UNIFICATION OF THE MDC "AN UPHILL" TASK!

Zimbabwe: One candidate for MDC is an uphill task. Who will take it?

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BY TRUST MATSILELE!



But a divided movement in which freedom fighters fight amongst themselves cannot win over any substantial section of the population. Only a united movement can successfully undertake the task of uniting the country, this is an extract from the former South African president Nelson Mandela's Reflections in Prison page 15.

WHEN I read this I said for sure this is the kind of struggle which Zimbabweans should engage in, a struggle were all progressive forces set aside their selfish agenda and put a cause for a liberated Zimbabwe ahead as a way of ensuring that the present repressive and illegitimate government leave office as of yesterday. This is a principle the Nelson Mandela’s generation incorporated and eventually made the apartheid regime history by fighting arms akimbo with the association of Indian Communities.

In September 2005, a squabble within the vibrant opposition MDC left a loophole and a huge opportunity for ruling ZANU PF to maximise its rigging and divide and rule tactics. Tensions became rampant within opposition supporters as they were left in a dilemma of choosing which faction to stand with and in the process the ZANU PF has managed to rig the senates elections and all by-elections held under such suspicions.

A lot of stories have been circulated to the cause of the split though not the focus in this presentation. The MDC Mutambara’s Mkwananzi in less than a month addressing Zimbabweans in South Africa said MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai asked the MDC leadership to go for an in-house elections to determine whether to go for senates elections or not and the vote would decide the course of action. When Tsvangirai who was vying for a protest of the elections lost, took his jacket and left the Harvest House (MDC offices in Harare).

On the other side the Secretary General of the MDC Mutambara Welshman Ncube is alleged to have been the man fighting against going for elections and on the last minute Ncube said the party would go for elections, then divisions emerged with others saying Ncube was bribed by the ZANU PF to go for elections whilst some saying Tsvangirai’s dictatorship had caused
these divisions.

Now Zimbabweans are faced with another election in less than 11 months. ZANU PF has already chose its candidate or imposed a candidate upon in the name of Robert Mugabe now (83) who has ruled and ruined the country in the past 27 years with many even wishing that things would have been better if Ian Douglas Smith had continued as president as problems persist. Reports of rigging are reported to have already started, Zimonline published an article saying teachers were sent forms to fill their political affiliation and to me it is a way of preparing for another massive rig were all teachers who will fill ZANU PF as their party which highly likely to happen as teachers in the past been attacked by National Youth Militia and ZANU PF for allegedly supporting MDC

As I write this article the government has withheld releasing of inflation figures, pegged at 2200% by April 2007.Unemployment is above 80% and if one loses the job chances of getting another job in Zimbabwe are zero. This has made the public even more dependent on its repressive government which made the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union planned strike a huge flop.

The MDC as agreed in the Save Zimbabwe campaign banner are to chose a candidate in less than few months to fight it with Mugabe. The veteran leader defeated Tsvangirai in the 2002’s most disputed elections, though the candidate has not been named it is alleged the MDC Tsvangirai has already cleared the air by saying Morgan will be the candidate. The MDC Mutambara wants conditions set which a candidate who will only meet conditions fill the post.


This is an election were the two MDC factions should unite. By the end of this week I will be receiving feedback from the MDC Mutambara’s faction from its South African branch as to who they propose should be the candidate. Nqabitho Dube the information officer has confirmed this development.

Tribalism is one of those key issues which is rocking the MDC supporters since the split some have been made to hate Morgan more than the way they hate Mugabe. The same applies to Ncube. The most surprising thing is that Welshman Ncube’s name has been spoken of a lot more than the way Tsvangirai’s name has been spoken about. This is one of the challenges facing such a candidate in waiting to unite the party and defeat Mugabe next year who has been
defeated before but won through his arch rigging expert Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar General.

The two MDC factions have agreed that they will not go for elections next year until a new democratic constitution is in place to ensure a level ground. Two days ago one of the online news organisation quoted Emmerson Mnangagwa as saying the MDC had been given three conditions to adhere to as preconditions for talks by the South African president Thabo Mbeki who is mediating the talks under SADC’s commands during his temporary chairmanship of the house of Assembly. The conditions are:

1) MDC should acknowledge that Mugabe is the legitimate president of Zimbabwe
2) MDC should acknowledge that Mugabe won the 2002 elections
3) MDC should denounce violence

And Mugabe's condition is to bring sanity back in Zimbabwe in both economy and politics. Efforts to get confirmation from Mbeki’s office were unfruitful.

If the conditions are to be taken as serious, not as a mere ZANU PF propaganda message of pre-empting dialogue impending, Mbeki’s efforts are almost futile as the MDC can never deceive its constituency which elected it in power by saying Mugabe won the 2002 elections were hundreds were abducted and some killed. Some of the cases are still pending to date in the High Court hence accepting those conditions will mean the appeals will be withdrawn and sanctions given to Mugabe for cheating in elections will be null hence declaring Mugabe persona no grata.

This is another litmus test for the MDC strength and survival in Zimbabwean politics; challenges are in choosing one candidate, uniting the votes, protesting elections if a new constitution is not in place and last resisting Mugabe’s bribery tactics-meaning eliminating all opportunists who would want to sacrifice the cause of the struggle for their individual constituencies.

Above all Mandela’s message remains that a divided movement in which freedom fighters fight amongst themselves cannot win over any substantial section of the population. Only a united movement can successfully undertake the task of uniting the country.