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Tafara Shumba
MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora recently complained about the way nominations are being conducted in his party ahead of the elective congress later this month. Mr Mwonzora is vying for the hot seat of secretary-general, which Mr Nelson Chamisa has also fixed his eyes on. The last time I got the update, Mr Chamisa had been endorsed by six provinces while Mr Mwonzora had not received any.
The latter is crying foul over the timing of the provincial congresses where party leaders are being nominated ahead of the party’s national elective congress later this month. Mr Mwonzora says the congresses were deliberately slated for the dates of his public violence trial.
That is the real MDC I know Mr Mwonzora. It uses a person and disposes of him when he ceases to be useful. What is happening now indicates that Mr Mwonzora has passed his sale by date on the MDC-T shelf.
The coincidence that the provincial congresses are held at a time when Mr Mwonzora is attending to the court case, in which he is being charged with public violence, is suspicious indeed.
After all, Mr Mwonzora incited violence as a “heroic act” that is traditionally esteemed in the MDC-T.
Thus, the party is expected to show empathy on him. He is a “hero” who is being prosecuted for carrying out the mandate that his president is always preaching.
However, I turn to disagree with Mr Mwonzora on seeing the hand of zanu-pf in every misfortune that falls on him and his party.
Mr Mwonzora is seized by hallucinations that will take some time to disappear. He has been delirious ever since his party lost dismally in the July 2013 election.
He is ever seeing the shadow of zanu-pf whenever his party misfires.
When his party was given a hiding in the last election, he accused zanu-pf of rigging using Nikuv, an Israeli company. He also saw the shadow of zanu-pf when Tendai Biti and his band left the MDC-T to form a renewed MDC.
This time around, Mr Mwonzora tells the nation that there are some people within his party who are working with zanu-pf to foil his bid for the secretary-general’s post.
If zanu-pf had wanted a weak opposition secretary-general, it would rather make sure that Mr Mwonzora lands the post.
Mr Mwonzora believes that he is a redoubtable figure within the opposition camp. We know not of his traceable record of achievement, save for his raucous barks with no bite. If he was formidable as he claims, he could not have been thrashed that much by Cde Hubert Nyanhongo in Nyanga North constituency.
Given the foregoing, Chamisa is indeed a better candidate for the post and this explains his early lead in the nomination process. Thus, zanu-pf will never lose sleep over the nomination and subsequent election of a toothless nonentity like Mr Mwonzora.
Ironically, Mr Mwonzora announced on Tuesday that his party would not participate in any by-election because the playing ground is uneven. It is to be seen if he is going to withdraw from the internal elections which are by far flawed.
Imagine for instance, a Gweru MDC-T activist, Lovemore Howahowa, nearly killed a fellow party member, Lovemore Makuire, for trying to smuggle people into the hall where district polls were being held. If they withdraw from participating in elections, one wonders how they intend to get into power.
Is it by coincidence that they announce their withdrawal from elections at a time their party leader is calling for street protests?
It appears the mirage is upon almost everybody in the MDC-T.
Only last week, Lovemore Moyo saw a ghostly apparition at a Matobo North Executive meeting which he mistook for the police and members of the Central Intelligence Organisation. Of all the things Mr Moyo, why would the police and the CIO disrupt an inconsequential village meeting in Matobo?
It’s quite preposterous for a whole chairman to invite ridicule by suggesting that zanu-pf is being driven by panic.
A dying horse can never frighten even the most timid creature.
Mr Mwonzora must now understand the true colours of his party.
It uses and discards you when it has achieved its purpose or when you have failed to match the task.
He should have learnt from Solomon Madzore’s scenario.
He was used in the killing of a police officer and spent 405 of his precious days in remand prison.
After being released the man, who was prepared to die for Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, faced unprecedented internal persecution that forced him to join the renewal team.
He is the same man who declared that he was prepared to sacrifice his life for Mr Tsvangirai.
“This time we are going to make sure that our leader Morgan Tsvangirai goes straight into the State House after winning elections and no one will stop him. We are ready to die for Tsvangirai.
“We fear only God and not (President Robert) Mugabe,” said Madzore during an address to about 400 party supporters in Beitbridge last year.
MDC-T supporters must learn a lesson from how these two gentlemen were used and cast off. This is now more imperative in the wake of Tsvangirai’s call for mass protests.
They must heed the call with full knowledge that Tsvangirai will never stand by them when the wrath of the law catches up with them.
MDC-T supporters must realise that their leader is now so desperate that he can do anything to sustain his political relevance.
He is under serious pressure from his close lieutenants who are salivating for his post. This is the reason why he took it to himself to accredit delegations at provincial congresses.
He is operating outside the constitutional framework just to secure strategic positions for his blue-eyed boys ahead of the forthcoming elective congress.
It’s unprecedented for a whole aspiring national president to stoop so low to the extent of reducing himself to a village politician. With this mentality, Tsvangirai can even supervise the Zimbabwe Election Commission himself if he becomes the president of this country.
It gives credence to some allegations that at one time, after he lost in the bid for presidency, Tsvangirai wanted to run in the mayoral election.
Online Reporter