The battle of Professors rages on over the control of a hopeless political faction.
After staging what apparently looked like a model democratic takeover of the leadership of the elitist and tribalist political formation that owes its place in Zimbabwe’s political landscape to Mugabe and Zanu PF’s violent electoral coup after the humiliating defeat of Mugabe by Tsvangirai in March 2008 that opened the door for then South Africa President Thabo Mbeki to implement the SADC recovery plan for Mugabe garnisheed by the resuscitation of the MDC-M formation in disarray Professor Ncube –the defacto leader of the renegades now finds himself against the wall after his apprentice turned formation front man Professor Arthur Mutambara has grown a thick skin and defied his mentor.
On 7-8 January 2011 Professor Ncube asserted himself as the manifest and defacto leader of the renegade faction that he wanted to move out of the looming shadow of its MDC origins.
In his creativity Professor Ncube proposed a cosmetic rebranding plan for the faction that would see faction colours change from those used by the MDC-T and the party name changed to Congress for the Movement for Democratic Change (CMDC) from the copycat MDC it is masquerading as at present, which name change was shot down by the faction’s first congress under his leadership.
In the euphoria of his public ascendancy to the helm of the factional political formation Professor Ncube declared;
“Professor Mutambara will continue to be the Deputy Prime Minister. We have agreed that we are not going to redeploy him, as we want to continue tapping from his skills.”Prof Ncube
He was echoed by a party statement that was intended to score cheap political points over rivals to kick start the revival of the faction into a political force to reckon with following the removal of the square peg in the round hole that Professor Mutambara was now being labeled to be by Professor Ncube in his quest for ultimate prize which was not party leadership but rather the coveted Deputy Premier position.
“While conformity to term limit and transfer of power remain a challenge to other political parties who pretend to fight for democracy our congress is a testimony that this is possible in this country and of course in this generation,” the faction’s statement bragged .
The DPM position is Professor Ncube’s ultimate political position because it would ironically place him at par with his electoral conqueror DPM Thokozani Khupe of MDC-T and give him a second chance at destabilizing the MDC-T tranquility by using his privileged government position proximity to Premier Tsvangirai to siphon information that he could use to back stab the man Professor Ncube sees as the epicenter of the undoing of his political career.
And much more the DPM position would give him ammunition in his next election quest to compete at par with his constituency nemesis while cynically thumping his nose at those who voted against him in 2008 by showing them that their votes were in vain as they denied him nothing in his political progression.
Consequently and within a fortnight of his ascendancy to manifest power over the party he was singing from a different hymn book when he announced that the faction’s newly elected executive had resolved to recall Professor Mutambara from his assignment as Deputy Premier and replace him with the new leader Professor Ncube.
“Here we must always understand that loyal party cadres obey the instructions of the party when they are given. Finally, let me say that in our view, as a party, it’s never about an individual stepping down from this or that post, it’s always about accepting the deployment, the command or the instruction of the party,” Professor Ncube said in contravention of his earlier assurances to the nation that Professor Mutambara would retain his government position despite the changed leadership structure in the faction that seconded him to the government post.
We all know differently that Professor Ncube is an ambitious divisive egotist who believes that his superior academic qualifications must always place him at the apex of any organisation to which he is affiliated and or involved. That is the reason why he led the October 2005 revolt in the MDC. Unfortunately the revolt did not yield the desired MDC Presidency he desired and only left him hiding behind Professor Mutambara’s frock for political relevance.
Yet even there, he was not completely safe because DPM Khupe pulverized through the Mutambara armor and trashed Professor Ncube to the political dungeon where he was salvaged by Thabo Mbeki thanks to the unholy GPA that saw him land a government Ministerial position from the ashes of defeat.
Now in the comfort of safety cushioned by an undeserved government ministerial position and buoyed by the elevation to top faction leadership the insatiable Professor Ncube’s real self is coming out and he wants the ultimate DPM prize at any cost.
His lieutenants are doing their best to get him there. Opponents of Professor Ncube’s leadership have been axed from the party or government secondment posts at the wink of the new leader’s eye and his deputy had this to say;
"We therefore don’t have confidence in them to represent us. Whose views are they going to represent when they are against the new executive. We are recalling them primarily because of their conduct which is detrimental to the party," Mushoriwa.
MDC-N for anyone to represent the formation at any level unless they have the people’s mandate and are subservient to the party leadership but it is alright for the loyal MDC-N cadres to represent the people who voted against them in the coalition government and at any level notwithstanding their electoral defeats. So much for the party that claims to be the model of democratic practice in Zimbabwe! They are absolute jokes.
Professor Mutambara has been watching the power hungry Professor Ncube’s modus operandi against opponents closely and has perfected the art by turning it on the originator when pre-empting his imminent expulsion from the party and thus exposure to ridicule he instead fired Professor Ncube.
Professor Mutambara was aware that Professor Ncube had already reached the decision to fire him from the party to pave way for his ascendancy to the DPM position he currently occupies and used a time buying High Court petition against Ncube’s ascendancy to reclaim leadership of the party and unilaterally fire his nemesis and then use the revived party national council to endorse his decision in like manner to how Professor Ncube wanted to use the same organ that is loyal to him after the January congress to embarrass Mutambara.
Of course this entire circus does not move us any closer to democratic governance and is inconsequential to reformatting the political landscape in Zimbabwe. MDC-M under Mutambara or Ncube’s leadership will not make any significant difference in the political power matrix currently obtaining in Zimbabwe. The party’s performance in its fortuitous involvement in the coalition government is a case in point. Can the party single out one innovative and worthwhile change that is dear to the people that it has contributed in government over its 2 year stint? For all we remember is DPM Mutambara’s failure to arrest violent thugs invading farms in Mashonaland West and his immoral crusade to coerce MDC-T to elevate Zanu PF heroes into National Heroes that left him with egg all over his face after the death of Gibson Sibanda. Has the rebranding Zimbabwe project rebranded the country positively for the benefit of the people and to what extent are the people now in support of this coalition government as a measure of the PPP initiative of the party.
Having intimated that Professor Ncube is getting just rewards from Professor Mutambara’s insolence it is also important to expose the two for their lack of pragmatic leadership skills. Having led a breakaway faction before Professor Ncube should know that what goes around comes around and should just get on with the business of running his new breakaway faction from MDC-M rather than waste time trying to become DPM. The GPA and Zimbabwe Constitution is tacit that one of the DPM’s will come from MDC-M and not MDC, CMDC, MDC-N or any other party.
Professor Mutambara who once described PM Tsvangirai as an indecisive political midget has proved to be none better by his prevarication in the MDC-M leadership crisis. His latest move to reclaim the party leadership he publicly relinquished at the January 7-8 congress must be viewed as a sign of a confused politician trying to clutch on the last straw and that does not border well for a person with clear aspirations to become the country’s future President. It is undemocratic practice to accept democratic results conditionally. Since he was unhappy with the process leading to his ouster he should have proactively refused to hand over power there and then and fought out the repercussions than wait to reactively re-assert his authority over the party.
Whatever the outcome of this little political sideshow will be the volte face will haunt him throughout his political career. Political parties are voluntary organisations and their constitutions are a reflection of the consensus within the membership which certainly is not the case in MDC-M given the events of the past 30 days.
As for his illogical and repugnant reasoning in his justification of his abrupt decision to terminate Professor Ncube’s membership in the MDC-M we see a leader in turmoil and fighting a lethal fire threatening to consume not just Mutambara but the rest of his sympathizers. If his intention is to dissociate with Professor Ncube and his followers he should not bother dismissing anyone but should simply register his political formation as MDC-M and claim ownership of the coalition government slot reserved for that party and thereafter inform the Speaker of Parliament of who is with him. Parliamentary processes would then be invoked to bar the un-elected detractors that have now rebelled against him from claiming government and parliamentary seats on behalf of a party led by a person whose leadership they do not recognise.
But now it may be too late because Professor Mutambara’s public utterances after he was deposed and when he as an afterthought re-asserted himself as the party leader have widely opened his defences.
For all his purported shortcomings and leadership deficiencies PM Tsvangirai appears a gifted and saintly leader when those that attempt to spite him soil themselves publicly in this manner.
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