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(NEWZIMBABWE) Mbeki financed MDC split: Tsvangirai

Mbeki financed MDC split: Tsvangirai
Interference ... Former South African President Thabo Mbeki
20/10/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

FORMER South African President Thabo Mbeki was a central player in a 2005 split in the Movement for Democratic Change, which Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says “was a big blow” to him – “far bigger than Mugabe’s relentless persecution”.

The extraordinary claim is made by Tsvangirai in a new book in which he accuses his former colleagues, the late Gibson Sibanda and Welshman Ncube, of betrayal. Tsvangirai claims Ncube, the party’s founding secretary general, held secret meetings with a Zanu PF faction led by Emmerson Mnangagwa to forge an alliance in a bid to “secure Ndebele interests”.

“Numerous reports reached me of secret meetings involving Ncube and a Zanu PF faction aligned to Mnangagwa, a close Mugabe ally and Speaker of Parliament, and headed by Chinamasa. Ncube had the backing of Sibanda, [Renson] Gasela, [Priscilla] Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Paul Themba Nyathi and others, mainly from the western region,” Tsvangirai says in his book, ‘At the Deep End’.

“I understood that Ncube and Chinamasa were working with Pearson Mbalekwa, a relation of Mnangagwa from Zvishavane and with Chinamasa’s good friend Jonathan Moyo. It appeared Zanu PF had managed to convince Ncube and some parliamentarians that to secure the interests of the Ndebele minority, it was important that they join hands with an influential section of Zanu PF.

“By ‘influential’, I mean a faction that enjoyed the backing of the military and South African President Thabo Mbeki.”

Tsvangirai says he had never been a fan of Ncube, who became secretary general at the MDC’s formation in 1999. Ncube and Gift Chimanikire received an equal number of provincial nominations before the latter withdrew his interest to become Ncube’s deputy, Tsvangirai says after “intense lobbying” by the constitutional law professor’s supporters, including the late Learnmore Jongwe, Mdlongwa and Getrude Mthombeni.

“Coming from the trade union movement, I was more inclined to go along with my like-minded colleague, Chimanikire,” Tsvangirai says.

In the six years that followed, Tsvangirai claims he “spent the better part of my tenure babysitting some of my highly unpopular colleagues, including Ncube”.

He adds: “For a long time, these senior politicians insisted that I should never address a meeting alone. They all wanted to be where I was, especially at mass rallies, in order to benefit from my personal political brand.

“My colleagues were simply riding on my popularity, in the forlorn hope that part of it would rub off on to them. They were uncomfortable with me as a person and a leader and I sensed that they wanted to build their political careers using Tsvangirai as a seat warmer who could ultimately be dislodged as soon as the right opportunity presented itself. Little did they know how easily I saw through that.”

Tssvangirai says things came to a head in October 2005 when he led a charge that a newly introduced Senate was “a waste of money in a nation that was as poor”, but “MDC colleagues in parliament failed to see my point”.

“Ncube campaigned in the provinces, persuading them to back the re-creation of the Senate. The carrot he offered, as I discovered from some of them, was a chance to contest in the proposed Senate polls,” Tsvangirai says.

“As much as I resented it, I could see a looming split in the MDC... On 12 October 2005, the national council finally met in a tense session chaired by Isaac Matongo, who – unknown to me – was in favour of the Senate. For hours, councillors argued the issue, but as I listened to the disputes, I could see a carefully planned strategy unfolding.

“My main fear was that the party was likely to split into two equal groups – right down the middle. There was reason for hope in the fact that the powerful youth and women’s assemblies, headed by Nelson Chamisa and Lucia Matibenga respectively, were totally opposed to the Senate. I stood my ground.

“I knew that Mbeki was in favour of a party split. He wanted the splinter group to join a Zanu PF faction in the hope that their combined force would weaken and eventually destroy the remaining MDC. Mbeki would then pronounce to the world that he had resolved the Zimbabwean crisis.”

Tsvangirai claims Ncube “saw an opportunity to undermine me by advancing his own and Mbeki’s strategy”, adding: “I had suppressed the split for the sake of the party and the country. They thought I would do anything to prevent a split. I hung on to my thoughts until the situation became so serious that a split had to be faced.”
The national council voted 33-31 in favour of participating in the Senate.

Says Tsvangirai: “To allow for a vote on a major policy issue in the MDC was out of line, unconventional and never part of our custom and practice. Isaac Matongo, chairing the session, nevertheless allowed the process to go ahead. As I have said, he was in favour of the Senate, although in the end he told me that he voted against it.

“After the divisive vote, I picked up my papers and announced that I was against the move. I was unwilling to take the MDC into the Senate election. I left and drove home.”

The seeds had been planted for the split that would follow.

Arriving home, Tsvangirai says he told his wife, Susan, that he desperately needed time to himself “though not in Harare but at my birthplace in Buhera”.

“I was very angry. I had realised that I was on my own at the meeting where my most senior and trusted colleagues had let me down, and I felt betrayed. To make matters worse, while I was literarily unreachable by telephone in rural Buhera, MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi issued a counter statement to mine, saying the MDC was going into the Senate election. Thus, for 72 hours, without my knowledge, the story of the confusion in the MDC dominated the news,” he writes.

Tsvangirai says he returned to Harare on October 15 to be met by Sibanda who called for talks.

“I told him that for our discussion to make sense, we needed the other four senior member of the management committee. Sibanda pretended to hear me out and left, promising to bring them along. But he never returned. Instead, and without my knowledge, Ncube had already booked flights for the five top leaders to see Mbeki that afternoon.

“As I waited at home, they were already in the air on the way to Pretoria. Matongo, now unsure about his political future, had refused to accompany them, but he made some serious allegations about my leadership qualities in a discussion he had with Ian Makone. According to Makone, Matongo was very emotional. He suggested that I had failed and must hand over the leadership to a more capable replacement, but did not name possible alternative candidates.”

Tsvangirai says Mbeki “immediately granted the four [Ncube, Sibanda, Nyathi, Mdlongwa] an audience”, and had called him during their meeting.
He recalls the extraordinary phone exchange that followed.

Tsvangirai writes: “‘Well, I have got some of your leadership here . . .’ Mbeki began. ‘I understand there is a problem... Can you come here and we talk? I think we need to talk over the fall-out in your party.’

“I was stunned. After greeting him politely, I asked bluntly: ‘What has the politics of the MDC got to do with you? This is an internal matter which should not bother you as I understand you have much more serious matters of state to attend to.’

“After a long pause, I continued, ‘I am not coming to South Africa. Tell them that I said they must come back and we will discuss the issues here.’

“To that, Mbeki replied: ‘I thought it may help if you come and we thrash out the issues.’ I felt Mbeki had gone too far, and I snapped, ‘Mr President, with all due respect, those people have no right to be there. They have to come here so that we can discuss and sort out the matter. I am open to discuss matters. As I speak to you, Your Excellency, I am waiting for Gibson [Sibanda] to bring the others here for a meeting at which I hope we can thrash out our problems.’

“‘Well, let me talk to them . . . they are here with me,’ he replied.

“Sibanda and his group were listening in as Mbeki had switched the conversation on to a speaker-phone. I asked Mbeki to let me talk to Sibanda, but Mbeki refused, saying, ‘No. No. No. Let me talk to him first. I will call you later.’

“As I clutched my mobile handset, anxiously waiting for Mbeki to call back, an array of scenarios raced through my mind. What was going on? Why Mbeki? What role had he played in the MDC split? Where was Mugabe in all this? What were the implications for democracy?

“I had not eaten anything for the whole day. A worried Amai Edwin [wife Susan] asked me to take a break and have something to eat. I looked at her, then got up and paced around the garden, my mobile phone squeezed in my sweaty palm.

“Finally, Mbeki was back on the line. ‘Mr President,’ I said, in a stern and exasperated voice, ‘this is a party issue. It has nothing to do with anybody but ourselves. There is no reason why a head of state and government of another country, a foreign country, can come and involve himself in the opposition party politics of a neighbouring country.’

“No response. ‘Hello. Hello. Mr President . . .? Your Excellency . . .?’ Mbeki was gone – never to return.

“But if I thought that Mbeki had backed off I was wrong. After that incident, his involvement in the MDC’s affairs became even more obtrusive. It was clear to me now that the entire MDC split was externally influenced. It had nothing to do with our internal fights; and Mugabe and Zanu PF were involved in the matter.”

On reflection, Tsvangirai says he learned that “in politics, apparent victories may be illusions and seeming defeats turn out to be successes in disguise”.

“As things were to turn out, both the breakaway group and Mbeki miscalculated the outcome of the whole game – but not before a few setbacks to my cause ...

“Ncube and the others failed to read my mind correctly. They thought I was still the same trade unionist they had persuaded to take over the leadership of the MDC, a position I reluctantly accepted in January 2000. Little did they know that over the years experience had transformed me, teaching me to live with diversity and to manage adversity,” he writes.

Tsvangirai admits that the criticism that followed the split, and his inability since then to unseat Mugabe, got to him.

“I was variously described in newspapers and on internet discussion forums within tired social networks as shallow-minded, weak in policy formulation, lacking a decisive killer-punch, a pathetic leader and a poor strategist. I absorbed everything like a sponge and turned it all over in my mind. Taking these punches was never the high point of my day but I had no choice and if I kept my wits about me I could learn valuable lessons,” he says.

To suppress his frustrations, he says he turned himself into a “voracious reader of a myriad of books and texts on leadership, donated by well-wishers and friends”.

“I devoured all that came my way, from medieval and biblical scrolls to contemporary academic surveys and memoirs of kings, queens, dictators, politicians and captains of commerce and industry. In the process, I built a comprehensive personal library with many works on leadership ideas, experiences and stories – from ancient Greek icons to Nelson Mandela.”

Tsvangirai says the split “was the result of pure mischief”, and he was convinced that pulling through it would be a sure sign that he “would survive to fight another day and possibly win the struggle for democracy in the national interest”.

He adds: “There was a strong perception that the Ncube group was nothing but a tiny, power-hungry and sectional outfit. Nevertheless, it inflicted much damage on the MDC’s cause. The group was working against me, even planning my final ousting as party leader.

“The splinter group now invoked their man in Pretoria to put me at a disadvantage. President Thabo Mbeki had shown antipathy towards me and the cause I represented on several occasions but he was now pulled directly into the MDC’s domestic dispute.

“I believe Ncube was externally supported by none other than Mbeki, and encouraged by many senior Zanu PF officials to have a go at me. I heard later that Mbeki was even financing the Ncube group to destabilise the MDC; among other things, he covered their travel expenses.

“In discussions with diplomats, journalists and his colleagues, Mbeki went out of his way to pursue an international crusade against the MDC and me. Every effort was being made to isolate me.

“The attack on my authority had everything to do with manipulation by Zanu PF in connivance with Mbeki and Welshman Ncube. It was extraordinary – a conspiracy in all but name, stretching across the border.”

Three years later, following disputed elections, Mbeki became a central figure in Zimbabwe as he persuaded Mugabe and Tsvangirai to share power following disputed elections. The third partner in the government is Ncube, who now leads a rival MDC faction.

'At the Deep End' is published by Penguin Books and is available at major bookshops around the world.

Labels: EMMERSON MNANGAGWA, GIBSON SIBANDA, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, THABO MBEKI, WELSHMAN NCUBE

posted by MrK @ 2:52 PM