A society that lies to itself and listens to its own lies gets to a point where it cannot distinguish the truth within itself, or around it, and so loses respect for itself. And having no respect it ceases to care. A political lie has been repeated time and again that the MDC-T is a democratic organisation and ZANU PF is the opposite.
The truth remains that the two parties are not exactly opposites; they stand on the same side of the turf, utilise identical tactics, use the same ball and aim for exactly the same goal and that goal is to keep power off the public grasp.
By their actions and inactions people get socio-political institutions they deserve. Evidence from the last general election and others before it suggests a continued withdrawal from political matters by the general population. Zimbabweans will appreciate that politics does not stop taking an interest in people simple because people have shown no interest in it.
Neither ZANU PF nor the MDC-T has shown any interest in devolving power to the people; if anything, both parties have resorted to immoral political practices just to retain authority for the hierarchy. Only people and not politicians bring about real change; currently there is no real challenge to authority but effective isolation by politicians and their blind supporters of those individuals who dare challenge authority.
The Zimbabwean socio-political environment as created and maintained by both the MDC-T and ZANU PF has given rise to ethnic Shona citizens’ misplaced perception of superiority and an ill-advised sense of entitlement over all other citizens; no wonder they walk all over everyone.
Significantly, the system conveniently labels ethnic minorities, in particular, Ndebeles as foreigners who invaded Shona land while white Zimbabweans are described as representatives of Western imperialism and not to be trusted. It is a political travesty that demographic factors such as ethnicity and race are allowed to determine winners and losers.
The poor quality of the Zimbabwean electorate is the potent weapon for the politicians whose only interest is preserving their authority over the people. When people stop hero-worshipping politicians, politicians will stop taking them for granted. Blindly adopting social and political systems creates robots of people who simply respond to prompts of their operators.
The fact remains that in principle and practice nothing, apart from names, fundamentally separates the MDC-T and ZANU PF; both organisations have a high degree of understanding of the principle of democracy so much that it is a lot easier for them to notice and evade it and they have done a good job of it. The only difference between the two is that ZANU PF does not pretend to be democratic while the MDC-T remains in denial that it is a dictatorship. In short, ZANU PF is an effective dictatorship and the MDC-T is a confused incompetent dictatorship.
An incompetent dictatorship is not synonymous to a democracy and must not be confused as such; the MDC-T is a dishonest dictatorship not a democracy! The basis of our political system should be the right for the ordinary people to define and alter the rules of socio-political institutions and not for the hierarchy to impose rules, regulations and laws that shield the authorities from scrutiny while exposing ordinary citizens and political opponents to illegal abuse.
If people want a truly democratised political space in Zimbabwe, the MDC-T is quite frankly an incompetent carrier vessel! We need a truly democratic socio-political organisation that will foster democracy in society and fight to keep it there. Power needs to be shared fairly across society; political organisations need not be obstructive tools but vehicles through which power is shared between and within all levels of society. The current Zimbabwean political leadership has merely replaced white supremacist institutions with extreme black imperialists who have reinforced deeply discriminatory and divisive policies.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 