House descended on our suburb to campaign for their little known MP-aspirant, people hoped that perhaps they had something new. But the sparse handful audience just got the same old rhetoric about war and empty promises.
On the contrary, Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC was full of energy and gave a meaningful presentation for the packed audience attending his rally. A rough calculation on the attendance ratios would put Zanu (PF)’s audience at less than 20 percent of the MDC’s.
But it was not just about the numbers, crucial though that is. It was also about the quality of presentations by the delegates themselves. The Zanu (PF) loyalists were, as usual, blabbering about who fought the war and brought ‘sovereignty’ to Zimbabwe. Chombo had nothing but ‘Garikai Kuhle empties’. At the same time they were crying about sanctions and Tsvangirai’s stance on calling for them. One stops to ask:
• If these guys had really won the war, would they have gone to conference in the losing enemy’s Lancaster House? Would they have under-bargained the country in terms of the Land Tenure Act only to embark on a reform program 20 years later in a perilous and idiotic style?
• Is there anything to celebrate about sovereignty in Zimbabwe? Or a trickle of Robertites have colonised the country and empowered themselves autonomously through treachery, corruption and stolen elections?
• What is there about Operation Garikai save for the worse-off ramshackles that are being shunned by the supposed beneficiaries? How many of the 700 000 displaced people have been decently accommodated? Was it not Chombo himself who, last year, shamelessly pointed at a housing development by a mine in Zvishavane and claimed it was a Garikai project?
• Is the international community so blind that they need someone to tell them about Zimbabwe’s crises and call for sanctions? Tsvangirai did not call for sanctions but supported an international cause to replace a government of human rights abusers. In any case, is it not Mugabe who even further supported the sanctions when he bragged at a South African summit that he doesn’t need international support? Is he now failing to ‘keep his Zimbabwe’? One wonders what he is doing with his fruitless ‘Look East Policy’ that has flooded Zimbabwe with sub-standard products at the expense of indigenous businesspersons and jobseekers.
Meanwhile, in stark contrast to this rubbish, the MDC was telling it as it is from the other end of Budiriro. It is axiomatic that Zanu has failed the country, there is no question there. The ruling rogues have tried to cling to power through uncanny and devilish means that include creating puppet opposition organs like ZUM and the pro-senate party led by Mutambara (we don’t know if they have a name yet).
Tsvangirai highlighted the lawful, democratic and sane MDC roadmap to Zimbabwe’s recovery and urged the electorate to turn out in large numbers to vote for the incoming MP and prove their mettle as well as that his is ‘the real MDC’. It is the MDC that will bring the suburb to concurrence with the meaning of its name, Budiriro (development).
Then came in the ZTV with their shameless bias. The producers at Pockets Hill gave the Zanu (PF) rally a star coverage and the MDC got a dismal formal appearance which did not even touch on the most necessary issues that were deliberated. They further realised that the camerapersons had shot the two crowds so well that the MDC showed its command of the suburb and the country at large. Either Mahoso or Jokonya must have instructed against a second broadcast of the MDC rally, although that of Zanu (PF) was repeated over and over.
Thumbs up though, to the camerapersons for showing us who is following who. Someone surely needs to remind them that the ‘Z’ in ZTV does not stand for Zanu but Zimbabwe. They are there to serve their employer and the employer is the state not Zanu (PF). We now await the proof, come election day.