adminThe euphoria and excitement which spurred it to a strong showing in the 2008 general elections has been replaced with disillusionment and disenchantment by the grassroots who now view their party leaders with suspicion and mistrust. And this is with good reason.
All of a sudden MDC-T leaders and Cabinet Ministers who used to march with their supporters and identify with their problems are leading plush lives driving the latest luxury vehicles and gorging on State largesse to fatten their pockets. Their lifestyles are not in tandem with their meagre Government salaries and the sudden opulence belies a greedy streak and underhand tendencies.
Corruption has become endemic throughout the MDC-T-run councils where the party has been forced to fire or suspend its own councillors accused of graft while service delivery suffers. MDC-T has fired 12 councillors in Harare, Gweru, Bindura, Kwekwe and Zvishavane for dabbling in corruption.
The party is also riven with factionalism and bitter infighting in its structures countrywide. Power struggles have spawned violent clashes in Bulawayo and the Midlands where factions are battling to control the provinces. In the three years that the party has been in Government, its Ministers rate among the worst performers with some of them such as Water Resources Development and Management Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo no longer trusted to speak authoritatively on the water problems in Bulawayo because of their empty promises.
The party has seen its popularity wane and massive defections to the smaller formation led by Professor Welshman Ncube have been the order of the day in Matabeleland. A recent survey commissioned by the United States-based non-governmental organisation, Freedom House, revealed that Zanu-PF’s popularity among Zimbabweans is increasing while that of MDC-T is plummeting.
It said in its executive summary that the MDC-T support had fallen from 38 percent to 20 percent between 2010 and this year.
“In terms of the declared survey-based support, it appears the MDC-T has been suffering, falling from 38 percent to 20 percent in the parliamentary vote from 2010 to 2012, in a period of approximately 18 months between the 2010 and 2012 Freedom House surveys. “
In contrast, the survey data points to Zanu-PF having experienced a growth in popular support, moving from 17 percent to 31 percent in the same period,” reads part of the report. The findings of the report showed that Zanu-PF’s popularity increased across all the country’s 10 provinces since 2010 while that for MDC was waning.
“For example in Harare, MDC-T support declined from 50 percent in 2010 to 17 percent, while that for Zanu-PF rose from eight percent to 22 percent. In Bulawayo, Zanu-PF increased its support from four percent to 15 percent, while that for MDC-T declined from 51 percent to 29 percent,” the survey said.
At its formation in 1999, the MDC held the then ruling Zanu-PF to account to the electorate on a number of pertinent issues and jerked the revolutionary party out of its comfort zone, shaking it to its foundation to the extent that the 2008 poll was inconclusive and a run-off had to be ordered. Although foreign backed and funded, the party was popular with the masses who were then toiling under the yoke of sanctions-induced economic challenges meant to effect regime change. However, since the formation of the inclusive Government, the party has failed to live up to expectations to the extent that people now identify more with Zanu-PF’s economic empowerment programmes than the MDC-T’s unclear policies.
Its change mantra appears to have grown tired and stale because people are concerned with bread and butter issues than empty promises. The shambolic private life of its leader Morgan Tsvangirai whose wedding to Elizabeth Macheka was stopped by Locardia Karimatsenga through legal action can only worsen the party’s fortunes.
The party appears to have a mountain to climb to extricate itself from the current morass and this is confirmed by one of its traditional media backers, the Daily News, which wrote yesterday: “The MDC, which was formed in 1999, will commemorate its anniversary amid a widening gap between the leadership and its supporters who are yet to gain from the unity Government whose leadership has been accused of globe-trotting at the nation’s expense”.
Online Reporter