(NEWZIMBABWE) Back off! Students union tells Chamisa
I helped found ZINASU and want it to remain strong ... Nelson Chamisa
23/10/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
THE Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (ZINASU) on Wednesday demanded that the opposition MDC-T stops interfering in its affairs and blasted the party’s organising secretary, Nelson Chamisa, for allegedly causing havoc in the organisation.
Addressing a press conference in Harare, outgoing ZINASU president, Pride Mukono, said the union had been forced to postpone its congress on a number of occasions due to problems caused by top MDC-T officials.
“We changed the dates for our congress from the 25th to the 27th this month," Mukono said.
We had to change again to the 22nd and now to the 23rd of November not only because of logistical challenges but also because of interference by outside parties, particularly the MDC-T.”
“And quite apart from interfering in our internal processes, we also have MDC-T officials threatening physical violence against delegates expected to attend the congress.
“This is becoming an issue of particular concern to us as ZINASU because we are a non-violent movement we believe in peace; we believe in the ideology of transformation.
“We also believe that as a movement we must retain our autonomy and independence which is very paramount for any movement.”
The ZINASU chief said it was unfortunate that a national political party had reduced itself to interfering in the affairs of student bodies.
“We are particularly worried by the organising secretary of the MDC-T Nelson Chamisa who has gone to the extent of sponsoring factions within ZINASU structures in a bid to re-claim lost glory after his party’s devastating defeat in the last elections.”
However, Chamisa said it was in the interest of his party to ensure that the voice of students was not stifled.
“Are you aware that I am one of the founding members of ZINASU,” he said.
“I founded (the organisation) together with luminaries like (the late) Learnmore Jongwe, Daniel Molokele and Job Sikhala we founded ZINASU and led it to the best of our ability. Why would we want to destroy that which we helped found?”
He added: “Throughout my whole life I have always believed in the student struggle and the last thing that I would do even if I had the opportunity is to undermine a cause for which my whole life has been dedicated to.”
The former ZINASU president said the last time that he was active in student politics was when “I was stills student.
“If they want advice on how to connect with students I am still available to help. Instead of pointing fingers at me they must point fingers at me to signal invitation. We are more than willing to help if they want.”
But Mukono said external forces and individuals should not invite themselves to the organisation’s activities.
Labels: MDC, NELSON CHAMISA, ZINASU
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(TALKZIMBABWE) MDC-T protestors storm party HQ
This article was written by Our reporter on 21 June, at 21 : 44 PM
On Friday over 100 MDC-T protestors stormed the party’s headquarters, Harvest House, demanding answers over the imposition of candidates by the party’s leadership.
Reports from Harare say around 12pm on Friday the chanting protesters were outside Harvest House demanding to see party national organising secretary Nelson Chamisa.
The protesters wanted to beat up Chamisa saying he was the one who was leading the imposition of candidates.
Chamisa who was at the party headquarters at the time was secretly whisked away through a secret exit to avoid the angry protestors.
The protest was triggered off by the imposition of Elias Jembere, who is the current MDC-T MP for Epworth, to run again for the constituency. This is despite the fact that Jembere lost during the primaries.
There was violence in Epworth during the MDC-T primary elections. Many of those contesting the elections ran away with ballot boxes. The who exercise was later abandoned.
Protestors at Harvest House carried placards which read “Losers Must Go”, “Democracy Under Attack”, “Chamisa We Need Answers” and “We Want New Elections”.
Efforts to contact MDC-T spokesman, Douglas Mwonzora, proved fruitless
MDC-T primary elections started over a month ago and have been characterised by violence. In Mutare there was violence between supporters of sitting MP Giles Mutsekwa and those of aspiring candidate Arnold Tsunga, a lawyer who has until recently was the Director of the Africa Regional Programme of the International Commission of Jurists.
There was also violence recorded in Lower Gweru, Bulawayo and Vungu where protesters said there was imposition of candidates who were favoured by the party’s leadership, not by the people.
Last week an MDC-T activist Ernest Banda had his home in Highfield, Harare petrol-bombed in the early hours the morning.
Banda said he suspects that his house was attacked by people sent by a member of his MDC-T party who is an aspiring candidate for Highfield West constituency.
He alleged the person had been sending him threats via cellphone text messages, adding that he was targeted as he has links with the sitting member of the House of Assembly Mr Simon Hove.
The matter was reported to ZRP Machipisa under RRB number 1800197.
Labels: MDC VIOLENCE, NELSON CHAMISA
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(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) Blows at MDC-T meeting
Sunday, 07 April 2013 00:00
Sunday Mail Reporters
Members of the MDC-T national council last week almost came to blows at a meeting aimed at selecting primary election candidates after a clique that was disqualified from standing in the polls accused the party leadership of not following the proper selection criteria.
The disgruntled council members argued that only those who had been in the party for five years and above were eligible to run for election. However, several officials who do not ordinarily qualify on this criterion alone were cleared for the primaries.
Insiders revealed that national chairman Mr Lovemore Moyo, who chaired the meeting, failed to bring the house to order, resulting in fiery verbal exchanges.
The insiders said although national organising secretary Mr Nelson Chamisa later successfully quelled the situation, most of the disqualified members vowed to either quit the party or vote against it.
Those who win the primary polls slated for later this month will stand for the party at parliamentary or council level.
In an interview last Friday, Mr Chamisa confirmed the meeting was highly charged and that the selection criteria were applied selectively.
“The meeting was highly charged, of course.
“We are a democratic party that allows people to air their views, but, it is a lie to say that people were involved in any fistfights,” he said.
“The selection was done according to service to the party, membership, value addition to the party, integrity, honesty and people with clean hands.
“The general rule was that a person should have served the party for five years or more, but, in some instances, we had to forego this clause to consider how a person can add value to the party.”
Insiders said chaos erupted after the party’s Manicaland provincial chairman, Mr Julius Magarangoma, complained over the procedure through which candidates in his province were selected.
The insiders said Mr Magarangoma was particularly irked that former Daily News Editor Geoffrey Nyarota, who has expressed interest in contesting for the Makoni South House of Assembly seat, was cleared to stand during the primary elections.
They added that most members were unhappy with former Zanu-PF legislator Tracy Mutinhiri as well as ex-radio disc jockeys Eric Knight and Ezra Sibanda being given the green light to contest.
Knight and Sibanda spent the past few years overseas.
“The situation got really ugly as Magarangoma used vulgar language and vehemently opposed the procedure used in the selection process,” said the insiders.
“It is a fact that most members did not agree with the selection process. We were mainly worried why people who have been in the Diaspora were allowed to contest yet other members who have worked tirelessly for the party over the past few years were booted out.”
Contacted for comment, Mr Magarangoma said he only defended some candidates in his province. He, however, refused to shed light on the matter.
“I only spoke about the issues that occurred in my province. I cannot speak for the national council,” he said.
Labels: 2013 ELECTIONS (ZW), LOVEMORE MOYO, MDC, MDC VIOLENCE, NELSON CHAMISA
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Biti, Chamisa forced to deny feud
29/01/2013 00:00:00
by Jeffrey Moyo
MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti and the party’s organising secretary Nelson Chamisa have been forced to deny they were involved in a furious bust-up last week.
The MDC-T was concerned enough by the report in the Zimbabwe Independent last Friday to parade the two men at a press conference in Harare on Tuesday.
The party’s national spokesman Douglas Mwonzora told reporters: “The MDC totally dismisses as false reports that Biti and Chamisa clashed. Those are malicious reports meant to cause disharmony in the party.
“We know that the MDC is a target of malicious reporting.”
According to the Independent, the two men – both seen as future challengers for the party’s leadership – squared off at a recent meeting of the MDC-T’s standing committee, also known as the Top 12, over application forms for primary elections.
Chamisa was angry, the newspaper reported, that Biti dispatched application forms for aspiring MPs without his signature.
The two men “fiercely clashed” until the standing committee “resolved to withdraw the application forms and restart the whole process”, according to the Independent.
But Biti told Tuesday’s news conference that the claims were malicious.
“To say we are brothers is an understatement and to further write a story claiming that we clashed is malicious. We are a united and visionary organisation,” Biti insisted.
Chamisa described as “fiction” that the party was faction-ridden as he and Biti position themselves for the party leadership.
“I’m concerned about fictionalism of factionalism within the party. What appeared in one of the newspapers about me and Honourable Biti is totally fallacious as it was built on outright fiction,” said Chamisa.
He said as a party they had since approached their lawyers to force the Independent to retract the story.
“That which unites us is far more than that which may divide us. It can only be Zanu PF that throws that kind of fiction. Factionalism is the concept we know from next door, from Zanu PF,” Chamisa said. Labels: MDC, NELSON CHAMISA, TENDAI BITI
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COMMENT - MDC mouthpiece Nelson Chamisa on how Liberation was just not quite right. Here Nelson Chamisa is trying to re-invent the MDC as a 'liberation movement' that is 'somehow' better than the real liberation movements.
Samora Machel: bullets yet to flower
20/10/2012 00:00:00
by Nelson Chamisa MP
MDC-T organising secretary and Information Technology Minister Nelson Chamisa was a guest at
the Harare Quill Club on Friday, October 19, 2012, at which he spoke about the legacy of former Mozambican leader Samora Machel, and the contemporary challenges of Southern Africa. Here is the speech in full:
“The struggle in Zimbabwe is our Struggle... Aluta Continua!”
These were the words of the African giant, Samora Machel, in 1975 in the context of the noble liberation project and agenda in Zimbabwe and Africa.
As a favoured African and proud Zimbabwean, I am greatly excited to have the historical opportunity to share my thoughts and cross-pollinate ideas on the legacy of an icon, a champion and indeed a luminary African son of the soil, Samora Machel.
I am extremely humbled to be given the platform to unpack and interrogate the contemporary challenges of the region, in the process, examining to what extent the liberation struggle has realised its ideals, fulfilled or betrayed them.
On Friday, October 19, 1986, I was at Vumba, my primary school in Gutu. Aged 8 and in Grade 3, I received the news of the tragic and untimely departure of Cde Samora Machel in a plane crash. We had lost a brother, a father, a Cde, a leader, a freedom fighter and indeed an African giant.
At this stage, I was armed with the scant consciousness that the definition of an African was not geography, language, pigment but the heart and the mind.
Cde Machel represented timeless ideas – the idea of total liberation, and freedom; the idea of peace and liberty; the idea of the pursuit of happiness and justice; the idea of sovereignty of the people; the idea of internal solutions to African problems and the idea of servant leadership and serving the people.
Cde Machel’s struggle was a struggle for a better life for all, a struggle for self-determination; a struggle for a prosperous Africa and a struggle for dignity (ubuntu). This was Sankara’s struggle, Steve Biko’s ideals, Nelson Mandela’s hope and walk, Kimathi’s aspirations, Tongogara’s yearning, Chitepo’s vision and Nkrumah’s dream and struggle.
A legacy of hope, a legacy of victory, a legacy of struggle is what we were bequeathed and inherited from the principled and exemplary leadership of Cde Machel.
Democracy is a journey and a destination, one generation starts the journey, the other finishes it. Our generation has a duty and obligation to fulfil the aspirations of our founding fathers and complete the great journey that they started.
I look to the future. I gaze at tomorrow, I see a great Africa, a great Zimbabwe. I sense and feel the great capacity deep within and among us to complete the glorious journey and reach the promised and promising land.
As Cde Machel said, “The struggle in Zimbabwe is our struggle... Aluta Continua!”
It is important to pose hard and penetrating questions about the import and connotation of these great words from a giant.What was the struggle and why should the struggle continue?
The struggle was one against imperialism and subjugation; a struggle against hunger and deprivation; a struggle against tribalism and balkanisation of the African people; a struggle against hopelessness and marginalisation. Indeed, a struggle to end all struggles.
The struggle was for equality, freedom, prosperity, development, plenty and happiness. Cde Machel was a grassroots politician who believed that the African and indeed the Zimbabwean struggle was a struggle against a system and not an individual; a struggle against a mindset and heart-set and not just a mere group-set.
The fight was to end hardship and not massage it. True, the fight was to vanquish all forms of apartheid and not co-exist with them.
Why should this struggle continue, even beyond paper and flag independence or any assumed arrival point? Precisely because leaders are mortals and it is the habit and character of mortals to be fallible. Leaders sometimes betray struggles, leaders can mislead the masses, leaders can hijack revolutions instead of being hijacked by them and of course, leaders grow old.
A struggle is a project for all, by all and to all. It is for the led and not the leader. A cursory audit and helicopter assessment of post-colonial Africa paints a sordid and gory picture. Taking a balance sheet of the liberation ideals against the post-colonial reality leaves us with a catalogue of deficits – the deficit of performance in all corridors and institutions of the State, a deficit of democracy, statecraft and craft competency and literacy, a deficit of freedom and the oxygen of liberty. It is a deficit of vision and leadership.
Experience has taught me that wherever there is a deficit, it is a deficit of love. Wherever there is a shortage, it starts with a shortage of love. Cde Machel was an epitome of love, its very embodiment and constitution. That is why the struggle in Zimbabwe is our struggle.
Cde Machel hosted our liberators in the liberation agenda at a time when he was grappling with other pressing domestic national exigencies You cannot host without love. Hosting is evidence of the existence of love.
Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara said this about revolutionaries: "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force."
This is precisely why from the remote village of Gutu at the age of eight, and only in the third grade, I experienced and felt the loss of that love although I had never met this giant. This is what true leadership does. True leadership must inspire, not perspire or conspire.
In our own case, who are we hosting? Playing host to Cde Mengistu?
Cde Machel believed in the people, had conviction in the spirit of sacrifice and was a reservoir of giving and selflessness, a true calabash of justice and an oasis of hope.
The tragedy of post-colonial Africa is a tragedy of lack of love. It is a crisis of love – the love of the people, the love of our countries, the love of our economies and the love of our future generations. And this is why Cde Machel said, “The struggle in Zimbabwe is our struggle.”
Tragically, in our own case, we seem to have defeated that which we admire, we fought that which we continue to mimick; we dislike that which we like. Evidently, we defeated white colonialists only to replace them with colonialism of a different pigment.
We vanquished the white settler colonialst, but not colonialism. We kicked out Smith, yet kicking in and entrenching Smithism. Literally copying, pasting, editing and perfecting the Rhodesian template of repression and autocracy.
Suddenly, we see false enemies, define fictitious saboteurs, behave like a leopard that accuses its young ones of smelling like goats to justify cannibalism and misguided infanticide.
[Huh? - MrK]
We continue to ask wrong questions and give wrong answers, parroting and sloganeering, ranting and raving about imaginary enemies at the border when we are our own worst enemy.
[Certainly the MDC is the enemy within. - MrK]
Our conduct continues to provide fuel to our naysayers, cynics and doomsayers from the citadels of capital who justify their Afro-pessimism. Remember van der Byl, Desmond Ladner-Burke and Ken Flower? Remember the Special Branch, the Law and Order Maintenance Act, the Selous Scouts, the colour bar policies? Juxtapose these with our own post-colonial realities.
[Whitey might say something bad about us. See here the slave mentality of the MDC. - MrK]
Laws are meant to make people happy and not withdraw from them divine providence and God-given nuggets of freedom.
Our post-colonial story is a sad story of false starts or dawns, unfulfilled promises, missed opportunities, neglected advantages, hanging and suspended aspirations, betrayed people and disappointed ideals.
[Really? How about the highest literacy rate on the African continent? How about the effective redistribution of land, something South Africa, Namibia and Kenya can only look at in envy. - MrK]
Did Machel ever imagine an African leadership that would turn against its people? Did Machel ever entertain the idea of an African leadership that would turn parasitic and predatory? The Piranha State?
We are legendary on minoring in majors and majoring in minors, arguing about who should count people in a census. If we can’t count ourselves, what else can we count? We can’t even distinguish between the bullet and the ballot, a Constitution and an institution? Zanu PF is an institution and not a Constitution!
[Whatever. - MrK]
We remain saddled with calamities and ailments of State capture by a predatory elite practising pre-bentalism and neo-patrimonialism, being obsessed with a redistributive rather than a productive paradigm, the departure lounge mentality, the last supper mentality.
[The 'win at all cost', even when it kills the people in cholera epidemics, after their sanctions destroy the national currency. That is the MDC. - MrK]
Neo-colonialism is upon us (centre-periphery dynamics), the changing of the rider. The centre has shifted from the West to the East with dire consequences to sustainable development and achievement of MDGs. There is a palpable absence of a matrix of leadership regeneration in most liberation movements.
[China did it. Not the IMF and World Bank, which the MDC venerate as their true masters, it is China. - MrK]
We seem to enjoy more dreaming than envisioning. When we got our independence in 1980, the elite then never imagined 2012 would be upon us. That is why they had highsounding nothings like “Health for all by 2000”.
[These 'highsounding nothings' as Nelson Chamisa puts it, saved the lives of thousands of Zimbabweans, including pregnant women. The ZANU-PF put a clinic within walking distance of every Zimbabwean, and life expectancy improved drastically. Until the IMF got hold of government policy from 1991 to 1996, and banned subsidies for health and education, as they always do anywhere on the planet. Read:
The Tragic Tale of the IMF in Zimbabwe.
by Antonia Juhasz, The Daily Mirror of Zimbabwe
March 7th, 2004
- MrK
We must begin to build and emphasise institutions rather than personalities. Having a vision of the future, for example getting to 2030 before 2030 gets to us! We have moved from Great Zimbabwe to Zimbabwe Ruins.
[Wow, that's clever. So tell us all Nelson Chamisa, what was the role and effect of the Zimbabwe Dollar by ZDERA in all of this? And by the way, what is your party's real policy on healthcare, and how are you going to pay for it - without taxing or owning the mines, of course. - MrK]
We must smash neo-colonialism, liquidate exploitation, crash corruption and punish incompetence. All wise and always. We must preserve Samora Machel the idea as much as we celebrate Samora Machel the legacy. Our cousins in the other party must desist from falling in love with Machel the person, and not Machel the idea.
[The MDC doesn't have what it takes to start giving advice to any liberation movement. They are the enemy within, representatives of the same Anglo-American De Beers /NM Rothschild/JP Morgan mining interests that financed colonialism, Apartheid/UDI and now neocolonialism. - MrK]
It is our duty to rebuild from the Zimbabwe Ruins to a Great Zimbabwe, realising our moment of glory. So unless and until the bullets have flowered, the struggle in Zimbabwe is our struggle. The bullets should flower through creation of jobs. The bullets should flower through happiness in our homes and communities. The bullets should flower through producing more and better – a surplus in everything.
Zimbabwe should be the head and not the tail. Africa should be the head and not the tail. Our natural position is a leadership position.We must make good the Great Zimbabwe and the United Africa promise.
I believe in this great and beautiful country. Remember the Mutapa Empire, the Great Zimbabwe, the Rozvi dynasty, King Mzilikazi and King Lobengula, Ambuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi and the great Mkwati. I have studied the roots of this country. They have the capacity to sustain a great flower that will be the envy of every eye in the world.
I have glorified in the wisdom of its great heritage, tradition and its inimitable history. I marvel at the wisdom of our founding fathers and mothers. I am moved by the narrative of their sacrifice, givenness and fortitude.
As a generation and as a people, our cause may be misunderstood, our punchline disputed, our intentions questioned. The fundamental truth is that the struggle in Zimbabwe is our struggle.
We are in the last mile towards real transformation. It is 3AM in Zimbabwe. Dawn is upon us. A New Zimbabwe, a new beginning.
Aluta continua!
God bless you.
God bless Zimbabwe.
God bless Africa.
Let there be love!
Labels: LIBERATION, NELSON CHAMISA, NEOCOLONIALISM, SAMORA MACHEL
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MDC-T’s last mile to demise
Wednesday, 12 September 2012 00:00
Reason Wafawarowa
In Nelson Chamisa’s world Zimbabwe “saunters towards the demise of the ultimate phase of a hard transition,” and he believes the people of this country have “subliminally” long stored decisions about an ideal future. But have they?
It is just as good that the MDC-T organising secretary realises the pending MDC-T demise coming with the last phase of the misnamed Global Political Agreement, and the confession that the MDC-T has been in Government for three years doing nothing but “subliminally” stalling decisions about an ideal future for the country is quite telling.
Dear reader, something subliminal is something inadequate to produce conscious awareness. So in reality the MDC-T is hardly conscious of its presence in Government, and that explains a lot of the behaviour portrayed by the leadership of the party.
Nelson Chamisa, Morgan Tsvangirai and one Abednico Bhebhe have all said something to the effect that the MDC-T is in the constitution-making business only for
political expediency but are totally uncommitted to the process since the party envisages a day in the future when it will be in power and able to write for
Zimbabweans a Constitution democratic enough to meet the standards of MDC-T sponsors, whose code name is always “the international community.”
Chamisa’s October 21 2010 contribution to this unpalatable rhetoric reads like this:
“Zimbabweans will be given another chance to write a Constitution in a free environment after elections. “That’s why we want a transitional constitution now to create a conducive climate for elections, after which a new charter will be written.”
His boss Morgan Tsvangirai was more brazen about it. He said on December 20 2011: “a new Constitution for Zimbabwe, which is now with Government drafters (meaning Copac), with a referendum to follow, will be abandoned as soon as the MDC party wins power”.
The political climate created by the presence of the MDC-T in Government guarantees that no patriotic Zimbabwean will vote for the reckless indiscipline and corruption now synonymous with the MDC-T leadership, with Tsvangirai’s character now written hopelessness all over it, not least because of his scandalous sexual lifestyle. The man is probably the fastest zipper of our times, albeit done with a completely shut mind.
Nelson Chamisa recently wrote in an article titled “MDC-T: Last mile towards real change,” that the MDC-T is “a force for real change and a locomotive for real transformation.”
The only explanation given to what this change and transformation is all about is the vacuous statement that it will be about “a decisive response to hopelessness, disempowerment and break down of the rule of law through state-sponsored violence.”
The economic crisis of Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2009 was a direct result of the isolation of the country by the major Western economies through illegal sanctions imposed on the country at the instigation of Nelson Chamisa’s party, and this is the hopelessness that Chamisa says his party is worried about.
The only decisive response to this hopelessness is for the MDC-T to start joining every other sane and patriotic Zimbabwean in defending the motherland by calling for the unconditional lifting of these illegal and irrational sanctions. The fight against Western sanctions is a national cause, which the MDC-T leadership needs to embrace with all others.
It is ironic to read Nelson Chamisa saying the MDC-T has a plan to change and transform the state of disempowerment for Zimbabweans, especially when one takes into consideration the position of the MDC-T regarding economic empowerment as implemented by Minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
Morgan Tsvangirai was quite explicit about his party’s position on the indigenisation policy when he addressed a rally in Marondera in March this year.
He said: “We are totally opposed to this programme being undertaken by (Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Saviour) Kasukuwere and Zanu-PF. There are some people who are moving around saying: ‘indigenisation, indigenisation’. How can you implement a party programme hiding behind the Government? Ours is a job plan. Our plan is of jobs and starts by encouraging investment.”
A job plan based on encouraging Western investors is the MDC-T idea of responding to disempowerment, and Chamisa calls this culture of capitalist dependency an approach of excellence.
The MDC-T was never formed because its founders had an idea what to do in terms of policy formulation or solutions to the challenges facing Zimbabwe.
The party was formed as a reactionary movement whose sole occupation was protesting the rulership of Zanu-PF. Chamisa explained it all in his little and exciting essay. He wrote: “The absence of a people-framed Constitution, weak growth by industries, poor economic policies by Government gave birth to the MDC.”
Chamisa believes his party “stands for the supremacy of the nation and its people over partisan and individual interests,” and he writes this at a time his MDC-T adamantly prides itself in having disregarded the national report on the views of the people about what should constitute the Zimbabwean Constitution — an abrogation inspired not only by selfish partisan interests, but also by the influence from Western imperialist interests.
Indeed the MDC-T stands for the supremacy of the nation and its people over individual interests, and this is precisely why the MDC-T leader sees no contradiction in moving into a multi-million dollar mansion barely ten kilometres from a national university failing to operate because of critical water shortages that could easily be eradicated by a fraction of the dollar value of his mansion.
Nelson Chamisa rhapsodises that his party is “pro-poor, labour-centric, social democratic and human-centred development party.”
This is a pro-poor people party that finds it logical to align itself with disparaged whites bidding to reverse the pro-poor land redistribution program, when it is not vehemently opposing the indigenisation policy designed to transfer majority ownership of business into the hands of indigenous Zimbabweans.
The MDC-T is indeed a labour-founded party, but white interests sadly hijacked the party when Morgan Tsvangirai was openly bought out by white capital from ex-white commercial farmers and Western moneybags way back in 2000.
A social democratic and human-centred party that openly calls for the sanctioning of its own country in order to strangulate the populace to a point of rebellion against the incumbent government is an insult to the philosophy of social democracy, and it is a mockery to humanity.
Chamisa candidly wrote that his party had a real prospect of attaining “political power” by “walking on dead bodies (of starving Zimbabweans) to State House.” He aptly describes in his essay what the Western sanctions imposed at the instigation of his MDC-T had done to the people of Zimbabwe.
Nelson Chamisa wrote, almost braggingly: “People were dying of cholera, bread was being bought from South Africa, prices were changing every second and we had no food in shops.” That is the ungovernable state of affairs his party has always advocated for.
The young politician was quite audacious in crediting his party for every little success associated with the lifespan of the inclusive Government, even boasting that tobacco farmers are now in good business because of the MDC-T presence in Government, and not because of the land reform program that gave them the land on which they are doing tobacco farming, of course at the expense of the white commercial farmers.
The daring contriving of glory in the restoration of the welfare fund for war veterans stands in sharp contrast to Minister Biti’s efforts to frustrate the disbursement
of the same fund, and is a stark contradiction to the vilification of war veterans by the MDC-T, as evidenced by Chamisa’s own utterances in 2000, when he told a gathering in Harare CBD that “Chinotimba, Hunzvi and the so-called war veterans are thugs. They are the ex-combatants, and we are the current combatants. They can take Zimbabwe back to colonialism and we will fight and free it better than they ever did.”
The admission by Nelson Chamisa that “the ‘party of excellence’ is not full of angels” is the summary of the MDC-T to most Zimbabweans today. Nelson Chamisa’s explanations and excuses will never make up for the missing angels.
Morgan Tsvangirai is not angelic from any angle of imagination, and moralists would dare say the man is in fact diabolic. Emmanuel Chiroto, the Harare deputy mayor who built himself a 24-bedroom house as soon as he made it into the local council, stands out as a prototype example of MDC-T councillors across the country — a corrupt lot that loots with reckless abandon.
Here is a party whose winning candidates brazenly compete in the game of self-aggrandisement, corruptly parcelling pieces of land to each other to the point of not sparing even football fields and public parks.
Chamisa writes about something called the “New Zimbabwe blue print Vision 2030 JUICE Plan,” and one is tempted to think that this is a plan to juice up the lifestyles of MDC-T politicians.
Apart from coming up with fancy names for its policy documents, the MDC-T has never really impressed in articulating what it stands for, much as the party postures very impressively on what it stands against.
The mediocrity in MDC-T leadership is encyclopaedic; to borrow Nelson Chamisa’s complex vocabulary. The party leadership stands tainted as keener on corruption than its rivals in Zanu-PF.
Morgan Tsvangirai has transformed himself from a fiery opposition leader to a sexual weakling throwing himself wantonly on all manner of women, when he is not displaying his shortcomings on political etiquette like he did in Germany where he made a perfect fool of himself; saluting a guard of honour meant to salute him, and speeding away from his host in a walk to the podium, only to end up standing bouncingly under the wrong flag before a packed auditorium.
If there is one thing the GPA has done, it is exposing the MDC-T as a party of hopelessness, even in the context of a habitually blundering Zanu-PF. We have at the very most about nine months before the country goes for elections, and the MDC-T is indeed sauntering towards a well-earned demise.
Zanu-PF, in all its numerous shortcomings, is capable of defining what it stands for, and its policies often attract international attention, controversially or otherwise. The MDC-T has, on the other hand, publicly stated what it stands against, only to fail to practice the gospel the party so much preaches about.
Unholy people never really make good listening when they preach against sin, and the MDC-T stands naked whenever they chant this rhetoric on change and good governance.
The only change that has happened since the MDC-T came into office is the increasing fatness of its leaders and, of course, their mobility up the social ladder, drifting away from the voting masses. The credibility of the MDC-T in matters of transparency is currently no more than that of a pastor preaching holiness in front of a congregation that includes his mistresses.
The MDC-T has become a party too used to people following its pursuits, not because the pursuits are noble but because people are hunting for an alternative.
Now the time has come for the MDC-T to start following the pursuits of the people and the party simply has no idea how to do it.
Barring a radical miracle, the MDC-T may in fact be walking its last mile towards real demise, and no amount of blame apportioning will be good enough to revive the lost myth of glory that the MDC-T used to enjoy as an opposition political party. The aura of invincibility that was part of the myth around the name Tsvangirai has been replaced by the raucous laughter of citizens watching the unmasking of a fake hero.
Zimbabwe, we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!
* Reason Wafawarova is a political writer based in Sydney, Australia.
Labels: MDC, NELSON CHAMISA, REASON WAFAWAROVA
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MDC-T: last mile towards real transformation
09/09/2012 00:00:00
by Nelson Chamisa MP
AS ZIMBABWE saunters towards the demise of the ultimate phase of a hard transition, decisions about an ideal future have long been stored subliminally among the people.
If the political climate guarantees the security of the vote, security of the voter and security after the vote, no patriotic Zimbabwean would vote for the iniquity and wickedness of pre-2009 when hopelessness was pronounced in bone and mind alike.
In 1999, the people’s party of excellence, which is a force for real change and a locomotive for real transformation, was formed by the working people of Zimbabwe as a decisive response to hopelessness, disempowerment and break down of rule of law through sponsored violence.
The working people were responding to a severe decline in incomes, employment, health, food security and general wellbeing of the people. Women and youth were facing encyclopaedic discrimination in public and private life with public services having declined and in some cases collapsed. The absence of a people-framed constitution; weak growth by industries, poor economic policies by government gave birth to the MDC.
The crisis was, as it still is, a crisis of governance. It arises due to a breakdown of a contract with the people characterised by broken promises, betrayed hopes and unfulfilled commitments.
The MDC stands for the supremacy of the nation and its people over partisan and individual interests. At the core of the party’s philosophy is the belief in a people’s constitution that recognises the equality of all Zimbabweans. The party of excellence is a pro-poor, labour centric, social democratic and human-centred development party that cherishes political pluralism, citizen participation, and accountable and transparent government. The MDC stands for inclusive politics, smart leadership and a clean and lean government for prosperity.
For the above reason, the MDC has sought to use democratic means to seek and secure the people’s mandate to deliver an alternative narrative to the banal and hopeless politics and leadership of yesteryear. We have participated in undemocratic, unfree and unfair elections yet won them. Because a revolution has not been possible, an evolution became appropriate, inevitable and necessary.
Ours is an incremental process. Democracy is a process not a finished product, and liberty in all its forms is also forever under refinement. This informs the strategies and tactics employed by the party around the key party congress resolutions of 2006.
Following a successful congress in May 2006, the party adopted the sign posts to peace, democracy, legitimacy, reconstruction and national healing. With hindsight, the whole country is now firmly following the MDC’s proposed roadmap and signposts.
The 2006 MDC roadmap had five stages to a New Zimbabwe. These were:
# Mass protests leading to negotiations
# A transitional mechanism – a government
# An economic reconstruction agenda, national healing and integratic agenda – repealing of POSA and AIPPA, opening up of the airwaves
# Constitutional agenda
# Free and fair elections for a New Zimbabwe
To all intents and purposes, we have completed all the other critical stages albeit with imperfections. We are now on stages four and five – the constitution and free and fair elections agenda.
After resoundingly winning elections in March 2008, the transitional government was ushered. Since 2009, the MDC under very extraordinary difficult circumstances has managed to lead differently in government, cause impactful change and restore people’s hope.
Forming the inclusive government was a very painful decision but we had to do so to save the people and stop the bleeding. People were dying of cholera, bread was being bought from South Africa, prices were changing every second and we had no food in the shops. We had a choice between saving the people on one hand and pursuit of political power even if it means walking on dead bodies to State House on the other. We chose the people.
We entered into a political bedroom with our political cousin Zanu PF. Tragically, it is difficult to come out of that bedroom without the body odour of the other.
Through the able leadership of Prime Minister Tsvangirai and the creative government work programme, MDC ministers have largely proved to be connected to people issues, value-centred and principled. The economy is now relatively stable and basic commodities are generally available.
Thanks to the MDC, hospitals were re-opened, schools and universities are back to life, cellphones are now cheaper than tomatoes, newspapers like the NewsDay and Daily News are on the streets. Unfinished bridges were completed, dams are being constructed, tobacco farmers are in good business. Violence has relatively subsided. BEAM and social welfare fund for our war veterans and elderly have been restored.
Much has been done, but a lot more needs doing to fix our country. Better times and seasons lie ahead. We are happy that although we may have borrowed a bad smell temporarily, those whom we serve are happy – that is servant leadership.
On the political front, the MDC has taught Zanu PF politics of competition, alternative politics and leading differently to the greater common good. With the people, the MDC made history by resoundingly disciplining Zanu PF in both the parliamentary and presidential elections of 2008. In parliament, Zanu PF’s indomitability was perforated with the coming in of Lovemore Moyo as Speaker of Parliament from the party of excellence.
Granted, there are still huge challenges in government that require an MDC government to deal with, namely civil servants salaries, disruptions on farms and conservancies, lack of genuine independent TV and radio stations, lack of transparency in diamond mining, shortages of water and electricity, closure of companies, retrenchments, shortage of cash, unconducive business environment and weak infrastructure to mention but a few.
To a greater extent, these challenges are man-made out of omission and commission at the heart of government. Some corrosive policies in government which the MDC disagrees with have held us back. There has been too much heat than light, too much noise than music in the transitional government. There is too much policy noise and conflict in the cockpit. Capital hates noise. Business loves peace – that explains our circumstances.
Granted, the people’s party of excellence is not full of angels. We have had some few bad apples in a basket of a majority of good apples in the various stations of government. Some party deployees were creating social distance and isolation of the party from its base, the people. As a party, we don’t sweep scorpions and snakes under the carpet. We sweep literally and metaphorically! This justifies our noble decisions in Chitungwiza and elsewhere where a few have gone to Niniveh instead of Tarshish in representing people.
Our MPs have largely performed excellently by reporting back and being visible and present in the constituencies. Those that have crossed the line are under the radar in the party.
As the MDC, we believe that the Zimbabwe of today should to all intents and purposes be better than the Zimbabwe of our great grandparents. The Zimbabwe of tomorrow should be the best of them all. We need real change to restore the glitter and glamour of our country. In spite of being raped and abused, Zimbabwe retains her beauty.
Our mission is basic: to right the wrongs of the past, to just injustice and to serve the unserved men and women, boys and girls of our motherland. We are the opposite of suffering, darkness, abuse and marginalisation. We are designed, named and scoped to define and refine real transformation and stir reform making good the promise of a Great Zimbabwe.
On September 29, 2012, the MDC turns 13. The theme for the anniversary is ‘The last mile, towards real transformation’. Indeed, with the people we are completing the last mile in the journey to a New Zimbabwe. People have a clear choice: either hope or fear, prosperity or suffering, boom or doom, the future or the past.
The MDC represents a fresh set of policies and a new tools box of ideas to unlock the maximum best of our country. Through our alternative policies such as the New Zimbabwe blue print Vision 2030 JUICE plan for jobs and economic upliftment and investment and other sectoral policies, Zimbabwe is ready for take off and open for business. It’s 3AM in Zimbabwe, dawn is coming, the sunrise is inevitable and not too far away.
To all those who are unemployed, MDC is the choice. To all those who believe in free press, MDC is your hope. To all those who cherish worshipping God, prosperity and happiness of families, MDC stands with you. For you the farmer, business person and our teachers and nurses, you will shine as the sun rises.
Our heritage is the celebration of difference, a history of suffering and fighting for democracy, a legacy of creating hope and restoring lives. We fight hard because we care deeply and profoundly about our principles, convictions and purposes of servant leadership. Difference will win us the next election. Together we make the difference for real change. Help us achieve it.
Nelson Chamisa is the organising secretary of the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
Labels: MDC, NELSON CHAMISA
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MDC-T postpones economic blueprint launch
This article was written by Our reporter on 11 September, at 03 : 13 AM
MDC-T yesterday indefinitely postponed the launch of its economic blueprint meant to rival Zanu-PF’s indigenisation and economic empowerment initiatives. Party leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai was expected to officiate at the ceremony.
MDC-T organising secretary Nelson Chamisa said the programme dubbed
“Jobs, Upliftment, Investment, Capital and Environment” or JUICE would now be unveiled in a fortnight.
“We postponed the event because we realised that we had just had another high profile event over the weekend so we decided to have it at a later date probably in the next two weeks.
“We are also busy preparing for the wedding (Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s union with Elizabeth Macheka) that will be held over the weekend,” he said.
Analysts have since dismissed the economic blueprint saying it relied heavily on western foreign investors most of whom have imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Among other measures, JUICE proposed the following:
“Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of the sort that ensures job creation through genuine capital investment (not fly-by-night speculation or cronyism as has often been the case);
“… increase (in) both FDI and local reinvestment so as to ensure capital formation, a well-functioning financial system with growing savings and credit, and infrastructure development, consistent with ecological restoration and conservation;
“… a friendly business environment conducive to domestic reinvestment, FDI and capital formation.”
Another MDC-T programme called the Jobs, Upliftment, Investment and Participation suffered a still birth with insiders saying the blueprint was hurriedly put together and would be difficult to implement outside Government structures.
This is the third document produced by the party. Tendai Biti, the MDC-T secretary general also came up with another document dubbed RESTART, which was abandoned when they got into power with Zanu-PF in 2008.
Labels: MDC, NELSON CHAMISA, NEOLIBERALISM
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COMMENT - What a bunch of lies. The MDC are liars and traitors.
MDC-T: last mile towards real transformation
09/09/2012 00:00:00
by Nelson Chamisa MP
AS ZIMBABWE saunters towards the demise of the ultimate phase of a hard transition, decisions about an ideal future have long been stored subliminally among the people.
If the political climate guarantees the security of the vote, security of the voter and security after the vote, no patriotic Zimbabwean would vote for the iniquity and wickedness of pre-2009 when hopelessness was pronounced in bone and mind alike.
In 1999, the people’s party of excellence, which is a force for real change and a locomotive for real transformation, was formed by the working people of Zimbabwe as a decisive response to hopelessness, disempowerment and break down of rule of law through sponsored violence.
The working people were responding to a severe decline in incomes, employment, health, food security and general wellbeing of the people. Women and youth were facing encyclopaedic discrimination in public and private life with public services having declined and in some cases collapsed. The absence of a people-framed constitution; weak growth by industries, poor economic policies by government gave birth to the MDC.
The crisis was, as it still is, a crisis of governance. It arises due to a breakdown of a contract with the people characterised by broken promises, betrayed hopes and unfulfilled commitments.
The MDC stands for the supremacy of the nation and its people over partisan and individual interests.
[They stand for the supremacy of Anglo-American De Beers. That's who Morgan Tsvangirai worked for when he was a miner. That is why there is so much money behind the MDC. - MrK]
At the core of the party’s philosophy is the belief in a people’s constitution that recognises the equality of all Zimbabweans. The party of excellence is a pro-poor, labour centric, social democratic and human-centred development party that cherishes political pluralism, citizen participation, and accountable and transparent government. The MDC stands for inclusive politics, smart leadership and a clean and lean government for prosperity.
[Nonsense. Also, they don't stand for transparancy in government (COPAC) or in opposition. They don't stand for telling the truth, like on the existeence and impact of economic sanctions like the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001. - MrK]
For the above reason, the MDC has sought to use democratic means to seek and secure the people’s mandate to deliver an alternative narrative to the banal and hopeless politics and leadership of yesteryear. We have participated in undemocratic, unfree and unfair elections yet won them. Because a revolution has not been possible, an evolution became appropriate, inevitable and necessary.
Ours is an incremental process. Democracy is a process not a finished product, and liberty in all its forms is also forever under refinement. This informs the strategies and tactics employed by the party around the key party congress resolutions of 2006.
Following a successful congress in May 2006, the party adopted the sign posts to peace, democracy, legitimacy, reconstruction and national healing. With hindsight, the whole country is now firmly following the MDC’s proposed roadmap and signposts.
The 2006 MDC roadmap had five stages to a New Zimbabwe. These were:
# Mass protests leading to negotiations
# A transitional mechanism – a government
# An economic reconstruction agenda, national healing and integratic agenda – repealing of POSA and AIPPA, opening up of the airwaves
# Constitutional agenda
# Free and fair elections for a New Zimbabwe
[Free and fair elections? What were the elections that gave Morgan Tsvangirai 48% of the vote in 2008? Stolen? Stolen by whom? - MrK]
To all intents and purposes, we have completed all the other critical stages albeit with imperfections. We are now on stages four and five – the constitution and free and fair elections agenda.
After resoundingly winning elections in March 2008, the transitional government was ushered. Since 2009, the MDC under very extraordinary difficult circumstances has managed to lead differently in government, cause impactful change and restore people’s hope.
Forming the inclusive government was a very painful decision but we had to do so to save the people and stop the bleeding. People were dying of cholera, bread was being bought from South Africa, prices were changing every second and we had no food in the shops. We had a choice between saving the people on one hand and pursuit of political power even if it means walking on dead bodies to State House on the other. We chose the people.
We entered into a political bedroom with our political cousin Zanu PF. Tragically, it is difficult to come out of that bedroom without the body odour of the other.
Through the able leadership of Prime Minister Tsvangirai and the creative government work programme, MDC ministers have largely proved to be connected to people issues, value-centred and principled. The economy is now relatively stable and basic commodities are generally available.
Thanks to the MDC, hospitals were re-opened, schools and universities are back to life, cellphones are now cheaper than tomatoes, newspapers like the NewsDay and Daily News are on the streets. Unfinished bridges were completed, dams are being constructed, tobacco farmers are in good business. Violence has relatively subsided. BEAM and social welfare fund for our war veterans and elderly have been restored.
Much has been done, but a lot more needs doing to fix our country. Better times and seasons lie ahead. We are happy that although we may have borrowed a bad smell temporarily, those whom we serve are happy – that is servant leadership.
On the political front, the MDC has taught Zanu PF politics of competition, alternative politics and leading differently to the greater common good. With the people, the MDC made history by resoundingly disciplining Zanu PF in both the parliamentary and presidential elections of 2008. In parliament, Zanu PF’s indomitability was perforated with the coming in of Lovemore Moyo as Speaker of Parliament from the party of excellence.
Granted, there are still huge challenges in government that require an MDC government to deal with, namely civil servants salaries, disruptions on farms and conservancies, lack of genuine independent TV and radio stations, lack of transparency in diamond mining, shortages of water and electricity, closure of companies, retrenchments, shortage of cash, unconducive business environment and weak infrastructure to mention but a few.
To a greater extent, these challenges are man-made out of omission and commission at the heart of government. Some corrosive policies in government which the MDC disagrees with have held us back. There has been too much heat than light, too much noise than music in the transitional government. There is too much policy noise and conflict in the cockpit. Capital hates noise. Business loves peace – that explains our circumstances.
Granted, the people’s party of excellence is not full of angels. We have had some few bad apples in a basket of a majority of good apples in the various stations of government. Some party deployees were creating social distance and isolation of the party from its base, the people. As a party, we don’t sweep scorpions and snakes under the carpet. We sweep literally and metaphorically! This justifies our noble decisions in Chitungwiza and elsewhere where a few have gone to Niniveh instead of Tarshish in representing people.
Our MPs have largely performed excellently by reporting back and being visible and present in the constituencies. Those that have crossed the line are under the radar in the party.
As the MDC, we believe that the Zimbabwe of today should to all intents and purposes be better than the Zimbabwe of our great grandparents. The Zimbabwe of tomorrow should be the best of them all. We need real change to restore the glitter and glamour of our country. In spite of being raped and abused, Zimbabwe retains her beauty.
Our mission is basic: to right the wrongs of the past, to just injustice and to serve the unserved men and women, boys and girls of our motherland. We are the opposite of suffering, darkness, abuse and marginalisation. We are designed, named and scoped to define and refine real transformation and stir reform making good the promise of a Great Zimbabwe.
On September 29, 2012, the MDC turns 13. The theme for the anniversary is ‘The last mile, towards real transformation’. Indeed, with the people we are completing the last mile in the journey to a New Zimbabwe. People have a clear choice: either hope or fear, prosperity or suffering, boom or doom, the future or the past.
The MDC represents a fresh set of policies and a new tools box of ideas to unlock the maximum best of our country. Through our alternative policies such as the New Zimbabwe blue print Vision 2030 JUICE plan for jobs and economic upliftment and investment and other sectoral policies, Zimbabwe is ready for take off and open for business. It’s 3AM in Zimbabwe, dawn is coming, the sunrise is inevitable and not too far away.
To all those who are unemployed, MDC is the choice. To all those who believe in free press, MDC is your hope. To all those who cherish worshipping God, prosperity and happiness of families, MDC stands with you. For you the farmer, business person and our teachers and nurses, you will shine as the sun rises.
Our heritage is the celebration of difference, a history of suffering and fighting for democracy, a legacy of creating hope and restoring lives. We fight hard because we care deeply and profoundly about our principles, convictions and purposes of servant leadership. Difference will win us the next election. Together we make the difference for real change. Help us achieve it.
Nelson Chamisa is the organising secretary of the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
Labels: MDC, NELSON CHAMISA
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MDC-T losing support, Zanu-PF gaining: Freedom House
This article was written by Our reporter
on 22 August, at 18 : 26 PM
A NEW poll by the United State’s Freedom House shows that support for the Movement for Democratic Change party led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been fading from 2010.
Freedom House is a non-governmental organisation that “supports democratic change, monitors freedom, and advocates for democracy and human rights around the world,” according to its website.
The same poll shows Zanu-PF’s popularity as rising by 14 percentage points during the same period from 17 percent to 31 percent.
The MDC went down 18 percentage points from 38 percent to 20 percent. 47 percent of the people surveyed did not state their preference.
The results were released Wednesday by the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI), sponsored by Freedom House.
The poll also showed President Robert Mugabe as the favorite on 31 percent, up from 12 percent in 2009.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai was on 19 percent, down from 55 percent in 2009.
The MDC factions led by Professor Welshman Ncube and Professor Arthur Mutambara was not mentioned in the poll. Combined, they are still the third party, judging from the poll.
Zimbabwe is set to go to the polls at the end of this year or early next year.
The latest poll results by Freedom House will be a blow to the MDC-T party which dismissed such other poll last year, showing that it was losing support amongst Zimbabweans.
In 2011, the NGO said the support for the MDC-T had dropped sharply from 55 percent to 38 percent – showing a 17 percent decline.
Then MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa, dismissed the survey saying it could not be deemed conclusive arguing “there were many people who did not express their views freely in the exercise”.
This year, Freedom House compiled the figures from a “nationally” representative sample of 2 000 adult Zimbabweans in all the 10 provinces.
Labels: MDC, NELSON CHAMISA, POLLING, ZANU-PF
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South Africa: The gale of a reverse wind of change
Friday, 11 May 2012 22:07
I thought they were thick-skinned. I thought they were courageous. Last week my instalment made a passing reference to the health status of those in the MDC-T aspiring for presidency. No name was mentioned, not a single one. Boy, what a panicky response!
I had touched a raw nerve, in the process exposing deep-seated health-anxieties within the MDC-T hierarchy. I liked a jibe from a contributor on one of the websites: atya chatikwatara ndeane chiturikwa. Translated it means he who fears a thud is one with a poorly hung secret!
Those that live in glass houses
Well, these guys have a lot to worry about, these guys who have strutted about flaunting God-like immortality simply through default, through our polite silence, our courteous silence. They got reckless with this benefit of default, and like the little bird nzo, have challenged their own chi, their own god, to mortal combat. Need they cry if their angry god grabs them by the neck and, in one throw break their delicate frame?
We did not put the issue of personal health of candidates on the national agenda.
They did, foolishly thinking only Robert Mugabe lives in a glassy house. Today, only with preliminary gentle pelting, they are having to walk nimbly on sharp glassy shards — so prickling, so hurtful — all amidst a crackle of breaking walls.
Even the Bible makes it clear: judge not and thou shall not be judged. Now that the issue of fitness is on the agenda, courtesy of the MDC-T, let us talk about it candidly, so we see whose cow gets gored. I am ready. The gloves are off. After all if health is sufficient basis for removing a sitting president, surely it’s sufficient grounds for (dis)qualifying anyone aspiring for the same top post. I promised bold days, and those who know me enough will tell you that is not a commodity ever in deficit here.
Pabasa kachaa!
Luke Tamborinyoka can be a pathetic information officer. In a humorous way too! He vouches for the health of another man whose wassails are a matter of public record! He is bold, very bold. I hope he follows the ricochet. One rule in propaganda is that as you enter a room, quickly check where the exit door is. Silence of defeat is not quite a clever way of handling comebacks you trigger through your own, mindless, unmeasured responses.
Kurikwedu kuSaruwe, ahii pabasa kacha!
He raises the issue of frequency of foreign trips to prove who enjoys better health, the President or the Prime Minister. Hardly a day later, his principal flies out on hard-to-believe grounds. Who believes Luke when he tells us Tsvangirai is in the US to finish off his leave days? Was he not in South Africa on holiday when he got bashed on the leg? Is he not the leader of the party of excellence, of parsimony? Why this profligacy when farmers have no funding for wheat? Why this profligacy when Zimbabwe stares a food deficit, thanks to Biti’s reluctance to fund agriculture? Real hunger starting with his home area Buhera where crops have failed dismally?
Except Luke is lying, letting a lie through his double row of teeth. His man told the President achamboperekedza vana vakachata. Now which is which? Could he be on honeymoon himself, after a lightning engagement a fortnight ago? Is that his marital sequence? Can Luke enlighten us?
Or using Luke’s simple logic that equates going out of the country to the search for medical help, could our man be ill, seeking urgent treatment? And the surreptitious trip to TB Joshua a few moons ago? What was it in aid of? The waters he brought back, waters which got pilfered, subsequently to be replaced by fake raw sewage water from Mukuvisi, still touted as blest, as therapeutic? As I said bolder days lie ahead and the proverbial bright-spotted, vain cheetah, so notorious for wanting to drag and soil other animals in mud, should never plead its bright, beautiful spots when its turn for a drag arrives. Let us make a date.
The one General Chedondo
Courage? Well, ZDF Chief of Staff, Major General Martin Chedondo’s very short address to 3 000 soldiers from 2 Brigade training in Mutoko, has got MDC-T in complete fright. The General has thoroughly fluttered the dovecoat. MDC-T is in utter confusion too, if one measured them by their disjointed response.
First to react was young Chamisa. He grew up in Manyame Airbase and is thus under no illusions about what generals are capable of. I will not refer to a high adrenaline encounter he had a few years back with the same, at a State function, an encounter that dramatically renewed and updated his understanding of these men in army fatigues, once they decide to swing into action.
In his reaction, Chamisa kept firmly on the path of cajolery, the safest under the circumstances, the shrewdest by his personal experiences which he will never want repeated. There will be no retribution, opined the frightened Chamisa, apparently more assuring himself than the addressees and audience he does not have, he never will have. He discounted any retribution on men in uniform, a placatory promise predicated on a never-never MDC-T power grab. When that will be, young Chamisa will never say, except to wear an obligatory optimism he must flaunt as the party’s organising secretary.
So this was a bit of a personal monologue by a little boy seeking to reassure himself against what he mortally fears. Sleep, sleep baby mine! So went some little lullaby Rhodesian books taught us to sing under colonial education.
When a mere major pecks on a general
Next to speak was Mutseyekwa who stands for MDC security, whatever that means. With him, the tact changes to one of impotent bellicosity and sheer subterfuge. He suggested division between the command and the army rank and file. He also impugns General Chedondo, suggesting the General is poorly trained. Ordinary soldiers from Mutoko were phoning him, he claimed to utter self-disbelief, phoning him to assure him they did not share in the General’s views! So what is the furore about, the heavy editorials which the MDC-T has been inspiring on the same matter?
But there is a more humorous turn to Mutseyekwa’s outburst on Chedondo, and his deriding his level of training. Mutseyekwa was a mere major in the Rhodesian army. He dares talk about the qualifications of generalship he would never have attained, whether under Rhodesia and in integrated Zimbabwe. What does he know about what goes towards making a good general, he who cannot even remember that Walls, his own general in the Rhodesian days, made bellicose political statements in defence of the RF.
Still Mutseyekwa served Rhodesia loyally, diligently like a well-cooked Askari, against his own interest as a Blackman, indeed against the interests of his own race and people. Was he speaking from a residual Rhodesian standpoint, speaking so stridently to prove to Bennett — his senior in the Rhodesian army — that he has not been Zanunised? Askaris always live in the dilemma of seeking ingratiation.
Which reminds of humorous moments during his short tenure as Home Affairs Minister in the inclusive Government. Legend has it that when he came for his maiden security briefing chaired by the President, one of the generals forced him to salute, as does a well trained soldier who is mindful of rank and place. He trimmed up and obliged, we are told! I hope he will not be summoned for this one! Aa-ah tight!
Unhinging the MDC-T
[Tracey Mutinhiri]
Tracey Mutinhiri
Something in the MDC-T is unhinged, and you see it in their desperate propaganda claims. Take the issue of Tracy Mutinhiri, the former Zanu-PF Deputy Secretary for the Commissariat in the Women’s League, who was expelled from the party way back last year. A few days ago, we woke up to screaming headlines proclaiming Tracy’s “defection”, Tracy’s “crossing the floor”.
My goodness! Poor English or propaganda desperation? How does a person who was expelled from a party ever defect from the same party that expelled her? Or cross the floor, itself a legal fiction by way of our electoral laws here?
But someone in the MDC-T had the brains to pick up the absurdity. Soon after the propaganda horse had “been” bolted through sheer unthinking recklessness habitual to some short man in their propaganda camp, Chamisa had to weigh in, hoping to stitch up the damage. No, he corrected, Tracy had in fact joined the MDC-T soon after her expulsion from Zanu-PF. Still that was not correct, strictly. She had joined the MDC-T well before, which is what triggered her expulsion from the revolutionary party in the first place.
Or a related propaganda story on gay rights, the constitution and Aippa. How many of us noticed that this was a Timba recycle? Running the same stupid propaganda line but hoping for ever more wonderful results. Kikikikikikikkkiii!
By the way, did anyone see the jab on Tsvangirai from the opposition sibling, the MDC-N? That he is the son-in-law of Zanu-PF, in fact a Zanu-PF project? Hahahaha! Now that we found love what are we gonna do? With it?
Wrapping a pilgrimage in deceit
Then you have the TB Joshua saga. It has collapsed, has it not? Clumsily too! The initial strategy as to present TB Joshua as an itinerant bishop coming to Zimbabwe of his own spiritual accord. The strategy was to get Government to cleanse the visit, itself replete with political objectives.
But the MDC-T was outed and its first reflex was unthinking denial. The party stoutly denied TB Joshua was a guest of the Prime Minister, much as the world knew this whole matter had been handled by the Makones, the very same characters who had got Tsvangirai to see the prophet in his homeland of Nigeria. Today they forget they once denied TB Joshua was coming at the invitation of the MDC-T leader. When the Sunday Mail indicated TB Joshua would not be allowed in, they had no choice but to own up.
Well, if the visit was clean, was genuine, why wrap a holy man’s mission in deceitful claims? Why? Well, the bottom line is the authorities now know whose man TB Joshua is and I bet my last dollar, it is the Prime Minister, not the bishop, who shall pay a healing visit. And what a breathtaking lack of tact!
The bishop announces he is headed for a “troubled Southern African nation”. Zimbabwe? My foot. He should not tempt me to say undiplomatic things. Nigeria is a great African country. That does not make TB Joshua a great African bishop. About that we are very clear. After all, the Nigerian State stays clear of the man and his “holy” ways. Cameroon will none of him. Here at home, we shall see more of such hare-brained political initiatives as we move towards elections.
[TB Joshua]
TB Joshua
In the meantime, another headache is about to begin, the one to do with the draft constitution which looks set to be rejected, rejected in toto.
Upping national defences
The EU and their illegal sanctions, well, that is their problem which until recently has been our problem too, what with our supine response to those sanctions. Not any more. There are several irons in the fire, all of them red hot. We have tongs for cherry picking the hottest and our moment appears to have come.
Given our coveted resources, given the historically entrenched Western interests in our country, Zimbabwe’s interaction with the West shall continue to be shaped by adversarial factors. We want to assert our sovereignty; Europe wants to neo-colonise us. The beauty about the phase we are about to enter into, that of a long drawn out altercation with Europe is that it builds a certain national capacity that allows us to enforce our rights globally, enforce them against competing claims from the master race. We need that capacity, we need it badly as we move into the future.
I notice the EU relented once it became clear our sanctioned section of the media was about to launch a legal challenge to that unilateral constraint. The same way the EU relented when Guy Georgias, our Deputy Minister, took them on. No self-respecting nation survives on whimsical goodwill of the powerful. Real nations enforce their interests, defend them vigorously, including through confrontation. Any settlement with Europe at this juncture blunts conditions for the growth of Zimbabwe’s tools for self-defence, denies it a whetstone for sharpening its tools, its defences. After all we had hit the bottom and thus could not fall anymore.
Only our fingers for a spoon
But it looks like Europe is set for some rapprochement. What I refuse flatly to accept is any invitation for us to be grateful for any settlement. That amounts to showing gratitude for the repair of an injury we unjustly suffered, an injury we never consented to. The sanctions remain unjust, illegal and spiteful. They were never deserved, they will never be deserved. Those that invited them remain evil characters of treachery, shall remain so always, including on pages of history which condemn them. That they have been part of the negotiations for their removal should never salve their consciences, if any conscience they have.
The tragedy for this county would be for us, in the event of removal of sanctions, to rush headlong for more enthralling relations with Europe, such as we cultivated after Independence, all in the foolish hope of endless, all-time goodwill. History warns us against any hopes or illusions for a gainful relationship with that continent. Our experiences with Europe in history have been devilish. So why feed the devil when you have only your fingers for a spoon?
One white judge, one white law.
Judge Hans Fabricius of the North Gauteng High Court thinks the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) and its dutiful pretext, Gabriel Shumba’s Zimbabwean Exiles Forum, should be granted their wish to force the South African government to investigate allegations of so-called atrocities committed in the run-up to the 2007/8 elections in Zimbabwe.
For the sake of you, dear reader, the SALC is exactly the same creature which took up the case of Rhodesian farmers ejected from our land, to the Sadc Tribunal in Namibia.
It is a legal arm for the enforcement and protection of white rights in post-colonial, post-apartheid Southern Africa. It is transnational in scope and agenda, itself an indication that white interests remain not just virile but in greater subregional solidarity as they seek to perpetuate their hold in the region.
Mistakenly thinking they were a bona fide human rights group for the enforcement of colour-free rights, we entertained them as a region, until they started threatening all Sadc states. Only then did Sadc take a firm position in Windhoek, but even then after stupendous damage had been done. Now that same centre has upped the ante and is challenging Sadc at the continental AU level, hoping the AU, itself Africa’s instrument for decolonisation, can paradoxically sanctify the return to the same evil epoch.
All white on the rainbow
Let us put things in context. To gain locus standi, the SALC needed some grouping of black bodies, however threadbare, however flimsy. It got that in the dutiful Zimbabwean Exiles Forum. It needed white prosecutors in South Africa’s multiracial legal system, much of it still stalked by the bane of a long apartheid. It got that by way of one Advocate Ackerman of South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority who through his own conscientious resignation, did much to damage and weaken the South African government case. It needed top notch white advocates to take up its case, and got that by way of the highly paid team of international lawyers who included Wim Trengove SC, Gilbert Marcus SC and University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Max du Plessis. Christopher Carl Gevers from the same university advised on international aspects of the case. It needed a white judge and hey, those come in industrial quantities in post-apartheid South Africa. With all those factors in place, the stage was firmly set for a predetermined outcome such as we had in the end.
The political-economy of the judgment
I have no time for the details of the case which the gentle reader can easily get on SALC website. I am fascinated by the political economy of the case, of the judgment, and what all that portends for southern Africa. One of the dire implications of this whole case I have already alluded to, but without explicitly giving you the full import.
Dislodged or threatened white rights are on the rebound and southern Africa’s black states are being phlegmatic in response. These white rights are operating transnationally, and are busy building legal precedents for battles ahead, while taking care of challenges on hand. And Zimbabwe is that challenge on hand. With the political template for nipping Zimbabwe’s viral affirmative politics having collapsed, a new, juridical phase has now kicked in. And the body of law in use is international law, with the real challenge being how to dock this law in the domestic laws of the region.
That is the foremost significance of the SALC case. It is richly jurisprudential and judge Fabricius has his eye on timeless fame, on a lofty status for white posterity. The case seeks domestic legal grounding for the enforcement of an international statute, something enabled by the fact that South Africa ratified the ICC protocols. It seeks to overcome limitations arising from Zimbabwe’s non-ratification of the same protocols by making them binding on Zimbabwe indirectly via a third country, in this case South Africa.
Trans-race legal givenness
And when both points are taken together, the case is the first serious white attempt at directing affairs of two States which used to protect white interests under white settler rule, under apartheid, using one instrument. You run arms of those lost States through legal compulsions cooked outside of State structures, that is the hope. That way you compel through the courts the same protection and enforcement of white interests in post-colonial black times. Or where this fails, strain inter-state relations between black governments enough to weaken liberation-time solidarity, indeed to create enough troubled waters in which white interests can fish and flourish with ease.
It is quite interesting that while SALC was notching victory in South Africa, Rhodesia’s white commentators here were telling the media that white mining interests here are playing a waiting game hoping a new government will emerge in post-electoral Zimbabwe, a government which, hopefully, will be less committed to indigenisation.
So there is a real risk that shots for post-settler, post-apartheid inter-state agenda in Southern Africa shall be called from white courts, using both Namibia and South Africa as springboards, using our so-called human rights as pretexts.
The real white interest is not the Rome Statutes, important though these are to establishing precedent. The real interest of white Southern Africa are those multilateral agreements protecting commercial property and interests, but which for obvious reasons of race, may be impolitic to pursue in the present regional climate. So why not set the stage through groundwork litigation that appears to show across-race legal givenness?
White-to-white continuum
Otherwise the judgment itself is of no consequence at all. The court, the judge, the judgment are South African, are in South Africa. They remain there, unable to cross the Limpopo to reach this sovereign country where the super white man finds no special plinth. I notice South Africa is quite aware of what is cooking, and is set to challenge that judgment. It should, and one wishes them every success in that endeavour. But they should not lose the larger picture. Far more threatening to the black South African state is this show of undiminished white legal power in post-apartheid South Africa.
The Ackerman resignation has clearly indicated white prosecutors will always desert post, leaving the State in the lurch. We had lots of that just after independence. Equally, the Fabricius judgment, as with many other judgments which include that of the Rhodesian Hilary Squire, clearly show that white judges pursue white law to safeguard white interests. This white-to-white-to white continuum will continue to shape post-apartheid South Africa the way it did Zimbabwe until 2000, when Zimbabwe finally collected enough guts to tackle the white Bench.
I was much more than a spectator when the Zanu-PF government finally woke up to that urgent need. South Africa will have to decide on its own that it has slept enough, been hurt enough, to begin to take decisions. That is a sovereignty question and we have no business intruding on that matter. But it is our responsibility as Zimbabwe to make sure that when that reverse wind of change blows in our direction, we are well defended.
Icho!
* nathaniel.manheru@zimpapers.co.zw
Labels: MDC, NELSON CHAMISA, SOUTH AFRICA
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MDC-T denies Biti-Chamisa rift claims
23/04/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
THE MDC-T has dismissed as “malicious and unfounded” reports the party has been rocked by a bitter power struggle pitting secretary general, Tendai Biti against organising secretary, Nelson Chamisa.
A report in the Sunday Mail claimed that divisions within the party came to a head during a heated standing committee meeting where deputy national spokesperson and Bulawayo East MP Tabitha Khumalo blasted the alleged rivalry between Biti and Chamisa.
Khumalo allegedly said the bitter rivalry between factions aligned to the pair was undermining the MDC-T ahead crucial elections likely to be held this year adding MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s “management style was (also) killing the party”.
But in a statement Monday the MDC-T dismissed the report as yet another desperate attempt at a hatchet job by the state media on behalf of Zanu PF adding Khumalo was not a member of the party’s national standing committee and has never attended any of its meetings.
“We restate that there are no power struggles in the MDC … (the party) remains one happy, united family focused on bringing real change,” the party said.
“We are aware that sources of these defamatory stories are not in the MDC, but at the ministry of Media, Information and Publicity where a senior civil servant has chosen to abandon his public service duties to devote time to undermine the MDC.
“The MDC’s position is that these doomsday cults and authors of disorder in Zanu PF will not stop the national project of bringing real change to the people of Zimbabwe.”
Despite speculation that he is keen on Tsvangirai’s job, Biti was last Thursday quite effusive in his praise of the MDC-T leader during a lecture presented at the Atlantic Council, a think tank and public policy group based in Washington, US.
Biti said Tsvangirai’s “connectivity with the people” was one of the reason the MDC-T would “win (the next) election decisively”.
“… In Morgan Tsvangirai we have got a leader who is essentially the face of the struggle, the face of change in Zimbabwe. He’s clearly the undisputed – undisputable leader of the change struggle in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Labels: MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NELSON CHAMISA
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Indigenisation: Tsvangirai on the wrong side of history
By Psychology Maziwisa
Last updated on: April 11, 2012
FOR almost every political party there comes a very unfortunate moment after which things are never quite the same again. As for Zanu PF, that moment came when it failed to properly tackle the economic challenges of the early 2000s; for Zapu it was the irresponsible decision by Dumiso Dabengwa to pull out of the Unity Accord.
A great possibility now exists that
history will judge the events of the past week- namely Morgan Tsvangirai’s continued vilification of Zanu PF’s indigenisation and economic empowerment policy and the looming visit to America for celebrations of Zimbabwe’s Independence Day by Nelson Chamisa and Theresa Makone – as the undoing of the MDC-T.
First, let’s take the indigenisation and economic empowerment policy. Last Thursday, as on many other occasions preceding it, Tsvangirai belittled Minister Saviour Kasukuwere’s bold and long over-due statement on indigenisation, describing it as meaningless and unworthy of recognition.
That would have been a fair assessment if Minister Kasukuwere was fighting an unjust cause or if he was acting outside the law or if his motives were selfish rather than genuine. Quite the contrary, Kasukuwere has proven himself to be a man of integrity, an upholder of the law who has absolutely nothing but love for this country. In my view, he deserves everyone’s trust and confidence. Yet he is the very man Tsvangirai has criticised and condemned at nearly every corner.
This sort of behaviour from the Prime Minister is hurtful, perhaps even unforgivable, but, in truth, it is hardly new. It is part of Tsvangirai’s well established tendency of sucking up to the West.
For instance, he has regurgitated the nonsense that, like the land reform, the indigenisation drive is good only in principle and not in practice. He has even gone so far as to emulate his sponsors in making the ridiculous accusation that the policy is a looting exercise meant merely to benefit a few individuals.
Not only is this grossly sycophantic, it is palpably untrue. The indigenisation policy in its present form does not make provision for individual businessmen or people to benefit.
If Tsvangirai was a man of integrity, which quite evidently he is not, he would know by now that the structure and form of our empowerment policy is such that only communities, employees and groups such as the youth, the elderly, the disabled and women can benefit.
He would also be aware of the fact that over and above these beneficiaries, there will soon be a National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund whose main thrust will be to broaden the beneficiation process to include national areas like infrastructural development and the provision of basic services like clean water and sanitation.
It’s quite clear that Tsvangirai’s claims are just smear tactics intended partly to appease his handlers, partly to forestall much-needed development in this country and partly to cover up for his party’s lack of ideas.
Because he is without policies of his own, ideas that can resonate with the once disadvantaged people of Zimbabwe, he has resorted to a campaign of ridicule and smear and to being the voice of opposition. This tired tactic may have worked in 2008 but, hell, it will not work in 2012.
If Tsvangirai and his now discredited party want to be taken seriously, they need to put an urgent stop to this outmoded strategy.
Now let’s turn to Nelson Chamisa and Theresa Makone. In Zimbabwe we have long regarded Independence Day as embodying the true spirit of what it really means to be Zimbabwean. Every year we celebrate this day on the 18th April and this year’s celebrations are barely a week away.
As far as this important national day goes, MDC-T officials are notorious for treating it with disdain and very little patriotism. Chamisa and Makone are about to provide the most shameful example.
In the coming days, the pair will travel to the United States of America to celebrate this year’s Independence Day there. If this turns out to be the case (God forbid), then it will be a huge disaster for Zimbabwe.
Throughout its 12 years of existence, the MDC-T has been known to be dependent on foreign ideas, foreign funding, foreign friends and even foreign ideologies. Part of this reprehensible culture came about because some of MDC-T’s original members were chiefly of foreign origin. And so a sense of internationalism was entrenched – at times knowingly, sometimes subconsciously.
To a degree it became normal, even acceptable, for MDC-T officials to have friends in foreign nations. It was expected that now and again a working visit might be necessary. But to celebrate Zimbabwe Independence in America?
If anything else, this should be a cause for great national embarrassment. Over the years I have noticed very little sense that the MDC-T is an independent, proud, patriotic and genuinely Zimbabwean party with values and ideas of its own. Instead of striving to be their own men, they have taken to praising the West like ecstatic teenagers surrounding a pop star.
This is ridiculous and somebody has got to put a stop to this. If Zimbabweans give a damn about their nation, they will not for a moment longer tolerate this kind of unpatriotic behaviour from Chamisa, himself a useless politician who has been showered with a lot more praise than his mediocre performance in government justifies, and Makone, a problematic politician within the MDC-T ranks who should know better as our interior Minister.
The notion that the party of Chamisa and Makone can hereafter lead this country in any capacity whatsoever is preposterous. In fact, should Chamisa and Makone proceed with their disloyal plans, both should do the honourable thing and resign immediately upon return. If for some reason they are unwilling or unable to do so of their own accord, they should be made to give up their jobs in government under compulsion.
If we fail to insist on this, we will have failed this great nation and future generations will look back and wonder why nothing was done about this sickening act of treachery- possibly the most disgusting in the history of this country.
They will ask why Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede and all the other relevant authorities did not nullify Chamisa and Makone’s entitlement to Zimbabwean citizenship. They will ask what ghosts, what evil spirits blinded us from seeing Chamisa and Makone in their true light. And then none of us will be able to explain the inexplicable.
Labels: INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NELSON CHAMISA, SAVIOUR KASUKUWERE, THERESA MAKONE
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Chamisa, Makone set for UK rally
29/02/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
MDC-T organising secretary and Information Technology Minister Nelson Chamisa arrives in England on Thursday ahead of a weekend rally which the party says is aimed at “refocusing” its external structures in preparation for elections.
Chamisa, his deputy Abednico Bhebhe, the party’s women’s assembly chair and Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone, youth leaders Costa Machingauta and Promise Mkhwananzi, Mkoba MP Amos Chibaya and Harare Central MP Murisi Zvizai will attend the rally in Birmingham on Saturday.
An estimated 600,000 Zimbabweans moved to the United Kingdom over the last decade, and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party sees the exiles as an important constituency, although they are denied a vote under current laws which President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF is reluctant to reform.
Speaking to New Zimbabwe.com ahead of the trip, Chamisa – who took up the position at the party’s congress in May – said they intended to use the meeting to brief exiles about the state of play in the coalition government; moves to draw up a new constitution and elections which could be held within a year.
The delegation from Zimbabwe will meet with the party’s external assembly council on Saturday morning followed by a rally which will open to the public. Chamisa will also speak at a fund-raising dinner later in the evening.
He said: “This trip is intended to reenergise, refocus, revitalise and repackage our party to deliver ultimate victory when election time comes.
“There have been a lot of developments in the country and we would like to engage with Zimbabweans around the issues of democratic reforms, the constitution and the elections, so that they feel they are part of the national discourse. It's their country too."
The rally will take place between 2PM and 6PM on Saturday at the Ladywood Arts and Leisure Centre in Birmingham [B16 8TR]. The fund-raising dinner [8PM-11PM] costs £30 per head and attendance is by registration. For further information call Grey Samakande on 07805925038 or Victor Karonga on 07403128801
Labels: MDC, NELSON CHAMISA, THERESA MAKONE
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WikiLeaks: Near punch-up at MDC-T NEC
12/10/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
A KEY MDC-T meeting exploded in angry recriminations over the WikiLeaks saga on Wednesday. Nelson Chamisa, the MDC-T’s organising secretary, stormed out of a national executive committee meeting in Harare, prompting party leader Morgan Tsvangirai to step in after a furious row over the party’s handling of the leaked United States cables.
After breaking the meeting for tea, Tsvangirai took charge when it reconvened and ordered the debate about action to be taken against officials named in the United States cables closed, sources told New Zimbabwe.com.
The Prime Minister also reminded his party that Wednesday was October 12 – the sixth anniversary of a damaging split that rocked the party after long-simmering disputes over policy.
“This is not a good day,” a source quoted Tsvangirai as telling the closed door meeting of the party’s top-decision making body outside congress.
A statement issued at the end of the meeting said: “With regards to the recent WikiLeaks publications, the party restates its resolution of the 10th of December 2010 and noted that the same were WikiLies, unsubstantiated hearsay and would not cause commotion or division in the party.”
Sources said the fuse was lit after the party had gone through the agenda and members were asked to raise issues for discussion under ‘any other business’.
Nkulumane legislator Thamsanqa Mahlangu, sources said, expressed disquiet with the December 10 decision to ignore WikiLeaks revelations.
“Burying things under the carpet is not a solution,” a source quoted him as telling the meeting.
But Tsvangirai shot down his motion, insisting that the party had taken a firm position on the matter and no purpose was served by revisiting the discussion.
Morgan Femai, the party’s former provincial chairman for Harare, is said to have stepped in and asked the NEC to rubberstamp the province’s decision to suspend its spokesman and Deputy Justice Minister Obert Gutu, also over comments attributed to him in the cables.
Secretary general Tendai Biti, sources say, told the meeting that Gutu’s suspension was a nullity as the provincial party had no legal grounds to take that step.
But this intervention only incensed some party officials who were seeking stronger action against officials including Biti, Gutu, treasurer Roy Bennett and Chamisa who are all revealed in the diplomatic cables to be critical of Tsvangirai and his advisers.
“Soon, you had Chamisa and Charlton Hwende on one end and the agitators including Femai and Mahlangu at the other locked in a raucous row. In the exchanges, Femai told Chamisa and Hwende that they could be dead by the morning, declaring that ‘ndichakutumira mheni’ [I will get you struck by lightning],” a source revealed.
An angry Chamisa is said to have declared that the Femai camp’s behaviour was “alien to the values of the MDC”, before storming out.
Shortly after, Tsvangirai called for a tea break and told the warring parties to calm down.
MDC sources say the clashes were a “hangover” from the congress held earlier this year at which Mahlangu, Lucia Matibenga, Elias Mudzuri and Femai lost in elections for senior party posts. Tsvangirai later co-opted them into the NEC out of mercy.
But the WikiLeaks saga had given these officials a window to claw back some of their influence in the party as they were hoping to cast the officials named in the cables as “sell-outs” whom Tsvangirai must not trust.
In the end, Gutu’s purported suspension was lifted and the party closed the debate over the US cables.
Meanwhile, Tsvangirai came under fire at the same meeting over his decision to rescind his appointment of Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister without informing the exiled former Chimanimani MP.
Tsvangirai named Seiso Moyo in Bennett’s place on Tuesday, it turns out without informing Bennett who failed to take his place in the cabinet after President Robert Mugabe refused to swear him in. Bennett is on self-imposed exile in South Africa.
The snub fuelled speculation within the party, expressed on Wednesday, that the move had been taken because of Bennett’s devastating appraisal of Tsvangirai in the cables.
Bennett was quoted as telling American diplomats that Tsvangirai was being manipulated by Econet boss Strive Masiyiwa, and that “Tsvangirai does what the last person tells him to do”.
Labels: MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NEC, NELSON CHAMISA, ROY BENNETT, WIKILEAKS
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