By Jonathan Maphenduka
The recent Supreme Court ruling that Nelson Chamisa’s
leadership of the MDC Alliance is illegitimate because his appointment
infringed the founding constitution of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC-T) has thrown the opposition groups into a legal dilemma which, however,
will be ignored to further the aims of the Alliance.
Following the court ruling, which empowered Thokozani Khupe
to call an elective congress in not later than four months, Khupe’s
announcement has been greeted with — at best — indifference and, at worst, a
rebuff. When asked last week whether the Alliance would work with the MDC-T
leader to facilitate the holding of the congress, Alliance spokesperson
Nkululeko Sibanda said the Alliance leader was too busy working to prevent the
threat of the coronavirus, otherwise known as Covid-19, to comment.
This was taken to mean that Chamisa was too busy working
with those who are paying his rent, the church, to comment. In other words, the
Alliance leader is not interested in the proposed congress. This is in line
with a statement, which was issued soon after the court ruling that nothing had
changed. The Alliance legal advisor Thabani Mpofu continues to accuse the court
of misdirecting itself in this regard.
This has the potential of ridiculing the law by a political
party that (supposedly) subscribes to the rule of law.
This poses a serious dilemma for a party, which is clearly
in breach of its founding ethos, raising the question as to whether the
Alliance believes in the rule of law. Chamisa is surrounded by a bunch of
high-profile lawyers whose philosophy of the rule law when (it appears) has
been shown to be nothing, but political opportunism, which is not anathema to
them. Their belief in the principle of the rule of law is, therefore, called to
question.
These are a group of people whose loyalty to Chamisa is
questionable and (it appears) they are hanging on because (hopefully) one day
Chamisa will dole out to them positions of power. Some of them are known to
despise him, but are forced to tolerate him because of the probability that one
day effective power will land on his laps to benefit them. They, if you like,
don’t give a damn about his leadership.
Even more worrying is the Alliance’s pandering to a foreign
power, which quickly announced its support for Chamisa following the court
ruling. If one looks beyond our borders, dictatorships like Egypt are backed
and funded by this superpower. Egypt is a military junta, which supports rebels
in Libya against the Tripoli government that is recognised by the United
Nations.
Egypt has picked a quarrel with Ethiopia over the
construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Nile River, on Ethiopia’s own
territory. Recently the African Union assigned South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa
to mediate, but Egypt unilaterally referred the dispute to a foreign
superpower. The move by Egypt ignored international protocols, which protect
riparian rights of every nation that contributes a share of water to a common
basin.
When Kariba was built, arrangements were made, which
enabled Mozambique to continue receiving adequate volumes of water to be able
generate power. The same arrangements should have been made for Egypt, but
Egypt instead chose to involve a foreign power in a matter which is domestic to
Africa.
It appears that the MDC Alliance has ambitions to expose
this country to the whims of a foreign power to reduce the country to the
status of a proxy state. If you are a proponent of democracy, you must make it
your business and concern to be the first to practice democracy. Just now some
allied world power are the least qualified to preach democracy. This is the
dilemma with which those African states that look up to such foreign powers for
their democratic ambitions are faced with the agonising reality of duplicity
which is justified in the name of democracy.
For those of us who believe in true democracy, this
duplicity is extremely agonising and disappointing. This is naught for our
comfort. The MDC Alliance is engaged in a sinister game of duplicity, which
must be condemned.
l Jonathan Maphenduka can be contacted on 0772 332 404. Standard
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