One would think the emergence of new presidential aspirants would not be an issue considering the fact that their participation only ensures that ZANU PF remains in power.

Simba Makoni’s only achievement during the previous presidential election, with the support of Dabengwa, was to deny Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai the majority votes needed to successfully claim the presidency. Dabengwa has boasted about it as a successful outcome

The margin between Mugabe and Tsvangirai would have been large enough that the results could not be tampered with.

Makoni’s joining of the race 29 days before the elections and his almost complete silence after the elections leaves a lot of questions in the minds of those who put their lives in danger by going to vote for him during the elections.

Was Simba Makoni a genuine presidential candidate or was he a ZANU PF last minute idea of splitting votes between him and MDC-T so as to deny Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai majority vote?

If he is really passionate about bringing sanity to Zimbabwe why would he wait until the last 29 days, coming in with ZANU PF slogans like Simba kuvanhu (power to the people)? What power was he promising the people of Zimbabwe?

Simba was withdrawn from SADCC (now SADC) under scandalous circumstances, fired from ZimPapers, offered to resign before the scheduled dissolution of Parliament in 2002 – maybe doubting his survival and now wants to be the president.

Does such a history of failure give someone enough confidence to resuscitate the Zimbabwean economy, political, and social status?

That said, Zimbabwe now faces another ZANU PF prodigal son called Dumiso Dabengwa.

Unfortunately Dabengwa’s decision to take advantage of the tidal wave of scorn and bitterness within Zimbabwe towards ZANU PF also leaves one with more questions than answers. Zimbabwe, with the highest literacy rate in Africa will never forget the suffering, torture and deaths they witnessed in the past.

Dabengwa and Makoni which side of the equation were they when all this was taking place? It’s hard to imagine Makoni and Dabengwa making accusations and criticizing the very system that made them who they are today, the same system that groomed Makoni to the level of being tipped to succeed President Robert Mugabe.

Dabengwa ran as a ZANU PF candidate in the 2000 elections for a seat in the House of Assembly representing Nkulumane. He lost to the late Gibson Sibanda of MDC. After the elections, Dabengwa said MDC would have won even if its candidate was a donkey.

He lost again in 2005 Parliamentary election. Dabengwa supported Simba Makoni in the 2008 Zimbabwe Presidential Elections. Before announcement of the official results, Dabengwa claimed success in their campaign with Makoni, a campaign that denied Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai majority vote and successfully retained President Robert Mugabe in power.

The only ZAPU to truly exist in Zimbabwe was led by our highly respected leader, Father Zimbabwe Joshua Nkomo, and that ZAPU remains swallowed by ZANU PF. When he celebrates and claims to have denied Zimbabweans political change, then why is Dabengwa running for the presidency?

What are his aspirations? What changes does he intend to bring to the same people he denied the change they had longed, fought and some died for?

Now that Makoni is silent and almost forgotten, is Dabengwa the new ZANU PF candidate to deny Zimbabweans the change they need?

Twice Dabengwa participated in elections and twice he lost, what makes him believe he is destined to be the next president of Zimbabwe and where is he expecting the votes to come from this time? Trojan Horse

Aaron Mhonda is a US based BI Architect. His passions are reading, information technology, expressing himself in writing, business, helping Zimbabwe and seeing its people united. He says he would like to see and be part of a better Zimbabwe, irrespective of who is running the country.This article was first published at ChangeZimbabwe.

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