SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
The election campaign is showing that no love has been lost between the major political parties despite spending four years as partners in the coalition government.
The political leaders have taken to trading personal insults, making it difficult to understand how they will work with each other again if there is another inclusive government, which pundits believe is likely in the event of another disputed election.
In recent days Zimbabweans have been subjected to the leaders throwing verbal jibes at each other which include accusations of being a womanizer, ugly, uneducated and just plain evil.
President Robert Mugabe told party supporters in Chiweshe, Mashonaland Central Province on Thursday that MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai was “politically ugly.”
His wife Grace also took to the podium to say: “Someone close to Tsvangirai told me he saw himself in the mirror and ran…”
The First Lady added: “When Baba (Mugabe) first met him physically, he came home trembling and I asked him what the problem was to which he (Mugabe) said he had never seen someone that ugly.”
Grace also preached about morality, despite having an affair with Mugabe while he was still married to Sally.
She said: “President Mugabe has been consistent in his messages about empowering the people, not like others who spend their time going to exotic beaches with different girlfriends. Those who dream about power should continue dreaming, but we are at State House to stay.”
Tsvangirai’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said: “The only philanderer the Prime Minister knows of is a President who fell in love with his secretary while his legitimate wife was dying of a kidney ailment.”
On his part Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai described Mugabe as a national liability and told voters that they don’t have underwear because of Zanu PF.
He told members at a rally in Mhondoro: “If you want to vote for Mugabe, it’s your choice, but it will go into the Guinness Book of Records that the people of Zimbabwe have given a 90-year-old man, five more years to rule the country.
“I gave him four years to pack. Now it’s time for him to go and rest in Zvimba while an energetic, young and responsive government leads Zimbabwe into the future.”
At the launch of this party’s election campaign in Chikomba, Mashonaland East, MDC leader Welshman Ncube Ncube said he disliked Mugabe for his bad deeds calling the ZANU PF leader a “bigger devil” and Tsvangirai a “smaller devil”.
He reiterated he would not form a coalition of convenience with his former allies in the MDC-T, who he has accused of lying about holding talks about a grand coalition.
Ncube said the MDC-T oppose “ZANUPF only in name when in fact it has the same DNA as ZANUPF.”
It is reported that Ncube’s utterances were precipitated by revelations by the MDC-T that he scuttled the talks because he wanted his party members to have senior political positions in the event of a coalition, something which he denies.
Analyst Trevor Maisiri from the International Crisis Group said there is still a lack of maturity in all the political parties who have so far failed “to sit down to either agree or disagree in a very respectful manner and then move forward.”
However there is nothing new about politicians insulting each other. The history of British politics is littered with famous put-downs, one of the most famous comes from Winston Churchill. In a fit of rage Lady Astor said to him, “If you were my husband I’d give you poison,” to which he responded, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”
Activists hoping to remove ZANU PF’s 33 year old political dominance are in general agreement that it will take some kind of coalition, or at least a voting pact, to have a good chance of removing Mugabe from power. But accusations and counter accusation by the MDC formations and their allies in the opposition shows any form of grand coalition is highly unlikely.
Speaking on the Hot Seat programme, Maisiri said: “All the parties outside of Zanu PF are now washing their dirty linen in public. It is something that is very deplorable, something that is very regrettable.
“I think the biggest challenges that these parties have is one – there seems to be a lack of trust across the lines and number two there simply seems also a lack of respect across the lines and without those two ingredients it’s going to be difficult to form a sustainable pact. Even if that pact goes on to win an election, the eventual government that they form is also going to be shaken by the failure to establish trust and respect. So those are two great weaknesses that create a challenge for a possible pact especially between the two MDCs.”
Link: Full interview with Trevor Maisiri
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