Contrast that with what Mwonzora did. He beat his rivals hands down. Fair or foul. He won 883 votes, Khupe 118, Mudzuri 14 and Morgen Komichi 9, but he brought all three into his top four. Mwonzora also brought in colleague Tapiwa Mashakada, an academic and trade unionist as treasurer, and Paurina Mpariwa, a trade unionist as secretary-general.
Mwonzora had done what Sun Tsu, a Chinese military strategist, had recommended. “Keep your friends close, your enemies closer”.
It remains to be seen how effective this will be but it defused the potential threats to his leadership that he was immediately facing.
Keeping friends close and enemies closer is a strategy that has been used effectively to keep ZANU-PF together since Mugabe took over 44 years ago. The party has been so intact that senior party officials know that there is no life outside ZANU-PF. Wabuda, kana kudzingwa, you are doomed.
Mugabe adopted this strategy at independence in 1980. Not only did he make sure that party cadres who had rebelled against him in Mozambique were kept close, he also accommodated whites who had vowed they would never allow him to rule.
Mnangagwa adopted the same strategy when he took over in 2017. He kept some people known to belong to the G40 faction, others who the people totally abhorred, and those who had assisted people like Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere to escape, within his administration. This was to keep the party together.
Mwonzora has so far shown that he is more interested in keeping the party together. Maybe this is because substantive elections are too close. He has also indicated that he is willing to talk to the ruling party but will continue to hold it to account.
This has led to speculation about a government of national unity yet Mnangagwa told Skynews, way back in August 2018 when he won the elections, that if former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson could form a government with a one seat majority why should he form a government of national unity when he has a two-thirds majority?
Chamisa has, on the other hand, been confrontational from the time he was endorsed as party candidate to contest the elections and after the results were released. Worse still he has maintained the Big Man syndrome within the MDC that he inherited from Tsvangirai.
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