Hon Moses Mzila Ndlovu MPHon Senator David Coltart believes that the entrenched belief that his faction is in league with Zanu PF has been created by media speculation over gagged MoU talks, propaganda issued by ZANU PF and statements made by leaders of the MDC formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC T).
He may have a point here but nothing can be further from the truth than the assertion that his formation is the only party to the MoU negotiations that has hitherto strictly upheld the agreement on secrecy of the talks and thus opened itself to victimisation by the statements and propaganda from the other parties to the talks.
If anything the faction that Senator Coltart belongs to has been most vocal about these talks. It was the first to announce its presence in South Africa for the initial round of negotiations mediated by President Mbeki.
That session passed without incident when negotiators broke off to consult with their principals.
It was during the second session that speculative reports about moles at the talks having been trapped and caught red handed were first pronounced and the propaganda was not directed at Senator Coltart’s formation but rather Tsvangirai’s when we were informed the mole was Theresa Makone.
The secrecy over the talks was compromised when another document was claimed to have been leaked by Tsvangirai’s negotiators detailing the framework of the proposed government and the global agreement.
The negotiations moved to Harare when it was speculated that President Mbeki was coming to conclude the talks immediately before Heroes day.
Senator Coltart’s principal Professor Arthur Mutambara fuelled the speculation when he pre-empted conclusion of the talks by issuing a Heroes Day commemoration message that was scathing about the role of western imperialists in pre-conditioning the outcome of the talks and its hypocrisy about sanctions and the land redistribution initiative.
Senator Coltart acknowledges this propaganda by Prof Mutambara calculated to harm Tsvangirai after he had walked out of the talks because he was not satisfied with a few issues that Prof Mutambara and Mugabe were amenable to.
Instead of classifying it as MDC M propaganda aimed at tarnishing Tsvangirai and project him in bad stead Senator Coltart labels this as “belligerent statements of Arthur Mutambara.”
Further to these belligerent views, Mutambara and Mugabe shared the podium at Heroes Acre the following day and Mugabe attacked Tsvangirai in the same vein Mutambara had done in his statement accusing Tsvangirai of dithering to sign the agreement and pandering to the whims of his Western handlers.
As Senator Coltart rightly observed many newspapers, took it as given that there was a deal reached between Mutambara and Mugabe because indeed there was and there still is a deal between them as Mutambara has consistently conceded that fact but denied having signed it even though he agreed with it.
But the real motive of Senator Coltart’s explanation was not to merely exonerate his faction from the widely held perception about its being in alliance with Zanu PF in the talks but rather to set the stage for demonising Tsvangirai and the MDC over the Parliamentary Speakership elections and pre-empt the determination the adjudicator must pass when the legal challenge over the election has been heard.
His motive was to cast aspersions over the election of Lovemore Moyo as the Speaker of Parliament and influence the outcome of any legal challenge on the matter.
"Whilst the existence of a deal has been emphatically denied, the controversy
surrounding the election of Speaker in the last week has served to enhance the perceptionthat there is some deal,” Coltart usefully disclosed the motive of his argument.
The Parliament Speaker elections only confirmed beyond reasonable doubt what the Zimbabweans have long concluded and that is Prof Mutambara and Prof Ncube are leaders of a counter revolutionary Zanu PF project to destabilise the MDC.
The project has been code named MDC to cause identity confusion with the people’s movement by the same name.
The State owned Herald broke the deal pact story and to date Zanu PF has not distanced itself from the deal with MDC PF. If anything Zanu PF has actually acted in conformity with the coalition pact between Prof Mutambara and President Mugabe.
The pact involved offering Mutambara’s faction the Speakership of Parliament, the Ceremonial Premiership, at least 10 Cabinet portfolios, 2 Governorships of Provinces, Understudy Diplomatic postings to all Western sited Zimbabwe embassies and 10 Permanent Secretaries of Ministries allocated to the faction and governmental representation at all fora where sanctioned ZANU PF stalwarts are barred.
Senator Coltart,Prof Jonathan Moyo and Moses Mzila Ndlovu were specifically earmarked for Ministerial appointments subject to Coltart’s Deputy Minister coming from Zanu PF.
For a faction whose top hierarchy was sent to the political dustbin by the electorate to emerge with such extensive political presence in government was irresistible for the novice Prof Mutambara and he capitulated to the demand by Zanu PF that all his faction had to do was enter into a coalition government with it that excluded Tsvangirai and his MDC.
To minimise public interest in the deal it was agreed to maintain the relationship as a gentleman’s agreement personally guaranteed by Mugabe. Gideon Gono and Professor Moyo and George Charamba played a pivotal role in convincing a suspicious Prof Mutambara that Mugabe was a man of his word and whatever he personally guarantees Zanu PF will not dare defy.
The faction was strictly instructed to publicly dissociate itself from both Zanu PF and MDC led by Tsvangirai and claim its relation with either Party was dependant on the business at hand but would always vote along with Zanu PF whenever need arose to pass a decision by vote in Parliament or in the Senate.
As a sign of goodwill to the pact Zanu PF withdrew the candidature of John Nkomo for the position of Speaker of Parliament and whipped its MP’s to vote for the candidate from Prof Mutambara’s MDC PF.
The verbal cooperation agreement between the formation led by Prof Mutambara and Zanu PF has been in place since 12 October 2005 and has always been closely safeguarded by liaison being carried privately through CIO conduits.
The ZimSentinel is in possession of some names of CIO operatives that were assigned to the project.
The defeat of Paul Themba Nyathi by Lovemore Moyo was thus a crashing blow to both Zanu PF and specific functionaries in the Party and the extension of the Party under Prof Mutambara’s stewardship.
Mugabe’s spokesman did not mince his words of displeasure with the development when he publicly chided Mutambara and Ncube in the following terms;
“I have deliberately deferred my thoughts on what Mutambara and Ncube must do to stave off a looming political tundra. My sources tell me there is fury in the camp. Sure, there should be. Who stomachs such contumely? But what is at stake calls for much more than fury. It requires decisiveness. As leaders of their faction, Ncube and Mutambara need to declare the rebel MPs outlaws.
They need to disown them through processes that should resonate in Parliament. Such as formally notifying the new Speaker about whom they have very little love, that the ten MPs crossed the floor that Monday. That immediately wipes out MDC-T’s newfound dominance by bribery.
That immediately precipitates a series of by-elections which the rebel MPs is sure to lose. Get it from me, neither MDC-T nor the rebel MPs have a stomach for by-elections just now. And of course such a development will create a new dynamic within MDC-T itself.
Can Ncube and Mutambara do it? I wonder. Or will they be pre-empted by an approach to the courts by the rebels, as is being mooted? Again, I wonder. Whichever way, speed and decisiveness is what is needed. And if the two men lack both, they might as well kiss kwaheri to politics. Or join Zanu-PF.”
The chilling message for Mutambara and Ncube was do anything and everything possible to reverse the election of Lovemore Moyo as Speaker of Parliament or abandon the MDC PF project and join the Zanu PF mainstream.
Failure to take action on the rebellion and its embarrassing consequences on Zanu PF and in particular President Mugabe will not escape Zanu PF sanction on the faction.
The litigation avenue had already been discussed with the faction and was not the most favoured by Mugabe.
But the fear was always there that the faction led by failed lawyers will resort to that recourse with disastrous political consequences and that is exactly what has happened when the faction settled for the misguided Court action in the High Court to set aside the Speaker’s election which on merits and procedure is fatally flawed and is destined to a dramatic collapse.
Excluding MDC from the Unity government would immediately free 13 Cabinet positions and 5 Deputy Ministerial positions for the Zanu PF and MDC PF coalition to parcel between them and Zanu PF was happy to parcel 7 of those to MDC PF and retain the 6 plus 5 Deputies.
That is why Professor Moyo has now publicly teamed up with Professor Ncube and Senator Coltart, whom he loathes with a passion, to craft the High Court challenge over the Speaker of Parliament’s election.
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