Dear Editor | The Zimbabwean politics has witnessed far too many splits in one election season and if we get another one we may be in trouble. We do not know whether Khupe has broken out of MDC or Chamisa is the one that has broken away, but either way the MDC has already split. And the worst part is that there are tribal lines involved. It would be quite unfortunate if the MDC Alliance was to split which under the current circumstances seems very likely.
It would appear Nero together with Ncube and Biti are strategically sidelining other MDC Alliance partners, possibly even to drop them off the Alliance. The development was first noticed in Plumtree where only Welshman Ncube, Tendai Biti and Chamisa were the only principals given the opportunity to address the people even though all the seven Alliance principals were present. The trend which was initially thought to have been due to the bad weather in Plumtree was noticed again in the Alliance rallies that were held over the weekend in Midlands. Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube and Nelson Chamisa were the only principals to address the crowds in both the rallies in Midlands, an act which seem more like a deliberate attempt by the former ‘MDC’ leaders to sideline the other MDC Alliance partners.
Already the three Musketeers, i.e. Nero, Biti and Ncube have appointed themselves the heads of the Alliance despite the fact that originally the Alliance was to be headed by a principals forum chaired by the Alliance presidential candidate. The forum was to treat each partner equally so as to avoid cheap politics which may shutter the Alliance agreement and defeat the whole purpose of the Alliance. Tsvangirai realised this and was very cautious in his leadership of the Alliance. But with the visibly immature Nero the story is different.
In an public interview with journalists after the MDC Alliance Rally held in Gweru at Mkoba stadium on Sunday, the MDC Alliance spokesperson professor Welshman Ncube said “the original vision behind the formation of the Alliance was to reunite the split elements of the original MDC namely the MDC T now led by Chamisa, the MDC led by myself and PDP led by Tendai Biti. This is why Mr Tsvangirai engaged us in the Alliance talks first before any other party was invited for the talks. Mr Tsvangirai’s vision was to recreate and reunite the original MDC.” This would help explain why the Alliance is called the ‘MDC’ Alliance despite the suggestions by the other Alliance partners to have a more neutral and accommodative name. The name issue was also part of the reasons why Mai Mujuru refused to become part of the Alliance. The utterance by Welshman Ncube coupled with the sidelining of other alliance partners which is fast becoming a norm might be an indication that sooner or later the other four alliance partners could be dropped from the MDC Alliance.
Prof Welshman Ncube in his capacity as the MDC Alliance spokesperson yesterday addressing journalists after the MDC Alliance Rally in Gweru said that the Alliance agreement does not provide for the position of the Vice president. “However, the order and manner in which speeches are delivered at the Alliance rallies should tell you what the power hierarchy is like in the Alliance,” said Professor Ncube. In all the Alliance rallies that have been held this year, Biti followed by Ncube ending with Chamisa has been the structure of speech delivery. Quoting from Ncube’s speech, he is the deputy president of the opposition grouping.The other partners are allocated a mere 3 to 5 minutes each to speak to the people but that ‘privilege’ has since been revoked since none of them were allowed to speak in the last three rallies. At best, the other Alliance principals are only being allowed to greet the people while the three self-proclaimed leaders enjoy the lion’s share of the rally programs.
If Nero would look into the very near histroy, he would realise that it was the very same trait of sidelining other political players which eventually led to the demise of the National Electoral Reforms Agenda (NERA). The same trait of sidelining other political players was witnessed last year under NERA a few weeks before its demise. It led to a division which formed the two main coalitions in the opposition parties of Zimbabwe namely the MDC Alliance then led by Morgan Tsvangirai and the People’s Rainbow Coalition led by Joice Mujuru.
The MDC Alliance was formed in August last year with the aim of minimising vote splitting within the Zimbabwean opposition and to maximise the chances of defeating ZANU PF in this year’s elections. Seven political parties signed the agreement namely MDC-T, MDC, TZ, PDP, MCD, ZANU Ndonga and Zim PF.
By parliamentary represenation, MDC T is obviously the biggest opposition political party in the Alliance followed by MDC led by Welshman Ncube. The other parties do not have any parliamentary representation with Tendai Biti being the only other principal who has been in government before. However Tendai Biti was reportedly fired from his own political party last year in September. PDP is reportedly currently being led by one Mr Matibenga and claims not to be part of the MDC Alliance which makes Tendai Biti just a name with no ground force.
The rest of the Alliance partners are relatively new political parties formed after 2013, with Jacob Ngarivhume’s TZ being the only party to have participated in an election besides MDC-T and MDC. The party participated in the 2015 by-elections and came out second in most of the constituencies after Zanu PF, surpassing the performance of big names and older political parties like Lovemore Madhuku’s NCA and Simba Makoni’s MKD even though the party was barely a year old by that time. How much ground it has covered now and how much effect it could have on the opposition vote if it contested outside of the Alliance remains a mistrey.
As for Mutambara’s Zim Pf and Guchutu’s MCD, their performance and impact in an election is yet to be seen as this year’s election will be their first.
It would be quite unfortunate if the vision president Tsvangirai laboured to fulfill would fail to be achieved because of the ego of just a few. Since 2000, MDC has failed to win power. Yes, in 2007 it won the elections, but even so it still failed to get the power. Having a handful of ‘supa’ drunk unemployed fools chanting your name at a rally doesn’t win an election. Nero needs to remember that he had the same hype in the MDC itself before being thoroughly defeated by Mwonzora at the MDC congress. The boy knows this and that is why he grabbed power by a soft coup soon after MTs death and has since been refusing to hold a Congress.
Rume rimwe harikombi churu. Two heads are better than one. The new alliance leader needs to be a point of convergence where people of different opinions can converge upon, not to be a tool of division. The boy needs to become an icon whose vision unites not just the Alliance or MDC T, but also the nation at large after the election period. Unfortunately wherever the boy has lead, division has followed. Berely a month after become MDC president MDC T has split and now the Alliance seems to be up next.
It is my sincere hope and am sure of every sane Zimbabwean that we won’t have to suffer that fate. As the Alliance slogan goes, Together we are Stronger.