This ridiculous proliferation of political parties has made us more of followers than originals. We have embraced political mediocrity to a level that sees us strangling ourselves as we gasp for air.
Yet another party has been registered in Zimbabwe.
Why a fledgling political party has to be “registered” by another political party remains a mystery to me.
Be that as it may, Dr Joice Mujuru, a Zanu-PF cadre who reportedly interrupted her primary school education as a little girl to join the liberation war and who distinguished herself in battle so much that she remained in cabinet for the rest of her days in Zanu-Pf, has formed her own party, Zimbabwe People First.
Dr Mujuru went as high as being Robert Mugabe’s Vice President for 10 years until she was waylaid by a cross-border trader who had managed to squeeze through layers and layers of presidential security to bed Mugabe in an infidelity romp that culminated in a marriage outrageously solemnized by the Catholic Archbishop of Harare.
After being pushed out of Zanu-PF, the only political party she has known all her life, Mujuru established her own party last week.
And that, my friends, is a bit of a problem.
Mujuru, who persevered until she earned an academic doctorate degree in 2014, has held no other allegiance except to Robert Mugabe and to Zanu-Pf all her life.
After benefitting from the system and accumulating a sizeable amount of pennies along the way, she now has to learn to bear allegiance to herself and to her own party.
Will “they” let her?
The political landscape is littered with tens and tens of political dinosaurs who formed political parties that crumbled but whose founding leaders still claim to lead a political party. At inception, founding party leaders virtually own a party. No one who formed and led a political party in Zimbabwe has ever stepped aside to let someone else take over to lead the party unless they are dead.
So another political dinosaur has been added to the ever growing list. Reports say people are defecting from Mugabe, Biti, Mangoma, the MDC formations and from elsewhere to join Mujuru’s party.
Mujuru should not, however, beat her chest in gleeful self-congratulations because of the number of people reportedly rushing to join her party.
She must be reminded that she was, until less than two years ago, part of the machinery that castrated the political will of the people of Zimbabwe. She too became victim to the same.
For decades while she was part of Zanu-Pf, people were murdered, elections rigged, treasury raided and one of the saddest chapters in our history occurred in the slaughter of thousands of fellow citizens to suppress divergent thought.
I am troubled that Mujuru would still be in Zanu-Pf, defending Mugabe and sloganeering, had she not been humiliated out of there.
Unlike other political parties in the country, Mujuru arrives on the scene with a ready-made following. She did not have to look for supporters; supporters from all other political parties, including Zanu-Pf, were looking for her and that is both unusual and scary.
Unusual because a political party must, at least, sell itself first to impress and attract followers; scary because she is being mobbed by old Zanu-Pf faithfuls who already seem ready to fight for positions in the new party.
The danger here is that we are going to have the same old Zanu-Pf people under a new name.
And, as always, the termites are already at work! Even law suits have already started against her party! Next will be treason charges, a fatal car accident here and there, planted Zanu-Pf spies being discovered, accusations of dictatorship…yet there is already talk of a grand coalition like we have seen and heard thousands of times before.
Mujuru must not rush or be pushed into coalitions.
She and her party must stand alone at this point and make an effort to establish their political philosophy, aims and doctrine. This must be hammered into the people to make a clear distinction between itself and other political parties.
They must have an upper hand in substance and content, something all other political parties have failed to impress on people.
They must shore up their base so that when uniting with other parties, they have an undeniable focus known by the people. All these other political parties do not want to join anyone; they want to be joined. Most bring nothing to the table. Besides, they have tried it among themselves and failed countless times.
Opposition parties hate each other more than they hate Zanu-Pf so Mujuru’s party must take its time and try to be a people’s party before trying to be all things to all parties.
The people of Zimbabwe are weary and honestly wish for a true liberator. They are hungry for freedom and would like an opportunity to be left alone to care for their families without being dragged to meaningless rallies to watch fat cats getting fatter while they are starving and while their children cannot even go to school.
The arrival of a political party comes with both high expectations and false promises, raising the hopes of Zimbabweans who are so keen to move forward but always get thwarted by bickering politicians.
Mujuru must not over-estimate her presence or popularity.
We are aware that she did not walk away from Mugabe and Zanu-Pf but that they humiliated her out of both the party and cabinet. Otherwise she would still be in Zanu-Pf.
We are aware that they have been partners in crime for more than 30 years, supporting and protecting each other. This makes it almost impossible for either half to ill-treat the other in real terms without risking one side or both divulging dangerous, decades-old secrets.
“He (Mugabe) keeps files on everybody,” Mujuru told the Sunday Times (UK) last week. I just wonder how far Mujuru will go with this if it becomes a real threat to Mugabe.
For now though, she should remember all the things they used to do together.
She must start there and apologise to the very same people whose support she now seeks to stay relevant in Zimbabwean politics.
She could apologise for her own presence in government during the Gukurahundi genocide instead of trying to pass herself as clean by saying her life-long tenure in Zanu-Pf was just “a marriage of convenience”.
It is difficult to believe that having been in cabinet since 1980 and having been Mugabe’s Vice president for ten years until last year, Mujuru knew nothing about electoral fraud.
“I never saw the rigging… I am sure it was a very small clique that was doing it,” she said. Insulting people’s intelligence like this is a sure way to lose credibility.
Many people have already been tempted to believe that the arrival of Mujuru’s political party in Zimbabwe is the answer; that it is the awakening of silence.
Zimbabweans seriously seek the purity of Mujuru’s intentions.
Mugabe, Zanu-PF, war veterans, Mnangagwa, Joice Mujuru and the people they surround themselves with all ghoulishly remind us of the song Hotel California…”We are all just prisoners here of our own device…You can check out any time you like but you can never leave”.
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