Povo have looked from Dr Moyo to Tsvangirai to Mugabe, and back again - all they see is a**holes P Guramatunhu

The next parliamentary and presidential elections are still a year away but already a number of individuals have declared their intention to contest the elections. And there have been many opinion pieces expressing the many challenges the candidates will face and their chance of winning the election.

"What I will be reading this coming week is how Mberengwa born Vimbai Musvaburi (aspiring MP for Bulawayo South) and Mberengwa born Nkosana Moyo (aspiring President) fit differently into these narratives," said one punter, Discent Collins Bajila

The great disappointment is none of these narratives relate to the real big issue here which is why are the opposition contesting flawed elections in the first place?

Vimbai and Nkosana should know that President Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have remained in power all these last 37 years not because they are consistently the best political leaders the nation has and the electorate love them and have voted for them in droves time and time again. The regime has enjoyed absolute power because the tyrant has instituted a political system that has ruthlessly denied the people their freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF has time and time again rigged the vote to stay in power. This is common knowledge.

We all know that Zanu PF rigged the last elections in July 2013. We also know MDC have failed to get even one reform designed to stop the vote rigging implemented. Zanu PF is set to blatantly rig next year’s election just as the party rigged the 2013 election; that is a certainty.

So, any serious political analysts worth his/her salt would be asking; why are people like Vimbai and Nkosana, seemingly street wise individuals, contesting an election they already know in advance would be rigged? They have failed to give a rational answer to the question because there is no rational to their decision. Still, they must have a reason for their irrational decision. They are not stupid that much is certain.

It is for us, the public to dig out the real reason why Vimbai and Nkosana are contesting the flawed election, they know are flawed.  The answer is stirring us in the face!

Ever since the fracas of the botched 2008 elections where President Mugabe was forced to eat humble pie and accept to share power with MDC; the tyrant has learned that he can still rig the elections and get away with it as long as he allows the opposition to win some gravy train seats. It is these give away seats that are attracting the opposition candidates like jackals after the scraps of a lion’s kill.

 in the GNU following the kkWe all know that as part of its scheme to ensure political legitimacy Zanu PF has been giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to contest the elections. There are two parallel races going on here; one of Zanu PF party members fighting over who is the lucky ones to get one of the gravy train in the two thirds Zanu PF landslide victory. The party’s presidential candidate is already decided and he will get his landslide victory too, guaranteed.

The second parallel rat race is in the opposition camp fighting over the scraps Zanu PF throws at them. David Coltart was smart enough to see what is happening as he admitted in his book.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” said Coltart.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

Coltart, just like Vimbai and Nkosana and thousands of others in the opposition camp, was smart enough to see the folly of contesting the flawed and illegal elections but not strong enough to resist the most primordial and irresistible force on earth – greed. The call of the wild! Coltart heard it and he contested the July 2013 elections knowing fully well that the whole process was flawed and illegal. Vimbai and Nkosana are not deaf, they too have heard the call of the wild and they have join the rat race in answer to the call.

Vimbai Musvaburi, like Fadzai Mahere who is to contest the Mount Pleasant seat, know that the opposition scraps are the urban seats hence her standing in Bulawayo South instead of contesting in her rural Mberengwa. If she was standing because she cared about the suffering masses then surely there is more human suffering in Mberengwa than in Bulawayo!

Indeed, there are going to be so many opposition candidates in urban constituencies the voters will be spoilt for choice. If there was ever any justification for an opposition coalition then it is here because the opposition will definitely split the opposition vote and allow Zanu PF candidates win.

But you can bet your bottom dollar that the likes of Vimbai and Fadzai will readily agree to the opposition fielding one candidate on one condition – that they are the candidate! They have already started dreaming about the stunning outfits they will be wearing as MP and how they too will finally get to wear the Gucci designer shoes Zimbabwe’s ruling elite take for granted. They have heard the call of the wild and they are here to answer it.

Dr Nkosana Moyo has no chance of winning the rigged elections, he is contesting for the sake of adding “a 2018 contestant in Zimbabwe’s presidential elections” to his already very impressive CV. Having got the people’s attention, he can then explain that he lost the race because Zanu PF rigged the vote. He will then tell his captive audience the many things he was going to do to fix Zimbabwe’s broken economy. He will never admit he know Zanu PF was going to rig the vote and that he contested regardless because he too was trying to gratify his insatiable love for power, wealth and prestige.

It is a good year before the election and Vimbai, Fadzai, Nkosana as well as many others know the opposition rat race for the scraps is going to be the fiercest race of all. They have thrown their hat in early, they do not care a damn that by contesting they are helping Zanu PF consolidate its strangle hold on power and perpetuate the ordinary people’s suffering.

Zimbabwe is in this political and economic hell-hole because President Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have systematically denied the people of Zimbabwe their freedoms and human rights in pursuit of gratifying their greed for absolute power and all the wealth and influence it brings.

We would have escaped from the hell-hole a long time ago if Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had implemented the democratic reforms to deliver the democratic changes they promised and people risked life and limp to elect them in office to do. Tsvangirai & co. heard the call of the wild desires are to the man and woman they all forgot about the reforms.

Greed has infected our society so much so that even new comers like Vimba, Fadzai and Nkosana are no different from Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends or Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs who have gone before them. Vimbai and the other new comers’ greed is helping Zanu PF getting away with refusing to implement the reforms just as Tsvangirai and his MDC friends’ greed has done in the past.

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” Wrote George Orwell in Animal Farm.

As the nation is once again being stampeded into yet another totally meaningless election it is easy to see how povo has become so disillusioned the look from Mugabe to Tsvangirai, from Tsvangirai to Dr Moyo, from Moyo to Mugabe and back again and, in the end, all they see are a***holes crapping on them!