A fortnight ago, the Supreme Court ruled that Nelson
Chamisa was an illegitimate leader of the MDC, paving the way for his rival
Thokozani Khupe to return as the interim leader of the party pending an
extraordinary congress within three months.
Judges ruled that late MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
violated the party’s constitution by appointing Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri as
vice-presidents alongside Khupe, who was elected at a congress.
The judgement saw senior MDC officials Douglas Mwonzora and
Morgan Komichi jumping into Khupe’s corner while other party officials rejected
the ruling, saying it was biased.
Mudzuri (EEM), who had not ditched Chamisa in the aftermath
of the ruling, yesterday told Standard acting news editor Everson Mushava that
he accepted the ruling.
The former minister responded to allegations that he was
eyeing Chamisa’s position. Below are excerpts from the interview.
EM: Yourself and Chamisa’s appointments as vice-presidents
by the late Tsvangirai were declared illegal by the Supreme Court. What is your
comment on those developments?
EEM: I accept the ruling and as a party we have to face it
for the purposes of uniting the party mainly because of various reasons amongst
which are, first, as a social democratic party, we are bound by the rule of law,
constitutionalism, democracy and respect for institutions.
We have no other option, but to accept the outcome of court
processes.
Secondly, MDC is an institution that is respected and as
the largest opposition political party poised to replace Zanu PF, we must
respect our founding principles and values and also observe international best
practices governing progressive democratic institutions.
Thirdly, the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land
outside constitutional issues and has made a landmark ruling in a case pitting
the party against an ordinary member seeking redress on what he believed had
been a denial of his democratic right to elect a leader of his own choice.
As a grassroots-based party, we respect feedback on our
decisions from the ordinary members.
Finally, I also acknowledge as pointed out in the
judgement, that as a party, we did not get proper advice on certain
constitutional processes that needed to be followed in choosing a successor to
our late icon Dr Morgan Tsvangirai (may his soul rest in peace).
EM: What role do you suggest the MDC Alliance partners play
in light of the court outcome, which excludes them from the MDC extraordinary
congress processes?
EEM: Alliance partners are important because we had an
electoral pact, which guided us during the 2018 harmonised elections.
According to our Alliance agreement of the loose coalition
of seven political parties, we are independent of each other.
Each party had its agreed allocation of seats and is in
charge of its own deployees in Parliament and local government.
While they have no direct role to play in the processes
ordered by the courts, we must engage them as important stakeholders, who we
still value in the spirit of the “big tent” concept.
If they are willing to join the MDC, I think they must be
welcome into the party.
EM: What then do you suggest as the way forward?
EEM: I am aware that there have been expressions of
opposing views, trading of nasty words, accusations and counter accusations,
anger and frustrations, but I think we need to sober up, sit down together and
face the reality of the judgement and its far-reaching implications to the
well-being of the party.
The starting point is to accept that we erred in the manner
in which we handled the succession and transformation matrixes of the party.
We need to acknowledge that this succession wrangle
threatens to tear the party apart.
It creates the best opportunity for the leadership of the
MDC to pause and avert a possible bruising split that will not benefit anyone
except our opponents.
We must get into the 2023 harmonised elections as a united
family with one objective of taking over power from Zanu PF so as to change the
fortunes of Zimbabwe.
We must not betray the people of Zimbabwe who in the more
than two decades have invested so much into this project of change for a better
Zimbabwe.
EM: And finally, are you going to join the race and contest
for the presidency at the extraordinary congress?
EEM: As I explained earlier, this is not about
personalities or individual egos and ambitions.
It is about doing what is right, correcting our mistakes
and moving forward as a united family and confront our opponents. Leaders come
from the people, they don’t self-appoint.
If the people believe I have what it takes to move the
party forward, I will gladly accept the noble responsibility.
I will not, however, lead a divided party. Standard
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