By Brighton Mutebuka
- I repeat, the Zwn regime is prolific when it comes to infiltration & kompromat or the use of compromising info to blackmail or manipulate the victim.
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Unless or until the opposition movement reconciles with the above & takes robust steps to address it, political own goals will continue to be scored.
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It’s not a coincidence that these rifts that we are seeing have been primed to take place at a time the regime itself was under the cosh & weighed down by unanimous charges of illegitimacy.
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One has to begrudgingly accept how effective the regime’s own sophisticated counter-operation has been in re-directing charges of illegitimacy at the opposition has been.
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The real tragedy is that some leading figures in the opposition movement have repeatedly failed to discern this i.e. when an operation would have been launched by the regime. There is obviously a reason why political lessons were given to the povo during the liberation struggle!
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In order for that operation to be effective, it has to incorporate legitimate grievances which will in turn resonate with some naive leaders or supporters, and the timing has to be impeccable, in order to provide perfect camouflage – resulting in public bickering which usually precede splits.
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With some of the leaders – they are led astray by their own egos as well – with their level of commitment to ushering change being subservient to their unbridled ambition.
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There is mismatch between political ambition & grassroots support has not proven enough to discourage some of the protagonists involved.
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Additionally, one of the most jarring things to discover is that some of the opposition leaders have other the years been perfectly comfortable to either defect to the regime or work with it behind the scenes to destroy the opposition movement!
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Finally, it is significant to highlight the fact that opposition leaders can do more to minimise the scourge complained of ahead of time via a robust risk assessment processes.
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Some of the political developments that we have recently seen are reasonably foreseeable & thus avoidable via strategic thinking & planning!
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So we now have the bizarre spectre of a regime originally came into power via coup & was recently found guilty of conducting a sham election & is thus in power illegally being given a free reign by critics to pretend to be in power legitimately while, believe it or not, it is actually the opposition itself that is being forced to prove it’s legitimacy & democratic credentials at this moment in time!
Conclusion
Have you ever asked yourself how a senior opposition leader for many years like Eddie Cross suddenly becomes ED’s biographer? There are many examples that you know about, of those sitting at the top of the opposition movement’s leadership table but suddenly defecting or splitting & working with the regime. Imagine the time & resources it takes to build confidence, what is exchanged to make it happen & what is compromised when the defection takes place!
Brighton Mutebuka is a UK based Zimbabwean lawyer
