BY TAPSON MUCHENA It is time to put in place a new way of politics in Zimbabwe because the current party system has failed and brought us to the brink of ruin. Zanu PF’s oppressive, exploitative and manipulative structures have cowed the populace, conflated party and State, and ensured that power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of party chefs and apparatchiks. The past 41 years have been a travesty of good governance. Hope was born in 1999 with the emergence of the late Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) but that hope was effectively stifled when Zanu PF stole the 2008 election and denied Tsvangirai and the MDC their right to rule. The MDC has limped on since then and morphed into various manifestations which, instead of fighting the system, have been fighting one another to become part of the system. In the last 12 months, we have witnessed the recall from Parliament of MDC Alliance MPs, a move many saw as a Zanu PF-engineered ploy for Thokozani Khupe and Douglas Mwonzora to neutralise the opposition. In recent weeks, Mwonzora displaced Khupe and is moving to consolidate power by recalling more legislators from Parliament as well as councillors who continue to defy him. Khupe herself is refusing to stand down as parliamentary leader of the opposition. What is particularly reprehensible is that these machinations are occurring under the cover of the COVID-19 emergency. Apart from making ineffectual addresses to the nation, Nelson Chamisa has largely disappeared from sight and his MDC-A has been emasculated. It must be exceedingly painful for grassroots supporters who still share the late Tsvangirai’s 1999 vision and ideals to see what MDC has become. The “people’s project” has been destroyed. It may seem as if Zanu PF is tightening its grip, yet that is not necessarily the case. The Zanu PF government is in peril. In an attempt to avoid economic collapse and unlock funds to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube made a passionate appeal to international institutions to help the government to clear its arrears owed to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank. Ncube’s communication to the international financial institutions (IFIs) in Washington said the government and economy were almost collapsing and raised the spectre of an implosion of the State. His pleas were rebuffed by the IFIs which argued that Zimbabwe’s problems are rooted in politics not in economics. Zimbabwe is in an economic crisis that is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty years of looting, mismanagement and unbridled corruption have impoverished this country once touted as the jewel of Africa. In recent times, the combined effects of the 2019 drought and Cyclone Idai, shortage of foreign currency, contraction of agriculture, shortage of electricity and water production have forced more than 50% of Zimbabweans into food insecurity. Fiscal mismanagement and bungled de-dollarisation have precipitated depreciation of the local currency and high inflat