MDC A will still be weak post congress - an undemocratic party cannot reform itself P Guramatunhu

In 2016 Professor Jonathan Moyo, then Zanu PF Minister and chief strategist and propagandist, said “Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office!” It was one of those rare moments in the spin-doctor’s life when he was not spinning but was saying blunt and honest truth.

As we know Zanu PF was under pressure to implement the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement sponsored by SADC leaders following the rigged 2008 elections. The reforms, if fully implemented, would have delivered free, fair and credible elections and thus end Zimbabwe’s curse of rigged elections. 

Not even one meaningful reform was implemented during the 2008 to 2013 GNU largely because Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold-out. They had their snouts in the gravy train feeding trough, generously provided by Robert Mugabe, and they forgot about the reforms. 

With no democratic reforms in place, Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections, as we know. It was certain that unless reforms were implemented Zanu PF will rig the 2018 elections too and hence the growing demands on the party to implement the reforms. Professor Moyo’s response above was the party’s blunt and truthful answer to these demands.

Professor Moyo was under no illusions that Zanu PF would ever win free, fair and credible elections. The party was led by corrupt, incompetent and ruthless thugs rotten to the core and thus were incapable of being reformed. The party was unelectable and, naturally, the party was not going to initiate reforms to guarantee free and fair elections and lose the elections. 

In other words, for Zanu PF to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible national elections; the party will have to transform itself from the unelectable corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship into a competent and democratic party. A tall order, but there it is. 

By the same token, MDC failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU because the party leaders were breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. So, just as with Zanu PF, MDC too is unelectable. MDC must implement in-house democratic reform to transform from the present party of utterly useless sell-outs and have a sprinkling of a few leaders with some common sense. 

Is MDC capable of self democratic-renewal? Well the upcoming MDC A congress was a golden opportunity for the party to transform itself. 

“Some with decades in the struggle trenches face retrenchment to political dustbins and wilderness,” wrote Brain Sedze, a strategy consultant commenting on the MDC A political intrigues. 

“What I think is the greatest threat though, is that the congress is likely to deliver a weaker MDC Alliance. It’s likely to be a party both deficient in skills, depth and diversity.

“The idea in brief is that the party must restructure first before congress and deploy silos reserved for certain groups to ensure strength in diversity. The congress outcome must celebrate diversity by inclusion of women, ensure generational renewal with consensus, build new coalitions to increase capacity, reinforce tribal balance, appease alliance partners, have requisite skills and have a voice across the broad spectrum of society.” 

Yes it is true that MDC A has suffered from chronic “deficiencies in skills and depth” but that is because the party has stifled all debate and meaningful democratic competition within the party. Diversity has nothing to do with it. 

Both Zanu PF and MDC A have been obsessed about tribal, regional, gender, etc. balance. Zimbabwe has had some of the most bloated public service and cabinets in the world; during the GNU we had a president, two VPs, a Prime Minister, two Deputy PM, over 50 ministers and deputy ministers, 10 governors, etc.; all in the name of diversity. The over the top diversity did not stop the country sink into the hell-on-earth we have sunk into today. 

Indeed, diversity was used as cover for stifling debate and democratic competition. Chamisa will be crowned leader of MDC A without any meaningful challenge and competition for the post, his was the only name in the hat. The many of the other position will be filled using a similar formula and so most of the deadwood in the party will be recycled. 

Post May 2019 congress, MDC A will still have corrupt and incompetent sell-outs and many of them recycled from who have been at the helm for the last 19 years as leaders going forward. There will be no change in MDC A’s performance because the party will still be led by corrupt and incompetent individuals! 

Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess because for the last 39 years the country has been stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime. What the country needs is to implement the democrats reforms to end the curse of rigged elections. 

Neither Zanu PF nor MDC A can be trusted to implement the reforms because both the two party are corrupt and incompetent. The political leaders from both sides of the political divide would win a free, fair and credible elections given their rotten track record. And so they would not implement the reforms only to lose the elections that will follow.

If we are serious about getting the reforms implemented and holding the nation’s first free, fair and credible elections then we must appoint an interim administration tasked to implement the reforms. Neither Zanu PF nor MDC leaders can play any role in the administrations; they cannot be trusted to implement the reforms as their failure to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU proved.