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(TALKZIMBABWE) MDC-T executive calls for Tsvangirai's ouster

MDC-T executive calls for Tsvangirai's ouster
By: Raymond Utsiwegota
Posted: Tuesday, October 5, 2010 12:10 pm

MASHONALAND East provincial executive has castigated MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, and his kitchen cabinet for subverting the party by running it as a briefcase company and has called for their ouster or risk a wave of civil disobedience. The leadership wrangle has sucked in party national chairman, Lovemore Moyo, who has hitherto been a stabilizing factor in the short but turbulent history of the MDC-T.

In a terse report to the national chairman that falls short of nominating him as the caretaker president, the province expressed outrage at what it viewed as unwarranted vilification of party members such as Tendai Biti, the party secretary general, Ian Kay, the Marondera Central MP, Elias Mudzuri, the national organizing secretary, Elton Mangoma, the Deputy Secretary General, who are part of an educated elite of officials perceived as posing a “real and extra ordinary” threat to Tsvangirai’s tenure.

This comes hard on the heels of revelations by The Insider that Biti and Welshman Ncube, the MDC-M secretary general, have agreed in principle to topple their respective presidents as a prelude to the formal re-merger of their two factions.

“Due to goings-on in the party, we may fail to achieve set-down goals under and behind the current leadership as they have been misleading the nation regarding the party vision, mission, objectives and values.

“With enough respect to the founding father of our struggle, the current leadership of President Tsvangirai is undemocratic and dictatorial as it has sought to entrench itself in power through divide and rule.

“Vilification, through agent provocateurs in our midst, has been used to tarnish images of party members whose moral astuteness is beyond reproach,” the report highlighted.

This was in apparent reference to Masimba Ruzvidzo, a national executive member and blue-eyed boy of Tsvangirai, who the province accuses of debauchery and has been a chief architect of pro-Tsvangirai parallel structures competing with those set up by Mudzuri.

“We note these developments with great trepidation and assure those responsible that it is only a matter of time before people start pushing back, and when we do, the only guarantee is that this sham, this charade of leadership will not be left standing,” a national executive member who requested anonymity added.

The insider said that as the party braces for the national congress next year, Tsvangirai had resorted to using his acolytes to carry out vindictive proxy wars that sought to weed out dissenting voices and replace them with pliable individuals willing to do his bidding.

“The report clearly and concisely lays bare an ill and well conceived plan to install, by imposition or fraud, spineless rubber-stampers who will prop the president’s candidature ahead of the national congress next year,” he said.

The province lamented power struggles that had overshadowed party programmes and given Zanu-PF an upper hand, particularly in articulating constitution making talking points.

“We have watched as fortunes of the party plummet because the President and his inner circle have abandoned our founding principles in favour of political gamesmanship.

“Therefore, we want you, as the national chairman, to superintend over the immediate dissolution of the entire kitchen cabinet, ensure that the President gives you his word of honour that he will not seek an unconstitutional third term of office as well as set dates of the next national congress,” said the provincial executive.

However, the move by Mashonaland East province has received mixed reaction from political commentators, with Professor John Makumbe, a rabid anti Zanu-F critic ranting about shadow and shape, even where none exists.

“This is the work of Zanu-PF period! They are masters of this game. Biti, Mudzuri and all those people are all Zanu-PF operatives,” he said.

Another social scientist opined that move might have been prompted by an urgent need to tackle issues in order to save the party from certain demise.

“What benefit derives when good men watch as the city burns? Better then is proactive evil than passive good,” she said.

With people increasingly becoming disillusioned with the leadership of Tsvangirai, long viewed as the face of the western-funded political party, the province has set the tone for more public spates from other provinces with the beleaguered leader.

Labels: MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI

posted by MrK @ 12:42 PM