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Moyo beat Zanu-PF candidate Simon Khaya Moyo were hardly surprising for the simple reason that there was no way a numerically challenged Zanu-PF would have undone the MDC alliance in Parliament.
The MDC project was conceived to wrest power from Zanu-PF, and it would have been nothing but folly to believe that Mutambara/Ncube’s MPs would have thrown in their lot with Zanu-PF to deny Morgan Tsvangirai and his party their day in the sun, no matter how unsightly the warts on Morgan may be.
To Zanu-PF I say, tsvatu waro (you got just desserts). You must continue suffering the shame of 2008 where you played second fiddle to the MDC-T in the House of Assembly even though you led the popular vote for the simple reason that this shame is your own doing and you must learn from it so that you do not repeat it.
There are two things that occurred during the House of Assembly Speaker contest that were a throwback to March 29 2008 and need to be nipped in the bud pronto if they are not going to cost Zanu-PF again in elections that were hear are scheduled for some time this year.
Though the crunching effects of the illegal western economic sanctions had a lot to do with voting patterns, Zanu-PF was in a position to shake off the MDC-T challenge but two issues cost Zanu-PF outright victory in the March 29 harmonised elections.
The first, and to me the most grave one was the imposition of candidates by the Politburo and other higher echelons of the party at the expense of what the grassroots wanted.
We saw this in several constituencies where Zanu-PF fielded two candidates in one constituency who ended up splitting the vote in favour of MDC-T.
The second and equally grave one is the sheer absence of principles among some party members like the two Zanu-PF legislators who secretly voted for Lovemore Moyo.
In a situation like the one we are facing right now that pits a revolutionary party like Zanu-PF, the bulwark of our struggle for self-determination against a reactionary, neo-colonial project like the MDC-T and its appendage MDC, its evident for any progressive Zimbabwean let alone one entrusted with national leadership like an MP that votes have to be cast on principle not personalities.
You vote for the party not its representative which is what happens in systems of proportional representation where you would not even know who the party will nominate to be your representative in parliament.
This is what the late vice president Cde Simon Muzenda meant in 2000 when he said even if Zanu-PF gives you a baboon as your candidate you must vote for it because it will be representing your party.
I have no kind words for the two sell-out MPs, they need to own up and cross the floor because no matter the gravity of their disagreement with Simon Khaya Moyo’s candidature no true patriot would ever waste a vote on an MDC-T candidate.
This is the self-defeating attitudes that we saw in the run-up to the harmonised elections where some Zanu-PF leaders openly told voters in their constituencies to vote for a Zanu-PF councillor, House of Assembly rep and/or senator and then Simba Makoni for president, a development that saw some Zanu-PF MPs get higher votes than President Mugabe in their constituencies as the President’s vote was split with Simba Makoni.
This deplorable self-defeating practice that was code-named ‘‘bhora musango” (protest vote) explains why President Mugabe trailed Tsvangirai in the first round of the presidential contest even though Zanu-PF, the party he represented, led the MDC-T in the popular vote nationwide.
Coming to the first point I raised above, that of imposing candidates, I am reliably informed that Zanu-PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo, and Women’s League boss Oppah Muchinguri were interested in the Speaker’s post with the former having done extensive groundwork but were shunted aside as the Politburo wanted Cde Moyo, the party’s most senior member out of government, to land the post.
This explains the disgruntlement in party ranks that saw VP Mujuru read the riot act to Zanu-PF MPs whom she threatened with expulsion from the party if they did not vote for national chairman, Cde Khaya Moyo.
Zanu-PF should have held primaries pitting Cdes Khaya Moyo, Oppah Muchinguri and Joram Gumbo with the winner taking on Lovemore Moyo.
This cancer in Zanu-PF that sees some leaders say no self-respecting Zanu-PF cadre should challenge another cadre with a higher rank in party primaries must be nipped in the bud.
Let the primaries be real primaries where one’s standing in the party is not an issue but one’s ideas and appeal to the electorate so that we give voters the candidates they want and do away with the scourge of self-defeating protest votes like we saw on March 29 2008 and during Lovemore Moyo’s re-election this week.
Zanu-PF must exorcise the ghost of 2008 by cleaning its ranks of dubious characters and putting an end to the cancer of imposing candidates.
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