This should not surprise the two writers. The context of their communication is fraught, suggestive, including from moves which one of their own, Saviour Kasukuwere, has been trying to do all along. So more remains undone, depending on what their motive and intentions are, in the open letter. Although this might be point four, it is not quite the hidden point I adverted to.
In their open communication, they disclose that even in the heat of their anger and hostility to Zanu PF, they never joined Triple C! Possibly; but they also declared their repudiation of Zanu PF, openly, loudly, which point their letter seeks to justify but without regretting.
That is understandable, given where they are coming from. There is a positive way of interpreting this disclosure of non-membership to Triple C, together with the amorphous addressee they elect as their interlocutor. This might suggest the start of a conversation and personal adjustment they know might be long and drawn out, to the point of meriting graduated disclosure.
Fine! For as long as they know it might also elicit graduated response from the powers-that-be! Maybe the missive in question was a wish and desire to minimally deposit a positive signal and sentiment, an indication of intention to turn right, figuratively!
They may have wanted this cautious sentiment to gain general political notice, possibly to trigger responses on which to build or change course, depending on ultimate goal. All this assumes a purity of intention, not some Machiavellian move and calculation.
Which might suggest several things, only two of which I will tackle. First, that the two are flying the kite, hoping to draw fire from which to determine positions, and gauge Zanu PF reaction. Second, that they are not anxious for progression any time soon, beyond just registering the recovery and turnaround to a favourable disposition and sentiment.
Or both, out of which will emerge their next step, whether before or after 2023. I can see what would have been or still is impolitic to do. They could not have made this letter just ahead of Congress, without raising Zanu PF’s gigantic ire or charge of opportunism.
Some of the delegates who attended the Zanu PF 7th National People’s Congress
They cannot hurry now, without being accused of seeking to opportunistically steal in, ahead of 2023, which they know is already in Zanu PF’s bag. Equally, they cannot be indifferent in the run-up to 2023, without laying themselves open to charges of materialising in Zanu PF at a time of least need.
It is a delicate balancing act, one which they hope to play well, depending on what their real intention is. But they are up against a palpable unwillingness to suspend disbelief, on the part of Zanu PF. It is their burden to turn this around, assuming there is a genuine wish to rejoin.
The bigger part is their disavowal of Triple C, or any other party radically opposed to Zanu PF’s core values whose reverence they protest they never abandoned. It is public knowledge that their group, going under the moniker G-40, hoped Chamisa would win in 2018.
Or may be not! Hoped President Mnangagwa would not win, to create some outcome in which President Mnangagwa would either not feature at all in the post-2018 elections, or if he did, would feature a clipped and legless duck. And where Zanu PF would be retained with such attenuated or degraded margin, as to recall 2008.
The hope was a second GNU. It is not hard to understand why. A GNU would have given G-40 some beachhead for returning into the body-politic, thus enabling it to renegotiate a favourable return, en bloc. Such a hung result, they hoped, would invite the involvement of a second Thabo Mbeki.
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