EXPULSIONS AND DEMOTIONS IN MDC-T: SOMETHING FUNDAMENTALLY WRONG WITH THE TSVANGIRAYI NARRATIVE: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA

EXPULSIONS AND DEMOTIONS IN MDC-T: SOMETHING FUNDAMENTALLY WRONG WITH THE TSVANGIRAYI NARRATIVE: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA

Interim ZAPU leader Dumiso Dabengwa recently said Prime Minister Tsvangirai is the same as President Robert Mugabe: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-2751-PM+no+better+than+Mugabe+Dabengwa/news.aspx

Well from the MDC-T perspective this seems to be a good thing. They cannot deny that because senior MDC-T officials said of President Mugabe at the start of the Inclusive Government: “We misunderstood him”. To me that statement is a resounding endorsement of President Mugabe and the policies of his government including Gukurahundi; violent farm invasions, the arbitrary arrests of MDC members and social justice campaigners including Morgan Tsvangirai himself. It also means there is no incentive for the MDC to try and reign in perpetrators of atrocities and human rights abuses. According to MDC-T all those people understood President Robert Mugabe before them and therefore they cannot be punished for being enlightened earlier on. The fact that their own enlightenment was slow in coming actually makes their “punishment” by those like Comrade Chinotimba who were quick to understand President Mugabe , a good wake-up call and therefore all those people we thought were committing crimes were actually working for a right cause by trying to make the ignorant understand a man they wrongfully misunderstood.

Enough of that, and to the cabinet reshuffle! I am not going to challenge the Prime Minister’s right to appoint. Well, that is his role and surely I have said again and again that in a true democracy there can never be room for revolutionary aristocracy. People cannot keep their jobs even when they are underperforming, just because of who they are and what they did in the past. I believe the reasons for the demotions or sackings were purely meritocratic rather than to try and settle scores.

But I am writing about the Prime Minister’s role in the party. For the fourth time I seem to be hearing that the President of MDC-T has the right to designate party officials into roles. To put it into perspective when the “debacle” with Tendai Biti was referred to the party’s National Executive Committee it was later reported that Tsvangirai as the President of the Party had decided to take some of the responsibilities of Biti as Secretary General because it seemed there was too much in Biti’s plate. And Fidelis Mhashu, Elias Mudzuri and Thamsanqa Mahlangu were all dropped so that they strengthened the party. I am not so sure if I am the only one not understanding this. Maybe I am losing it: “Sai, Moyo,Tate Dewa? Mandla, muisana!”

For whatever it is Tsvangirai in his role as the President of MDC-T cannot designate Fidelis Mhashu to go and sort out Chitungwiza, no, where does he get those powers? And Tsvangirai cannot command Elias Mudzuri, an elected official of the party to do a duty in that capacity. In the case of Chitungwiza or any province the National Executive Council should act through a report of the National Chairman and the National Organising Secretary and empower Mudzuri or any other official to sort out things there. It cannot come from one individual. Biti’s “wings cannot be clipped” by Tsangirai. The office of the Secretary General is supposed to be constitutional and elected and the duties are provided for in their party’s constitution. If Morgan Tsvangirai as a member of the party is not happy with the powers that the post of Secretary General has then he has to air his views at the National Congress as it is the National Congress that has the powers to amend the constitution and change the roles of post-holders. The fact that the President of the party is being allowed to reappoint and redefine roles that only a properly constituted congress can do flies in the face of transparency and must call every interested person to question the seriousness of MDC-T as a political party willing to bring change to the politics of Zimbabwe. If those powers are some of the prerogatives Morgan Tsvangirai now has in MDC-T then there simply is no political party to talk of. MDC-T will therefore be a project; just like Mavambo was, in support of an individual and that individual is acting independently.

That brings me to the issue I have always talked of and which makes me really uncomfortable on my political allegiances. The name of the party; MDC-Tsvangirayi: to what extent does it affect the whole project? I think it does because in essence members of MDC-Tsvangirayi are acting for the good of Tsvangirayi. They exist because of him because he is the organisation. Most will find it uncomfortable and say but the names Movement for Democratic Change mean that the project is not personalised but a party. I beg to differ and I do so strongly. Morgan Tsvangirayi does not even need to put the name Morgan to the name to make MDC-Tsvangirayi a purely Tsvangirai thing even where the names Movement for Democratic Change are present. He can claim the letters MDC as his own initials and no-one can deny it if he says he has three names Movement Democratic and Change. Then his identity will be Mr Movement Democratic Change Tsvangirai with Tsvangirai as the surname and the other three as the first names. We have people with such names in Africa isn’t it? MDC-Tsvangirayi is slowly showing its character; it has become a person’s project and Morgan Tsvangirai has the right to hire and fire personnel in a party that is called after him. It is his movement; his foundation marketing his own principles and those who are voted into power through the name MDC-T exist in those positions because of him. They have to advance his whims.

It is sad though that because of expediency a lot of people in the ranks of MDC-T are failing to challenge that. Morgan Tsvangirai has done a lot for Zimbabwe. He has done a lot for democracy, accountability and transparency. To leave him fall into disgrace in our eyes is not being responsible. Someone must tell him that the path he is travelling is wrong. A political party or movement exists for the nation, not for a family. It is a national project and that must be followed. Its constitution is its body of ethics and must be adhered to. Membership is its pillar; they have to be respected and the leaders they choose must exist in the roles they were given and only them, through their congress, must recall them or disenfranchise them. The name Tsvangirai has become historic, it is a Zimbabwean identity in its own right, but it can choose to be a good or bad Zimbabwean identity. If Tsvangirai falls from grace we will all be complicit and all of those who were his colleagues will be identified as the hyprocrites who criticised ZANU PF and went on to do the same things. Someone must tell him that the party can never be called after him, it is too old to be done now. Power corrupts but we must make sure that it does not corrupt one of us this openly. The President must lead the party not interfere with the democratic process by unconstitutionally reassigning what other elected officials should do. He has the potential to be a good leader we can all be proud of, we are collectively responsible for his failure!!

JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07529705413