“Roman 12 v15 Rejoice with those who are rejoicing and moan with those moaning.”
By Mari Matutu | While we all have the opportunity to say all the bad things about what Madam Khupe did from the time Dr Tsvangirai was still alive till today, I feel for a moment I share her grief.
When President Tsvangirai died she organised her own party and got elected president. The whole structure was filled up. Deputy president was Obert Gutu.
She went into elections 2018 using her party name MDC T and contested for presidency. That she got 45k votes is not the point. The point is she got a share of her effort from what she worked for.
To date many people singing SC ruling, SC ruling do not realise that the case was never about MDC T. Whether one want to call it MDC Tsvangirai or MDC Thokozani. The whole case was not about the name MDC T. It was about a party formed in 1999 called MDC.
From 1999 to the time of his death , president Tsvangirai never held a congress of MDC T. It was always congress of members of MDC. There was never a congress resolution to change party name to MDC T.
The first person to hold a congress of MDC T was Thokozani Khupe. One can safely say she is the owner of MDC T.
Now greedy and vengeance caught up with her. She never approached the courts for relief when she was expelled from MDC. She knew she contested as MDC T against MDC A. She also knew by contesting election as MDC T she would have expelled herself from MDC.
She was recalled from parliament on the then MDC T ticket, but never approached the courts.
MDC held its congress and she never bothered attending it. She carried on with her own affairs. Now after Mwonzora lost seat in 2019 congress he pretended to remember her.
Khupe was already content that the term Tsvangirai was suppose to serve is finished. She just had to move on with her newly found party.
She was then promised so many things. When she failed to call for the EOC in the first stipulated 3 months she should have ceased to be the Acting president.
Instead they pushed her on. As if Mwonzora was interested in Thoko he continued calling her Acting president. He organised an illegal seat in parliament for her.
He knew it is illegal for Khupe and whole crew that contested 2018 election under MDC T to then come and be appointed MPs under MDC A. He knew that no court will ever rule in favour of that.
Why then did Mwonzora went on to drag Khupe into this? It is because Dr Tsvangirai signed an Alliance agreement under the party name MDC T. To Mwonzora this became a currency. After failing to get the presidency in 2019 congress elections, Mwonzora hatched another plan. The first exercise was to grab the name MDC T which was now being used by Khupe.
Foolishly Khupe accepted the gesture. She saw the help and support given by the state. All of a sudden money from MDC A started to come her way. She forgot that the seat she was promised was temporary.
Some are saying Zanu prefers Khupe over Mwonzora. For what? They tried her and she failed to break MDC. Now Mwomzora has brought a strategy of thwarting MDC A of its money and taking away its seats, they cannot at all give it away.
Now that Mwonzora has grabbed the name MDC T he want to pursue the Alliance Agreement as if its MDC T party represented by Dr Tsvangirai. Now he is conflating the MDC in SC to MDC T in Alliance Agreement . This confusion leaves Khupe not able to claim back MDC T and silence on MDC party in SC.
She has already enjoyed the fruits of devil.
Mwonzora has got all what he wanted.
A High Court Judgement is going to come soon on recalled MPs. I do not want to pretend to be a prophet but here is the truth of what is going to come.
All the MPs that were recalled for belonging to MDC A are going to win their case. Khupe is going to be removed from parliament because she was MDC T of her own and not MDC in court.
MDC A is going to be declared an Alliance of parties. Then Mwonzora will say he replaced Dr Tsvangirai as Principal of MDC T in Alliance agreement. Call it any how, the party that is before Court is MDC but the party Tsvangirai used is MDC T. As it stand Zanu wants to destroy MDC A. They will create all sots of stories that will make Mwonzora a tool to break MDC A. Khupe will revert back to her two seats in parliament.
The next argument we are facing is ownership of MDC A. The judgement on recalled MPs is being cooked to match this.
All Khupe gave was the ladder for what Matemadanda told us all long time.
If you do not brace up for the storm coming then do not cry when it sweeps you away.
I wish my leaders have courage to tell the world what is in the SC. Small things that they ignore will matter. SC was for MDC and not MDC T or MDCA. The trick is on article 9.1.3 The President shall in general act as
spokesperson of the Party on major policy issues and is the custodian of the Party name, logo and symbol. The President shall be the principal public representative of the Party, provided that nothing in this section shall be construed as empowering the President to act or do anything contrary to the Party’s principles of open, transparent and democratic decision making.
He wants to use this clause to conflate MDC T in Alliance agreement and the MDC in SC and say since Tsvangirai was the president he was the custodian of the party name and party symbol so when he said MDC T he was referring to MDC in Court. Since he has already silenced Khupe from claiming the name MDC T and having an easy congress, it would appear as if we went into election 2018 as two factions of “MDC T”.
Khupe is going to be washed away by the courts. The courts will just say it was unlawful for Khupe to be in parliament under the MDC A ticket.
Since the Court have already ruled that MDC A is not a legal persona Mwonzora want to use the legal persona of MDC now branded MDC T to claim rights in MDC A.
That is why we see all the harassment of Biti and Mafume. Mwonzora has since said Ncube’s MDC was dissolved. Once that stand he has claim of MDC A.
The strength of his matter is not on merits but on who is going to challenge him and the regime.
While Chamisa won the MDC presidency in 2019 and SC took judiciary notice of it he has refused to call himself MDC in court but preferred MDC A. He will be held by the nose when president of MDC T claims ownership of name MDC A. Apparently MDC A was formed by 7 parties and MDC T owns the seats in parliament. His claim is on the name MDC A using MDC T which he got fraudulently by SC ruling of MDC. No one will stand to defend MDC A as long as people remain silent to the fact that SC was not about MDC T but MDC. If a congress has elected an MDC T president then its not complying with SC ruling.
That is why National elections were put on hold after zanu found out that Chamisa’s image was part of MDC A logo and MDC T had already filed nomination papers under MDC T name in proportional representatives.
In order to reverse the wrong course they put elections on halt. Let Khupe enter parliament illegally. Knowing well there shall be court case.
Let the court wash Khupe away after Mwonzora who is MP on MDC A ticket has held the post of presidency.
Since MDC A has spend 9 months now telling the world they are MDC A and not MDC it will be easy to cheat the world because Chamisa is said to be president of MDC A yet MDC A is alliance of 7 parties. Campaign material shall be put to propel the notion that MDC A is owned by MDC T and others.
It may not be a tight excuse but remember all zanu pf wants is an excuse.
When the judges rules that Khupe was illegally in parliament zanu will say the courts are independent.
When they take the next move you cannot complain.
What then is the solution.
Before this happen and before the court has announced the verdicts MDC must come out on the following issues
1) SC was about a party known as MDC and not MDC T which Mwonzora has won presidency.
2) The SC took judiciary notice of the political reality that Nelson Chamisa was unanimously elected president of MDC in 2019 and the Court said it is an inescapable fact.
3) The Court ordered the holding of an EOC in order to elect a president of MDC in replacement of Dr Tsvangirai. As Dr Tsvangirai was not a permanent president in MDC his term expired in 2019 and at a congress of MDC party, all posts of leadership were dissolved. The congress dissolves all the acting posts for the dead and resigned. By 30 March 2020 the need to replace Dr Tsvangirai had since passed on. The 2019 congress elected president was not a replacement of anyone but a president taking a seat from a dissolved term. What ever Mr Mwonzora could have won is just like winning a
Rhodesian penny. It used to be money but not any more.
4) The MDC party must immediately channel all their resources and propaganda on telling the world that Chamisa won the presidency of MDC and SC already confirmed it.
5) Tell the world they are MDC by incorporation and MDC A by electoral act.
6) Tell the world all they know is MDC T belongs to Thokozani Khupe. She is the first congress elected president of MDC T. Tsvangirai never got elected as MDC T president. The constitution lodged in SC proves so. The evidence before SC proves that Khupe has a party called MDC T and she has moved on.
7) Tell the world that the criminal Mwonzora abused a woman Khupe to get a ladder to grab the people’s effort.
8) Ask Mwonzora this questions, “Where you elected president of MDC or MDC T? Was the SC ruling about MDC or MDCT? Is Harvest owned by MDCT or MDC? Was MDC T in Alliance agreement a legal persona or not?”
9) These are crucial issues the party must address
Please today must be the starting point of our fight .