Ndaba Nhuku | The simple answer is “No, Mujuru will not survive the political upheaval she faces!”

This is my reaction to analyst’s perception about a Mujuru revival in her party’s upheaval.

I honestly think some of the folks we call analysts are just waffling nonsense. Mujuru did not form the party but was invited to be it’s leader because she was a widowed former Vice President basking in our sympathy.

Empathy and sympathy do not translate to long term political support. All Mujuru had to do was capitalise on that and show strong leadership. She failed. The party remained an emotional movement for folks seeking revenge for being sacked from Zanu. People flocked to support it because Zimbabweans are desperate to see the back of President Robert Mugabe, and anyone saying “Pasi naMugabe” is hailed a hero!

But once the charade goes on without any results of removing Mugabe, people move on to the next noisy pretender. Mujuru failed to realise that and dragged on with a limping movement bereft of any action or direction. Like other contenders, she failed to seize the mood of the nation and lead the masses against a disoriented and divided Zanu PF.

As the sympathy waned, before the messy situation she finds herself in now, we even saw protests stunts (Mawarire, Tajamukas, Lindas)overshadow her. If you are a political observer or analyst you have to ask yourself why such one man protests would overshadow a recently formed popular party. None of our analysts asked the question.

People were now moving away from Mujuru whose movement seemed tired and going nowhere like all other opposition parties. And by taking too long seemingly going nowhere, she gave people the opportunity to start asking real questions about her own performance in Zanu PF, her own corruption, her decades long relationship with Mugabe and whether she was a suitable cadre ready to challenge her former decades long master and mentor.

People started asking questions about her own cadres around her. And people had the opportunity to see her mediocre interviews around issues like Gukurahundi, governance, her past as ineffective vice-president and her lying about not knowing what was going on in Zanu PF when she was leader, minister and VP in the party and government for almost FOUR decades.

Mujuru had loyal figures in people she was fired with because they had all come a long way together and have lot in common. If they are old and tired, is she also not? Come on folks, she is their age mate!

Like a yesteryear Tsvangirai, Mujuru dismally failed to deal with political dynamics in her organisation because she is simply not an effective leader. She doesn’t have loyal folks anymore in the party. She is left with a lot of new faces with diverse interests but mainly focused on political positions and their own personal egos.

Whereas her old timers were united and focused on vengeance and were all hanging unto Zanu PF  ideology, she is now left with folks not loyal but driven by their personal interests. Few are standing for the interest of the country. And any analyst who doesn’t feature all this in the expectations of a Mujuru survival, is not being genuine to her, and our political drama.

The truth is that Mujuru now needs the coalition to succeed more than anyone else, not for the sake of the nation, but for her own name and political revival. Her survival depends on the coalition. And now Zanu PF will strongly engineer the failure of the coalition to ensure that Mujuru has no chance whatsoever to survive this upheaval.

To worsen matters, she now has more than three groups of former colleagues strongly opposed to her; Mnangagwa, Grace/ G40 faction and the Mutasa groupings. Despite allegedly being rich, Mujuru is known to be financially stingy, and has now lost liberal funders like Ray Kaukonde who wanted to hit back at Zanu. She is left politically exposed and at the mercy of these Zanu PF factions. These are people who know her very well, and all her weaknesses. Who knows Mujuru more than her recently sacked right hand man Mutasa? The very wat she fired her formed Zanu colleagues showed her glaring weakness! Mujuru is now only praying for the coalition negotiations to succeed and get herself a role as an actor in our political drama.