Zanu PF: drama, intrigue, suspense

ZIMBABWE seems to have entered the most uncertain, if not dangerous days of her political timeline.

ZIMBABWE seems to have entered the most uncertain, if not dangerous days of her political timeline.

This phase could match the Gukurahundi scourge where innocent civilians were ruthlessly slaughtered in Matebeleland and parts of the Midlands provinces.

Each day that comes and passes has its peculiar drama, suspense and intrigue. If things continue at this rate, the country will be hitting that loathed position of competing with Somalia in the category of worst failed State in Sub-Saharan Africa.

It has become apparent that the inevitable winds of internal change of the guard in Zanu PF have been gathering momentum.

Now the whirlwinds of change are threatening to violently obliterate the core of the gangster organisation.

Zanu PF, the monstrosity we have grown to accept as the ruining ruling party, is stirring itself to an implosion that will have dire political and economic consequences.

The collection of cowardly warlords and thieves is now facing its own Damascene moment. Nearly everyone in Zanu PF seems to have suddenly realised that President Robert Mugabe is a mortal who will soon be interred at the Heroes’ Acre.

The truth is hitting home fast and Zanu PF supporters are coming out of their shells to question their blind endurance of Mugabe’s long and selfish stranglehold of instruments of power.

Everyone in the party seems to have developed a sudden urge to ensure the appointment or in their case to anointment of someone to take over from Mugabe.

The quest to succeed Mugabe is fraught with pitfalls and land-mines. Mugabe crafted the “divide and dominate” principle on his party principals and sub-principals to ensure his continued and unchallenged grip on power.

The traditional absence of internal challengers to Mugabe’s reign gave him a sense of perpetual entitlement to power.

His false belief that he was blessed with the gift of invincibility and immortality fuelled his desire to stay on.

Mugabe enjoyed encouragement from his immediate deputies which got him so engrossed in the trappings of a de facto monarchy.

Now the floodgates of succession talk have opened. Everyone in Zanu PF is realising that Mugabe is in his twilight years.

There is a realisation that a dramatic transformation of attitude as well as the way of doing things is the only answer to the complex succession issue.

The party is on a path to a bloodbath, brothers and comrades of convenience are at each other’s throats in an effort to solve the succession quandary.

Plots are thickening and alliances are being made, some broken and others exposed as having been formed with sedition in mind.

Impromptu battle lines pitying brother against brother and children against parents have been drawn. There is uncensored talk of the existence of plans to eliminate, assassinate or silence some marked individuals.

It is obvious that many elements within the party are willing to go the extra mile in the journey of violence to secure strategic positions.

This is where the scary thoughts of the Somalization of Zimbabwe come to the fore. Cronyism and corruption led to Comrade Siad’s demise and precipitated the failure of Somalia as a state.

Zimbabwe under Mugabe is assertively treading that path to self-destruction. The way things are going in Zimbabwe, Somalia will soon have a comparative state in Southern Africa.

In Zimbabwe’s envisaged transformation, one can imagine Zvimba turning into a mini Kismayo, Harare into Mogadishu and perhaps Bulawayo turning into Hargeisa.

At independence from Britain in 1980 Zimbabwe was touted as the jewel of Africa by the west just as Somalia was on attaining her independence in 1960.

Then along came Comrade Siad Barre from the military after the assassination of the legitimate president in 1969.

Similarly, it is not surprising that there has been talk of an internal plot to assassinate Mugabe.

If such an assassination were to succeed, the vaunted securitas will happily impose martial law. The possibilities would be countless considering that the country is awash with Chinese weapons and well matched with cannon fodder.

These are indeed the anxious days of those who have modelled their political lives around Zanu PF’s wickedness and perfidy.

As Zanu PF inches towards its vaunted congress, the drama keeps on unfolding and the quality of suspense and intrigue is as if borrowed straight from a Steven King horror novel.

May the retribution at Shake-Shake house begin and may the force be within. This, beloved countrymen, is a recipe for disaster.

Masola waDabudabu is a social commentator