By: Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

MDC President and Zimbabwe Premier setting milestones on how to manage under performers in government

On to numerous occasions political rabble rousers and respected opinion leaders alike have got it wrong when it comes to the political acumen in MDC-T President and Zimbabwe Premier Morgan Tsvangirai.

A common denominator in MDC-T critics that have had to eat humble pie when the MDC-T President proved them wrong is the superiority complex that underpins their assessment of the Premier’s leadership suitability.

All Tsvangirai detractors think he is not his own man and survives on charity from his so called “Kitchen Cabinet.”

All political leaders globally heavily rely on advice they get from inner circle advisers they constantly consult before taking a political stand yet none has ever had their circle of advisers ridiculed to the extent that the premier’s team has been.

Amazingly the most ridiculed advisors to the Premier appear to have defied all odds and directed him to the most advantageous political position.


But with each success they score they only challenge the Premier’s critics and detractors to become more abrasive and stinging in their efforts to prove that the Premier is a political stooge.

Criticism of the recent bold move the Premier has taken to recall some of the ministers he has appointed to the coalition government Cabinet is a case in point.

For decades Zanu PF President and Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has been the target of these armchair political charlatans and hangmen over his failure to rejuvenate both party and government by injecting new thinking in the two institutions he has headed.

Paradoxically the same characters now accusing the Premier of playing survival politics by recalling Ministers he appointed to the coalition Cabinet are in the main the same characters that have hitherto leading the onslaught on President Mugabe to dismiss incompetent, aged and tired Zanu PF Ministers and replace them with fresh and youthful minds which they appear to have all forgotten in the zeal to discredit the Premier’s latest move.

The armchair political chatterboxes with limited understanding and experience of what it takes to keep political consensus in a political formation are accusing the Premier of using his position to quell a looming leadership challenge threatening his position in the party as opposed to applauding his bold move to instill values of superior performance, commitment, dedication to duty and loyal service to the constituency that elected the Ministers.

Not one of the MDC-T President’s detractors over the recent Cabinet reshuffle has come out with any tangible evidence of superior service the recalled Ministers have rendered to the electorate they were appointed to serve which would render their recall on grounds of failure to deliver to electorate expectations invalid.

Instead the detractors have come up with lame and subjective party leadership struggle conspiracies within MDC-T as the real reasons behind the recall and reassignment of the affected Ministers by the Party President.

If the same Ministers had performed beyond our expectations that would be a logical deduction but where there is no evidence that any of us got value for our trust in their abilities to change the status core and make a difference in our lives it is pathetic for anyone to defend incompetence on the part of the recalled with unsubstantiated claims of political victimization to the extent we are being subjected by the Premier’s detractors.

The argument that even the Premier himself has underperformed does not justify the retention of incompetent Ministers for it will only increase the Premier’s level of incompetence if he does not take action to replace those he feels have not contributed enough to the cause of the party in the coalition government.

It equates to a lazy and incompetent worker accusing his manager of having failed to deliver when it is evident that had he played his role that would have contributed to the manager’s overall performance.

To illustrate this in practical terms the Premier’s detractors while claiming that the reshuffle was motivated by the Premier’s desire to ring fence his leadership position of the party from Finance Minister Tendai Biti’s looming challenge, the Premier did not relieve Biti of his powerful Ministerial post.

The argument that President Mugabe and the International donor community saved the Finance Minister from recall by Tsvangirai at the behest of the “Kitchen Cabinet” led by Ian and Theressa Makone is simply ridiculous.

It is instructed by the superiority complex the detractors have of Premier Tsvangirai.

They believe that Tsvangirai is a political pawn of Ian Makone and the so called Kitchen Cabinet he leads in the MDC-T.

They also believe Makone in addition to his close family ties with the Premier also has some form of financial stranglehold on the Premier that allows him to have his way in how the party is run.

Of course all this is unsubstantiated political balderdash. If Makone was that powerful why has he not challenged for the Party Presidency instead of the Secretary General as happened at the last party congress in 2006?

The line of argument becomes even sillier when Mugabe’s intervention is brought into the equation.

Anyone who buys into the suggestion that Mugabe has input in how Tsvangirai runs the MDC-T must be out of his mind completely deranged.

Tsvangirai has exercised his powers from the Constitutional Amendment No 19 to recall and replace Ministers occupying his party’s quota in the coalition government and President Mugabe has no option but to rubber stamp as Head of State who ultimately formalizes the changes.

If Tsvangirai felt Biti had underperformed in his portfolio he would have recalled and replaced him with ease as there is no shortage of his replacements within the MDC-T something the Finance Minister is fully aware of and accepts without any qualms.

There is nothing that obliges Tsvangirai to consult anyone in the MDC-T before deciding who to appoint or leave out of his cabinet contingent. If he decides to consult it is up to him to choose who to consult and he may well rely on party grassroots as opposed to aspirants in party leadership to decide who among them to work with for the betterment of the people.

To argue that Biti as party Secretary General was not aware of the impending reshuffle because he was a target of vindictive recall smacks of political mischief that suggests that he has some sacred right to remain in his position and has power to suggest who the Party President must appoint as a Minister.

Sadly that is not how it works and the reshuffle was aimed at any minister him included if he had been found to have underperformed.

That he has retained his position speaks volumes about his competence level as Finance minister as judged by the person who appointed him in the first place – Morgan Tsvangirai and not Robert Mugabe or some faceless and nameless donor agency.

If he sits on his laurels and underperforms he like any other Minister from the MDC-T will not be immune to recall just because his recall might be interpreted to be a political initiative by the party President to stem his potential party leadership challenge.

All MDC-T members are potential party leadership challengers and it would be hard for president Tsvangirai to distance them from challenging his leadership of the party in the manner suggested by these detractors of his.

The reality is that Biti’s job as Finance Minister was made safe because he outperformed all the cabinet Ministers in the coalition government and the Premier made that known to him by retaining his services.

That unfortunately is the explanation for his continued stay in his post. Not even Makone’s money and personal closeness to the Premier if any such considerations are pivotal in determining how the Premier runs the party could change that.

The pretentions that it is wrong and undemocratic for the Premier to ring fence himself against potential leadership challenges from anyone in the party is as absurd as they come.

The MDC-T was formed at the 2006 party congress as an offshoot to the MDC party split in October 2005 and in terms of the party’s constitution he is perfectly within limits to contest another term as President and exploit any advantages his position gives him to retain the position.

Equally his aspiring challengers are perfectly within their rights to use their positions to endear themselves to the party grassroots as a means of soliciting for support from party structures to unseat Tsvangirai at the next congress of the party as long as they remain loyal to the party and desist from causing fissures like the 2005 split in the party.

Ian Makone and his wife are loyal and dedicated party functionaries and have every right to position themselves for party leadership contests with any other aspirant and they are fully aware that the party President does not hold the votes that will secure them the positions they cherish.

Only Congress delegates will decide who gets what position.

It is insulting not only to the Makone’s but also to the Premier to call them the Kitchen Cabinet leaders and reflect them as beneficiaries of Party Presidential patronage bought by cash as that implies they are corrupt and have corrupted the party president without a shred of evidence as to how much they have paid for their positions being adduced.

The Makone’s are not political saints and will do anything any other politician would do to secure power but it is mischievous to single them out as the cause of the reshuffle.

I believe that while disputing that he is the intellectual engine room of the party Minister Biti outperformed both Theressa and Ian in the period under review but I also think the Makone’s outperformed all those that were recalled.

The rabble rousers campaigning for Tsvangirai’s ouster from party leadership on the grounds that he has failed the party and government through failure to deliver his promises on civil service salaries, on employment generation, on industrial productivity, need only go to those constituencies and ask them where they would prefer to be between the pre-coalition government political, economic and social environment and the current which is nowhere near perfect by any measure and use the answer they get to evaluate the Premier’s performance in the coalition.

Tsvangirai must be applauded for showing the nation how elected officials will be held accountable to the populace if they under perform in their positions of trust rather than be accused of some clandestine political intention when doing what can only turn out to be a good precedent for national governance.

Next time we hope the armchair political commentators will realise that while Tsvangirai appears foolish to them he is effective and his own man in executing mandates given to him by both government and party.

He can only be ignored at the peril of those that do not take a step back and review the success he has achieved as a politician.