1. Please don’t pay attention to the likes of Mashakada and his type. The lot knows the end is nigh. Realising that they face certain defeat, they are hoping to deflate hope in the Yellow Nation & fuel voter apathy in the by-elections. Please use their trolling as motivation.
2. Mashakada says CCC candidates belong to their party as they didn’t “renounce” their membership. He conveniently forgets that his party recalled them from Parliament because they had allegedly “automatically expelled themselves”. He doesn’t say how & when they rejoined them!
3. Mashakada’s claim is a classic case of the English saying: you can’t have your cake and eat it. You can’t say a person ceased to be a member of your party and remove from Parliament while also claiming that he is a member of your party and your candidate for Parliament!
4. Mashakada’s party justified the parliamentary recalls arguing that a person had “automatically expelled” himself by joining another party. Now they turn around and claim he is still our member until he renounced his membership! One can’t be inside & outside at the same time.
5. The notion of freedom of association is alien to their lot. They don’t know the freedom to associate includes the freedom to disassociate. You cannot force a person to be a member of your party. Haungarambi kurambwaka! Mashakada arikuramba kurambwa. A relationship by ginya.
6. Mashakada says CCC candidates cannot ride on another party’s structures. The stupidity of the claim is that their party, the MDCT held a congress in 2020, purportedly using its party structures. The CCC has never claimed or used those structures. It’s an empty claim.
7. Second, Mashakada and allies have been saying there is no such thing as the MDC Alliance. They used this argument to grab the name. So how then does he and his lot claim the existence of structures when they said there was no party called the MDC Alliance?
8. The problem for Mashakada and his lot is that they expected a fight for the MDC Alliance name but they didn’t get it. Chamisa and his allies won the battle without fighting by simply walking away. Mwonzora & Mashakada were left holding an empty shell. Hence they are furious.
9. You would expect Mashakada to be mounting a vigorous campaign for his party’s candidates, extolling their virtues & selling them to the electorate. But no, it’s a sign of how lowly he rates them that he is pre-occupied with grabbing their rival’s candidates.
10. For the likes of Mwonzora and Mashakada, their interest is not in how to win democratic space from ZANU PF but how to stop the authentic opposition from reclaiming stolen democratic space. In chiShona it’s called politics of shayisano: if I can’t have it then neither can you
11. I would not normally write like this on this as I don’t believe trolling deserves attention. But too many innocent people have been so traumatised by the conduct of Mwonzora & Mashakada that they jump in fear each time they come out with threats. These are desperate threats.
12. These are acts of desperate men who realise that their rickety boat is sinking into the Yellow Sea. They are hoping to dampen the spirits of CCC supporters ahead of the by-elections. Some might be tempted to say why bother if they will be recalled? Please don’t fall for it.
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1. One of my favourite expressions is “don’t miss the forest for the trees”. Don’t focus on the individual trees because you might miss the forest. It’s a warning not to get caught up in minute details at the expense of the bigger picture. This wisdom applies to the by-elections.
2. These by-elections are contests at 2 levels: first, the candidates and second, the parties. Considering events of the past 2 years, these by-elections are primarily a contest of the parties. To use the metaphor, the candidates are the trees while the parties are the forests.
3. There’s only a few months before the next general elections. Therefore getting pre-occupied by the individual candidates is not strategic. That’s why the most sensible route was to simply let those who were unlawfully removed stand but on clear conditions.
Trying new methods of delivery #BSR Here’s a sample of short videos on the authoritarian strategy of lawfare. Thanks to Hopewell for making the amateur video better!
1. When you are dealing with the system, you must always anticipate its actions. When you see ZANU PF admitting defeat in a litigation it is because it sees an advantage, not weakness in defeat. Some are seeking to understand the legal implications of this ZEC notice issues today
2. The notice is that by-elections in 6 constituencies & 1 ward have been cancelled. It’s because a court ordered that there are no vacancies. For months, the affected MPs have been shut out of parliament though they had won their case. The system was frustrating them.
3. Now, just a day before the Nomination Court, the court makes a ruling in their favour. Since it’s important to call a spade by its proper name, this development doesn’t do CCC any favours at all. To understand it, let me explain how ZANU PF has found advantage in adversity.
1. Opposition politicians who throw themselves at Emmerson Mnangagwa (ED) don’t know the man they are dealing with. He knows their desperation since no serious opposition leader will try so hard to please the ruling party. But ED is happy to exploit this desperation.
2. Just look at how he handled Khupe. She was handed the party when she was already a big cheerleader in POLAD, ED’s platform for opposition wannabes. ED made her feel like a buddy. She dreamt big, praising ED and talking dialogue incessantly despite lacking political capital.
3. ED knew she was of little value because she had performed dismally in 2018. She had no political capital to repair the legitimacy deficit. She was only useful as a nuisance to his great rival, Chamisa. But she was dispensable. Unfortunately she didn’t know what she meant to ED
1. Some people ask why Mwonzora was selective in recalling MDC Alliance MPs. Several reasons can be proffered including personal relationships which even at his most vindictive he cannot ignore. But the major reason was an attempt to use a strategy of divide and rule.
2. You may recall that the first purge in May 2020 affected 4 MPs most of whom held leadership roles in parliament: Tabitha Khumalo, Prosper Mutseyami & Lillian Timveos. SG Hwende’s sacking was personal after he defeated Mwonzora for the SG role in the MDC Alliance.
3. Sacking these senior MPs was meant to signal a threat to junior MPs. They were supposed to run for the hills. Some did but the majority held on. The strategy didn’t work very well and Mwonzora had to fire another batch and then yet another batch.
1. Let me use this opportunity to correct a common misconception among some MDC Alliance cadres. I have seen it too often that ignoring it is now tantamount to gross negligence. The misconception is that if the party changes its name it will put current MPs at risk of recall.
2. This is based on an innocent but mistaken view that MPs who have not been recalled are still MDC Alliance MPs. Legally, this is incorrect. As things stand the MDC Alliance has no MPs. The MDC Alliance lost them the moment Mwonzora’s party was given title to the recall the MPs.
3. The other set of MPs that were beyond Mwonzora’s reach, namely those from the PDP were also removed from Parliament, again through dubious means. They continue to be stifled through legal shenanigans. In any event a name change is not a change of party.