Tsvangirai’’s Achilles heel
The Herald, 16 December 2005
By Blessing Makwambeni
THE rank air surrounding Harvest House no longer smells of any harvest. The slender savoury sunrays that used to intermittently visit the sun-baked house have sunk deeper into the murky waters of politics.
Trapped in the dank and putrid political cesspool but frantically holding on to a frail political lifeline is none other than trade unionist turned politician, Morgan Tsvangirai. As T S Elliot would put it, "the gyre turns round and round . . . and the centre can no longer hold . . . things fall apart," writes Blessing Makwambeni who traces the meteoric rise and fall of the leader of Zimbabwe’’s main opposition political party.
BUHERA born Morgan Tsvangirai sauntered onto the political podium at a time Zimbabwe was reeling from the backlash of International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic prescriptions.
Buoyed by the "NO" vote victory in the constitutional referendum in February 2000, his ego went haywire, to the extent that his naïïve and zealous wife of many years Susan, weary of her family chores, baked for him a cake in the form of "State House."
Such was the immeasurable appetite for power that had even permeated every aspect of the opposition leader’’s Strathaven enclosure.
Prior to taking a ride on the transient wave, I remember meeting Morgan during MDC’’s hey days. He was anything but convincing, struggling to keep his composure in a packed lecture theatre at the University of Zimbabwe where he had come to sell the idea of forming a political party, probably intimidated by the panorama of academia.
Tsvangirai was then a lean figure, resplendent in a weather-beaten leather jacket that clearly dramatised his ideological aridity.
Beyond his love for power, he never manifested the sacrosanct political clout capable of turning around the fortunes of a troubled economy.
Having barely cut his teeth in politics, the trade unionist was presented with a rare opportunity to bring together a loose coalition of ideologically incompatible forces.
The MDC was a combo of erstwhile colonisers; radical socialists, neo-liberals, student activists and other uprooted ideological forces.
From the onset, prescient political analysts saw this admixture as a recipe for disaster. There was no line of commonality between Eddie Cross and Nelson Chamisa. This incompatibility, the leader failed to handle, manifests itself in the unceremonial departure of former Highfield legislator, Munya-radzi Gwisai, the insubordination of maverick politicians like Job Sikhala, spewing vitriol at party leadership, and the tribal card being waved by the pro-Senate faction.
In short, the MDC has always been a factitious party held together by the artificial adhesive of common hatred for the Zanu-PF Government.
In typical (former Zambian president Fredrick) Chiluba fashion, Morgan garnered cheap popularity from a constituency that saw in him the personification of the much elusive dream.
Tsvangirai’’s first cardinal sin was to betray the mandate bestowed on him by the people, that of representing workers, for the furtherance of his political ambitions. His populism bordered on irresponsibility, with inflation galloping beyond the three digit threshold, a persistent fuel crisis and unprecedented unemployment, he chose to call for mass stayaways that further crippled the economy.
Almost single-handedly, the opposition leader invited sanctions to visit his people. Zimbabwe now receives fewer tourists because of his lies, has lost much needed investor confidence, is loathed by his principals in the West and has witnessed an unprecedented plummeting of donor funds.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair unashamedly declared in the British Parliament that he is working in cahoots with Tsvangirai to realise regime change in Zimbabwe, a clear violation of the sovereignty of an independent country.
Tsvangirai found in the deposed white settler ready sympathy. He joined hands with disgruntled Rhodies to soil the image of Zimbabwe in exchange for mammon. As the pro-Senate faction would testify, "his love for money is immeasurable. In other words, to him politics is not about serving the people or bettering their lives, it is a self-serving exercise meant to seal the holes that have been a characteristic feature of his pockets prior to trying his luck in politics.
Implicit in this marriage with the "Selous Scouts" was a promise to return land to white commercial farmers in the event that he won the elections. To him the land issue was supposed to be a public relations exercise meant to soothe the West.
He never saw it as the critical issue that sparked the Chimurenga wars, nor could he decode the melancholy that ran through the poetry of Kizito Muchemwa who wrote: "This land, the spirit dwelling in it will not give in to half-hearted tokens of transparent love."
The first signal of the MDC’’s slave driver’’s demise came in the 2000 elections when his native Buhera kinsmen refused to accept him as their representative in Parliament. It was and will remain a seminal political overture.
Imbedded in the loss was a clear refusal by Buherians to back a man not rooted in principles. Political analysts saw this loss at a micro level as reflective of the fate of the MDC at a macro level.
The Senate elections ultimately opened a can of worms, bringing to the fore the dictator in him that had always struggled to out-manoeuvre the democratic veneer he wanted to wear. His refusal to accept the results of his party’’s national council meeting, his party’’s highest decision making organ outside congress, confirmed his conspicuous dictatorial tendencies.
Unbeknown to him, democracy is premised on consensus, participation, and acceptance of the dominant view. It is not founded on the whims of caprices of the president: "uri munhu nevanhu." (the people are supreme)
Morgan is the literary progeny of Chinua Achebe’’s self-willed fetish priest, Ezeulu, the priest of Ulu.
In the instructive and seminal novel, "Arrow of God", the fetish priest grows so powerful that he thinks he has become the arrow in the bow of the gods. Worth extracting from the novel is the advice Ezeulu receives from the elders that "no matter how great, no man can ever win judgment against his people."
Tsvangirai is a headstrong political charlatan whose Achilles heel is his predilection for making utterances that shoot him in the foot.
Remember his infamous "howa" (mushroom) speech and his promise to Zimbabweans that "muchanyatsa kushaisisa." (You will really become needy)
His greatest enemy is his mouth and propensity to make statements that militate against him in the long run.
The "key" speech is a case in point. At the height of the debates in his party, he made a speech to the effect that he holds the key to the MDC and without him the party will die.
It is clear from the foregoing that Tsvangirai is home to dictatorial tendencies and as such Zimbabweans cannot and should not entrust their beautiful country to such an unapologetic dictator.
I shudder to think what would have happened to us had he been empowered to lead this country, was he not going to overrule decisions by the judiciary and Parliament? The fortresses of democracy, nothing he has done suggests otherwise.
When all is said and done, one is forced to ask: do we deserve to have Tsvangirai as a leader even if in typical Ayi Kwei Armah resignation "the beautyful (sic) ones are not yet born"?
l Blessing Makwambeni teaches Media and Journalism at the National University of Science and Technology.
Back to homepage
|
