SPLIT OF MDC IS A HEALTHY THING PARTICULARLY IF TSVANGIRAI GOES

There is talk of a rift within the MDC-T leadership that could slip the party. Great news, if you ask me. There is a lot of dead wood in MDC-T and a root and branch purge is what the party needed to go forward lean, strong and focused.

When Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments he found some of the people worshiping idols. He did not fudge the unit the Children of Israel by allowing those who wanted to worship the false gods do so. He would have violated the very first Commandment; what was there to stop rubbishing the rest! Moses had the vision and strength of character to let idol worshipers go their way and the nation was purged..

We are obsessed about quantity when should be obsessed about quality. Mugabe can boost about having a united party, he has kept Zanu together ever since it broke away Zapu. Indeed he can even boost of bringing- after his own murderous fashion- the two parties again in 1987. He obvious thought it a very great and significant achievement; there is now a national holiday to celebrate the signing of the Zanu PF and PF Zapu Unity Accords. And until a few weeks ago the two parties have remained united.

But united over what? As it turned out; over the death and destruction of the country, of course!

Zimbabwe’s economy is in the sewage gutter because for years the nation has pursued economic policies that simply defy common sense. What kind of nation would spend the little the nation has left buying luxuries for a few ruling elite when children are dying for lack of the most basic drugs. In Zimbabwe it is not just the political thugs who intimidate and murder innocent civilians for political gain; the Police, Army and other State Security Agents are the ones leading and directing the charge. We are a nation with a moral compass that does NOT point North!

Of course there were Zimbabweans, ordinary people and people in positions of power and authority, with the common sense to see the nation was be led to economic ruin and the morals be horrified at the wholesale spilling of innocent blood. They all said and did nothing.

Over the years Zanu PF cabinet has had some of Zimbabwe’s best intellectuals, the late Edson Zvobgo, the late Bernard Chidzero Simba Makoni to name but a few. Yet they were all gagged into silence for fear of disrupting the party’s unity – which translates to fear of Mugabe. Margret Dongo, after years of grovelling to Mugabe and getting nowhere, denounced the rest of the Zanu PF leaders as Mugabe’s “wives”. She was stating the obvious, but she will be remembered for that for generations!

MDC has been drifting listlessly and committing one blunder after another ever since the party was launched nearly ten years ago now. It was at this formative stage that the party had to be careful.

The Forum Party, remember it? I was involved at the very inception of the Forum. The idea was to have a lose formation that would promote debate; later, much later a political party can be formed. The lose formation will give people the opportunity to know each other and to the individual’s abilities. Unfortunately that did not happen; the party was launched pre-maturely and the rest is history.

The Forum had the great misfortune of having a group of individuals who had just been kicked out of ZUM, they were like chickens that had been out in the rain and were desperate for shelter. They wanted a political party, yesterday. They to bring the party idea through the front door it was slammed shut in their faces. They tried the back door, the windows, and the chimney; all to no avail. Judging from the mud in their faces, they dug a tunnel.

Once in, they ZUM group moved quickly to launch the Forum Party. They promised to bring in hundreds of thousands of supporters, who never materialised. What they really wanted is to be elected into party positions, which some of us had guessed. And once in, they were like ticks, it was near impossible to remove them.

MDC has more than its fair share of dead wood. Indeed some of them have migrated from Zanu PF, PF Zapu, ANC, ZUM, Forum Party; they have everywhere. The temptation of forming MDC around ZCTU was obvious enough- the party will tape into the Union’s membership start away. The price the new party had to pay was being saddled with the ZCTU leadership.

Face it the ZCTU has always been one of those national organisations with great potential but has always never achieved anything. Remember the Worker’s Day of the 1980s parades followed by been the long speeches full of sound and fury. Tsvangirai then was a Socialist and would have been offended to be referred to anything else other than Comrade. Thank God all that has since been quietly dropped but sadly the mediocrity was to remain.

Tsvangirai and his “Kitchen Cabinet” have failed to unseat Mugabe in spite the country’s economic meltdown. On the economic front MDC have had a field day and yet the party is all over the place; they do not seem to know the front from the back.

On the political front, Tsvangirai’s performance has been more than disappointing; it was one disaster after another. In the first few days after the 29 March elections, for example, Mugabe would have conceded defeat if Tsvangirai had seized the initiative and mobilised public support. Mugabe was “drip feeding” the election results to see what Tsvangirai would do and once he was sure Tsvangirai was not going to do anything he had the confidence to launch “Operation Mavhotera papi!” and retained all political power.

Tsvangirai did not have to sign the GPA; Mugabe was on the hook after the sham elections. Everyone could see that of course, everyone that is except Tsvangirai. He signed and Mugabe was off the hook. Tsvangirai got absolutely nothing out of the deal; Mugabe has continued to treat him with the same contempt and disdain. And for his part Tsvangirai always seem to have his tail between his legs and his head bowed so far he could bit it.

Of course this would not be split in MDC, the party did split to form the Tsvangirai and Mutambara factions. The split did not rid either faction of deadwood; there were competent people on each side overwhelmed by the incompetent people. History has a habit of repeating itself. Still, if the MDC-T split was to rid themselves of Tsvangirai, he is a total embarrassment to the party and the Zimbabwe people everywhere, then that would be the best day’s work the lot of them have done in ten years!