MKD spokesman forced to eat humble pie by Tsvangirai

Senior premiership appointee Ghandhi Mudzingwa has been under legal persecution for the better part of his political career

Motor-mouth MKD spokesman Denford Magora must be wondering why it is he ever gets it so wrong when it comes to predicting the fate of Morgan Tsvangirai in the coalition government.

The problem dates back to the date when he teamed up with Dr Simba Makoni with the hope of promoting the Zanu PF long serving Politburo member into the President of Zimbabwe with just 58 days remaining for the harmonised election in March 2008 remaining for the campaign.

Dr Makoni was trounced into a distant 3rd place behind Tsvangirai and Mugabe in that order much to Magora’s dismay and chagrin.


Ever since that embarrassing loss Magora has embarked on a personal vendetta to discredit Tsvangirai at every turn possible with numerous predictions of the end of the Premier’s political career and relevance.

Most of his predictions have failed to materialise and he has been forced to revise them and revise them without getting anywhere nearer the outcome.

Lately he has been keeping a scoreboard of Mugabe’s triumph on Tsvangirai over contentious issues within the coalition government and by last night his scoreboard was reading 3:0 in favour of Mugabe.

The first score line in favour of Mugabe was in respect of the disputed appointment of Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana as RBZ governor and Attorney General respectively which Magora awarded to Mugabe stating that the octogenarian Zanu PF leader had read the Riot Act to Finance Minister Tendai Biti and forced him to publicly declare friendship with Gono.

Magora said even Tsvangirai would not support his nominee for Finance Minister in a Cabinet meeting when the Minister raised the Reserve Bank reform agenda in Cabinet because the Premier had been cut to size and knew the appointment of Dr Gono was beyond his capability to reverse.

But as he maintains the score at 3:0 in Mugabe’s favour he admits that the coalition principals have declared a deadlock on the Gono Tomana appointments and they have been referred to SADC for arbitration meaning there is no winner as of now on this one at least.

But that would be a dramatic admission that the MKD spokesman got it wrong when he initially awarded the result to Mugabe so he now says he predicted that the matter would only be referred to SADC with approval of the three principals yet only a day before he declared that outstanding issues will remain outstanding sine die.

The next score line he awarded Mugabe was over disputed reconfiguration of the ICT Ministry which he termed the “disembowelment of Nelson Chamisa”- the MDC nominated Minister as if he was the Ministry.

“There really is no other way to put it: Robert Mugabe today essentially, gutting his ministry into a shell and hiving off Telephone and cellphone companies and their regulatory bodies to a ZANU PF heavyweight minister.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is being systematically cut down to size by President Robert Mugabe,” the MKD spokesman wrote with cynical glee on 10 April 2009.

“He himself (Mugabe) decided to take the Department of Communications away from Nelson Chamisa, the MDC minister of Information and Communication Technology.

In essence, by taking this bit away from him, Mugabe has taken TelOne, the phone company, Netone, the cellphone company and the regulating bodies for the communication industry out of the ambit of the MDC.

Which means that Nelson Chamisa is now a minister in charge of shops that sell cellphones, phone shops and computer shops. Even the matter of the Internet has now been taken out of his hands,” he further declared.

So it was now 2:0 in favour of Mugabe in terms of the crucial disputes in the coalition government.

At that point I took it upon myself to remind Magora not to celebrate crossing the river before getting to it and reminded him the matter was very much being debated by the coalition principals.

Barely a month later embarrassed Magora admits;

“Nelson Chamisa has been given back control over the cellphone companies and ZIMPOST, but ZANU PF has retained control of the Interception of Communications mandate, which leaves them free to spy on everyone from the Prime Minister downwards. Interception of Communications was the real reason Mugabe grabbed the ministry from Chamisa, which means he has got what he wanted, after all.”

Don’t say we did not tell you that he who laughs last will have the longest and more lasting pleasure over this matter Mr Magora and indeed as we promised we are rubbing it in your pained conscience.

If anything at this point the score line is revised to 1:0 in favour of Tsvangirai and a stalemate on the first issue.

The score line was upped to 3:0 in favour of Mugabe when it was announced the unilateral appointments of Permanent Secretaries of Ministries have been adopted without variation.

Indeed that has been the case but it is not Mugabe that has won but rather Tsvangirai.

The fact that the appointments are now in terms of Constitutional amendment number 19 and have been approved by the principals of the coalition government is a big plus for all the principals as now the Secretaries are aware that they are not accountable to Mugabe alone for the continued subsistence of their tenures of office but to all the principals.

An additional plus to Tsvangirai is that it has been agreed that the confirmed secretaries will be apolitical in their execution of duties in tandem with their qualifications as professionals worthy of the jobs they hold.

It is a weapon Tsvangirai will use against them when they are tempted to fall back into the unprofessional zone of partisan politicking in decision making.

Even with those advantages and the appointment of Principal Directors and Directors in the Premier’s office we will give the score line to Mugabe and now please Magora by saying it is 1:1 and a stalemate in favour of Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

But there is more to Tsvangirai’s favour that we must credit him with.

Mugabe is now left with 4 Provincial Governors from the 10 he had which Magora had declared would remain an outstanding contentious issue but has now modified to say swearing in will take until kingdom come to be done by Mugabe. Score 2:1 and a stalemate for Tsvangirai.

Roy Bennett will take up his appointment as Deputy Agriculture Minister notwithstanding that Magora had declared that he would never be sworn into office by Mugabe who had already declared that the MDC nominee was facing serious criminal charges for which he will never be acquitted by his courts. Score line 3:1and a stalemate for Tsvangirai.

Foreign reporters are now free to practice journalism in Zimbabwe without harassment from the disbanded Media Information Commission which has been made redundant from January 2009. Score sheet now reads 4:1 and a stalemate for Tsvangirai.

Mugabe has lost grip on 5 Ambassadorial positions forthwith and more nominees by the MDC are to be trained and posted as and when vacancies arise. Score sheet reads 5:1 and a stalemate for Tsvangirai.

Clearly the Premier has momentum going in his favour in the contentious issues and will emerge more influential than MKD would like to accept.