Former minister of Foreign Affairs Walter Mzembi says both President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his main contender Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) president Nelson Chamisa are digging own graves in that they failed to learn from past events.
Mzembi says the two are carrying out same mistakes that affected their predecessors and now are falling into same pitfalls.
He says it appears that Mnangagwa and Chamisa have not learnt anything from this, and pursued politics of exclusion and conquest from the onset of their reigns, thereby failing to keep any of the critical balls in the air but rather started off with balls on the floor.
“Now it is clear the stability of our politics comes from a philosophy of inclusion and power sharing, our traditional “Dare” concept being instructive; so for as long as some critical minds are out of the picture the plotting doesn’t stop, it continues unabated.
“It is not a coincidence that this Nation experienced bouts of stability and progress during periods of inclusive politics, after the Unity Agreement of 1987 & after the Global Political Agreement of 2008, in between and after has been painful periods of conquest politics continuing even now,” Mzembi adds.
He writes:
Machiavellian politics ended with Robert Mugabe in 2014, when he dropped one ball, Joice Mujuru, not one infact but many during the Gamatox debacle. It signalled the beginning of his end.
Morgan Tsvangirai himself was also a Machiavellian practitioner who built a very broad church of opposites, from students, intellectuals, labour etc, at some stage he too started dropping balls maybe a judgemental issue from recurring illness just as there were errors of judgement arising out of old age from Mugabe and both leaders at various stages surrounding themselves with sycophantic court jesters.
When Mugabe dropped the second ball in 2017 in Mnangagwa, hell broke loose.
Successor arrangements to both leaders seem not to have learnt anything from this, pursuing politics of exclusion and conquest from the onset of their reigns, they have not kept any of the critical balls in the air but started off with balls on the floor.
Now it is clear the stability of our politics comes from a philosophy of inclusion and power sharing, our traditional “Dare” concept being instructive; so for as long as some critical minds are out of the picture the plotting doesn’t stop, it continues unabated.
It is not a coincidence that this Nation experienced bouts of stability and progress during periods of inclusive politics, after the Unity Agreement of 1987 & after the Global Political Agreement of 2008, in between and after has been painful periods of conquest politics continuing even now.
So both spectrums of our politics are some kind of like opposites with both refusing to learn from historical precedents.
Bubblegum politics is not gonna fly for both ZANU PF and CCC as our current Binary gladiators and as i type the script is playing itself out with both on trial for belittling former comrades and playing total annihilation politics.
There is a demographic age band that both ZANU ( PF ) and CCC are seeking to prematurely retire from politics, a group vested with experience, knowledge and political cunningness which clearly won’t go without a fight.
A simple lesson I learnt from our own experience with November 2017 in hindsight is the analogy of basic traffic rules underpinned by the “Give Way” principle.
Without Robots this is a tried and tested method which brings order to the traffic jungle. Did i learn something from Political fallouts, yes; but those who benefited from the basic submission to this rule, have they learnt something as they face inevitable EXIT, it seems like a Big No!
On the part of Zanu PF they have now invented their own “G40” to do exactly what they fought in us. So another round of acrimony is in the horizon.
Lets learn from history and rebuild, politics of conquest is not gonna work for Zimbabwe both at partisan and national level.
Nyika Ndeyedu Tese Iyi
Ndapedza
