adminNqobile Tshili Chronicle Reporter
POLITICAL analysts have described the MDC-T as an ideologically bankrupt party with power hungry leaders who offer nothing but self-serving interests and cannot be taken seriously.
This comes as the troubled MDC-T plunged into further crisis at the weekend after the party’s national executive council suspended party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, his deputy Thokozani Khupe, national chairman Lovemore Moyo, national organising secretary Nelson Chamisa and national spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora for diverting from the party’s democratic core values. The suspended party leaders said their suspension was null and void.
A political analyst, Dr Nhamo Mhiripiri said the party had run out of ideas and was suffering from personal egoism ideology.
“Their egos’ as a party is what needs to be addressed. Theirs is not ideological conflict but a psychiatric case. What ideological conflict is manifest at the moment except personal egoism,” said Dr Mhiripiri.
“The party is suffering from intellectual crisis and the whole MDC project was not well thought. The opposition drama is tragic, comic and laughable.”
He said the MDC-T leadership wants to be taken seriously while they have not shown character.
“They are playing a ‘mickie-mouse’ kind of affair with cartoon characters who want to be taken seriously,” said Dr Mhiripiri.
He said the fact that they are suspending members “willy-nilly” shows that they were all clamouring for attention. “It’s about one with the loudest voice, whoever runs to the media first will be having power for that week or that hour. It won’t be surprising to learn that Biti will be suspended also,” he said.
Dr Mhiripiri said the MDC-T was taking its members and Zimbabweans for a ride.
“This should be a government in waiting. They have a shadow cabinet which should be monitoring the activities of Zanu-PF. If they are splitting who is going to take whose side. It will be unfortunate if some of its factions reproduce themselves in parliament,” he said.
Dr Mhiripiri said MDC-T might be heading for a bigger split than that of 2005 and the only thing that can save them is going for an early congress.
Another analyst and National University of Science and Technology dean in the Faculty of Information and Communication Science, Dr Lawton Hikwa, said the MDC-T needed to solve its structural problems or this could be the end of the party.
“Whether or not the merits and demerits of leadership renewal are justifiable, the party has serious structural problems that need to be addressed,” he said.
Dr Hikwa said the problems bedevilling MDC-T may result in legal contestations.
Meanwhile, MDC refuted claims by Mwonzora that Prof Welshman Ncube was among the people contributing towards the MDC-T’s problems.
“Neither Professor Ncube nor the MDC caused the assault of Elton Mangoma, Promise Mkwananzi and the harassment of Tendai Biti, Solomon Madzore and others. It is shocking that even for this glaring mistake, the MDC-T still refuses to take responsibility for their actions, choosing instead to blame everybody else but themselves,” Nhlanhla Dube, the MDC spokesperson said.
Dube said MDC-T should learn to take responsibility for its actions and not use other parties as scapegoats.
“It is our hope that sooner rather than later the MDC-T shall develop a culture of taking responsibility for the things they do,” he said.
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