Chronicle Editor
Anglistone Sibanda Sokhulu
THE MDC extra-ordinary congress set for May 2019 is set to be a do-or-die event and will have a colossal impact on the future of opposition politics in Zimbabwe.
It is in fact putting democracy to test. Watching from the terraces we wait to see whether the party that had been masquerading as the champion for democracy will yet again survive the acid test. Stakes are too high this time around and the congress is a major milestone in a number of ways:
1. It breaks the ice in that it is for the first time in the entire history of the MDC to elect a president after 1999. The party has never held a presidential election since its formation in 1999.
It has always endorsed the late Morgan Tsvangirai and had in fact given him an unlimited presidential term. That had always had its challenges in that it created a cult out of Tsvangirai and killed one of the key pillars of democracy: Accountability.
The same problems that had affected Zanu-PF where former President, Robert Mugabe had become the lifetime personal emblem of Zanu- PF who could not be opposed but kept on being endorsed by the party’s supporters. Some joke that in MDC there was an entrenchment of ZANISM in the opposition.
2. It is the first congress to be held without Tsvangirai: the gigantic image of the late Tsvangirai in the MDC, with so many flaws that he had, is missing and some traits of his leadership are missing in the opposition.
Tsvangirai was an ordinary people person and Chamisa is not. Without the founding legend whose soul departed, the vacuum is being felt.
3. The confusion over the legal status of the Alliance: The Alliance is just a conglomeration of several parties whose interest was to win or salvage something from the elections. It consists of MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube, Tendai Biti’s version of the People’s Democratic Party (that also split into two), Job Sikhala’s MDC 99 and a partyless legion of former MDC-T members that include Nelson Chamisa who lost the party name to former party’s vice-president Dr Thokozani Khupe. The Chamisa group was naive in that it did not form a party after losing the “T” to Khuphe, they went into elections using MDC that belongs to Welshman Ncube, that means in the Alliance, Chamisa has no party and one wonders which constitution they are using because they lost the party to Khupe.
If they use the MDC constitution then the game is changing because Ncube is the elected president of that party, not Chamisa. Chamisa was endorsed by the Alliance partners as the presidential election candidate but as things stand, he doesn’t have a party.
For argument’ sake what is the name of Chamisa’s party? Biti has his version of PDP with Jacob Mafume and Ncube has his MDC.
Chamisa and his followers, as Professor Arthur Mutambara put it lacks strategic thinking, they are too much of student activists and lack depth and acumen in serious politics. How does one get carried away by being a leader of an alliance without a party? Just like rushing to the Constitutional Court to claim election victory without primary evidence, only relying on your own propaganda students who were creating fake data. He may be popular but he risks losing to an unpopular person who is strategic.
4. The “girls alliance” factor: one may undermine the Khupe and Priscilla Misihairabwi pact that saw the latter resigning from Ncube’s MDC to join hands with a fellow woman who was being abused by the male dominated space of Chamisa “Chete Chete” during the ugly orgy of violence and power grabbing shenanigans to their detriment. The “girls” control the economics in the opposition.
All assets that belong to the MDC-T are in the hands of Dr Khupe and Chamisa’s legion owns nothing.
In case you have forgotten one other person who matters: it is sad that the legion of Chamisa Chete Chete students have no information nor memory and they are either unaware or they are deliberately being blind to the facts, I do not know. If they are serious they would not undermine people like Ian and Theresa Makone, who in fact own Tsvangirai House AKA Harvest House.
Inside sources actually tell me that the other alliance partners, MDC is surviving at the mercy and benevolence of Misihairabwi who owns the offices that they are using and all the assets that the party has. If this information is true, then the “girl factor” is a crucial factor and the question is why has Chamisa failed to pay workers? What happened to the party funds they got under the Political Parties Finance Act?
It is also said that Chamisa never printed any paraphernalia himself during elections but parliamentary candidates were forced to print theirs and his at their own expense, meaning that he did not put his resources into the campaign and of course his civic society partners sponsored some of his rallies and trips during the campaign.
Then the unnecessary ConCourt case that left him with a $2 million debt of legal costs. So the “girls” know where they control and the legion must treat them with respect because they are the lifeline of the opposition.
5. The G40 and Mugabe factor in opposition politics: the issue is often downplayed because Chamisa has a legion of social media activists and propaganda machinery that tell what he wants to hear at the expense of facts. In fact the legion can mess you up through cyber bullying and smear campaign, labelling anyone who dares them Zanu-PF or CIO and can even get dirty and soil your image and name if you are lucky to survive physical violence.
If one analyses the events in the run up to the elections in July 2018, for any sober person who is not affected by the rhino dung effect, it is clear that Chamisa is a G40 functionary after having been made to chew the sand (jecha) by the Crocodile.
Having raised my views above and being aware that the legion does not take logical thinking in their obsession for Chamisa, what I call political fundamentalism and cultism or idolatry I want to rest my case by saying: with these scenarios democracy in Zimbabwe is a difficult proposition as Robert Mugabe said and the MDC Congress will mark the end of the movement because either of the outcomes means doom to the movement.
– Anglistone Sibanda Sokhulu writes in his personal capacity.
Online Reporter