By Nqaba Matshazi
In the aftermath of the 2013 elections, then MDC-T leader
Morgan Tsvangirai cried foul, claimed the polls were rigged and threatened to go
to the Constitutional Court with a dossier to prove he had been robbed.
He pulled out of the court action at the last minute and,
instead, said he was not going to participate in any further elections until
the government implemented political reforms.
A number of by-elections were held, where Zanu PF
consolidated its power following the MDC-T boycott, but still no reforms were
forthcoming. Then, we wondered what the strategy was.
The MDC-T was unclear on what the next step would be if
Zanu PF ignored its calls for reforms. My thinking was that beyond sulking, the
MDC-T had no clear strategy and if Zanu PF ignored the opposition party, there
was no fallback plan.
If ever there was a Plan B, the party and its leaders
failed to communicate it and in the end, I am convinced that there was never a
fallback plan.
Fast forward to 2018 and the party was once again crying
foul, accusing Zanu PF of all manner of chicanery in the election that year.
The principal players had changed. Tsvangirai had been
succeeded by Nelson Chamisa, while President Emmerson Mnangagwa had taken over
from his predecessor,
Robert Mugabe, following a putsch a year earlier, but the
script remained the same.
The MDC promised demonstrations against Mnangagwa and his
government to force them to the negotiating table.
The protests were supposed to begin on August 16 in Harare,
followed by Bulawayo, Gweru, Masvingo and Mutare.
In Harare, the police waited until the last minute before
barring the demonstration under a disingenuous plan that the protest would turn
violent.
The MDC’s first misstep was to approach the High Court to
set aside the police prohibition order, with the case being dismissed on a
technicality.
A number of people gathered for the protests and the police
predictably responded with disproportionate force.
The MDC leadership has come under fire for not being at the
forefront, but I believe this is a non-issue, as Chamisa’s critics will clutch
at anything to pull him down.
But on the day, for me, the MDC failed to provide
leadership on what happens next in the aftermath of the police prohibition
order, because it was now clear that the State was always going to respond in this manner
and the opposition party would be left with the short-end of the stick.
The following Sunday, the police again issued a prohibition
order, this time for the Bulawayo protest and this time around, the MDC went to
the Magistrates’
Courts.
In quite curious circumstances, the magistrate hearing the
case postponed delivering a ruling until 4pm, a time when the MDC
demonstration, if it had been allowed, should have had to be winding down.
When the ruling came, the magistrate unsurprisingly agreed
with the police and the protest remained banned.
At this point, it had become quite obvious that this
pattern would repeat itself in Gweru, Masvingo and Mutare, where the MDC
planned to hold similar protests
and I hope I am not expecting much to say this is when Plan
B was supposed to kick in.
If there was no Plan B, then this was the time to retreat
to the proverbial drawing board and re-plan their strategies.
Instead, the MDC tried to get the Gweru prohibition ban
lifted; it failed: The Masvingo one; it failed and by the time it got to
Mutare, besides themselves and the police, nobody really cared because everyone was now
resigned to fate that the magistrates in each centre would rule in favour of
the law enforcement
agencies.
I am not advocating for the MDC to break the law, but it
was clear that this strategy was floundering and time was nigh to look for an
alternative one.
The party’s most faithful supporters will argue that the
leaders have a plan and will not embark on such a strategy with a Plan B. But
from where I stand, it does not look like the MDC had a fallback plan.
If they have a plan, then it is not properly communicated,
and that is likely to lead to frustration for its members, who have seen
protests — a legitimate avenue to express one’s self — being blocked.
It is as if we are back to the Tsvangirai era, where the
party employed the “no reforms, no elections” strategy, whose goals were as
clear as mud and where there was no fallback plan.
At this rate, I fear the MDC risks being overtaken by
events, where they will be bystanders or at least cheering from the sidelines,
just as they did during the 2017 coup.
As with 2017, there was palpable frustration with the way
the country was governed, and the nation was desperate for any alternative.
That alternative presented itself in the form of a coup,
which Zimbabweans were happy to cheer because they were desperate for change.
Desperation is creeping in again. As the economy crashes,
Zimbabweans will once again follow whoever is offering them hope, even if it is
not the MDC.
The MDC needs to get its act together and, as I said
previously, set clear targets and goals, while also spelling out what will
happen if one plan goes awry.
Just as with the demonstrations that supported the coup,
the stick that Zanu PF dangled was that they would allow demonstrators to march
to Mugabe’s “Blue
Roof” residence if he refused to resign.
Right now, it is unclear to me what the MDC will do if
Mnangagwa refuses to play ball, or maybe they are prepared to sulk and hope
anything or anyone provides
a spark from which they will be beneficiaries. Newsday
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