By Dr Masimba Mavaza| Keith Guzah has engaged the act of saying insulting or unfair things about someone else, especially to damage that person’s reputation:

This behaviour is called mudslinging.

With Keith Guzah calling the ZANU PF national Political Commissar corrupt and soliciting for a bribe is “deplorable and tarnishing the party’s image in this delicate time of elections. ZANU PF seemed to have reached an unprecedented low in mudslinging politics. But the reality is even more unsettling: A continuous line of trash-talking can be traced down to bad losers who chose to go down with the party. Hon. Guzah is a man in mud calling others dirty.

Negative campaigning or mudslinging is the process of deliberate spreading negative information about someone or something to worsen the public image of the described. In the efforts of Hon. Guzah his target is not Rugeje but the whole party at large.

While the president had declared saying bygones should be bygones, we must never forget that Hon Guzah who was cheating Cde Chombo with his wife came to the top through corrupt means where he was favoured by the G40 cabal. His allegiance to the new dispensation is doubtful. It is indeed silly for the party to turn a blind eye to the vengeful vendetta led G40 who are not in any mood of repenting.

It is not a sectet that honourable or is it dishonourable Guzah was put ahead of Temba Mliswa even though he had a car theft conviction.

It is therefore clear that spreading falsehoods against the whole commissariat department is a below the belt punch to the whole party.
Deliberate spreading of such information can be motivated either by honest desire of the campaigner to warn others against real dangers or deficiencies of the described, or by the campaigner’s dishonest ideas on methods of winning in political, business or other spheres of competition against an honest rival.

In the case of Cde Guzah, the allegations of bribe makes the whole issue a joke. Cde Rugeje was not counting the votes and was involved in overseeing the primaries nation wide. Why did cde Guzha wait until he lost to come up with such serious allegations.

There is a very consented war against any army or former military personnel in the party or government. The victors in this war will not be the party but its detractors. There is a serious war being wedged against the military in civilian positions. This has turned ugly as the party has turned a blind eye.

The public image of an entity can be defined as reputation, esteem, respect, acceptance of the entity’s appearance, values and behaviour by the general public of a given territory and/or a social group, possibly within time limits. As target groups of public and their values differ, so negativity or positivity of a public image is relative: So soiling the whole electoral system of the party is a serious sabotage against the party.

Thus negative campaigning does not take into account current values of the group it addresses. The degree and extent of the damage to the party must be seriously considered. in practice the party’s values as opposed to its tolerance for violating the norms has also to be taken into consideration:

 

CAN ANYTHING TRUE COME OUT OF KEITH GUZAH?

It is not a secret that Keith Guzah’s real name is Never Phiri and not Keith Guzah. He is a serial criminal who changed names. He was charged and convicted of several crimes ranging from Rape money laundering to car theft. He uses money in his way up and when he met an upright cadre in the NPC his true colours came out. He is an agent of the cabal which is meant to embarrass the party in every turn. There thousands of people who want to see the new dispensation failing. Guzah, a very close friend of the former NPC Cde Kasukuwere will not accept Rugeje as an untainted NPC.

Political elections breed competition. Every politician has a vision of the world and brings his or her version of the story to the public. A flip side to competition is that it can bring out a new side of a person’s character; people tend to play dirty. Make the competition about something as important as ruling a country and the ugly, mud-slinging side moves to the fore.

The behaviour of Guzah and his unsubstantiated allegations are knee shacking and the party must take strong action if he fails to prove it.

Many candidates are facing off over the constituency’s top job. Every day, at least one article pops up about political slander – just another day in the life in which a politician tries to make point in order to get ahead in the campaign. The beauty lies in finding the best malicious charges with which to discredit an opponent. But in the case of Guzha the NPC is not his opponent. The attack on this department is the attack on the party and arm the opposition with stupid allegations of poll corruption.

 

Strategy

With stakes this high, running candidates have each formed a unique political strategy and created a brand for themselves. For the Guzah brand’ the idea is quite simple: tarnish the party along with its officials and discredit the ability of the president to run free and fair elections. His financial success as a businessman is the unique thuggery and bribery which he now wants to make it ZANU PF custom by dragging in the NPC.

There are very rich candidates who lost primaries with grace. Guzah Phiri is saying every winning candidate has bribed the NPC. This is madness which must be contained and treated.

There is an agenda running under Guzah’s sleeves and if the party is slow to see it then things do fall apart.

In order to win, candidates normally chose to undermine each other’s brand. By discrediting the other you can create doubt, which is the ideal situation for putting forward your own story and beliefs. This way you’re in charge of ‘the truth’. But attacking the referee is a ploy to undermine the whole system.

Dirty tricks are political manoeuvres that go beyond mere negative campaigning. Part of the problem is that slanderous and defamatory campaigns seem to work. If they didn’t work, candidates wouldn’t be spending such huge amounts of money to continue with them. But ZANU PF must not allow this idiocy to continue.
Competitive and negative branding stands out; people know who you are. It also seems to work in terms of expanding popurlarity.

Even though negative branding seems to work, it’s important to keep in mind that using a competitive branding strategy to strengthen your brand could have the opposite effect. When you call out another brand in your campaign, then you acknowledge them as your competitor. In fact you are indirectly admitting that you have reason to fear them. That is why you should never use this strategy if you’re a good politician. because as a leader you don’t fear anyone. However, as a challenger you can call out your competitor all you want during a campaign and you won’t even come off as afraid; instead people will think you’re audacious. But fingering out the whole party as having been bribed is atrocious and unbelievable.
For the first time in our primaries all canditate campaigned using the same platform. You are all judged at the same time.

How would paying the NPC bolster your chances of success.

People judged you from what you are offering.
The culture of beating the system is rebellious. No one is above the system and Keith kiss Never Phiri Guzha must get a life and respect the laid down rules.

In the absence of any solid evidence Keith must apologise to the party and surely get alife.

Vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk