AFTER years of engaging in futile internal wars, MDC leaders now appear ready to ditch their suicidal factional battles and work together in the interest of the party, the Daily News reports.
Yesterday, the party’s interim leadership led by Thokozani
Khupe held a hastily-arranged meeting of its standing committee in Harare,
which officials said was meant to clear the ground for re-unification talks
with the Nelson Chamisa group.
A slight complication of any such talks is that these would
have to accommodate MDC Alliance vice presidents Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti
— who joined the coalition when it was launched by the late and much-loved
Morgan Tsvangirai in August 2017.
This comes after party youths seized the MDC’s iconic
national headquarters in Harare, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (MRT) House, in a
desperate bid to force dialogue between Khupe and Chamisa.
The two have been involved in a vicious tussle for the
control of the country’s largest opposition party ever since the revered
Tsvangirai succumbed to cancer of the colon on Valentine’s Day in 2018.
MDC youth assembly chairperson for Harare, Paul Gorekore —
who led the takeover of MRT House — told the Daily News yesterday that they
were determined to achieve dialogue between Khupe and Chamisa.
“The standing committee, which is here today (yesterday),
will be attended by the MDC leadership, and from that meeting we expect them to
come up with a resolution to redirect the engagement process … but the fact is
that we are really desperate for unity.
“We are trying by all means to push our leaders to find
each other, sit down and solve their differences, which we believe can be
resolved amicably.
“When I talk about leaders, I am referring to those who
held various positions when President Morgan Tsvangirai died in 2018,” Gorekore
told the Daily News.
“According to what we agreed as the youths, the leaders
must follow the constitution. So, when they say they have suspended or expelled
so and so, the procedure must be followed to the extent that the decisions must
be ratified by the national executive committee and the national council.
“So, the leaders have not been expelled yet until those
organs of the party have met. If they endorse that, or do not, then that will
be the final decision,” he added.
Gorekore was apparently referring to the sacking of Chamisa
from the 2014 structures by Khupe, as well as the many recalls of legislators
and councillors around the country — which other members of the Khupe team such
as organising secretary Abedinico Bhebe have strongly objected to.
On his part, MDC chairperson Morgen Komichi said he would
only comment after yesterday’s crucial meeting.
“There is an emergency standing committee meeting today
(yesterday) where all those issues, including the fate of the expelled leaders,
will be discussed. So, a statement will be released afterwards,” Komichi told
the Daily News.
This comes as MDC youths seized MRT House on Monday, amid
chaotic scenes — before vowing to force dialogue between Khupe and Chamisa.
In addition to commandeering the building, the discontented
youths said their desperate action was meant to save the party from collapsing,
as their leaders’ mindless bloodletting continued to escalate.
The move came as political analysts warned at the weekend
that the ugly infighting had now taken the once formidable party to the brink
of political oblivion.
Addressing the media, former MP for Highfield West
Happymore “Bvondo” Chidziva said bluntly that youths from the party’s current
two main factions had had enough of their leaders’ brawling.
“We have decided to go back to the 2014 structures and
start working together without apportioning factions to each other.
“From there, we want all processes done properly — starting
with the meeting of the national standing committee, national executive and the
national council.
“We are sick and tired of the factional fights and for the
past 21 years the youths have suffered the most. Some died along the way and we
have realised that we have reached a point where the name MDC was about to be
buried,” Chidziva told journalists outside MRT House.
“We, therefore, want to have the past mistakes resolved
like the Supreme Court directed and from there we come back and work as the
MDC-Alliance in peace.
“The MDC-T is a component of the Alliance, but there were mistakes
which need to be resolved by electing Tsvangirai’s successor. The leaders must
find each other. That is the only thing we must do. We are past that time when
we labelled each other Zanu PF,” Chidziva, who was youth leader in the 2014
structures, further told journalists.
“I have been engaging leaders in the party and we agree
that Khupe is the acting president, with Morgen Komichi as the chairperson and
Douglas Mwonzora as the secretary-general, while Lynnette Karenyi-Kore heads
the women’s’ assembly in that order, so that we close all space for Zanu PF.
“The MDC-Alliance will still exist because it was started
by Tsvangirai. So, it is only about the MDC-T component sorting its own
things,” Chidziva added.
On his part, Gorekore said then that they had taken over
the symbolic party headquarters to unite the leadership and save the party from
being hijacked by Zanu PF.
“Individuals have been making unconstitutional and illegal
decisions without the mandate of the Zimbabwean voters, party organs from
branches, wards, districts, provinces, the national executive and national
council organs — which have not met since the Supreme Court judgment.
“The party has been infiltrated by sell-outs with an agenda
to derail our freedom. It, therefore, follows that we must act to unite our
leadership, our support base and Zimbabweans at large, and ensure the vision of
Dr Morgan Tsvangirai MDC founding president, Morgan Tsvangirai Tsvangirai lives
on across generations,” Gorekore said.
“As the first line of defence of the party, the vanguards
of democracy and the custodians of the party and its future, we have assumed
all security duties of the party HQ, MRT House.
“This was necessitated by our realisation on the need to
unite the people in the fight for a better Zimbabwe and defend the civilian
space in the face of military state capture.
“We as the youths of the party as per 2014 structures, we
have decided to go beyond our differences and unite to resolve the current
crisis,” Gorekore said further.
This comes as the Daily News has reported on the MDC’s
senseless brawls consistently, fairly and accurately over the past two years —
calling out the futility of the anarchy.
At the weekend, political analysts also warned that the
party’s futile infighting was driving the MDC to its death bed.
They also repeated their other warnings that the divided
opposition would find it exceedingly difficult to compete with Zanu PF in the
fast-approaching 2023 national elections.
The MDC has been ravaged by its futile ructions since
Tsvangirai died from colon cancer in February 2018.
The infighting went a notch up after the Supreme Court
judgment earlier this year which upheld last year’s ruling by the High Court
that nullified Chamisa’s ascendancy to the leadership of the party. Daily News
0 comments:
Post a Comment