It is a pity that we have become a polarised nation with the ordinary citizen bearing the brunt of elitist politics.
Zanu PF, the ruling party since 1980, claims it won the 30 July election. MDC, the main opposition since 1999, also claims it won the same election.
The historical Supreme Court hearing with a panel of nine judges, witnessed by every Zimbabwean with access to ZBC TV, the nation’s sole broadcaster, could not save the nation from the looming political standoff.
If anything, it rubberstamped it.
Zanu Pf came out of the court all smiles headed towards the cockerel perched building, the Zanu PF shrine, set to occupy the famous Munhumutapa Building and form the next government.
The MDC marched to Harvest House, their headquarters, sullen but ready to occupy the streets and sing the illegitimacy song.
It has since become apparent to Zimbabweans that the Supreme Court ruling threw the country into a political logjam that has subsequently seen the nation heading towards one destination, the dead end.
In all this political quagmire, the ordinary Zimbabwean is stuck in the middle, left to manoeuvre in the socio-economic quicksand whilst the political elite from both ends of the political spectrum lives in affluent suburbs driving top of the range cars.
Zimbabweans are suffering. From all walks of life, whether one supports the MDC or Zanu PF, it is fact not fiction that the centre no longer holds.
Perhaps, the question that we must stop asking ourselves as a country is who won or who did not win the election. We have asked this, times without number and it has all been a wild goose chase.
Instead, what we should probably be asking ourselves is where do we go from here and what is good for the country. This is a simple question that however, has evidently been lacking in the matrix of solving the Zimbabwean crisis.
The, it-is-us-who-won-the-election narrative maintained by the two big parties betrays them – none of them has the interest of the nation at heart.
They are both pursuing party interests, at the expense of the larger Zimbabwean dream.
Sadly, even the ordinary voter has been hoodwinked into partisan politics and joined the band wagon of sacrificing the national agenda on the altar of party politics.
We have become a nation at war with itself with zealots from the two big parties being not only their own enemies but also foes of progress.
But, the politically naive, those not affiliated to any of the big parties know what they need and what is good for the country.
It is them whose children kick dust from school having been chased for not paying school fees. It is them who share pinches of salt over torn fences to season food that has become so difficult to come by.
It is them who are victims of elitist politics.
All they need is a Mugabe and Tsvangirai of 2008 and the Government of National Unity that followed in 2009.
However, their voice is not heard as they are deemed not politically astute to understand the dynamics of the polygamous government of 2009-2013.
Zanu PF regrets it. The MDC regrets it. The big parties lament it was the greatest political gaffe post-independence Zimbabwe. The big parties lost, but did the nation not win?
We are again at crossroads where neither a Zanu Pf win nor an MDC win matters. It is the laymen in the street, the politically naive that must win.
Unless the big parties and their hard-core fanatics stop chasing the wind, the innocent will remain the proverbial grass that suffers when two bulls fight.
Nkosiyazi Kan Kanjiri is a Social Work Masters Student at the University Of Fort Hare, South Africa. He can be contacted on [email protected]