Tweet

Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

4 Jan, 10 tweets, 2 min read

1. The only surprise is seeing colleagues being surprised by the G40 narrative from the judicially reconstructed MDCT. To understand the creature that emerged from the EOC one must trace its genealogy to the pre-November 2017 engagements involving coup authors & opposition elites

2. That is a story that is yet to be fully told, though snippets have been published here & there. There’s a reason why the MDC leadership got caught up in the frenzy of the coup, mistakenly believing they also had a share in the outcome. They were deceived & fell for the ruse.

3. Morgan Tsvangirai was never part of the equation. The system knew the opposition icon was on his last legs. But MT had allowed certain elites in his party to represent him in pre-coup engagements. Now, in a relationship between principal & agent there’re always agency costs.

4. Let’s define agency costs: in representing the principal, an agent faces 2 choices: promoting his principal’s interests or his own. Some agents are not loyal & they end up promoting personal interests at the principal’s expense. Those are the costs of agency for the principal.

5. Each time you appoint an agent, you’re taking a risk that the agent might promote his interests ahead of yours. Think of a guy who sends another chap to deliver his well crafted love letter to a prospective girlfriend. He would say it’s done but he would not have delivered it!

6. The gifts you dispatched would be delivered but as his, not yours! After a while you might find that the chap and “your girl” have a flourishing relationship. Our ancestors have a saying for it, the rock rabbit has no tail because it sent others for it during distribution!

7. I once said this to MT in 2013, but that’s a story for another time. I was far away in 2017 but the same happened. MT trusted people around him to represent his interests in whatever was being discussed behind the scenes. But these people looked after their own interests.

8. When MT & others apparently backed the coup, they genuinely believed they had a stake in the post-coup outcome. They were misled & deceived. The coup authors already had their preferred horse to lead the opposition, a cat that Matemadanda let out of the bag sometime later.

9. Therefore, when you see the alignment of “G40 slurs” on the MDC Alliance between ZANU PF and the judicially reconstructed MDCT, it is not by chance. The coup itself is not ended. It was not just a ZANU PF affair; it also roped in opposition elites playing a deceptive role.

10. There was a coup that toppled Mugabe; but a seed was sown for a coup in the opposition in the sense that ZANU PF would capture and remould the opposition in its preferred terms. It hasn’t succeeded because it is impossible to command people’s loyalties. But they won’t stop.

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More from @Wamagaisa

Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

5 Jan

1. The COVID19 pandemic is a reminder of the scourge of global inequality. Zimbabwe and the U.K. announced new national lockdowns within a day of each other. The U.K. government is offering more grants so firms can stay afloat. The Zimbabwean government is offering nothing.

2. Wealthy countries have spent billions of dollars intervening in their economies to save businesses. Free market fundamentalism is in abeyance during the crisis. Poor countries on the other hand have not done much to cushion their populations. They simply don’t have the means.

3. The same pattern applies to vaccines. Wealthy countries bought millions of vaccine doses well in advance. They have already started the roll outs. Their poorer cousins are waiting, many of them have to rely on handouts. After all their health budgets are funded by donors.

Read 10 tweets

Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

4 Jan

@JSCZim

1. The @JSCZim carried out interviews of candidates for the Constitutional Court way back on 28 September 2020. More than 3 months after the interviews, there are no substantive appointments. Both @edmnangagwa & the @JSCZim are mute on this important matter.

@JSCZim

2. Under the Constitution the President is required to choose from a list done by the @JSCZim after interviews. It is reasonable to presume this list was sent to the President. So what happened? The law recognises that the President may have been in impressed by the candidates

@JSCZim

3. However, if he’s not happy with the candidates on the 1st list, he is required to call for a new list from the @JSCZim When the JSC submits a new list, the President has no choice but to appoint from that list. We do not know what has happened since 28/09/20. It’s been quiet.

Read 8 tweets

Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

31 Dec 20

1. They spent years & acres of space in state media lampooning Morgan Tsvangirai. But in death, they eulogise him. It is not because they have discovered respect for the man, no. They do it to use him as a source of legitimacy by way of heirship to their preferred “successor”.

2. They abused Tsvangirai while he lived. They still abuse him after his death. They think if they can attach their horse to Tsvangirai he will earn legitimacy in the eyes of the MDC community. The aim is not to praise Mwonzora but to undermine their true & feared rival Chamisa.

3. The irony is that they applaud Mwonzora for the so-called notion of “responsible opposition” while at the same time naming him the true successor to Tsvangirai as if they ever recognised Tsvangirai as “responsible opposition”. In fact, they called him a puppet & beat him up.

Read 11 tweets

Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

28 Dec 20

1. They had all the money from the State. They got the power to fire MPs & councillors. They grabbed the HQ with state support. They even had ZANU PF treatment with ZUPCO ferrying delegates & venue at Rainbow Towers. Yet with all this power & money, they couldn’t form a quorum.

2. A quorum is the minimum number of people required for a valid meeting. The inquorate Congress requires another Congress to validate its decisions. But the mere fact that a political party is unable to summon enough people to form a quorum is a huge political embarrassment.

3. But even then, they could not manage the small numbers. 3 candidates walked out, citing rigging. As if it wasn’t farcical already, Khupe claimed to have suspended her competitor, Mwonzora in the middle of the Congress, which was marred by despicable violence aimed at her.

Read 12 tweets

Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

12 Dec 20

1. This thread might help you stay ahead of regime enablers who are working to silence democratic voices that are critical of the regime. Basically, understand it as a “war” and as the wise general Sun Tzu said, a key rule of war is that you must know your enemy and its ways.

2. ZANU PF enablers know that there are certain things that are excluded in the discourse which is controlled by social media companies. By “discourse” I refer to statements that are considered acceptable which implies there are statements that don’t qualify and are excluded.

3. If, therefore, you make statements that are outside the permissible social media discourse, you may be excluded. Either the social media algorithm will pick your “unacceptable” statements and mark you as excluded or the company will know if you are reported by another person.

Read 13 tweets

Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

28 Nov 20

1. The first time I went to a supermarket in the U.K. I asked a staff member where the parcel counter was located. The chap responded with a befuddled look and directed me to the Post Office. “We don’t do parcels here mate,” “try the Post Office,” he said busily but politely.

2. I quickly realised that we were at very different wavelengths but by then he had already disappeared into the aisles. He was a busy chap. I stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. I had a satchel and a bag of goods from another shop.

3. There weren’t any security guards at the door. I was fortunate to see another staffer. She was older, slower and looked more relaxed. I asked her the same question. She was also confused by my inquiry. I quickly rescued her by explaining what I meant by a “parcel counter”.

Read 9 tweets

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