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Nduduzo Tshuma
Of interest, for the purposes of this article, is not the wishful thinking that Tsvangirai will run this country in 2018 because Ms Khupe was exercising her right to dream but of note is how she silently quashes the idea of an opposition coalition.

THE idea of an opposition coalition against the ruling Zanu-PF is dead in the water as the ideologically bankrupt parties have continued to bicker over positions, a development that has led to the formation of three “grand coalitions.”

On one hand is the MDC Alliance led by MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and another is fronted by national people’s Party president Dr Joice Mujuru then an emerging coalition that we are told will be led by Mr Elton Mangoma.

Besides fragmenting into separate “grand coalitions” the individual arrangements face internal problems that are likely to turn the whole effort into a farce.

Mr Tsvangirai has finally smoked the peace pipe with one of his deputies Ms Thokozani Khupe with whom he had fallen out over the arrangement of an opposition alliance under the banner of the MDC Alliance.

After his return from South Africa where he was receiving treatment, Mr Tsvangirai met Ms Khupe and agreed on a truce which saw the lifting of the suspension of the party’s national organising secretary Mr Abednico Bhebhe.

In her first interview with journalists after mending relations with her boss, Ms Khupe said Mr Tsvangirai will win the 2018 elections and will be assisted by her in ruling the country.

“I am very confident that president Tsvangirai is going to be the President of this country come next year and yours truly is going to be assisting president Tsvangirai to run this country,” she was quoted in the media.

Of interest, for the purposes of this article, is not the wishful thinking that Tsvangirai will run this country in 2018 because Ms Khupe was exercising her right to dream but of note is how she silently quashes the idea of an opposition coalition.

Addressing an MDC-T meeting in Bulawayo at the weekend, Mr Bhebhe, an ally of Ms Khupe revealed their faction’s attitude towards some partners within the MDC Alliance.

Without mentioning names, Mr Bhebhe accused some parties within the alliance of causing divisions within the MDC-T and also failing to rally their members to vote.

Speaking in riddles, Mr Bhebhe was quoted in the media saying, “… what is disturbing me is that if you have your home and a new daughter in-law comes at your home, then kids start dying, vomiting and getting sick, is that daughter in-law okay?

“If you see some saying that the daughter in-law is okay when they know that she is not okay it means they wake up at night together with the daughter in-law who has come to cause chaos. What I saw is that when we started voter registration, I saw MDC members in red T-shirts running around but I have never seen the daughter in-law in yellow T-shirts.

“What type of a daughter in-law is that? Daughters in-law are supposed to wake up early in the morning, sweeping the yard before anyone else; she must also be the first to arrive in the fields.

“Here I am talking about unity and the coming of this daughter in-law is causing a lot of discord amongst us and if we don’t talk about this bad daughter in-law, we will all die.”

Mr Bhebhe’s words are, according to sources, an indicator of the Khupe faction’s opposition to an opposition coalition with their main target being MDC leader Professor Welshman Ncube.

It is the feeling within Ms Khupe’s faction that Prof Ncube and his MDC party should “add” value into the coalition and not benefit from associating with the MDC-T which they argue has more followers than the law professor’s party.

The reconciliation between Mr Tsvangirai and Ms Khupe could mean trouble for Prof Ncube and his party, who as things stand, need the MDC-T more than the Mr Tsvangirai led party needs them, at least according to the Ms Khupe faction.

Sources within the MDC-T say the Ms Khupe led faction will in coming days make spirited campaigns to dump Prof Ncube and his party.

Another looming crisis within the MDC-T and the MDC Alliance is centred around the health of Mr Tsvangirai who has been battling cancer of the colon with conflicting reports from within the opposition party on his recovery.

A senior member of the party Mr Eddie Cross has insisted that Mr Tsvangirai may not be able to contest in the 2018 elections but MDC-T has refuted the claims saying the former prime minister was making a steady recovery.

Whatever Mr Tsvangirai’s health condition is, his illness is likely to be the source of chaos both within the MDC and the MDC Alliance.

Deliberate effort was made to leave the little remaining space to Dr Mujuru’s coalition and the emerging one to be led by Mr Mangoma as there is very little to say about them but that they are doomed from the start.

Dr Mujuru’s political life ended when she was ejected from Zanu-PF and no amount of resuscitation, worse by coalescing with political novices will change that fact. As for Mr Mangoma, nothing will be said about him or his collection of allies for doing so will be a waste of precious time and space dwelling on the useless.

As the ruling Zanu-PF prepares for an extraordinary congress in December, their mission is a simple one. To enforce unity, bridge the gaps that have been created in the course of the year and encourage its members to register under the Biometric Voter Registration exercise ahead of the 2018 elections.

The exercise will be largely to provide statistical evidence of the massive support that Zanu-PF enjoys from Zimbabweans otherwise there is no opposition to talk about as the country goes for the 2018 polls.