CHIKARA CHEZANU PF MDC PRESIDENT AND ZIMBABWE PREMIER RIGHT HONOURABLE MORGAN TSVANGIRAI AKA SAVE
Its all very well for people like Tawanda Mudzingwa to make preposterous and outrageous statements about the leadership stability in the MDC led by Premier Morgan Tsvangirai.
But for him to cause real alarm and despondency within the MDC grassroots, he needs to do a lot better than claiming without a shred of evidence, that the MDC leader is about to be ousted by the so called “enlightened members in his party” whatever that is supposed to mean.
First it is important to understand that there is no intention on the part of Tsvangirai or any of the MDC party leadership to create a supreme leader of the party let alone a life President.
To that end therefore Tsvangirai’s days as leadership of the MDC have always been numbered and not worthy of any speculation.
There is absolutely nothing new in Mudzingwa’s latest commentary about Tsvangirai’s prospects of remaining in charge of the party except a level of unconvincing naivety that will be difficult to surpass by other commentators on the subject in future.
Tsvangirai can only be ousted from leadership of the party by constitutional means or through incapacity to carry out his duties as MDC-T President due to infirmity and not because so called enlightened supporters of the party wish for that eventuality and actively agitate for it as Mudzingwa has done.
MDC-M dissidents will give Mudzingwa better testimony to that reality.
Tsvangirai’s current term as MDC President runs from April 2006 to April 2011 and on his current performance he will more likely than not complete his term and get nominated unopposed for a second term ending in 2016 whether or not the enlightened supporters like it or don’t.
The problem with the so called enlightened supporters of the party is that they are mainly cowardly refugees in the diaspora without a clue as to what is required to democratise Zimbabwe other than the ouster of Mugabe.
The same refugees are not even conscious of their political shortcomings they think they are better strategists than Tsvangirai.
Their strategy is to seek asylum and let the country disintegrate as a result of economic hardships until Mugabe goes then they will return home to rebuild the country.
It is the same strategy they believe will also help them oust the MDC President prematurely and take charge of the party.
But there is no empirical evidence to support that such a strategy will work in their favour.
Teaming up against a party leader who defeated the mercurial Mugabe in the March 2008 Presidential elections and has stabilised the economy within 30 days of joining government does not sound like a strategy that enlightened democracy advocates would employ where the opponent has resorted to using military force to retain power.
At a time when the MDC is slowly but surely and systematically dismantling the dictator’s power base it makes absolutely no sense for enlightened or is it blinded MDC supporters to waste precious little time in cobbling retrogressive ouster programmes for the leader who is carving wide inroads in Zanu PF’s power enclaves.
This lot of “enlightened supporters” appears oblivious of the fact that in the event they succeed in their agenda, Tsvangirai can easily start another political initiative that will give him a further 10 years in leadership and as things stand may very well prevail against challenges from the enlightened remnants and their new leadership as well as Zanu PF.
Tsvangirai not only has the organisational capacity to achieve such a feat but has the experience and reputation to create a formidable brand name in Zimbabwe politics after the MDC success story.
All MDC members are held with equal esteem and are free to hold views about the party that may be at variance with those held by the leadership of the moment but they can only successfully push for the adoption of their ideas through influencing grassroots opinion and seeking support there from to ascend to leadership positions.
Nobody is bigger than the party and thus immune to being contested in any position at party congress but those that try to saw seeds of disunity and seek to divide supporters through unconstitutional means will find the hard way that the party followers are not easy to dupe.
Tsvangirai has survived many attempts to oust him from leadership of the party and the scalps of Munyaradzi Gwisai, Welshman Ncube. Gibson Sibanda, Paul Themba Nyathi, Arthur Mutambara, Priscilla Misihairambwi, Simba Makoni and many others are in his display cabinet to bear testimony of his political acumen.
Not only that but the successes of Tendai Biti, Elton Mangoma, Thoko Khupe, Lovemore Moyo, Lucia Matibenga, Sekai Holland, Theresa Makone, Paurina Mpariwa, Nelson Chamisa , Thamsanga Mahlangu and many other top guns in his party are inspiring examples of what a winner Tsvangirai is as a political leader.
Such leaders are not easy to replace and yet Tsvangirai is very willing to groom loyal youths in his party for future leadership and even a takeover of his position.
The suggestion that Tsvangirai must resign his leadership of the party is nothing new as we have had the tired and myopic suggestion from as far back as the days when Gwisai got the boot.
It was repeated with increasing intensity by the Mutambara led splinter group and in the UK the defunct Tapa led executive of the party’s province tried to besmirch the party President with limited success if any at all.
Towards the harmonised elections in March 2008 there were similar concerted calls for Tsvangirai to relinquish leadership of the party to Dr Simba Makoni and other conspiracy theories about his impending ouster by splinter groups led by Lucia Matibenga and or Tendai Biti none of which materialised.
All have come to pass as will the doomsday prophecy by Mudzingwa and at the end of the day Tsvangirai will be there providing enlightened leadership for the party.
That is so because his leadership does not derive legitimacy from Zimbabweans in the diaspora but rather party grassroots supporters in Zimbabwe who have learnt to trust in his leadership and benefited immensely from that trust.
To show how detached Mudzingwa is from reality on the ground he finds Tsvangirai guilty of inexcusable defence of his relationship with Mugabe without elaborating what it is he finds disconcerting about the current relationship between Tsvangirai and Mugabe.
What Mudzingwa misses is the fact that the decision to join the GNU was not a voluntary one for Tsvangirai and the MDC but one coerced by insurmountable military and political obstacles.
For that relationship to subsist Mugabe and Tsvangirai have to find a way of working for the people while retaining their political differences because none of them can deliver effectively without the cooperation of the other.
Mugabe and his Zanu PF cannot claim legitimacy to govern after refusing to accept election results that show them losing elections in March 2008. Without that legitimacy Zimbabwe would remain a pariah state incapable of delivering economically, socially and politically and ultimately militarily.
In like manner with all the legitimacy they have and had to govern Zimbabwe after the March elections, Tsvangirai and his MDC would not and will not be able to effectively deliver where the country’s security command was and is still fighting against him and the progression to democracy his leadership of the MDC epitomises.
In order to gain the cooperation of the security apparatus the astute Tsvangirai realises that he must take Mugabe on board and in order to remain President, wily Mugabe realises he must take Tsvangirai on board.
What is then disconcerting about a political leadership that recognises its strength and weaknesses and enters into alliances to overcome its weaknesses?
To argue that MDC MP’s have been wantonly arrested and imprisoned without the Party President saying anything about the impunity and persecution deserving of the punishment of his ouster is a mischievous and dishonest political distortion that must be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.
How will such a stupid move ameliorate the arrests and persecution of MDC MP’s? The whole country other than perhaps Mr Mudzingwa, knows that as long as Zanu PF and Mugabe have unbridled control and influence over the Security and Judiciary Ministries legal and militant persecutions will be an integral political strategy of the government.
That is why Tsvangirai made so much noise about the Home Affairs Ministry and is fighting for the appointment of a neutral and professional Attorney General as well as the RBZ governor as well as immediate convening of the National Security Council meetings in terms of the law.
These are key drivers in the political persecution initiative which must be kept in check and dismissing the very person with the vision to reign in on the sources of the evil will be rather disingenuous of the party as it will leave Zanu PF with unchecked powers to do as it pleases.
To conclude that because one MP from the MDC-T Harrison Mudzuri Zaka Central has provided empirical evidence that the Premier does not want to speak evil about the GNU is stretching imagination a bit too far.
How does the opinion of a single MP out of 100 from the same party become empirical evidence of the alleged refusal by the party President to badmouth the coalition government evils of which there are many instances he has passionately appealed for the lunacy to end? Are we to assume that the single MP has views that override those of the 99 others?
Tsvangirai has never pretended that all is well within the GNU. If anything he has admitted publicly that there are residual elements from Zanu PF bent on derailing the GNU except that the extent of the pockets of resistance is much less than what his party had anticipated which is not disputable given the extent of unsavoury acts in comparison to what they were a year ago.
If the truth be told there has been none more vocal against Zanu PF scripted impunity and selective application of the laws by the GNU than the very person Mudzingwa accuses of negligence in that respect.
Are we to believe that impunity and selective application of laws will cease forthwith if Tsvangirai’s leadership of the MDC is brought to an abrupt end?
That would be political naivety of the worst order.
It is not surprising that Mudzingwa and those of his ilk are of the opinion that it is wrong for vacancies to be filled through by-elections when that is the norm rather than an exception in any other democratic nation.
The reason why Mudzingwa and those of his ilk prefer avoidance of by-elections is because of the violent conduct that has characterised previous elections in the country rather than the fear that Tsvangirai does not have the capacity to lead the MDC into elections victory which has proved capability to do against all odds staked against his party.
The preposterous proposals for the way forward proffered by Mudzingwa will be good for kindergarten student politics not Zimbabwean national politics.
The recommended pull out from the GNU will create a political void for the country and party whose consequences are too ghastly to contemplate unless Mudzingwa and company have a plan to cope with Zanu PF impunity if left to govern without checks and balances provided by the MDC involvement at present.
Indeed MDC had no reason to be in a coerced GNU after winning elections but the reality of the matter is that they were denied a chance to form a government by military interventions at the behest of Zanu PF.
For five months after the elections in March the MDC cried out loud to anyone willing to help it salvage its stolen electoral victory but enlightened Mudzingwa and his friends did not step up to the plate and salvage the situation until Tsvangirai decided to sign the GPA to ease the burden of violence directed at his supporters.
Even having done so, Tsvangirai held out from consummating the GNU before certain conditions were addressed but again Mudzingwa and his like minded enlightened supports did not step up to the plate to force Zanu PF and Mugabe as well as SADC to resolve the concerns.
Now 5 months after the consummation of the GNU Mudzingwa emerges from the blue to demand a pull out without suggesting what would the party do after the pull out to retain its political relevance.
Which serious politician would buy into such nonsensical advice with the greatest potential to sign the death warrant for the politician and his party?
Political arrests of MDC MP’s are better resolved by an MDC with government clout than as an opposition.
To suggest relinquishment of power in order to secure reprieve for its members is to suggest for the MDC to shoot itself in the feet while it is trying to walk through a minefield of political traps set by opponents.
The journey will be that much more arduous for the party to complete.
Whatever the MDC cannot do within the government they will not achieve outside the corridors of power.
If Mudzingwa is the ambitious enlightened and visionary MDC supporter he claims to be he must be aware that Tsvangirai will not resign because of misguided calls for him to do so by overambitious yet cowardly supporters in his party.
Those unhappy with his leadership can resign their membership of the party and form a new party that will compete against the MDC and win elections.
Mudzingwa cannot expect MDC supporters to sink to the level of Zanu PF mafia to oust their leader from power without them attracting the same wrath directed at Zanu PF.
The more radical means with which to topple Tsvangirai is to defect from the MDC to another political formation and ensure that the new party will fare well in elections against Tsvangirai’s party.
Mudzingwa appears to belong to the radical change school of leadership renewal.
That is why he advocates for a coalition of organisations under one banner led by Nkosana Moyo or alternatively Tendai Biti and certainly not himself or Dr Lovemore Madhuku, Dr Simba Makoni or Dumiso Dabengwa or Morgan Tsvangirai whom he argues have shown undemocratic tendencies.
It matters little to him that some of the people he has discounted have already shown an appetite for leadership of political parties and in particular Morgan Tsvangirai has been very successful at it while those he prefers have not announced their arrival.
Even more astounding is the suggestion that regrouping in a new formation will advance the cause for democracy in Zimbabwe through the ouster of Zanu PF than if those interested in ousting Zanu PF can rally behind the most successful brand of the MDC-T that has managed electoral victory over Zanu PF but has been denied ascendancy to power by military interventions.
It simply does not make sense. If there is need to unite opponents of Zanu PF then the MDC-T presents the best tried and tested opportunity for success. But no Mudzingwa would want to diminish the gains that the party has managed so far and remove its experienced leadership and replace it with an inexperienced leader who has not even offered himself for leadership.
Others would argue that the only leadership qualities that Nkosana Moyo has shown are that he cannot stand the political heat and will jump ship at the earliest intimation of trouble.
The proposal for the nation to rise above tribal politics without giving specific examples of which current political leader/s are using the tribal card to remain relevant is lethargic.
Coming short on the heels of a declaration by the MDC-M to promote a leadership challenge from the Matabeleland region and him nominating a name from that region after reiterating the elitist political dogma that led the MDC-M to support Dr Makoni’s presidential bid for no reward yet demanding collateral from Tsvangirai for similar support one would be tempted to conclude that Mudzingwa is an MDC-M advocacy officer.
How else would he justify the conclusion that the MDC-T with a parliamentary majority and a leader who defeated Mugabe and Dr Simba Makoni supported by Zanu PF and MDC-M as well as financed by Dr Nkosana Moyo is on its deathbed as a result of its involvement with the GNU but not the MDC-M.
Using statistical data from previous elections how does Mudzingwa envisage a new party overhauling the support enjoyed by MDC-T that the party is consolidating by its participation in the GNU which many have realised immense political and economic salvation from and are prepared to defend with whatever little they have?
That Tsvangirai’s days as MDC leader are numbered is not news because the number has always been prescribed in the party’s constitution.
What is news is the implication that it will be caused by non members like Mudzingwa led by Nkosana Moyo which is farfetched.
The attempt to bring Biti into the fray is nothing new because that is what Zanu PF has been working with MDC-M and Professor Moyo to achieve conflict between Tsvangirai and Biti in order to weaken the MDC-T momentum.
But it is unlikely to work because unlike Mugabe and Zanu PF MDC-T has been actively grooming and promoting its youth leaders into senior positions in preparation of their taking over leadership of the party from the old guard.
The positions held by Nelson Chamisa and Thamsanga Mhlangu are enough evidence of the succession planning within the MDC-T that is remiss in Zanu PF.
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