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MDC founding member, Tsvangirai differ over party presidency

MDC founding member, Tsvangirai differ over party presidency
By Kingsley Kaswende
Wed 27 Apr. 2011, 12:20 CAT

A founding MDC member has criticised Morgan Tsvangirai's sole nomination as the party's presidential candidate ahead of the congress that starts today, accusing him of holding on to power. Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa said there were signs that Tsvangirai “was intending to stick to his position like (President) Robert Mugabe.”

“To imagine that surely and honestly Morgan Tsvangirai would have been in power for 17years by the end of the new term is hard to believe. At the moment this is his 11th year at the helm... Put in context Morgan Tsvangirai is where Robert Mugabe was with ZANU-PF in 1995, if we can also remember that Robert Mugabe only became the substantive ZANU-PF President at the 1984 Congress as he had been Secretary General and Acting President since 1977; and he is where Mugabe was with Zimbabwe in 1999 [given that his Presidency started in 1988 after the signing of the Unity Accord with ZAPU in 1987,” he said.

Mutyambizi-Dewa said Tsvangirai had been using “flimsy” excuses to hang on to power by arguing that the party was reborn after it split into two actions in 2006 following disagreement on election participation.

“The initial constitution stated that terms would be limited to two five year terms. This was inspired by the need to do things differently, as MDC had always wanted not to challenge ZANU PF and President Mugabe only but a system that had been put in place since the UDI in 1965 and which ZANU PF had inherited and was clearly reluctant to dismantle but in fact, was very keen to ingrain even further. How this noble people’s project changed into a tirade of flimsy excuses escapes me to this day,” he said.

“Flimsy excuses have been given one of which being that the party was reborn in 2006 and that since then there are no more term limits as Tsvangirai must finish the job of removing Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF from office. There are clear fault lines with such defences, unless we are now saying the departure from its own principles are final and irreversible for the MDC.”

Finance minister Tendai Biti had been said to be due to challenge Tsvangirai at this year's congress, but he backed out.

There have been reported rifts in the MDC over the past months, bordering on leadership tensions between Tsvangirai and Biti.

But Tsvangirai has often downplayed the leadership tensions, and has accused state intelligence agents of infiltrating his party to cause discontentment.

A section of the party wants charismatic Biti, who is currently finance minister, to take over leadership from Tsvangirai who has been at the helm of the party since 1999. The party constitution allows its leader two five-year terms, meaning that Tsvangirai’s tenure should have ended in 2009.

However, another section in favour of Tsvangirai claims that Tsvangirai will only exhaust his tenure in 2016 because the party’s break up into two factions in 2006 did reset his tenure as to begin in 2006.

The MDC broke into two factions in 2006 after members disagreed as to whether the party should participate in senatorial and house of assembly (parliamentary) elections following the “abuse” of the election process by ZANU-PF.

Mutyambizi-Dewa said Tsvangirai's holding on to power was “not only an attack on the constitution but it is an onslaught on the ethics, morals, values, consciences, reputation and history of the party.”

“Tsvangirai himself must be very careful about the trappings of power, yes he may feel unchallenged now and he has the right to enjoy his publicity. That his nomination has been wrongly and it seems deliberately passed on as his election even before the agenda of the elective congress has been adopted answers my fears that it has always been a fact that his position is safe in MDC-T and it will always be a coronation, not a contest,” he said.

The MDC earlier this week announced that Tsvangirai had been elected unopposed, as he had solely been nominatede by all provinces ahead of the congress.
But Mutyambizi-Dewa said the announcement was “mischievous”.

“I found the fact that Tsvangirai s said to be “elected” when we are still at the stage of nominations very mischievous, pre-emptive, misleading and dictatorial as it promotes coronations rather than democracy,” he said.

Labels: MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI

posted by MrK @ 6:12 PM