THE MIRAGE OF ZANU PF’S SUPPOSED PROGRESS: UNRAVELLING THE ILLUSION OF ELECTORAL GAINS

Despite the unyielding churn of the Zanu PF party’s propagandist machine, the recent by-elections paint a vastly different reality to what the party projects. This propaganda, touting the party’s apparent encroachment into its own strongholds, is but a smokescreen hiding the stark truth. The very party responsible for the nation’s current paralysis has failed, yet it boasts of its supposed gains in a blatant denial of reality.

The unemployed youth, now converted into online agitators, have joined the Zanu PF’s cheerleading squad, their job being to applaud an out-of-touch, disoriented elderly statesman whose leadership leaves much to be desired. Yet, these supposed gains are nothing but the fruits of shameless electoral manipulation, endorsed by the compliant electoral commission that seems to show a puzzling sympathy for the party’s ill-conceived aspirations.

Anyone who believes in the propaganda that the beleaguered Zanu PF has made actual progress is gravely misguided, their thinking as flawed as a camel trying to fit its entire body into a tent that barely covers its head. These hollow claims are even more ludicrous considering that the party, albeit illegitimate, has taken the reins of power and thus bears the brunt of responsibility for the resulting chaos, which is not limited to our nation’s current paralysis.

Consider the nation as a beleaguered and undernourished forty-year-old donkey forced to perform at the level of a five-year-old. This elderly, exploited creature, with a hefty weight tied to its hind legs, is cruelly pushed beyond its limits with no sympathy or remorse. The individuals responsible for this maltreatment, the corrupt individuals of the illegitimate Zanu PF, parallel those mismanaging the nation.

Substitution is a concept those educated when teachers were adequately compensated would understand—a notion apparently too intricate for the blinkered Zanu PF followers. Their children, bereft of a quality education due to their parents’ misguided loyalties, are encouraged to attend fruitless Zanu PF rallies rather than school. They are fed stories of a fictional liberation struggle, a struggle that has failed to deliver its primary objectives, leaving Zimbabwe in a state of neocolonialism.

Returning to the plight of our poor donkey, its deprivation of food and care symbolises the denial of reliable, affordable public services and welfare to the citizens. These citizens have now metamorphosed from undernourished donkeys into an oppressed population, continually denied prompt, reliable, and affordable public services. The Zanu PF continues to turn a blind eye, focusing more on self-enrichment than the wellbeing of the populace.

Which brings us to the central question, or rather, the proverbial elephant in the room. How can a failed party, responsible for the paralysis of a state, make inroads among a population that has consistently opted for change, favouring innovative, resilient opposition over years of mismanagement? Why would the very people subjected to neglect and terror willingly sabotage their hopes for a brighter future by supporting the party that has oppressed them? Indeed, these are not just questions, but glaring elephants that demand attention.