Former MDC, MDC-T and MDC-M nowm MKD member Silence Chihuri
If ever there was doubt as to why MDC is concerned about the functionality of its external assemblies then Silence Chihuri has unintentionally put those doubts to rest.
Amazingly all it took MDC Treasurer Roy Bennett to extract detailed confirmation of party fears was to irk a rogue former executive member of the Party’s UK and Ireland assembly by using the word rogue to describe suspected corrupt fiduciary transactions in foreign based assemblies in the name of the party when they were for personal benefit of the rogue individuals.
Silence Chihuri a former Treasurer of the party’s UK and I assembly ostensibly still deluded that he has a mandate to defend the external assembly he once led notwithstanding that he has not only been removed from the executive but has moved ahead to become a self avowed MKD member fired broadsides at the MDC Treasurer that exposed all that is suspiciously wrong about the party’s external assemblies operations.
Had Chihuri still been a party member it would not be out of line for the party to haul him before a disciplinary committee to answer charges of gross insubordination and conduct likely to put the name of the party into disrepute.
But more worrying is the muted silence of the suspended UK and I executive to at the very least distance itself from the vile that Silence Chihuri spewed against senior party officials.
Granted the executive is under suspension and barred from acting in the name of the party but in the exceptional circumstances where a former member whose exit from the party is not envious takes a defensive position cynically couched in language that appears to have come from the aggrieved currently suspended executive of the province it is most unwise for them to keep muted silence over the development.
Any reasonable person would speculate that Chihuri is bidding for the suspended executives for personal reasons to do with the manner he left the party in frustration and in a bid to sow seeds of discontent among the leaderless party membership in the UK and I province.
Be that as it may what Chihuri said cannot be left unchallenged because there is no better example of the rogue elements the MDC Treasurer intended to expose than Chihuri.
His vile protest is premised on inside knowledge of the party procedures he was exposed to as an executive member of the province. It is unethical and unprofessional for people in positions of trust to use knowledge gained in the course of execution of executive functions to spite other former or current executives in the public domain such as the press and he knows it.
His accusations are political garbage expected from disgruntled former members attempting to get even with a party they feel failed to appreciate their contribution to the cause.
Chihuri falsely alleged that MDC National Treasurer Roy Bennett wrongfully and spitefully labeled all members of the party in external assemblies’ rogues when they have sacrificed so much to sustain the party.
The reason the National Treasurer did that was because of a combination of his colonial superiority hangover and the unmerited promotion he has been awarded in the party that has seen him occupy a position way beyond his competence according to Chihuri.
“There is nothing racial about Bennett's comments. It is a case of mentality and sadly, has become part of a chronic and endemic problem in the MDC that sees obscure figures being catapulted to the top echelons of the party at the expense of the hardworking and dedicated cadres of the party. It's not just Bennett who has benefited from that profligacy in the MDC although he is by no means the biggest beneficiary,” Chihuri ranted.
He went on to single out the Premier’s spokesman James Maridadi and Minister of State in the Premier’s office Gorden Moy as examples of the undeserving beneficiaries of MDC profligacy that rewards nonentities ahead of party stalwarts without naming them.
The tirade that followed exposes the rogue element in Chihuri. He is so bitter with the current leadership of the party he once served but later abandoned first for the 12 October splinter group now led by Professor Mutambara and later for the moribund Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD) fronted by Dr Simba Makoni where his membership still subsists that he even suggested that the party must appoint its deceased members to the positions as a reward for their hard work during their lifetime.
How that physical impossibility can make sense only a bitter Chihuri can fathom.
“It is the ultimate mockery to those who have died in the name of the MDC party. There is no culture of appreciation or rewarding of the hard work in the MDC. What we see is the same jobs-for-boys culture that is rampant in ZANU PF. It is a real disgrace,” lamented a distraught Chihuri.
Equally outrageous is the suggestion by Chihuri that those that were not there when the party was formed or fighting for political space must not derive benefit from the party’s success.
If the Zanu PF jobs-for-the boys culture is objectionable to Chihuri for real the expectation would be that he would be equally appalled by the same party’s culture of impunity and possessive ownership of fruits of the struggle for national sovereignty.
But no Chihuri is comfortable with the MDC if it reserves positions for its dedicated activists regardless of the requirements of the positions that may not suit the activists in terms of grooming qualifications and experience in addition to political correctness.
“Bennett saw a fantastic opportunity to settle an old score because he is one of those few but very hardcore white people who never fully and whole heartedly embraced the idea of a black government in Zimbabwe,” Chihuri lapsed into the past in his uncontrolled ire.
He completely lost his bearings when he accused the party of being shamelessly in dereliction of founding principles and allowing itself to be abused by people who do not have the interest of others at heart like Bennett and we assume James Maridadi and Gorden Moyo.
But facts on the ground seem to suggest to the contrary that these same people are loved by the very people they are exploiting if Chihuri’s assertions are anything to go by and we wonder why when they are as bad as he depicts them to be?
“I detest Jonathan Moyo and most of his wapped political views and especially policies during his short but disastrous spell in government. But Moyo's analysis of Bennett was just as spot as his accurate analysis of Mugabe in the late 1980's and early 1990's,” Chihuri protested
This gem was thrown in to justify the outrageous racist attack he was about to launch on Bennett.
“Everyone knows that Bennett was in the notorious Selous Scouts and that he also served in the brute Rhodesian army.
In 1980 Bennett and some of his unrepentant friends refused flatly to accept the first black government of Zimbabwe and they continued to vote for the Rhodesian Front until it was disbanded due to waning fortunes,” ranted Chihuri.
He conveniently forgot to remind us that Zanu PF had agreed to work with these unrepentant whites for 10 years and even went further to unconditionally pardon them for their war crimes that he documented and appointed some of them to key ministerial positions long after the agreed ten year period had expired without offending him in the slightest way.
But for the MDC to settle on Bennett is an inexcusable and unpardonable political blunder for Chihuri. We wonder why what is good for him Zanu PF is detested when dished by MDC.
“The main issue with the Rhodesian Army was not their so-called "cause" since they were adamant that they had a right to fight for "their country. It was rather their warped ideology that said black lives were not to be valued at all and this was showcased in the manner in which innocent civilians suffered at the hands of the merciless Rhodesian forces. Everyone knows how brutal the Rhodesian armed forces were to the Zimbabwean povo because they saw the Zimbabwean black people as nothing more than flies that had to be killed for the most stupid reason,” he tore into Bennett’s personal integrity.
All because he has been over promoted by the MDC ahead of unnamed preferences of Chihuri.
“I dont like invoking the gory war memories at all, but history must never be forgotten or ignored. And most importantly, the MDC party must never be used as a political veil behind which people with a dodgy past come and find ready refuge,” Chihuri added.
The problem is the apology was of no consequence as he had invoked the memories in those whose relatives were murdered in cold blood not just by the Rhodesia forces but also by the Liberation fighters over false allegations of having sold out to the Rhodesia forces.
But it’s a risk only insensitive rogues are prepared to take in order to score cheap political points over their detested opponents.
“Yes there are people who have been engaging in unacceptable if not illegal tendencies in the name of the MDC party but not everyone is as rogue as Bennett seems to very carelessly insinuate,” Chihuri made a veiled concession.
His gripe was that Bennett had labeled everyone a rogue but there is no evidence to support that assertion.
If anything the MDC Treasurer made it clear he did not know the extent of the rogue activities that have been carried out in the name of the party without benefiting the party and signaled an intention to dismantle the party’s external structures to stop the abuse.
According to Chihuri the party leadership is to blame for the rogue behavior in the UK and I province.
“These are people some of whom have had very dubious stints in ZANU PF and they jumped ship onto the MDC and they have imported the destructive and in some case deadly politics of ZANU PF.”
Not being a member of the MDC it is clear what Chihuri’s mission is in his accusations of the MDC leadership for a shortcoming the leadership has acknowledged and taken first steps to rectify by suspending the UK&I executive committee and instituting investigations Chihuri is opportunistically attempting to exploit by pre-empting outcomes.
Casting aspersions on the integrity of the party leadership is the art of politicking.
Chihuri did a good job of it by accusing the party of commercializing its brand. He cited admission charges as high as £75.00 per head levied on members wishing to meet the Premier as a classical example of the commercialization malpractice by the party.
While we agree that charging foreign domiciled citizens anything at all to meet their Premier when he visits the country in which they reside is outrageous we must disagree with Chihuri in the context he puts the charges.
Citizens were never charged to attend a public meeting with their Premier or any other visiting dignitary from Harare for that matter.
On the contrary the MDC as a party went out of its way to organize a public rally for its members with their Party President and this meeting was free for all interested citizens and non citizens of Zimbabwe.
After the public rally where the ungrateful and disrespectful rogues harangued and jeered the Premier the Province had organized a Private dinner function with the Premier which was open to those willing to pay the exorbitant fees now being complained about by Chihuri for political capital.
Since it was a voluntary Party and not government function where the Province made it clear upfront that attendance will be subject to the payment the complaint being raised is inconsequential and inane.
The attempt to blame the Morgan Tsvangirai the MDC President for having kept a distance from Provincial fundraising initiatives by not speaking out against the charges was to say the least a desperate and cynical low in politicking by Chihuri.
The members of the MDC were and will always be free to support or boycott their party’s fundraising functions as they deem fit but for non members to complain over functions they never attend or approve is most absurd.
Even if the venues are donated and there are no administration expenses on the part of the Provincial executive if they are using the venues for fundraising activities it does not and will never make sense if they in turn donate the venue for the free usage by members.
Common sense dictates that if that were to happen no funds would be raised as intended when seeking the donated venues.
“What I see lacking these days and has led to this sorry state of affairs is proper accountability due to little or non-existent supervision between the national party treasurer (Bennett in this case) and the UK finance department.
This has allowed some other shadowy "treasurers" to assume Bennett's role and in the process pocketing party money,” Chihuri unconditionally conceded at last.
These are the rogues the Treasurer exposed and not everyone as Chihuri is attempting to make us believe.
Having rubbished Bennett as an incompetent Treasurer and unfit person to lead the MDC it is that Chihuri suggests that he should improve on his supervision skills and accept responsibility for system failures in the party’s financial controls.
“ The other worrying perception shown by Bennett and other very mindless MDC leaders is to think that it is a privilege for all the Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to be members of the MDC! How disturbingly wrong they are because it is a right of all Zimbabweans who have been forced out of the country to join a party of their choice and support it from wherever they are in the world, Chihuri rightly cautioned the party.
Whatever his motive for giving the party he has abandoned advice, the advice cannot be faulted.
Comparing Fletcher Dulini and Roy Bennett’s successes or failures as MDC treasurer was ill advised as it only managed to show that of the two Bennett has been the more successful given party performances in the last General elections and those are the results that really matter not the academic qualifications that Chihuri lauds.
If the control systems were in place and Chihuri being a former member has done the proper handover takeover to his successors there should be no excuse then for the current lapses.
Could it be that Chihuri did not do the expected handover takeover when he left because he had an ulterior motive to see the party he had once served collapse because it had mistreated him?
While everyone has the right to support a party of his choice from wherever he is domiciled such membership does not necessarily have to be in a structured format like a Provincial Assembly or Branch more so for a Party that has leadership of the government.
The only justification for exiled assemblies was because the people were being denied freedom of political association within the country. Now that the MDC
President is the leader of government it is rather paradoxical that the party should be seen to be strengthening external structures that were justified by repression within the country unless the Premier is indirectly acknowledging that his government is continuing with the repression.
“It is mere grandstanding for Bennett to say that all external MDC party structures will be disbanded because there are several thousands of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora who will continue to agitate for change in Zimbabwe and it is up to the MDC to give them a leadership that will inspire them to be part of the party,” concluded Chihuri.
But given the stark reality that the MDC is an integral component of the government how does he justify the seemingly paradoxical position that the party’s external assemblies can raise when the government claims it has democratized political space within the country.
Which other serious political party operating in a democratic country can boast exiled structures if we may ask?
Forward thinking dictates that we must accept that in the long term it will work against the MDC to sustain exiled political structures which it may find difficult to control if it becomes the ruling party and they refuse to tow the line accusing leadership of impunity.
“The way forward for the MDC is to ensure that there is proper supervision of all its valued external structures,” Chihuri opined.
But the opinion is formulated on the belief that the MDC will need the external assemblies in perpetuity which is outrageous and shortsighted in terms of its
implications to measures of democratic governance within the country.
“There are a lot of people who were not necessarily by-standers in ZANU PF who are now already front-runners in the MDC?” Chihuri disclosed.
That is the reason why it may not be wise for the party to continue with these external structures that have sprung several surprises for the party.
The history of the party leadership in external assemblies is not rosy as it has been characterized by public smear campaigns over issues that do not necessarily add value to the democratization process so imperative in the country.
This is not to say that the exiled supporters have not played a significant role in propping up the party but merely to flag that within the exiled supporters there are several who for personal reasons want to retain justification for asylum statuses wherever they have sought refuge and such people will not want to see the success of the democratization process and will rightly or wrongly use external structures as justification for their claims.
Such a development would greatly embarrass the MDC if it won the elections to wing up the SADC imposed coalition government as is likely to happen. How will the MDC justify existence of its external assemblies when it is the governing party in the country?
Before labeling MDC Treasurer a real rogue it appears the real rogue Silence Chihuri who is no longer a party member did not look back to see what his history within the MDC formations and now in MKD reads like.
It reads exactly like Jonathan Moyo, Edgar Tekere, Dr Simba Makoni, Dr Shakespeare Maya or Dumiso Dabengwa’s political CV and for many Zimbabweans that is one political CV any aspiring leader must attempt to avoid if they are to realize their long term political.
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