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(NEWZIMBABWE) MDC-T says Mbeki had 'role' in split

MDC-T says Mbeki had 'role' in split
by Staff Reporter
26/02/2011 00:00:00

THABO Mbeki had a “role” in a 2005 split in the Movement for Democratic Change, the larger faction of the party claimed on Friday after stinging new revelations of Morgan Tsvangirai’s dependence on American advice by the former South African leader.

The MDC said it was not surprised by Mbeki’s claims made in an interview with the writer, Blessing-Miles Tendi, accusing the man who brought Zimbabwe’s feuding political leaders to the negotiating table of an “unexplained and historical lack of respect for Tsvangirai”, now Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister.

“Mr Mbeki has always deployed effort to discredit, rubbish and weaken the MDC. We are also well aware of his disposition and role in the destabilisation of the MDC in 2005,” the Tsvangirai-led MDC said in a statement, reflecting on a damaging split in the party.

Tendi torched off a storm on Wednesday when he addressed the Frontline Club in London, revealing details of his recent interview with Mbeki who told how Tsavangirai broke off crucial talks on forming a coalition government in 2008 to consult the former United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee.

Tendi said Mbeki told him Tsvangirai would ask to be excused, then go to a phone at the Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare and call the US embassy. Unbeknown to him, Tendi said, the calls were recorded by the Central Intelligence Organisation.

Tendi concluded: “Mugabe’s narrative all along has been that the MDC is a stooge of the West. What is that then? And people are surprised when SADC leaders don’t take the side of MDC, it’s things like that, that mediocrity. It’s really pathetic that a leader would call the US embassy and ask for advice.”

[Actually it is President Mbeki who was quoted as saying that, not the writer Blessing Miles-Tendi. - MrK]

Stung by the attack, the MDC went on the offensive on Friday. It vented long-suppressed anger over Mbeki’s handling of the Zimbabwe crisis.

The party said in a statement: “It is clear from what Mbeki selectively told Blessing Miles Tendi, a Zanu PF apologist, that Mbeki exposed his true colours, his soft spot for Zanu PF, and his unexplained and historical lack of respect for president Tsvangirai.

“It is a matter of public record that Mbeki … has always had a low opinion of the MDC and its president.”

The MDC suggested Mbeki relied on “discredited and unauthentic” intelligence.

“Naturally, it may well be that his conclusions were based on faulty, fabricated and doctored material. He has always regarded … the MDC and its president as unoriginal, unpatriotic and unreliable. We cannot change Mr Mbeki’s borrowed negative views on our party which are well documented,” the party said in a statement issued by its information department.

Presented with the MDC’s attack, Tendi said: “I stand by my assertion at the Frontline Club on February 23.

“I would also like to add that my remarks … drew from a wide range of interviewees in the higher echelons of the former Thabo Mbeki-led ANC government. Over the past four months, and in two separate trips to South Africa, I have been interviewing senior ANC officials and some members in South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Co-operation.

“It is striking that they ALL express misgivings about how the MDC is hamstrung by its relationship with Western powers. This is not about Mbeki. This is about how the MDC’s relationship with the West is widely recognised by ANC elites, and how it has proven detrimental to the party’s image and standing among many current and former ANC and Southern African leaders.”

Labels: BLESSING MILES TENDI, MDC, THABO MBEKI

posted by MrK @ 12:56 PM