MDC-T has not learnt anything from defeats

Kennedy Mavhumashava
Like the Bourbon dynasty that ruled France and parts of Europe from the 1500s to 1830, MDC-T learnt nothing and forgot nothing from circumstances that led to their heavy loss in the 31 July elections.Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, a Frenchman who served as prime minister for the Bourbon dynasty for three months in 1815, was so unhappy with his nepotistic and cronyistic overlords that he dismissed them as having learnt nothing from the events leading up to, during, and after the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, but forgot nothing when they were returned to power and promptly put their old cronies back in charge.  In addition to that, Talleyrand said the Bourbons did all they could to actually humble and impoverish those that had turned them out.

In the run-up to the 31 July election, MDC-T leaders handpicked at least 41 National Assembly candidates in Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Manicaland, and Mashonaland West to represent the party.  Many of those who were arbitrarily endorsed to run in the general election had actually lost in the primaries, the party’s confirmation exercise or were unopposed after their challengers were unfairly disqualified.

The impositions contributed to the losses the party incurred in the elections as the electorate possibly saw no reason to give their vote to persons who were made official candidates despite having lost in the primaries.  That factor, of course, is not to mention other fundamental ones that generally alienate the party from the masses.

The party’s opposition to the land reform programme and indigenisation is self-defeating; its support for Western values sickens and its attacks on traditional leadership, war veterans and the liberation war has made them unpopular with voters.

Its philandering leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and his other flaws did not help.  For instance, he used his election campaign to pick verbal fights with old women who were questioning his leadership, went about attacking young men who did not like to attend his rallies, angrily telling them they were so poor that they could not afford pants and so on.

So the imposition of candidates was one key factor, among many others.
The impact of that unfair selection of party representatives was quite evident in Matabeleland South Province.  Former Speaker, Mr Lovemore Moyo, his former deputy Ms Nomalanga Khumalo, Messers Norman Mpofu, Thandeko Zinti Mnkandla were imposed in Matobo North, Umzingwane, Bulilima East and Gwanda North respectively.

Many in his party are on record openly expressing unhappiness with the unilateralism, a possible factor contributing to Zanu-PF’s clean sweep of the 13 National Assembly seats in the province.

In Bulawayo, Mr Tsvangirai, or those closest to him allegedly imposed candidates or uncleverly orchestrated the endorsement of loyalists in Makokoba, Pelandaba-Mpopoma, Luveve and other constituencies.

Unpopular candidates were also imposed elsewhere across the country.  Magunje, Zaka, Gweru Urban, Dangamvura, and Makoni Central are some examples.  The electorate punished the party in many of the constituencies.

But like the Bourbons, MDC-T apparently learnt nothing and forgot nothing from its 31 July experience as the party, more specifically, its leader, Mr Tsvangirai is imposing mayors in Harare, Bulawayo, Chitungwiza, Kwekwe, Masvingo and Gweru and actually boasting about it.

Like in the run-up to the elections when, after imposing candidates, he urged the electorate to support them, now he is asking councillors to yield to his dictatorship by electing his blue-eyed boys as mayors.  The people revolted against him on 31 July.  We wait to see if councillors in Bulawayo, Harare, Chitungwiza, Gweru and other towns will not want to exercise their right to elect leaders of their choice.

It seems he does not recognise that self-respecting councillors can actually veto his choices when their time comes to vote for the mayor and he will not do anything about that.

Councillors can defy him and choose one among themselves to be mayor without the risk of sanctions from MDC-T.  It is different from legislators who lose their seats as soon as they switch allegiance or lose the confidence of the parties on whose ticket they gained election.

If he was not like the Bourbons, Mr Tsvangirai would remember that in February 2010, his own councillors in Chitungwiza defied his directive to elect Dr Vincent Gwaradzimba to the mayorship and instead, voted for one of their own, Alderman Philimon Chipiyo.  He tried to convince the Government to dismiss them but that failed.

Therefore, it would not be unprecedented if councillors in Harare, Bulawayo and Chitungwiza again show him what democracy entails by defending the sanctity of their vote and vote for those they want.

Many of the elected councillors who Mr Tsvangirai and his senior colleagues are sidelining are unhappy because they rightly see themselves as having the people’s mandate and deserving of the mayor’s post.

It must anger them more that some so-called heavyweights who refused to stand as councillors choosing to contest for the National Assembly but after losing, now want to be mayors.  Political unknowns, whose greatest strength is that they have the right connections in the right places in the troubled party, are being appointed mayors.

Dr Mandla Nyathi is Mr Tsvangirai’s pick for Bulawayo.  In Harare, Mr Obert Gutu, a former senator and deputy minister has accepted deployment to the post of mayor ahead of dozens of MDC-T councillors in a city with 46 wards.  In Chitungwiza, Mr Isaac Manyemba could assume the highest civic job in the sprawling town.

Sources told Chronicle that a senior MDC-T official and former minister, Dr Samuel Sipepa Nkomo spoke for everyone present at a provincial meeting in Bulawayo when he questioned Mr Tsvangirai’s choice of Dr Nyathi.  Like the poor Rusape woman, he got a public verbal lashing from Mr Tsvangirai.

“Apparently angered by the overwhelming support for Sipepa’s comments,” a source told us, “Tsvangirai exploded. We saw a side of him that we never imagined existed. He told Sipepa that he did not expect such insolence from a member of the national executive and the provincial council. He said he did not expect such behaviour from a grown-up person like Sipepa.”

At least on Thursday, we are told, Mr Tsvangirai did not bang the desk as he did at Harvest House on 12 October 2005 when he single-handedly overthrew the majority vote of his National Council that supported participation in the senate elections.  Only a dictator, drunk on his own power, behaves that way.

Such a person practises cronyism and nepotism, the real antitheses of democracy and still thinks he is a democrat.  It transpires that democracy in MDC-T is a virtue good only when it is mentioned, not when practised.

MDC-T provincial spokesperson Mr Mandla Sibanda is making a fool of himself claiming that Dr Nyathi was picked “democratically.”
“All we know is that we went through a democratic process that at the end of the day, produced Dr Nyathi as the mayoral choice for Bulawayo,” he said.

Mr Sibanda’s defence signifies the general abuse of the concept “democracy” in the party.  For them, democracy must serve their interests.  That some are beginning to speak out against the deficit of democracy in the party of excellence – Messers Samuel Sandla Khumalo, Kidwell Mujuru, Felix Magalela Mafa Sibanda, Arnold Tsunga, Patrick Sagandira and Julius Magarangoma – might make something of a reassurance to the rank and file that, perhaps, sense might return.

By picking outsiders for the position of mayor for Bulawayo, Harare, Chitungwiza and other cities, Mr Tsvangirai is also showing a lack of confidence in his own elected councillors.  But why did the party field the councillors in Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Gweru, Kwekwe, Mutare and other towns if none of them was good enough to be mayor?

If it is true that they indeed lack credentials to serve as mayors, then they are just as poor as their own party.  What Mr Tsvangirai and his MDC-T are doing shows not only cronyism and disrespect for democracy but also short sightedness.

One would have expected them to choose councillors who had the academic and professional experience and social standing that make them eligible to be elected mayors.

It’s like a party that fills parliament with illiterate cadres from whom it must, in terms of the law, then pick ministers and deputy ministers.  It would have made sense for MDC-T to begin the search for their mayors at the point when they elected their councillors instead of going in the election with eyes and minds closed and then scattering around looking for persons to install as mayors.

Talleyrand might have been speaking about the modern MDC-T, which apparently, has learnt nothing from its electoral defeat on 31 July and forgot nothing thereafter.