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MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai’s fire fighting mission to Matabeleland North province to try and contain factionalism that has torn his party apart is ample proof that his party can no longer take the people of this region for granted. MDC-T has always assumed that it commands absolute support in the Matabeleland region and has used this position to ride roughshod over the concerns, hopes and aspirations of the majority of the electorate in this part of the country. Granted, the party swept most seats in previous polls since the 2000 general elections riding on the back of a protest vote but the tide has changed and the MDC-T can no longer regard Matabeleland as being “in the bag” going into any election.
Opinion polls and surveys have shown conclusively that Zanu-PF is on the resurgence while the MDC formation led by Professor Welshman Ncube and other smaller parties likes Zapu and the Mthwakazi Liberation Front have made significant inroads into MDC-T strongholds because of the electorate’s disenchantment with the party’s policies and lack of strategic direction.
In fact, the MDC-T has been its own worst enemy since it has been scoring own goals in the run up to the harmonised elections which are tentatively set for 31 July. Besides the fact that the MDC-T which controls most local government structures in the Matabeleland region has failed to deliver on its electoral promises with service delivery at its poorest since independence and councils riddled with corruption, the party has dismally fallen flat on its face when it comes attending to the burning issues affecting the region.
It has failed to address Bulawayo’s critical water situation even though one of its senior officials (Water Resources Development and Management Minister) Dr Samuel Sipepa Nkomo is in charge of that portfolio in Cabinet.
Industries continue to close in Bulawayo with most relocating to Harare while Finance Minister and MDC-T secretary general Mr Tendai Biti plays politics with the Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund.
The National Railways of Zimbabwe, one of the chief drivers of economic activity in the city, is on its knees with no sign of recapitalisation forthcoming. MDC-T Bulawayo province chairman and Minister of State Enterprises and Parastatals, Mr Gorden Moyo is presumably pre-occupied with factional fights with his arch-nemesis Senator Matson Hlalo to bother with resuscitation of the national rail company.
The party’s litany of failures in the region is unending but the recent primary elections to choose candidates for the harmonised polls exposed deep-seated divisions and undemocratic credentials inherent in its psyche and likely to cost it dearly. In Mpopoma constituency, the sitting member of the House of Assembly Samuel Sandla Khumalo alleged massive vote rigging with children as young as 15 allowed to cast their ballots to tilt the outcome in favour of Mr Bekithemba Nyathi, the party’s provincial youth chairperson. In Emakhandeni, Councillor Prince Dube won the poll but a re-run has been ordered for today from the top echelons of the party allegedly because its preferred candidate Reverend Useni Sibanda lost the initial ballot. Party followers in the constituency are livid and have vowed to disrupt the rerun.
In Matabeleland North, the MDC-T is in disarray due to the party’s decision to impose defectors from the Welshman Ncube-led MDC that include deputy organising secretary Mr Abednigo Bhebhe and Mr Njabuliso Mguni.
In Tsholotsho North, party structures are rebelling against the imposition of the wife of Dr Sipepa-Nkomo, Rose. In Matabeleland South, the MDC-T leadership has foisted on its people the deputy of Speaker of the House of Assembly Nomalanga Khumalo, Norman Mpofu and Thandeko Zinti Mnkandla who defected from the Professor Arthur Mutambara formation of the MDC. Disgruntlement with the dictatorial tendencies of the party is likely to see another “Bhora musango/Ibhola egangeni” campaign being mounted by its structures at great cost to it.
Mr Tsvangirai’s whirlwind tour of Matabeleland North, which will take him to Binga, Tsholotsho, Bubi and Nkayi, is therefore likely to be a monumental failure because the people are simply fed up of his party’s empty promises.
The days of protest politics are over and the people are asking what the party has done for them since joining the inclusive Government and enjoying the trappings of power. In five years, they have only heard of corruption, scandals and shocking opulence and wealth accumulation on the part of their elected representatives who can no longer identify with their lot.
As for the gaffe-prone MDC-T leader himself, the region will never forgive him for siring an illegitimate child with 23-year-old Bulawayo woman Loretta Nyathi and denying responsibility.
His party is in for a rude wake up call if sentiment on the ground is anything to go by.
One businessman in Binga, identified as Mr Sibanda, summed it up when he said: “Since we voted MDC MPs here, nothing has changed and we wonder what this so-called business meeting sought to achieve a few weeks before elections,” he said.
We couldn’t agree more.
Online Reporter