23 January 2007
Posted to the web 23 January 2007

Reason Wafawarova
Harare

IT is interesting to note that many people who wrote off Zanu-PF as a dead institution over the past five or so years, are back in the party.

They masquerade as opponents but are dying to influence events within the vanguard party, the only institution with the impetus to rule in Zimbabwe at the moment.

This may seem far-fetched, but one only has to trace the political discourse from October 12 2005, when the house that Morgan Tsvangirai built for his principals in Britain collapsed during a meeting of group that called itself the MDC national council.

The fact that the collapse was executed by Tsvangirai's own hand made the demise so fundamental that the disenchantment among the party's supporters can only be described as catastrophic.

Naturally, Zanu-PF should have been more than amused over the events of that fateful day and if anyone begrudges the ruling party that joy, then they should really consider joining a certain religious sect whose doctrine prevents members from believing in politics.

For a while all attention was on the rubble of the fallen house of no harvests, with some hoping for a miraculous reunification of the visible factions.

Visible because there has always been a big but invisible leaderless faction of disenchanted supporters who just decided to have nothing to do with either of the visible factions.

It is from this group that we have seen analysts, media columnists and the generality of the opposition community inadvertently expressing keen interest in the goings on in Zanu-PF.

Gone are the days when Zanu-PF was considered an irrelevant dying party.

In comes a new era where almost all media minds are focused on the succession politics in Zanu-PF.

Everyone with the tiniest of relations to the Zanu-PF leadership has become so important again, all for the probability of leaking any information they might have come across at any level of communication that can be remotely interpreted as Zanu-PF. Suddenly, all possible future leaders of Zimbabwe are coming from the once "dead" Zanu-PF.

Out goes Tsvangirai from the radar of the opposition community and in comes Cdes Joice Mujuru, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Simba Makoni and even Gideon Gono. Suddenly everyone is back in the 1980s where a pending Zanu-PF Central Committee meeting was awaited with so much enthusiasm that one was left with no doubt that we had a full participatory democracy.

The Zanu-PF train carries with it the likes of Nelson Chamisa who has of late been preoccupied with commenting on every speculation his mind can conjure on the goings on in the ruling party.

Tsvangirai has expressed hope of getting "moderates" from the ruling party.

Above all, the speculation that Zanu-PF might be making constitutional changes to synchronise presidential, parliamentary and local government elections has brought the constitutional debate to the fore again.

The hyper-speculation games are what now pass for politics in the opposition.

All dreamers hope that some Zanu-PF legislators would torpedo the proposed harmonisation set for 2010.

Opposition pundits hope to sway 10 or 11 Zanu-PF defectors in the legislature and there are so many scenarios on President Mugabe's exit, with some seeing the Canaan Banana way, that is reversion to ceremonial presidency and the ascendance of a prime minister.

Well, the President is on record saying he would do it the Mugabe way as opposed to any other way and the opposition is advised against depending on the so-called "sources close to proceedings" to find how Zanu-PF is going to be running its affairs.

Whichever way one looks at it, there is clearly more politics in Zanu-PF than in any other organisation in Zimbabwe and the politics is so significant that everyone is getting involved.

By either affiliation or active participation, everyone who matters in politics seems to be back in Zanu-PF and it is exciting to watch the eagerness some have in trying to influence the course of events in that party.

As Tsvangiari once said, everyone in the opposition was Zanu-PF at one time or another unless they were part of the colonial set-up or its poodles.

It would now appear that Zanu-PF remains the mother of all political parties in Zimbabwe and the future rests with the ruling party as the opposition is following Zanu-PF politics as an option to its lack of common cause and vision.

International media and their handlers now see that any hope for future dealings with Zimbabwe has to include Zanu-PF and from an institutional point of view, the ruling party seems to be the only political grouping which can pass for a viable political institution in Zimbabwe.