MDC Alliance principals have welcomed the idea of
transforming the loose electoral coalition into a political party going forward
in order to build a formidable opposition against President Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF.
Zimbabwe has had more than 100 political parties, but the
majority have remained insignificant and without basic support to pose a threat
to the ruling party, save for the mainstream
MDC-T then led by the late former premier, Morgan
Tsvangirai.
This came after Nelson Chamisa’s MDC-T met in Harare on
Wednesday and upheld the decision to morph into a party.
In separate interviews yesterday, leaders of the seven
parties in the MDC Alliance indicated that they were willing to unite and have
a single party.
MDC leader Welshman Ncube, who is also alliance
spokesperson, said the issue was not about former MDC-T members re-joining the
Chamisa-led party, but the integration of the whole alliance in the party.
“It is unfortunate that whoever prepared the statement
after the MDC national council meeting misrepresented the whole issue. It is not about former MDC members, it is about all
alliance partners,” Ncube said.
“The correct sequence of events was that all the MDC
Alliance principals met before the MDC council meeting and unanimously agreed
to integrate. All the seven political parties committed themselves to
integrate.
“The MDC council meeting was simply considering the
position of the principals of the MDC Alliance.”
The MDC Alliance, which comprises MDC-T, People’s
Democratic Party (PDP), Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF), Multiracial Christian
Democrats (MCD), MDC, Zanu Ndonga and Transform Zimbabwe (TZ), was launched
August 5, 2017 for purposes of the just-ended harmonised election.
Tendai Biti’s PDP said it was ready to the part of the
arrangement. “We are in total agreement in word and deed,” spokesperson
Jacob Mafume said.
“We are one unit with one leader since the election. We have won a huge victory for the people, which we need to
reclaim together. We cannot pretend to be separate when we are one.”
TZ leader Jacob Ngarivhume said his executive would meet
next week to deliberate on the issue.
“Our executive will decide. We are meeting as an executive to map the way forward,” he
said.
ZimPF leader Agrippa Mutambara said there were many
advantages to unity and said even though he was in total agreement with it, he
would refer the issue to his executive to decide.
“We worked together during the election period as an
alliance and we stood together even though we lost the Constitutional Court
challenge.
I think the alliance was something very good and it is my
belief that we must solidify ourselves and explore and develop it further,”
Mutambara said.
“We haven’t agreed as yet, but we are considering it and
there are many advantages to that, but we still have to take it to the party.”
Zanu Ndonga leader Aaron Sakuinje said the alliance was
formed to stay forever and he believed that making it a one grand party would
best serve the purpose, while MCD special presidential adviser Sabastian
Mubvumbi said they were in agreement and would like a technical team to be set
up to guide the whole process up to congress. Newsday
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