By Wilbert Mukori- Zviripapi! CCC yangova chechi yavaWisiri!” (What a waste! CCC is now a Wesley church building!) commented my cousin after attending Nelson Chamisa’s CCC 2023 election campaign launch in Mkoba, Gweru, on Sunday 16th July.
In my rural village, “Chechi yavaWisiri” was, during my youth, the byword for something not fit for the purpose, for pathetic failure.
The Wesley church members in my home area were allocated a piece of land on which to build their church. I remember a structure going up every few years only to be abandoned before it was complete. And after a few years work will start again on a new structure. Work will once again stop because the members had run out of ideas, money or something.
On one occasion, the structure build out of fired mud-bricks had gone up nearly roof level when there the rain season set in. It was not a particularly wet season. After a few weeks, cracks started appear on the wall. The walls were plastered to cover the cracks. To cut the long story short, the building was abandoned yet again before it was complete; no amount of mud plaster was ever going to hold up that mud-brick leaning tower of Pisa!
My cousin is a shrewd political activist and not to be confused with the brain dead political supporters, from both sides of the political divide, who follow the political leaders blindly, no questioned asked, like sheep to the slaughter. He joined the MDC soon after the party was launched in 1999 but his enthusiasm and zeal did not last. “We have too much dead wood, starting with Morgan Tsvangirai himself!” he explained to me at the time. Time has proven him right again and again.
Lest people forget, the people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb (Zanu PF thugs have been ruthless with their political opponents and their supporters) to elect MDC (now rebranded as CCC) leaders into power on the promise the party will implement the necessary democratic changes to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. After 23 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC/CCC has not implemented even one token democratic reform. Worse still, the party has been participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy out of greed.
It was my cousin who brought David Coltart’s book to my attention, more specifically the confession on the futility of participating in flawed elections.
“The (2013) 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,” confessed David Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe. could h where plaster e
My cousin tried his best to talk the likes of David Coltart, Tendai Biti and one or two others “with some grey stuff between their ears” to do the only rational thing – stop participating in flawed 2018 elections to perpetuate the dictatorship. The gravitation pull of greed, the call of the wild, was overwhelming; particularly now that Mugabe had nurtured and cultivated it during the GNU years.
“If there was any pretence of the party seeking democratic changes before the 2008 and 2013 GNU, the pretence died of neglect during the GNU,” explained my cousin.”Soon after the GNU the fight for reform and democratic changes was buried.
“Chamisa and company are now convinced they can win “rigged” elections and political power. At least, this is what they tell the wildebeest herd; cover for why they insist on participating in flawed elections.
“Zimbabwe is a failed state and the need to implement the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance is more urgent now that ever. Chamisa and his CCC friends are talking of regime change, that is the change they are now promising not reforms and free elections.
“So MDC/CCC has failed to deliver even one token reform in these last 23 years nor is it ever likely to do so in the future because the party has never had the quality leaders to understand the reforms much less the vision to implement them. MDC/CCC was never ever fit for purpose! Chechi yavaWisiri!”
My cousin had not bothered to register to vote for the 2018 elections when it became clear to him that MDC leaders were participating to give Zanu PF legitimacy out of greed. He is not going to vote next month and has been doing his best to explain the sheer futility of doing so to perpetuate the Zanu PF dictatorship and prop up corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless CCC!