MDC-T: Celebrating corruption, immorality

as a party whose mission was to bring democratic change in Zimbabwe on the premise that Zanu-PF had failed in this regard.
It presented itself as a party of excellence which exemplified democracy itself. However, events on the ground over the past year and beyond have pointed otherwise, bringing into question what moral ground the party has to celebrate during its 13th anniversary, especially given its founding thrust.
MDC-T leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, with the gift of hindsight has proven to be a dictator who has made a mockery of his party’s name, Movement for Democratic Change, by wantonly bulldozing his way despite democratic processes in his party. Mr Tsvangirai’s total disregard for collective decisions and lack of democratic principles was exposed way back in 2005 when the National Executive Council decided to participate in the Senate elections which he vetoed, leading to the split of the party. He overturned a collective decision made by the NEC, which is against democracy which he claims to uphold.
His dictatorial tendencies were exposed by his former secretary-general, who is now MDC-N leader, Professor Welshman Ncube, during an interview with BBC’s Hard Talk. “I have absolutely nothing against the person of Morgan Tsvangirai. Our differences are about our political behaviours and the things we do as politicians.
I keep underlining it is on record that our colleagues in the MDC-T often practice violence; it is on record that Morgan Tsvangirai himself has reversed collectively-made decisions and it is also on record that the local government structures that they control have acted corruptly. Those are the things which divide us,” said Prof Ncube.
So what is the MDC-T celebrating during its 13th anniversary celebration?
Internecine factional fighting within the MDC-T pitting the Tsvangirai, Biti and Mudzuri factions has rocked the party resulting in the fragmentation of the party. However, Mudzuri was ably neutralised by Mr Tsvangirai who stripped him of his Ministry of Energy and Power Development portfolio before elbowing him out of political contention by catapulting Nelson Chamisa to Mudzuri’s party post of national organising secretary. The battle now pits Tsvangirai and Biti since Mr Mudzuri was reduced to a nonentity in the party.
The factionalism emanates mainly from a belief from senior party members that Tsvangirai is not fit to lead the MDC-T due to many leadership frailties. At provincial level, the party has been split along these lines, especially in Bulawayo, Mashonaland East, Manicaland, Mashonaland West and Masvingo where Matson Hlalo and Gorden Moyo, Ian Kay and Mr Piniel Denga, Julius Magarangoma and David Chimhini, Japhet Karemba and Greenwich Ndanga, and Wilstaff Sitemere and Tongai Mathuthu, respectively, have been haggling along factional lines. So what is the MDC-T celebrating at its 13th anniversary?
This factionalism has bred violence. Over and above the well documented history of violence which claimed the scalp of Trudy Stevenson in 2005, the bombing of police stations ahead of the 2008 harmonised elections, during the party’s elective congress in 2011, factional fighting reared its ugly head as Biti and Tsvangirai loyalists fought running battles.
Additionally, the party has set up Democratic Resistance Committees (DRCs) which are violent outfits, thereby institutionalising violence. Meanwhile, 29 MDC-T members led by National Youth Assembly chairman Solomon Madzore are languishing in prison for allegedly murdering police Inspector Petros Mutedza in Glen View, Harare.
So what is MDC-T celebrating this year?
At its inception, MDC-T claimed that it wanted to rid the country of corrupt activities which were allegedly being committed by the Zanu-PF Government. MDC-T Secretary for Local Government, Sessel Zvidzai, in an interview with the Financial Gazette of 20-26 September 2012, claimed that his party was forced to act after receiving a lot of complaints from members of the public.
This shows that the party had no intention to deal with the vice of corruption, but was arm-twisted by pressure from the public as well as opinion polls by Freedom House, Afrobarometer and Zim Vigil, all MDC-T surrogates, which pointed to a decline in support of the MDC-T due to corruption and lack of good leadership.
The growing loss of support of the MDC-T was epitomised by the defection of about 200 MDC-T members to join the Welshman Ncube-led MDC, accusing MDC-T vice president, Thokozani Khupe, of dictatorship, general corruption within the party and lack of democracy.
Consequently, MDC-T fired 12 councillors, including Harare Deputy Mayor, Emmanuel Chiroto, and Gweru Mayor, Tedius Chimombe, over corruption following an internal commission of inquiry.
Despite the suspension of the councillors, MDC-T has not made public the shocking findings of the probe which it fears could cost the party dearly during the next elections.
Zvidzai allegedly revealed that some municipalities had salary bills which surpassed revenue collected which has resulted in poor service delivery. As a consequence, water borne diseases like typhoid, cholera have decimated residents. Bulawayo has also been rocked by a crippling water shortage while Kwekwe, which has had reliable water supplies over the years, has found itself experiencing intermittent water cuts. So what is the MDC-T celebrating at its 13th anniversary?
Tsvangirai himself has serious leadership deficiencies which have been exposed by his many blunders and errors of judgement, the most recent being his sudden support for homosexuality, just because British premier David Cameron had threatened that Britain would withhold funding to African nations that did not recognise gay rights.
In 2011, in Chitungwiza during a women’s day commemoration Tsvangirai concurred with President Robert Mugabe that homosexuality was a vice.
The most significant pointers to his leadership frailties were mainly exposed by the WikiLeaks cables where Tsvangirai’s lieutenants openly criticised him.
Chamisa and the Deputy Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Senator Obert Gutu, questioned Tsvangirai’s leadership credentials during a meeting with US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Charles Ray, in January 2010.
While Chamisa is a Tsvangirai loyalist, the cable shows that in private, he made the disparaging remarks against his boss whom he described as a weak leader. Chamisa allegedly said that the Prime Minister “is weak and has failed to play a co-ordinating role for Government ministries”.
According to the cable, Senator Gutu concurred with Chamisa on Tsvangirai’s ineptitude during the same meeting with US Embassy officials. Chamisa bemoaned that the MDC-T leader has a penchant of taking advice from informal advisers, usually foreigners, while ignoring the counsel of elected MDC-T officials.
MDC-T treasurer-general, Roy Bennett, and Biti told US Embassy officials that Tsvangirai is a weak leader who “does what the last person tells him to do,” and lacks strategic direction for the MDC-T.
Bennett said Tsvangirai remembers the advice of the last person he would have spoken to while Biti, who blasted his boss for ‘‘for lacking a strategic plan for the MDC in Government” in a cable dated June 30 2009, attributed Tsvangirai’s rare moments of reasoning to prior preparation by himself and other party officials.
So if Tsvangirai is that bad in terms of leadership, what is the MDC-T celebrating? Intertwined with this issue, Tsvangirai has shown that he is not a morally upright leader, given his sexcapades with various women including Elizabeth Macheka, Locardia Karimatsenga, Aquilina Pamberi, Nozipho Shilubane and Loretta Nyathi.
His actions, in this day and age where the HIV and Aids pandemic is wreaking havoc, Tsvangirai goes around having unprotected sex with many women, and even impregnating others.
To show his unrepentant immoral self, he has been blaming the CIO for his sexcapades with so many women; instead of doing the honourable — take responsibility; admit mistakes and make a national apology to retain a modicum of dignity as a leader.
The question in Zimbabweans’ mind is what exactly is the MDC-T celebrating at its 13th anniversary, given the open deviation by the MDC-T from its founding thrust.
Tsvangirai’s failure to manage his personal life has even been felt within the party as it has caused division within party structures.
Recently, all Standing Committee members, except deputy national chairman Morgan Komichi and national organising secretary Nelson Chamisa, were not supportive of Tsvangirai’s botched wedding to Elizabeth Macheka, which was eventually reduced to a traditional hand-over ceremony.
Impeccable sources within the party said that, “Biti led the group which was against the union saying that Tsvangirai’s womanising would cost the party votes in the next election as well as embarrass them in the event that another ditched woman popped up at the ceremony.”
Despite reservations from senior party members that Tsvangirai should shelve the wedding, he insisted that he would forge ahead with his plans.
In view of this, what is the MDC-T celebrating at its 13th anniversary celebration?
It is self-evident that this 13th anniversary is a celebration of dictatorship, factionalism, corruption, leadership deficiency, immoral behaviour, contrary to the party’s founding principles.