By Luke Batsirai Tamborinyoka| Leopards have been known to feast on goats. In fact, goat meat is a delicacy to the leopard tribe. But when a leopard starts playing midwife to a pregnant goat or even running the goats’ maternity ward, then there must surely be a catch somewhere.
It may mean the goat was no goat at all in the first instance. The truth may have finally come out that the goat has always been a leopard in a goat’s skin.
In fact, we hear the goat and the leopard are having secret talks behind the scenes, breaking bread together and clasping high fives in cosy, animated conversations.
We are not sure yet what offspring will be bred from their confirmed consensual mating that is happening well outside the public glare.and taking place without the consent and blessings of the parents, in this case the citizens.
Zanu PF has always tried to destroy every genuine opposition political party in Zimbabwe since the heady days of ZAPU, which they later ingloriously assimilated in 1987.
With the MDC they tried and failed dismally.
We saw them assimilating and decimating the MDC Alliance and lately the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) where both the captured institutions of Parliament and the Courts conspired with Zanu PF, in the latter case to donate the party to a charlatan called Sengezo Tshabangu.
Judging by what has been happening in the past few months, it is now clear that many in the democratic movement have been bribed and have fallen for trinkets and trappings.
Only a few of us can stand proud that our political hearts are not buyable;; are not purchasable because we turned down these trappings.
In the fullness of time, and with an arrogant smugness, some of us will be able to boldly stare history in the face for standing firm in the unstinting conviction that values are more enduring then temporary material benefit and convenience.
But if anyone was still living under the illusion that the CCC is still a credible brand and not a poisoned chalice , they need look no further than Jacob Mudenda’s spirited vitriol early this week against the CCC parliamentary component led by Jameson Zvidzai Timba.
It was very clear that in the tussle for control over the carcass called the CCC, Mudenda, and by extension Zanu PF, have a dog in the fight.
And their dog is not Timba but Tshabangu, who will most certainly receive the political party funding that is due to the CCC under the Political Parties Finance Act.
And Mudenda was basically speaking in the corner of Sengezo Tshabangu who “the system” is now officially recognising, as the genuine personification of the CCC, despite him being an extension of themselves.
Jacob Mudenda’s utterance that as Speaker of Parliament he will brook no instruction from anyone in the CCC but Tshabangu with regards to committee chairpersons and any other parliamentary business was a confirmation of the obvious.
It was simply a sonorous endorsement, yet tagain, of Sengezo, this celebrated political harlot of our time.
Dear reader, kindly note that officially there is no longer any credible opposition party in Zimbabwe.
Zanu PF is strenuously fighting in Tshabangu’s corner.
It is also naive for Timba and company to continue to believe that they can still sustain a brand called CCC outside of Zanu PF’s firm clutches of control
The CCC brand has simply become a poisoned chalice.
It has become a rotten, stinking carcass of what once was.
Why would Zanu PF speak so glowingly in support of a genuine opposition, as Mudenda did early this week while lauding Tshabangu as the main man?
Dear reader, don’t be fooled. Mudenda was not speaking as Speaker of Parliament, that was just a convenient cover-up. He was speaking as ZANU PF’s treasurer general, his Politburo position to which he was appointed in the deployments announced two weeks ago.
So that was a political statement from Zanu PF through Mudemda telling us who their man was.
Just why would the leopard defend and so meticulously prepare the maternity ward for a pregnant goat, without seeking to devour it right from the outset tin line with what we have traditionally known of their predator-prey relationship?
In fact, as I stated earlier, we are even hearing that there is consensual dialogue taking place between the leopard and the goat. Since when did leopards and goats start attending the same Holy Communion in the cosy manner that is now so palpable.
If theirs is genuine and sincere dialogue, why is it outside a known roadmap as the last one this country had that was facilitated by SADC in 2007/8?
Who is facilitating this one? Just where is the framework, where and from who was the mandate for such dialogue derived?
In fact, I would posit that by dialoguing with surrogates, , ZANU PF is basically speaking to itself. Purporting to dialogue with Tshabangu and his ilk is a crude form of masturbation., of Zanu PF doing it to and by itself.,
Yet we have seen other similarly pampered goats that were later devoured by the leopard and left no trace in the political grasslands.
Thokozani Khupe and one Douglas Togarasei Mwonzora were two such goats that were initially pampered by the leopard before the capricious fate of irrelevance visited them.
Sengezo Tshabangu may in the meantime enjoy his hour in the leopard’s maternity ward but it is only a matter of time before similar fate visits him.
As Brian Tamuka Kagoro says, while quoting Ugandan proverb, if you enter into a mutual agreement with a lion to be vegetarians, rest assured that the first vegetable the lion will east is yourself.
Luke Tamborinyoka is a citizen from Domboshava . He is a journalist and a political scientist by profesion and training You can interact with him on his facebook page o rvia the twitte handle @ luke_tambo .
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