(HERALD) Regime change needed within MDC
Regime change needed within MDCBy Caesar Zvayi
ST JUDE, the Patron Saint of Lost Causes would really be proud of the MDC, a party that gives new meaning to the phrase ‘‘with a friend like you, who needs enemies (read with leadership like this, who needs an opponent)?’’
This is because with the party’s propensity for gaffes it apparently does not need Zanu-PF to lose elections given Morgan Tsvangirai’s predilection for shooting himself in the feet to the point of being unable to pose any serious challenge to Zanu-PF.
The sheer stupidity and shallowness of MDC politics makes Student Representative Councils look sophisticated. One can’t help but wonder whether the MDC leadership devise the hare-brained schemes or simply pander to what their foreign handlers, ignorant of Zimbabwe’s socio-economic or political context, decree.
For instance, over the past few months, MDC leaders have been sitting down with their Zanu-PF counterparts, under the aegis of the Sadc initiative on dialogue, to thrash out areas of concern. So successful have been the meetings that they culminated in a landmark agreement on Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 18) Bill. No small feat given that exactly two years back, the original MDC broke up because of differences over the provisions of Amendment (No. 17) Act, which reintroduced a bicameral legislature.
In fact unconfirmed reports say Zanu-PF and MDC negotiators have since made other landmark agreements, that will leave the likes of Lovemore Madhuku and the so- called MISA-Zimbabwe without causes. The maturity MDC legislators across the divide showed on Amendment (No. 18), and the touching addresses the legislators gave in Parliament, all of which indicated that they were committed to putting Zimbabwe first in everything they do, won the MDC a modicum of respect from progressive people the world over.
This is because this was the first time the opposition party had done something meaningful for nation building, it was the first time MDC leaders acknowledged that they are Zimbabweans first, before being ‘‘strategic partners’’ or ‘‘allies’’ of the western world as Arthur Mutambara would love to put it. Surprisingly all that momentary sensibility has come to naught, the MDC is back to its lackey mode of trashing African processes by threatening to pull out of the talks accusing Zanu-PF of ‘‘intensifying repression and violence against MDC members.’’
Last week the Tsvangirai faction held a Press conference at Harvest House to announce that they would pull out of the talks if Zanu-PF does not stop alleged intimidation, and murder of opposition supporters.
Nelson Chamisa claimed MDC supporters have been killed over the past few months, and that the Government was closing democratic space as the police were refusing to sanction MDC rallies? The question that springs to mind is when did the police start doing this because since January, Chamisa’s information and publicity department has been gloating about ‘‘people power’’ and churning out copious Press statements lauding the success of the rallies the faction was holding throughout the country. Every week Chamisa announced that the MDC held successful rallies in various parts of the country, drawing ‘‘huge crowds that showed Zanu-PF’s game was up.’’
A good example of these statements was the one he released on February 6 2007 where he said, among other things;
‘‘The MDC leadership at the weekend heightened its nationwide campaign to rally the nation in demanding a people-driven Constitution and rejecting plans by the Zanu-PF regime to extend its tyranny.
"In Harare, the national chairman, Isaac Matongo, addressed huge crowds in Mufakose and Mabvuku at the weekend, where he told the people to resist plans by the regime to extend the people's suffering to 2010.
‘‘Next week, the national chairman and other senior party leaders will address another rally in Epworth in Harare South as the defiance campaign gathers momentum. In Manicaland, President Morgan Tsvangirai addressed two rallies at Zhawari and Gwirindindi business centres in Mutare West, the President congratulated the people in the two wards for voting for MDC councillors in the rural district council elections held last August.
‘‘In Chiredzi South, members of the Liberation team led by national organising secretary Engineer Elias Mudzuri addressed several rallies over the weekend. Throughout the provinces and across the length and breadth of the country, the MDC has various teams that are interacting with people at grassroots level."
In fact it was this momentum that saw the Tsvangirai faction announcing that it would launch its presidential campaign at Zimbabwe Grounds on September 8.
So what has changed now, why is Chamisa singing a different tune? The answer is simple, the Tsvangirai faction is now in election mode, and this is how it prepares for elections. But, unlike other political parties, the preparation does not involve campaigning through selling party programmes and policies to the electorate, it involves preparing for the post-election environment and grandstanding to the foreign gallery.
The MDC leadership does this by creating self-fulfilling prophecies and scenarios to use as justification to reject the outcome of the elections, and to back its claims that there is no democracy in Zimbabwe.
And this, more than anything else accounts for the MDC’s dismal showing in all elections held since 2000, not the tired allegations of rigging. The Tsvangirai faction does not campaign for the minds of Zimbabweans, but for the benefit of its western sponsors who badly need it to play the great victim, to justify their ruinous engagement with, and sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Contrast the MDC Tsvangirai faction’s approach to what Zanu-PF was doing, and you get this feeling that those in the MDC are beyond salvation. At a time Zanu-PF, through the Government, was busy clamping down on profiteering businesses, Tsvangirai was rabidly opposing and telling the world ‘‘Mugabe embarks on a clearance sale.’’
At a time Zanu-PF was empowering newly resettled farmers with agricultural implements under phase one and two of the Farm Mechanisation Programme, Tsvangirai was touring Australia and the United States asking for more sanctions and thanking his masters for the sanctions they imposed in the quest for illegal regime change.
And Tsvangirai expects to win when he squares off against Zanu-PF at the polls? How childish can one get? But why is the MDC so desperate to torpedo the Sadc initiative?
It appears the latest MDC campaign of demonisation is designed to serve three purposes.
The first and most urgent one is to abet British premier, Gordon Brown’s anti-Zimbabwe agenda ahead of the EU-Africa Summit set for December 8/9 in Lisbon, Portugal. This is because Brown is looking increasingly ridiculous in claiming there is political intolerance in Zimbabwe at a time the main political parties Zanu-PF and the fractious MDC are engaged in serious talks that have since borne tangible results. What is more, most of the meetings were held in Zimbabwe in the absence of South African facilitators, which proved that Zimbabweans have the capacity to sit down and resolve their problems.
This spelled doom for the anti-Zimbabwe campaign that thrives on alleged political repression and intolerance. What is more, the west justifies their illegal sanctions by claiming that they are meant to help ‘‘oppressed Zimbabweans’’ and with the MDC dutifully playing great victim, the claims find purchase among the gullible.
Amity between Zanu-PF and MDC destroys that platform which is why the westerners are opposed to the initiative. This explains why Tsvangirai is now singing their tune.
The second reason tied to the first, of course, has to do with Brown’s increasingly futile campaign to lampoon Zimbabwe ahead of the EU-Africa Summit to justify his threats that he will boycott the EU-Africa Summit if President Mugabe is invited. Brown badly needs a limping MDC, even a playacting one, as evidence of ‘‘Mugabe’s brutality.’’ It appears the MDC will stop at nothing, even fabrication, to give him a dossier to save face. The allegations that MDC supporters are being brutalised and murdered are just that, allegations. Consider the following cases from Mashonaland East the MDC is using in its attempt to justify claims of ‘‘Government repression.’’
Ian Kay, the faction’s Mashonaland East provincial secretary for local government is the architect of the campaign as he is busy trying to gain cheap mileage by misrepresenting ordinary incidents as acts of violence against the MDC.
The first case involved one Herbert Chapendama, the MDC Marondera district vice secretary, his wife, Christine and four children who were admitted at Marondera hospital on October 10 complaining of nausea which later developed into diarrhoea and vomiting.
The family is suspected to have drank poisoned water from their well in the Dhirihori area before falling ill.
On admission at the hospital, all other family members were treated and discharged while Herbert was detained for observation. Samples were taken from the family to establish the cause of the illness, but Kay saw an opportunity to turn this unfortunate incident to his faction’s advantage.
Two days later he transferred Herbert to Borradaile hospital, a private health centre in Marondera where he was detained for observations despite being reported to be out of danger at Marondera hospital.
He was later discharged on 13 October. During Chapendama’s stay at the private hospital Kay made frantic efforts to locate the Studio 7 contact person in Zimbabwe to have the incident broadcast as political persecution by Zanu-PF claiming Chapendama had been assaulted.
The second case involved one Jabulani Chiyoka, the Tsvangirai faction’s youth assembly secretary for policy implementation who, on August 23, was stabbed to death at Wenimbi country club in Masikana area following an altercation with one Palastky Sakala, the murder suspect.
Chiyoka is alleged to have challenged Sakala as to why he was putting on a look-alike Zimbabwe National Army camouflage jacket when he had never been attested into the army. Sakala who was in the company of his two cousins Tadius and Ronzai Saurombe was incensed and a fist-fight ensured between Sakala and his cousins on one hand and Chiyoka and other MDC activists Tafirenyika Nyandoro and Jabulani Vandi on the other.
Chiyoka and Nyandoro were stabbed during the melee and Chiyoka died on admission at Marondera General Hospital while Nyandoro was treated and discharged. Sakala was later arrested after being implicated by Nyandoro.
He appeared in court on August 30 2007 facing murder charges and was remanded in custody pending further investigations. Despite, obvious indications that this was a criminal case, Kay held a meeting at his house in Marondera on August 27 to implicate Jorum Mbizi, Zanu-PF Marondera DCC secretary for security as an accomplice in the murder.
Kay is alleged to have asked Chiyoka’s relatives who attended the meeting to complete affidavits linking Mbizi to Chiyoka’s murder. The affidavits accused Mbizi of having threatened Chiyoka for causing political discord in the area through his MDC activities. During the meeting Kay indicated that he was going to have Chiyoka’s death published in the western media in order to tarnish the Government.
Consequently, the human rights group, Zimbabwe Peace Project in its August 2007 report singled out Mashonaland East as having "a definite increase in the level and degree of violence" in reference to Chiyoka’s death.
The third reason, as Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru pointed out has to do with infighting within the MDC, where sections linked to Tsvangirai believe Tendai Biti’s profile is being boosted by the agreements he is reaching with Zanu-PF. These concessions, when contrasted with Tsvangirai’s puerile, abortive combative approach of the past seven years, expose the naivete of Tsvangirai’s approach, which is why his advisors reportedly believe Biti has to be stopped at all costs, even if it means withdrawing from the progressive inter-party dialogue.
What these scenarios indicate is that the MDC Tsvangirai faction is a mere non-governmental organisation masquerading as a political party, because what is paramount to its leadership are the interests of its leadership, and their foreign sponsors. This is because since the MDC was formed eight years ago, its leadership has always proved, with reckless abandon, that they value western opinion more than the opinion of Africans and even Zimbabwean voters. This is why Tsvangirai sees it fit to campaign in Australia and the US than in Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe yet Zimbabwe has a constituency-based voting system.
This is why Tsvangirai would want Zimbabweans to continue suffering the depredations of the sanctions he refuses to condemn to this day, as he mistakenly believes that he stands a chance of assuming power either on the strength of protest votes or on the back of a popular uprising.
The Sadc initiative on dialogue is the first step in the two stage road map Sadc proposed for the resolution of the problems, and Tsvangirai does not even want to see the first stage — dedicated to resolving political problems — go through. Isn’t it high time Zimbabweans sent the strongest message to him come 2008 that the only regime change needed is within the MDC?
Labels: MDC, SADC, THE HERALD
posted by MrK @ 3:56 AM
3 Comments:
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!
Blue lies. I am Jabulani Chiyoka's eldest sister. When Jabulani was stabbed he died on the sport. Police were informed and my mum, dad,other villagers and two policemen guarded Jabulani's body overnight. The body was only ferried to Marondera the following day between 10 and 11 a.m. I met my Jabu's young brother in Marondera who had accompaned the body when I was coming from Harare for the funeral. I'm not into politics but what you are saying about Ian Kay are lies. Of course Jabulani was a very strong MDC supporter whilst my mum was a top ZANU PF official. Since I believed we were living in a democratic country, nothing was wrong for a family to support different political parties. During the 2008 my mum was nearly murderd by ZANU PF youths. They also attempted to murder Jabulani's young brother Khumbulani. Whenever elections are held I'll make sure my mum is not in the rural area. I will leave everything to God. The sentence of Jabulani's murder is on the 10th of March 2012. Are you aware that Jabulani appeared live to one of the witnesses and said, 'When I was murderd you were there. I want you to say everything in court.' This happened last year in Belvedere where the witnesses had been offerd accommodation by the police
Anonymous,
You had me until Jabulani's resurrection in front of court witnesses.
No, I was not nor am I aware that his disembodied soul appeared before state witnesses.
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