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Nelson Chamisa

MDC Alliance presidential candidate, Mr Nelson Chamisa, has been entertaining observers since he launched his campaign on March 4, promising to build airports in rural areas and spaghetti highways and to introduce a bullet train.

He has delivered the foregoing and more promises at rallies he has addressed in Mashonaland West, Matabeleland North, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East and Bulawayo provinces. The 40-year-old has had it hectic as he seeks to assert his claim to the disputed MDC-T presidency and get a head start for the harmonised elections expected in July.

He was at it again at White City Stadium in Bulawayo on Saturday. He wants a city at the Matopos, 40km south of Bulawayo if he is elected.  He said he met the family of the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo at the nationalist’s Matsheumhlope house, now a museum. The Nkomo family, Mr Chamisa said, not only appreciated his leadership, but also offered him the national hero’s walking stick, an artifact that is so hallowed in African culture that it is only handed down the bloodline as a symbol of familial authority.

Mr Chamisa is a Chamisa from Gutu, Masvingo, not a Nkomo from Kezi in Matabeleland South but that did not stop the Nkomo family, so Mr Chamisa claimed, to dispense with tradition to give the opposition leader the staff that was once used by the departed nationalist. Why not, since Mr Chamisa is “the first national leader to visit the house!”

He proclaimed how he “was touched” when he visited the museum.

“The family told me one thing; they said ever since the death of Dr Nkomo I am the first national leader to visit the house. They even offered to give me Dr Nkomo’s traditional knobkerrie. . . . I am walking in the footsteps of president Tsvangirai and VP Nkomo,” he told his White City audience.

“When we get into power I promise you that we will build a whole shopping mall that will be in honour of Dr Nkomo. This mall will also have museums in honour of our late Vice-President and will be dedicated to his legacy. There are a lot of things which my government will do which some think are impossible. We want Matopo, for example, to be the centre of our cultural festivities so that every year there are festivals to celebrate our culture. We will build new cities; Matopos will be elevated to a city status. It’s possible; some might think it’s impossible but we will prove to you all that it is possible. We will help you see reality from our perspective, they can laugh on our vision for bullet trains and spaghetti roads, but it is very possible.”

He is making these lofty promises, possibly charming the gullible among his people, but neutrals and those in the know aren’t. As we report on our front page today, the Nkomo family yesterday refuted his walking stick claim.

In our view, Mr Chamisa can follow in the footsteps of Tsvangirai, but can never walk in the footsteps of Dr Nkomo. To claim to be doing so is to defile the memory of the icon.

Overall, Mr Chamisa’s has been a high-sounding nothing campaign so far, full of big words, empty bluster and fanciful promises that don’t show good leadership, but serve only to betray his immaturity.

It is good to dream and to be futuristic. Yes, villagers in Murehwa need better access to more rewarding selling points for their tomatoes but you cannot dream of building an airport — not even an airstrip or aerodrome — to take their crop to their traditional market, Harare, 90km away.  Even for exporting tomatoes. It does not sound realistic to promise bullet trains in a country that, for now and in the foreseeable future, will need to fix its railway lines, expand the system and secure new rolling stock.

We are unsure why Mr Chamisa’s more mature partner in the MDC Alliance, Professor Welshman Ncube, is not restraining him, advising him to be more realistic in his promises and stick to facts.  Mr Tendai Biti, the other alliance partner, may not help in this regard because he actually rivals Mr Chamisa on hyperbole and the propensity to pluck things from the air and passing them as facts.

In addition to entertaining us with his superfluous dreams and other theatre, Mr Chamisa’s alliance is perfecting the art of bussing supporters to their rallies to create an impression of mass appeal. At least $50 000 was spent transporting followers from Chitungwiza, Harare, Masvingo and other areas to Bulawayo, alleged former MDC-T spokesperson Mr Obert Gutu.

Hopefully, Mr Chamisa and his colleagues do not believe their own propaganda. They must understand that they will not be allowed to bus their crowds on election day from one polling station to another for them to vote multiple times and boost MDC Alliance figures. It is one man, one vote; one woman, one vote at one polling station. It is sad that a commuter bus returning to Masvingo from White City overturned in Filabusi, injuring 23 MDC supporters on Saturday.

Pitted against an experienced, stable opponent like Zanu-PF, Mr Chamisa’s drama will surely end in defeat. He is running ahead, making unrealistic promises and inflating crowds, but Zanu-PF is, for now, systematically building numbers on the ground.

Nate Shingi, who posted on his Twitter feed pictures of buses at White City on Saturday said:

“I was 100 percent right when I said Chamisa is a conman giving the perception and illusion that he has support everywhere he goes. Bussing people is fraud and the ballot will reward him kindly. This fraudster who evaded congress didn’t think there would be evidence. See buses.”