Politically ugly Tsvangirai fears elections

Tafara Shumba : Correspondent

Morgan Tsvangirai’s unilateral appointment of Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri as MDC-T vice presidents and the subsequent court challenge of the appointment by two party activists, Patson Murimoga and George Rice, only serve to bring to the open that the party suffers from serious election phobia.The party’s national chairman Lovemore Moyo let the cat out of the bag in the papers he filed at the High Court responding to Murimoga and Rice’s court challenge of the appointment.

The two argue that Tsvangirai’s appointment is ultra vires the party constitution, which provides that a position of that magnitude shall be filled through an election at congress.

“Members of the national council overwhelmingly mandated the president to choose the members as it was noted that it was not necessary to go for an election.

“Members of the national council were of the view that going for an election may be divisive, particularly that the national elections scheduled for 2018 are now looming,” said Moyo.

At last, the MDC-T has owned up that its members are divisive during elections.

This is a reality that the party and its benefactors in the West have been refusing to accept.

Mr Moyo is dead right. However, it is not elections that are divisive but his party members’ attitude towards same.

The MDC-T has been divisive ever since it came on the political scene.

They have divided the nation because of elections and the misery that Zimbabweans endure today is rooted in elections. They called for sanctions because they were defeated in an election.

Zimbabweans have never known the peace they used to enjoy prior to the birth of the MDC-T.

Brothers, sisters and other family members no longer see eye to eye because of the divisive politics of the MDC-T.

They cannot accept a defeat even when it is as plain as the nose on their face.

They always accuse Zanu-PF of rigging elections whenever they lose.

Even if Zanu-PF dances in water, the MDC-T still accuses it of raising dust.

The divisive politics of the MDC-T manifests itself in the breakups that have taken place since its inception in 1999.

Once upon a time, there was a cohesive MDC that came out of the labour union.

The divisive politics claimed the unity of that united MDC, resulting in Tsvangirai’s deputy, Gibson Sibanda and secretary-general Welshman Ncube breaking away to form a splinter MDC.

That heralded subsequent breakaways.

Today, the political field is teeming with small political parties that are rooted in Tsvangirai’s MDC.

Ncube’s MDC, Tendai Biti’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Elton Mangoma’s Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe (RDZ) and Job Sikhala’s MDC 99 among others, all came into being thanks to the divisive politics of the MDC.

The fact that the highest echelon of the party decided to sacrifice the party constitution shows that they are not lost to their divisive politics.

However, the decision to violate the party constitution was not overwhelmingly reached as Moyo claims.

It is an open secret that the party secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora, spokesperson Obert Gutu and deputy president Thokozani Khupe inter alia, were not amenable to the appointment.

The fact that Tsvangirai announced that appointment flanked by his wife Elizabeth and his personal spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka shows that it was a unilateral decision.

Tsvangirai later railroaded the national council to endorse the unilateral appointment riding on unspecified threats.

A popular party position is ordinarily announced to the nation by the president while flanked by his senior lieutenants such as the secretary-general, party spokesperson or deputy president.

MDC-T has shown that elections give them the heebie-jeebies.

If they can be so scared of intra-party elections, what more with inter party elections?

This could explain why MDC-T and its surrogates have been making noise about electoral reforms.

The MDC-T has been inveigling small parties to join it under the banner of National Election Reform Agenda (NERA) to protest against Government.

The violent demonstrations are an attempt to put pressure on Zanu-PF Government into another Government of National Unity (GNU).

There has been a concerted lobbying for a National Transitional Authority (NTA), which is a later version of the 2009 GNU. There have been relentless calls by MDC-T for SADC to intervene in the Zimbabwe’s internal matters.

They know that the regional body was instrumental in the negotiations for the 2009 GNU and they anticipate the same mediation for them to get into Government through the back door.

MDC-T has been inventing crisis after crisis ahead of regional and international summits as a ploy to influence the inclusion of Zimbabwe on the agenda with the aim of forcing another GNU to avoid elections. Tsvangirai himself is on record saying he will not win an election against President Mugabe.

But the democratic tenets they generously prescribe to others dictate that Government should be changed through the ballot, not protests or any other cunning means.