Hardly a month after announcing their presence on the oft-cuddled and politicaly ‘fashionable’ micro-blogging social networking platform Twitter, a Zimbabwe opposition party with a predominant UK membership is definitely a classic example of why the digital dispensation, despite all its associated merits, still remain a bloody brutish arena for budding political groupings.
Only this Tuesday, the Dr Zeb Shumba-led Zimbabwe People First (ZimFirst), whose outreach on Twitter is still at its infancy with a paltry 111 followers during time of publishing, struggled to justify what one user had referred to as a ‘useless appointment’ by the party.
This was after ZimFirst had announced the appointment of ‘entrepreneur’ Busani Dube as chairman of a pioneer party wing named the Global Campaign Initiative (GCI). The GCI was birthed in the pursuit of ‘(bringing) together Diasporas to be stakeholders in solving (Zimbabwe’s) problems.’
But, one user going by the handle @JRoncie was quick to dismiss the spanking new appointment as merely ‘these useless appointments.’
“Are (you) in (the) diaspora?” Zimfirst probed @JRoncie.
And that exposed a loophole which could be used by perennial heavyweights in the mould of Nelson Chamisa’s opposition movement and President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ruling Zanu PF as a trumpcard to outballot the voter’s other alternative ZimFirst, come 2023.
“Do you want to form your government in the diaspora? What kind of thinking is that?” the brutally honest user seemed to be mocking a whole political party eyeing to form the next Zimbabwean Government.
While the party insatiably struggled to justify the biased focus on the ‘diaspora’ community at the expense of active voters back home, it also appeared to express concern over the ‘useless appointment’ utterances.
In sync with the dynamism that politics has become in a century characterised by full-blown technological advancements, most African political parties, including the formerly conservative liberation movements, use the digital space to gather allegiance and conveniently communicate important information.
Zwnews
