Opinion
By Wisdom Mumera
Constantly facing headwinds and failing to chart any new definitive positive path into the future, Zanu PF has time and again sought to endear itself to the electorate by harping lyrical about times already gone.
The past, solidified in glory through a bastardised historical record foisted upon the public through partisan state media, has become the single biggest winning card for the former revolutionary party.
The future, uncertain and unreceptive of their type of politics, has become a strange territory which the supposed new dispensation is afraid of.
The fear to step out of the shade of the past and do things differently remains a shackling drag that continues keeping the country from realising its full potential.
Having come in on a promise to do things differently, President Mnangagwa has slowly but effectively recoiled back into the old system and style.
In a true-to-nature decision, characteristic of his reign, the country’s premier citizen has again blundered on his own and made a decision that is difficult to justify, pinioning himself with his choice for the new Foreign Affairs Minister.
The appointment of Ambassador Frederick Shava is a step back into the past foraging for an elixir that may unlock the doors for a party that is stumped for progressive decisions and has been blundering about.
Shava’s appointment is just a reaffirmation of how Zimbabwe is still shackled to politics that lack principles.
Local politics, as in most developing countries, has for long lacked a moral spine and Shava’s return, from the shadows, is a manifestation of that depravity.
President Mnangagwa, lately frantic to regain the support of the party’s stanchions, has weighed himself down by aligning himself with a stained individual.
It boggles the mind why, at a time he has been shouting about corruption as the biggest vice, he goes on to appoint into one of the highest offices, an individual of questionable credentials.
Most frightening is the realisation that the blunder is actually typical of the President who time and again has connived to fight himself through various mistakes.
The August shootings at a time he was panting for Western hugs; the fuel price increase announcement that lit a national fire; the queer jokes about mortuaries and vegetables; the 1:1 economics that razed whole savings; all paint a portrait of a leader fated to collide against his own shadow at every turn.
His appointment of a well-known corrupt person implicated in the Willowgate scandal is a move that does not paint President Mnangagwa in the kind of shade he needs at the moment.
It would be expected that any self-respecting politician would shun tagging along shady individuals more so at a time corruption is one of the biggest obstacles the country faces.
Embracing known criminals and even giving them such high posts speaks not just of how Zanu PF and Mnangagwa are lacking enough rectitude to lead the country but shows how they take the electorate in low regard.
The supposed New Dispensation has quickly fallen into dark paths after constantly hitting walls in its acquired bid to act progressive and democratic and now operates with the wanton abandon of mobsters.
Mnangagwa collides with his shadow again
