realising the folly of the failed electoral pact with Tsvangirai and the possible humiliation he would face if he contested the Presidential election against Tsvangirai and Mugabe who had been joined in the race by Dr Simba Makoni whose popularity was over exaggerated, Prof Mutambara reacted by announcing his withdrawal from the Presidential election and aligning his faction with the “independent” presidential bid of a party-less Dr Makoni.
These desperate alliances were pursued out of desperation by Prof Mutambara who had no strategy in place for his faction to compete and win the elections and if they lost to remain relevant in Zimbabwe politics.
Then there was the shameful attempt to legitimise Mugabe when the faction rushed to State House to meet then South Africa President Thabo Mbeki who had intimated he wished to revive discarded political dialogue after Mugabe had proclaimed himself winner of the 27 June 2008 hoax Presidential runoff election that was neither legitimate nor did it produce a credible result.
Prof Mutambara held Tsvangirai in utter contempt but his March electoral victories in Local Governance, Parliamentary, Senatorial and Presidential segments together with the failed alliance pact and the exposure his no show at State House infuriated him to a point where his spite for Tsvangirai degenerated to schizophrenic levels.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) talks eventually took off the ground and resulted in negotiations that ushered the 15 September 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) that rewarded Professor Mutambara’s political outfit without loyal supporters immensely.
But the rewards have remained on paper for far too long and infuriated many Zimbabweans not least of them the MDC PF leader.
The only tangible benefit his faction would have realised out of the GPA settlement would have been if the party’s fielding of the Speakership of Parliament Paul Themba Nyathi had won the post which sadly for the Faction was wrestled by the loathed MDC candidate Hon Lovemore Moyo.
The convening of Parliament was another example of how dangerous the demagogue Professor‘s strategy of align and conquer can be.
Power sharing negotiations between Mugabe and Tsvangirai’s roles having reached a deadlock the matter was referred to Sadc as underwriters of the GPA and they resolved that negotiations must be concluded under Mbeki’s mediation and created a pseudo reference group any aggrieved party could fall back on that has really never been allowed to input into the negotiations whenever they encountered sticky issues.
Professor Mutambara had secretly cobbled an unholy alliance with Zanu PF to sideline
Tsvangirai from the GPA government or make him drop his demands for power equity wherein Zanu PF and his MDC faction would field one Parliamentary Speaker from his faction and if that succeeded the two formations would form the Government.
The secret deal was convincingly sold to the SADC mediator who bought into it after receiving reassurances from both Mugabe and Prof Mutambara that the alliance would prevail and severely weaken Tsvangirai’s demands for power that were in the way of forming the Government.
Then South Africa President Mbeki whose affinity with Zanu PF and MDC PF has been subject of much debate sold the unholy plan to his SADC peers who allowed Mugabe to proceed with the convening of Parliament notwithstanding the prohibition of such moves in the GPA.
As fate would have it that was to be Mbeki’s last act of betrayal of Zimbabweans as a SADC head of State.
The alliance collapsed dramatically when Hon Lovemore Moyo fielded for the Speaker’s position by Tsvangirai triumphed.
Mugabe dropped threats to form the government he had unequivocally made in the run up to the SADC meeting and thereafter.
Mbeki was ousted as South Africa President by his ANC sponsors’ threat to move a motion for his impeachment after the corruption charges against his former Deputy in the Party now Chairman Jacob Zuma were found to have been politically manufactured.
The GPA power sharing process was briefly thrown into disarray as Mbeki leaked his wounds and regained his composure. After two weeks of uncertainty he was convinced by Prof. Mutambara and Mugabe that his role in Zimbabwe mediation was more critical for their survival than hitherto and he agreed to resume the mediation process more so to recover his lost esteem than anything else.
The renewed effort resulted in Tsvangirai gaining concessions from the weakened Zanu PF despot Robert Mugabe and the frightened Professor Mutambara when his powers in the GPA Government were elevated to devolve from the Constitution and not Mugabe as was initialled agreed between Zanu PF and MDC PF with Mbeki’s initial approval.
Robert Mugabe’s henchman in Zanu PF realised that their leader had been jolted by the Parliamentary Speakership loss and the subsequent jeering he got when he addressed parliament and advised him to harden up in power negotiations with the MDC over Ministerial allotments.
Mugabe obliged by gazetting a list each party would be allotted in the envisaged GPA Government.
The list triggered a vicious response from the MDC which sought to establish by what authority Mugabe had allotted Ministries before regularising the Constitutional appointment of the Prime Minister and his Deputies.
SADC Mediator Thabo Mbeki fuelled the animosity between Zanu PF and the MDC when he visited Zimbabwe to defuse the tension that was threatening the implementation of the GPA.
Mbeki read out the Zanu PF endorsed allotment of Ministries and justified it courting the ire of the MDC that has for some time been accusing him of bias.
They rejected his recommendations and requested the matter be referred to SADC Heads whereupon Mbeki reverted to the Sadc Troika on Politics and Security that must house the Reference Mediation Team and fed them with lies that the stalemate was over control of the Home Affairs Ministry.
He presented the Troika a Zanu PF dossier prepared by the CIO wherein it accused the MDC of training insurgents in Botswana. Botswana denied the false allegations and requested SADC to send a fact finding mission to his country at their earliest convenience a challenge the Troika accepted showing their conviction in allegations from Zanu PF.
They do not know that it is a basic Zanu PF strategy to frame political opponents in advance of planned reprisals. The framing of Botswana is the first against a State by Zanu PF and was hinted by Mugabe on 15 September when he hinted that he will have his day to get back at Botswana’s President for criticising him in public.
Botswana had deported Caesar Zvayi from Botswana whom the Zimbabwe Government had assigned to pry on the Botswana Government while masquerading as a Lecturer at the University of Botswana and the Zanu PF allegations against Botswana have everything to do with that deportation.
If it was not for the fear Zimbabwe has of the reaction of American troops based in Botswana if it invades that country war would by now have broken out between Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Patrick Chinamasa has been yapping about Tsvangirai turning into a Zimbabwean Jonasi Savimbi in time and Zanu PF preparing to deal with him at that level.
Zimbabwe State controlled media has been building up the case about Botswana preparing for war and expressed misgivings about the relationship between Tsvangirai and the Botswana government until they decided to officially make the allegations that Botswana dismissed as patently false.
The reason Tsvangirai has been restricted to travelling on an ETD is because the illegal regime in Zimbabwe wants to monitor his travel to Botswana and link it to the insurgents training hoax.
When the SADC Troika invited the feuding Zimbabwe parties to Mbabane an Tsvangirai refused to attend on a restricted ETD he was responding to the false accusations being framed by Zanu PF and exposing Zanu PF insincerity in its involvement in the GPA negotiations.
The dull SADC Troika missed the signal to unravel the allegations of banditry being framed against the MDC and instead arranged for the Troika to visit Harare.
While in Harare they were officially handed the dossier on Botswana’s alleged alliance with Tsvangirai to train MDC insurgents and provide them rear bases from which to attack and destabilise Zimbabwe.
Professor Mutambara meanwhile is fixed on the Deputy prime minister’s position that awaits him if the GPA Government is incorporated and all else is secondary to that basic objective of his.
Unlike the MDC his faction morphed out as renegade outfit from funding provided by generous CIO donations as opposed to MDC start up capital mobilised from disgruntled Zimbabwean Farmers and Workers.
The MDC PF faction he leads is also heavily reliant on sponsorship marshalled by Thabo Mbeki as part of a grand strategy to weaken the MDC and rebrand it as the MDC PF.
The faction’s political gains have all been possible courtesy of Thabo Mbeki’s support both materially and ideologically.
Its dubious involvement in negotiations to resolve a Presidential electoral dispute it never contested was made possible by none other than Thabo Mbeki.
The 14 Legislative Constituencies it claims dominion over only accrued to it because it went into the election mischievously masquerading as MDC and those that were not sure it was divorced from Tsvangirai and aligned to Zanu PF voted for it.
The faction has never learned to exist as a standalone entity because of its align and conquer strategy.
Prof Mutambara is convinced that if he gets the Deputy Premiership in the Government envisaged by the GPA he will have found the springboard from which to catapult his faction of losers to dizzy political heights and therefore his frustration with anyone who acts in a manner he deems threatening to the realisation of his ultimate political goal at present.
But so far all his align and conquer strategy has managed to court utter disdain and spite for his party and himself personally to a point where he is now considered a maniac politician in our midst.
He has made significant conquests alright but he is yet to enjoy the fruits of his cynical gains and when he does come to realising them in practice he will find that his harvest is a harvest of political thorns and thistles as he has laid himself ground for a baptism of fire as an unwanted Deputy Premier.
He will spend the vast majority of his time in Government fending off sharp criticism and his effectiveness if he has any will be severely compromised.
Perhaps the schizophrenic Professor will find time to reflect his align and conquer political strategy and evaluate its suitability, efficiency and effectiveness for Zimbabwe.
We are sure he will come to the conclusion that Zanu PF and MDC are not political entities anyone can align with to conquer them. Their grassroots support is gelled by fundamental beliefs in their abilities to articulate and carry through programmes they initiate. They will not flock with demagogues who think a GPA is the means and end of their political economic and social misery. Neither will they rally behind him in his naively stupid call to unite in celebrating a government that legitimises Mugabe and Mutambara’s electoral fraud.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment