The G40 are mere spoilsports

via The G40 are mere spoilsports – The Zimbabwean 1.10.2015

The Generation Forty (G40) outfit has emerged as a noteworthy player in the post-Zanu (PF) congress factional contests.

Despite its pervasive presence in the factional fights, though, its leaders have only a peripheral chance of taking over the baton from Mugabe, for a variety of reasons.

The term G40 gained currency after the 2008 elections and during the Government of National Unity (GNU) between early 2009 and 2013. Not much was said about G40 during the period of the “puschist cabal” that sniffed out Joice Mujuru and her loyalists before, during and immediately after the December 2014 congress.
However, its presence lurked through the shady Gang of Four comprising Jonathan Moyo, Patrick Zhuwao, Saviour Kasukuwere and Oppah Muchinguri.

The first three feature prominently in the G40 band that was reported to have played an active role in the anti-Mujuru crusade, with the anointing and connivance of President Robert Mugabe, his wife Grace, Emmerson Mnangagwa and other party heavyweights. The group seems to be motivated by the thinking—which is not bad in itself—that the long-ruling Zanu (PF) must now give the Young Turks in the party the chance to rule and the old wood must retire.

Dark corridors
It is in this vein that G40 is working, mostly from the dark corridors where it is hard to see them, to position the younger party generation ahead of 2018.

It will take an all-night prayer vigil, bringing together a combined cohort of the self-proclaimed Pentecostal prophets, the sangomas under Zinatha and the marine spirits from the Apostolic sects, for me to believe that the G40 leadership will succeed Mugabe.

As it stands, the G40 band, energetic as it is, has been good only as a spoilsport. Zhuwao, Moyo, Kasukuwere and Muchinguri spoilt Mujuru’s power-seeking party and the rest is history. It worked well with the Mnangagwa faction for as long as it was necessary to blow the Gamatox “insecticide” from the Weevils’ hole.

Ideas and strategies
The gang will do all it can to spoil Mnangagwa’s chances of taking the reins from Mugabe. The game plan involves keeping the excitable Grace on its tether, and fooling Mugabe too. Thus, it will keep telling Grace and her ancient husband that he is the best candidate come 2018. The main import of this is to ensure that Mnangagwa does not land the job.

Mnangagwa remains fighting, of course, setting the spooks on G40, but he is not enjoying the game that much, thanks to the G40 machinations.

I doubt very much that any of the players in G40 seriously believes he can lead this country. Kasukuwere lacks in brain what God gave him in brawn. He works well setting militias on the people, but hardly in any other respect. He must thank his association with Moyo, who I believe is the one constantly feeding him with ideas and strategies.

This man they aptly call “Tyson”, apparently after US boxer Mike Tyson, might be the Zanu (PF) national mobiliser, but they don’t put you in that position for your brains, do they? If their criterion was brains, they would have looked for people other than the late Border Gezi and Elliot Manyika in the past.  I mean no disrespect to the dead, of course.

Jonathan Moyo is sharp and an effective ideological strategist to whom Zanu (PF) must be indebted for its miraculous survival since 2000. He has the capacity to breathe life back into the party when even the most optimistic physician has cast away the scalpel. He is an awesome busybody and, since his return to the party in the GNU era, had managed to rechristen himself into a politician who cares for the media and Zimbabwe, to some extent.

Work ethic
But all those that are awestruck with his intelligence and work ethic don’t regard him as a future president. That includes influential people in Zanu (PF) who, above all, don’t trust him and would rather keep him close only for his capacity to resuscitate the party.

Zhuwao is a mere minnow who, despite his pleasant nature, cannot run a ward without the blessings of his uncle, the president, and fawning party supporters too keen to please Mugabe. He is full of good ideas on how things must be done differently and I admire his rebellious tendencies in a party that is so rigid and does not tolerate criticism. He has in the past, or so I heard, advised his uncle to call it quits.

But that boomeranged because the Old Man doesn’t like people who tell him to go. Besides, Grace does not trust him and thinks he is too much of a rebel. She will work with him, but only to some point. The major point is that the three musketeers don’t have popular clout.

There is no way any one of them can stand the heat in an election against, for instance, Joice Mujuru or Morgan Tsvangirai. For as long as Zimbabwe is in a crisis, Tsvangirai will remain relevant. Mujuru has the capacity to get sympathy and support across the board, depending on how she plays her cards before 2018. The three G40 actors are therefore sorry midgets. No need to mention Oppah, who seems to be moving fast into oblivion.
To make their plight of the three G40 musketeers worse, they don’t enjoy the respect and support of the influential securocracy. Like it or not, the generals will remain loyal to those who killed the Rhodies during the war of liberation. They won’t trust a Johnny-come-lately with the reins of power because they know that the young ones can ram the lid and on them and place a boulder on top. And the generals will play a crucial role in determining who succeeds Mugabe. – To comment on this article, please contact majonitt@gmail.com