Mujuru is a "strategic thinker" says Mbudzi - wishful thinking than fact

Kudzai Mbudzi’s interview (Bulawayo24 'Mujuru expulsion marks Zanu-PF's demise') had all the hallmarks of someone who has thought a great deal on the subject matter; it is concise and intelligent. Not the usual wittering flip-flop nonsense the nation has learnt to expect from people like Biti and Tsvangirai. Or the two hours blast of sound and fury signifying nothing form Robert Mugabe. Thank God old age and ill health has finally caught up with the tyrant the blast has now been toned right down to a whimper lasting a few minutes, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Right at the start of the interview Kudzai Mbudzi was asked what political influence war veterans had in Zimbabwe’s murky politics.

“Not much because at times we allowed ourselves to be used to fight other people's unholy political wars,” replied Mbudzi, “sometimes against the interests of the broad spectrum of the Zimbabwean people whom we purportedly claimed to have liberated.”

The question could have been extended to include what influence the Police, Army and the much feared CIO had and the answer would have been the same – none. Even in the face of all the grand standing and posturing by the top brass in the security services when push came to shove when Mugabe was forced to sign the GPA after the barbarism of the 2008 elections none of those pompous generals objected.

Zimbabwe would and should be a democratic nation now with the Police, CIO, Judiciary, etc. all carrying out their respective duties without fear, favour or prejudice if only MDC had not sold-out and failed to implement even one of the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the GPA. Everyone agreed the reforms were necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging elections, which they did in 2013 thanks to MDC’s failure to implement even one reform.

Some people said if MDC had implemented the reforms and won the July 2013 there would have been a military coup. No doubt there will be more such talk as we get to the next elections. It is all nonsense of course.

The Zimbabwe economy is in total economic meltdown because of 35 years of mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness. How would a coup help end the situation? The coup would be the equivalent of robing Obert Mpofu’s defunct banks; you will break in but there will be nothing to rob. A military coup will show the Army, CIO, Police, war vets and all the Zanu PF operatives included in the coup still have political influence but that will also show Zimbabwe is still a lawless nation and deepen the economic meltdown.

Most Zimbabweans have power cuts lasting 20 hours a day every day; a military coup will result in even those few hours of electricity being cut off, as the economic crisis deepens. A few days sitting in the dark will bring those generals and hardliners to their senses quick smart!

“When Kasukuwere assumed his present office, he fired all the Generals who had been attached to Zanu-PF as so-called political commissars with no resistance at all,” continued Mbudzi to underline the point of the little influence the Army has. “They left in a huff and in a hurry simply murmuring some disapproval to themselves.

“A former driver booting away Generals and former top senior commanders of the liberation struggle like thieves caught in the midst of the act confirms their lack of any say nor muscle in Zanu-PF politics.

“There are some who then live under the hallucination that they have some say when in actual fact they are totally toothless bulldogs.”

Mbudzi forgot to mention the derogatory two fingers salute from Kasukuwere to wave the toothless bulldogs goodbye!

I beg to differ with Kudzai on Mai Mujuru; “Mai Mujuru and her People First have a strategy and a different corporate culture from the orthodox prototype Zanu-PF ways of self-expression,” he said.

Mai Mujuru is corrupt, incompetent and totally incapable of strategic thinking. She is lazy and that is exactly why Mugabe wanted her as VP, the same reason he had Simon Muzenda before her. When you work under a control freak like Mugabe, who freaks out at hearing someone else saying something remotely clever or logical, one learns to switch-off mentally and repeat what the control freak wants to hear. For the naturally lazy ones like Muzenda and Mujuru, switching-off mentally becomes a permanent fixture.

The brain is the most complex tissue but the easiest to turn to fat; use it or lose it!

The relative ease with which Mugabe and his wife “ostracised and politically decapitated” Mujuru and her supporters, as Mbudzi readily admitted. They “baby dumped” her and 150 other party bigwigs like irate toddles tossing out overstuffed teddy bears out of the crib.

It was obvious Mujuru and her supporters did not see the “baby dumping” coming and yet she has known, or should have known, that Mugabe rigs national elections as well as party elections. When the abuse from Grace Mugabe started, the Mujuru faction were like chicken caught in a storm soaked to the skin and did not know which way to turn. Surely that does not augur well with who is a strategic thinker!

To call Mai Mujuru a stragic thinker is more from wishing thinking than factual reality.

I do agree with Mbudzi that Mai Mujuru could well win the next elections and become the next president or, in the very least, be the king-maker. This will happen not because she is in any way competent but rather that she is lucky. Lucky that the corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai failed to implement the reforms during the GNU as so Zimbabwe’s electoral waters are as muddy as ever. Democrats and competent leaders do not win rigged elections; corrupt and incompetent tyrants do.

As long as the next elections one held under the present murky conditions Mujuru has a fighting chance of “winning” because she knows how her former Zanu Pf colleagues have rigged past elections and many of her supporters are imbedded in Zanu PF, they will inform her of all the vote rigging. 

After MDC have clearly failed to deliver any meaningful democratic change the electorate will be so desperate for change they would vote for Mujuru regardless the fact they know she is corrupt and incompetent just to get rid of Mugabe.

“We need an inspired transformational and ideologically equipped leader but quite uncorrupted by the nationalist demon, zeal and passion to fight anything which is white or western, while on the other surreptitiously calling upon the Chinese to come and plunder our resources in exchange for funding the despots' next political campaign,” concluded Kudzai Mbudzi.

“We need somebody who is modern, who realises that Zimbabwe is now 20 to 30 years behind, one who can therefore fast track our socio economic programmes to create sustainable socio-economic development and catapult Zimbabwe into an orbit of sustainable development and economic competitiveness.”

I will say amen to that but with the caveat that Mai Mujuru is not that the inspired and modern leader to lead us out of this hell-on-earth we now find ourselves in because she is corrupt and incompetent the hallmarks of all those who dragged us into this mess.

We need to implement all the democratic reforms in the GPA and thus clear the foul air of corruption and fear and ignorance; the competitive spirit of democracy will allow the competent and visionary leaders to emerge and the dead weights with more fatty tissue than brain to finally sink to the bottom where they belong.