Dr, eh, Toendepi Shonhe is star of the week!
DOCTOR Toendepi Shonhe, that sounds a tad uneasy, doesn’t it? Well, for those that have known the man - a former director-general at MDC-T - over the years, it does not roll well on the tongue: but, ladies and gentlemen, Toendepi Shonhe is a full PhD!
He read at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and he graduated just a couple of weeks ago.
The academic vocation is where he has lost himself over the past few years following his dwindling political fortunes.
For those that are not in the know, he broke from Tsvangirai’s MDC-T and went with Tendai Biti during the Renewal days.
He has not been very active since, with the Renewal lobby having met miserable fortunes and split itself, giving us the present People’s Democratic Party led by Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma’s Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe.
We are not quite sure where he stands right now, but we are willing to bet that it is with Biti.
And against Morgan Tsvangirai.
Just like Biti, Shonhe has a very low opinion of his former boss, and that is besides the fact that they are relatives - isn’t it - and more fundamentally that they know Tsvangirai is way the bigger figure in the opposition.
All else stand like midgets besides Tsvangirai.
However, they know him better than we all do and certainly better than all the admirers of Tsvangirai could ever figure.
They know Tsvangirai and his foibles.
They do not believe he could be a good leader, much less a president of the Republic.
Their conscience tells them so and that is why they decided to leave the golden cage of the MDC-T and fly out into the cruel world of minority opposition.
They may have miscalculated, too.
There has been an inherent weakness in “educated” people within the MDC-T. Let’s call them intellectuals. They do not like poor Morgan Tsvangirai, and his scant letters.
They laugh at him in their sleeves.
Sometimes they enjoy his many blunders that are a function of the same said bare letters.
It makes them see brighter prospects.
Paradoxically, they are not able to command numbers and gravitas that Tsvangirai has.
This has explained why woe has visited the fortunes of intellectuals from Munyaradzi Gwisai to Lovemore Madhuku to Biti himself.
They will never amount, realistically and in the present spirit of the game, to anything. But they have egos to keep. (They also have decent jobs and careers, unlike Tsvangirai)
They have, though, enjoyed carte blanche to throw shots at Tsvangirai time and again.
It gets worse in private, for those of us who have parleyed with many an MDC-T senior member, present and past.
The man’s weaknesses: from his troublesome loins to poor judgment and unsuitability to hold office are thrown out right in front of you.
The conversations are marked by tones of contempt and snobbery.
Yet Tsvangirai is a cross that they may all have to bear.
Tragically, he is also the veritable mill around the opposition neck.
This is a frame that we should understand the good Dr Shonhe. The farmer politician
Doctor By now the reader may be familiar with the story we carried this week in which Shonhe dismisses the prospects of the opposition, including a possible coalition led by Tsvangirai.
Shonhe wrote a paper titled, “The Prospects of a Grand Coalition in Zimbabwe’s 2018 Elections: An Ideological Lens” for some journal.
He submits that: “There appears to be somewhat growing consensus that a grand coalition is the ultimate answer to the complex and regressive challenges in Zimbabwe.
“This article posits that the proponents and architects of the ‘grand’ coalition may somehow be both simplistic and green in exaggerating the usefulness of this solo tactic.”
Let us no belabour his submissions here.
They have drawn enough discussion and, trust us, Shonhe is having a helluva time in the glory of the report.
It may as well be the biggest favour we as The Herald, have done all his life.
And by the way, he was at a discussion at Ibbo Mandaza’s talkshop, SAPES Trust, in Harare on Thursday night where he was a panellist alongside Biti, MDC-T vice president Nelson Chamisa, and others, according to the schedule.
We are yet to fully come to grips with what transpired there, albeit with few details of discussions around the issue of coalition in the opposition as the learner Dr Shonhe got a little more chance to expound his thesis.
But the curious thing in all this is that Shonhe has not just got letters in Political Science.
No, his area of study is agriculture!
Oh, yes, and it will interest the reader to know that he is a farmer - possibly a good one, too!
So one has to chuckle a bit at the preponderance in his famous submissions.
Let’s face it, there is nothing new in particular that he told us, despite such preponderances!
The opposition, with Tsvangirai at the head for that matter, is crippled and may, as they should, lose the next elections.
It is not a coincidence that Afrobarometer and the Mass Public Opinion Institute have just reaffirmed this fact, telling us that President Mugabe enjoys the trust of 64 percent of adult Zimbabweans while some 36 percent do for the opposition. It is not surprising. These are the kind of permutations that correctly foretold us the results of 2013 in which the opposition lost dismally; in fact by a similar margin in the popular vote.
It’s something that the opposition itself does not like to hear and there was a lot of hidingthe-head-in-the-sand this week.
MDC-T spokesman Obert Gutu was at pains to explain away the findings.
He is quoted in a local daily as saying:
“People of Zimbabwe should applaud the research, but the Zimbabwean situation is unique. We are dealing with a unique situation, especially in rural areas, where there is a culture of fear.” It is not convincing. Tapiwa Mashakada, writing on social media, was as confused, dismissing and accepting the findings.
“So what is my own personal reaction as a senior MDC person? I think the results are disappointing because they do not capture the mood in the country. However, we must accept that this is a scientific study and it betrays our foolishness as a
people.”
Well, how does a scientific report fail to capture the mood that is to be reflective?
He ends up bashing Zimbabweans for not choosing the MDC-T and it will be remarked that this has been a marked, immature reaction of the opposition in dealing with their poor electoral fortunes.
They end up saying Zimbabweans are fools. What cheek! But the likes of Shonhe know better, not least because they are learned.
If you come around it, it is not too kind to withhold the efforts of Dr Shonhe in his academic study.
It gives him something to do and legitimates his intellectual leanings and contempt for Tsvangirai.
This week belonged to him, and we will not begrudge him!