Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) MDC-T party trapped in a cul-de-sac

MDC-T party trapped in a cul-de-sac
Comment
Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:58:00 +0000

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party are bracing for elections in 2011 and are working towards emerging victorious.

President Mugabe told the Fifth Congress of the Zanu PF Women’s League at the weekend that the inclusive Government formed between Zanu PF and MDC formations would windup all constitution reforms within 18 months and call elections six months later.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party, meanwhile, is engaged in what they call "public consultations" to see whether or not they should stay in the inclusive Government, a government whose life is about to be wound up.

This is the kind of leadership that the MDC-T party has: indecisive and ineffectual.

They are asking people to vote on a document they have already appended their signature on and a government they have served for a year now. They are asking the people of Zimbabwe to vote on issues that do not even exist in the GPA: the appointments of Attorney General Johannes Tomana and Reserve Bank Governor Dr. Gideon Gono.

These two appointments, besides having been made six months before the formation of the inclusive Government, are not even mentioned in the GPA.

President Mugabe said: "At the end of 18 months we will have a draft [constitution] and we will present it to the people. If the people accept it, we will have elections within 24 months and there will be a new government. You must have this timetable in your minds," he said. "Let’s work towards emerging victorious in 24 months time."

President Mugabe said the new constitution would be based on the Kariba Draft Constitution. Indeed, this document was agreed on by the parties in the inclusive Government, representing all voters in Zimbabwe.

In characteristic cry-baby fashion, the MDC-T party now rejects a document they helped author to be used as a starting point. The MDC-T has said it will oppose the Kariba Draft framework despite appending their signature to it in September 2007.

This is weak leadership on the part of the MDC-T party. The Kariba Draft was produced and signed by Zanu PF and the two MDC factions in 2007 during talks under the auspices of former South African President Thabo Mbeki.

President Mugabe simply wants the document to be the basis of the new constitution; not to be adopted in its entirety. He looks forward to a new constitution, just like everybody else. He said: "We look forward to the new constitution and for us, we will go by the Kariba Draft. That’s what we agreed upon. Every page of that draft has signatures of all parties and there’s no way anyone can run away from it," he said. "Nobody is disallowed to give proposals but on our side, we expect that the three parties will go by the Kariba Draft."

Meanwhile, the MDC-T at the weekend embarked on nationwide consultations to ask its members whether they should disengage from the inclusive Government - more demonstration of weak and ineffectual leadership.

The grassroots consultations come after a number of high-level party meetings failed to come up with a clear position on the inclusive Government.

The MDC-T party’s officials are divided on their continued stay in the inclusive Government. Some senior members are said to be pushing for a complete withdrawal, a position that has received resistance from PM Tsvangirai and some of his lieutenants.

MDC-T national spokesperson, Nelson Chamisa says the meetings were to allow members of the public to give their views on whether or not the inclusive Government "is still a worthy project". "We are simply throwing the argument to the people," said Chamisa, "updating them on the current state of things and allowing them to share their views. We want to hear from them whether they think it is worthy for us to continue in the inclusive government. Do they think this is a worthy project?"

How will people do that? Will there be a referendum? Does the MDC-T party have capacity to undertake such an exercise considering its leadership is already running government ministries?

The MDC-T should provide strong leadership, not these gimmicks, if they are to provide an alternative to Zanu PF. One wonders if indeed the MDC-T ministers will leave government if "the people" say so. Where will they go to? What happens to that party if they leave the inclusive Government?

The MDC-T will simply not walk out of the inclusive Government. We all know that. They have nowhere else to go.

This is a cheap publicity stunt used by their leadership to justify remaining in the inclusive Government. They are in a cul-de-sac. They made impossible demands not written in the GPA and they are looking for a face-saving exit.

The land redistribution exercise is irreversible. This is written in the GPA. The calls for the removal of sanctions are getting louder and the MDC-T cannot hide under the carpet anymore. Sooner or later they will have to take a solid position on the sanctions. Their arguments for not calling for the removal of sanctions are getting more and more ridiculous, and they cannot sustain them anymore.

Consulting ordinary people on the fate of the MDC-T in the inclusive Government is simply disastrous for a party that is slowly decaying and losing ground that had been achieved over the last ten years.

Today the MDC-T has no solid agenda for Zimbabwe and that party's leadership has proved to be lacking intellectual stamina to sustain some of the very pertinent discussions on the future of our country.

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Comment by Philip Murombedzi. He can be reached at philipmurombedzi@yahoo.com.

Labels: MDC, ZANU-PF

posted by MrK @ 5:37 PM