By Blessing Vava
The
Afrobarometer/ Mass Public Opinion Institute of Zimbabwe report has sent
tongues wagging and received with mixed feelings locally and
abroad.
The survey, found that Mugabe enjoys
greater support in the rural areas where 70 percent trust him while he only
enjoys 45 percent trust of the urban people has left many in disbelief in that
despite his age Mugabe enjoys more trust than any other politician in the land.
For the opposition, obviously they are
still failing to come to terms with the survey, which also found out that the
opposition parties were the least supported institutions, trusted by only 34
percent of Zimbabweans.
Some
have dismissed the survey as ‘dogded’, ‘rigged’, ‘nikuved’ and all sorts of
dismissive terms.
However we all know for a fact that
such allusions have become synonymous with the opposition since time
immemorial. In 2013, they dismissed the Susan
Booysen (they actually rejected two surveys: the Freedom House one done by
Booysen, another internal one done by MDC IRI and also one from Afrobarometer ). Most of the findings from these surveys mirrored the results of the the June 2013 elections.
I think dismissing such surveys
is not only dangerous but disastrous and rather they should help in developing political strategies based on the
worst case scenarios otherwise we would be failing to appreciate and taking
into cognisant that surveys constitute free political consultancy.
The broad democratic movement (workers,
civil society etc. ) must ask hard questions why Mugabe is popular in the rural
areas where there is rampant violence at the time of elections? Is it because
the ‘urban based’ movements for democracy have themselves not had a deep
understanding of the actual prevailing political economy which includes swathes
of ‘rural poverty’?
Hence any serious political outfit
should take such findings seriously without necessarily being dismissive and
emotive.
On the opposition being least trusted, I think it might be as a result that the MDC is steeped in the same political culture of intolerance violence corruption selfishness and private accumulation (‘personalisation’ of the struggle has become a cocktail for disaster’ .
However the contributions made by the
MDC towards some incremental reforms over the past 15 years cannot be ignored but
sadly the splits have left the party thin. To be frank at the present moment
the political future of opposition politics is in intensive care unit and it
needs urgent and practical solutions the results of the survey points to that.
For me, I think most Zimbabweans have
lost faith in the existing opposition parties and I posit that Zimbabwe now
needs new strategies, ‘new’ ideas and thinking which will drive the next revolution.
I am not in any way obsessed with
attacking the MDCT and neither do I sympathise with ZANU PF, but the fact of
the matter is that the people of Zimbabwe are now tired of the opposition
because of its failure to remove Mugabe from power.
Many others are no longer participating in elections because elections have failed to bring about the change we are yearning for. The spirit of change is slowly dying down, those who have been been claiming to be leading the 'struggle' have failed to bring hope and inspire the masses. The faces have remained the same, strategies have not changed and this is an opportunity for this generation to define a new narrative.
As proponents of democracy, we should at
all times be able to carry the
obligation to tell the truth, claim no easy victories and take the masses with
us on everything we do and say. Without telling the truth is not only
counter-revolutionary, but a recipe for disaster which will lead us to a
bottomless pit.
It is important to note that political
activity in the world is a result of conscious human action, not a supernatural
phenomenon there is need for massive groundwork and mobilisation to re-energise
the masses in the struggle for a social democratic state.
The MDC is not the Alpha and Omega of Zimbabwe's revolutionary politics. Many major political events have
transpired in Zimbabwe without the involvement of the MDC, and to think that it
is only the MDC that will carry the struggle forward is not only myopic but foolishness
of the highest magnitude. Already Zimbabwe made a huge blunder
and set a wrong precedence in portraying an incapable ZANU PF and lately the
opposition that it cannot outgrow its individual leaders. This is an
unfortunate part of our politics where it happens that both sides of political
options are disastrous, thus the call for a new alternative to drive the
democratic struggle.
Our greatest challenge as a born free
generation is accepting the false illusion insinuations that Morgan Tsvangirai
is the ‘face of the struggle’ and that Mugabe is a ‘champion of revolutionary
politics’ while failing to appreciate that the struggle and politics should
outgrow individuals.
There is no doubt that the environment
is now ripe for a post-colonial, post-liberation, post-nationalist movement
which places the people at the centre of power, participation, opportunities
and material improvement?
Our rallying point is the Peoples
Charter, a document of the people of Zimbabwe, hoisted by civil society and
pro-democratic formations as the torchbearer that should lead Zimbabwe to total
political, social and economic emancipation of all citizens. The Peoples Charter is therefore an
expression of the social, political and economic will of Zimbabweans.
Blessing ‘Vuvuzela’ Vava is a defender
of the Peoples Charter. He writes from Chipinge and can be contacted on blessingvava@gmail.com. Views
expressed in this article are personal.
