The MDC penny has finally
dropped!
“We can say our courts are
captured but what we witnessed with respect to the High Court case argued by
Prof Madhuku and Adv Biti were technical legal arguments based on the law and
fact. By refusing to accept court decisions MDC Alliance is playing into the
hands of the State and the Judiciary. Our response is been very predictable: –
boycott Parliament without boycotting captured courts. This is a big
contradiction. We are blowing hot and cold,” admitted Dr Tapiwa Mashakada: MDC Alliance Secretary for Policy and Research.
The whole furore was just a
nonsense! Chamisa used village bully tactics to seize power following Morgan
Tsvangirai’s death, that was a historic fact and it was foolish to pretend
otherwise. It was therefore a real surprise that so many MDC leaders and
supporters had all lined up denying the fact and defending the indefensible.
“After the SC judgement, the
29th May High Court judgement was already predictable. On Friday the 29th May
the High Court ruled that the MDC Alliance was not a legal persona. In relation
to the gvt grant case the State has appealed against the provisional order. It
seems to me the die is already cast. Court verdicts against MDC A are now like
delayed matches and by now we should know better,” continued Mashakada.
“I appeal for Solomonic wisdom so that we don’t
say let us divide and cut the child(MPs) into two halves.”
Sadly, that is exactly what is happening here!
Consider the elected MDC leaders as one half of the baby and the MDC supporters
as the other half. Dr Thokozani Khupe is getting one half and Chamisa the
other!
All the MDC Alliance MPs, Senators and Councillors
whose origin is MDC-T must now swear their allegiance to Dr Khupe and her
supporters or they will be recalled as has already happened to the likes of
Charlton Hwende, diehard Chamisa supporters. The July 2018 elections showed how
little popular support Madam Khupe commanded and it is clear many people still feel
the same now. So, Madam Khupe has the elected officials but does not command
the popular support.
But worst of all, Madam Khupe has lost
political credibility with the Zimbabwe public and the international community.
By failing to implement even one meaningful
democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU all the MDC leaders involved lost
political credibility. There is no deny they had failed to implement even one
reform because they were and still are breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent and
sell-out – that is an irrefutable historic fact.
No one was really surprised to see all the MDC factions
participating in the July 2013 and then July 2018 elections although it was
clear, with no reforms in place, Zanu PF would rig the elections. They were
doing it out of greed, the same greed that had stopped them implementing even
one reform during the 2008 GNU.
All the election observers dismissed the whole
July 2018 election as a farce. “The electoral commission lacked full
independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final
results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and
lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” said the EU
Observer Mission Final Report.
“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in
Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
Madam Khupe and most of the other parties that
participated in the July 2018 elections endorse the process as free, fair and
credible and Mnangagwa welcomed them as they joined Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD).
POLAD is a body formed by Mnangagwa to allow his political opponents to air
their views to him and not in public. In short POLAD is just a political talk-shop
designed to gag all Zanu PF opponents and critics!
By accepting a seat on POLAD, Madam Khupe lost
all political credibility.
Whilst Chamisa accepted the parliamentary and
local government electoral process as free, fair and credible, he refused to accept
the presidential process. He offered to endorse Mnangagwa’s legitimacy if the Zanu
PF dictator agreed to a power sharing arrangement in which Chamisa and a few of
his MDC leaders will be given cabinet positions.
Now that Chamisa has all but lost all his MPs,
Senators and Councillors, he is just a toothless dog. Worse still, the Court
ruling has forced many MDC supporters to accept Chamisa was just another Zanu
PF thug in all but name!
Now that Dr Khupe has inherited all the MPs,
Senators and Councillors there is talk of Mnangagwa going into a power sharing
arrangement with her. She is also going to get the $7 million from the
Political Party Finance (Act) that Chamisa was hoping to get.
Still, all the political muscle of MPs and Senators
and a fat bank account will do nothing to change the fact that Dr Thokozani
Khupe has lost political credibility. There is talk of Mnangagwa upgrading the
POLAD to form a new GNU with her. Their political union will be comparable to
that of Ian Smith and Abel Muzorewa’s 1979 Zimbabwe-Rhodesia; a complete waste
of time!
There is talk of Chamisa formerly launching MDC
Alliance as a party. The party will have no money and there is no guarantee the
MDC herd will follow blindly this time round.
Dr
Khupe and Advocate Chamisa have shown the world that all they really cared
about was power, their actions have stripped bare whatever little political credibility
the MDC brand name had left after the 2008 to 2013 GNU debacle. MDC is
finished, a historic fact. It will take some time for that penny to drop but
drop it will!
12 comments:
Morgan Tsvangirai sowed the seed of the leadership crisis that ended with Chamisa seizing power in February 2018 by appointing Chamisa and Mudzuri as VPs. If he had lost confidence in Thokozani Khupe as his VP then he should have called for an extraordinary congress or whatever, have the issue thrashed out in the open and had her replaced.
Former USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell, said in a leaked cable back to Washington that Tsvangirai "was flawed and indecisive character who, if he got into power, would be an albatross round the nation's neck!"
Tsvangirai did get into power, in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, and by God was he and MDC an albatross weighing down the nation then and ever since. MDC failed to implement even one reform during the GNU and the party's continued participation in flawed and illegal elections has been a great blessing to Zanu PF.
Now it is clear Tsvangirai has not only been an albatross round the nation's neck but round his own MDC party's neck. The foolish decision to appoint Chamisa VP gave the upstart the confidence to seize the leadership after Tsvangirai's death; a move that has now backfired horribly.
In her desperate effort to remain in power and relevant Thokozani Khupe joined Mnangagwa's POLAD; a move that has left her fatally compromised. Her winning back the leadership of the party will do nothing to get back her lost virtue!
I totally agree, MDC is finished. My ardent hope is that the people of Zimbabwe quickly realize that reality and move on. The nation is facing two existential threats, covid-19 and economic poverty. The two threats are being made a lot worse by this Zanu PF regime's blundering incompetence.
As the country's main opposition party MDC should have been holding Zanu PF to account on the party's many failures and blunders but have instead totally engrossed in this internal dog-eat-dog fighting. It is now for the people themselves to hold Zanu PF to account and we should not waste another minute on MDC; we have a lot more important things to do than that!
@ Linda Ndlovu
“As for Mashakada forgive him, mashakada chaiwo. But let me tell you, MDC Alliance is the people. MDC Alliance is the air breathed by Chamisa. If Chamisa forms a new party now the masses will move with Chamisa. For your own information you writer of this article, Chamisa pulling power and popularity is the reason some of the judas Khupe linked MPs chose to contest elections riding Chamisa through the ALLIANCE instead of Khupe 's dump MDC-T,” you said.
“Even if that new party is called donkey, the masses will follow it in their millions. Don’t worry, issue of finance will not be a problem. Already all diaspora provinces of MDC alliance say they are ready for it. Zimbabweans would rather rally behind Chamisa than anyone linked to Zanu, anyone who gets favours from Zanu controlled institutions is a suspect, akatemerwa huroyi already, to the extend of performing rituals to the dead Tsvangirai. Anofamba kunoita marituals pa lockdown and she does not get arrested or abducted.”
Oh I have no doubt that there are some people who will follow Chamisa regardless of reality that what he did was not only blatantly wrong and undemocratic but worse still that he is totally unrepentant.
There are many who do so because they have no clue what is the law or factual; they have called for democratic change but have no clue what is democracy much less how it can be achieved. MDC leaders have failed to deliver even one democratic change in the party’s 20 years on the political stage and the wildebeest herd has not notice and never will.
“Even if that new party is called donkey, the masses will follow it in their millions!” Of course, they will follow.
Indeed, Zanu PF can boast of its own wildebeest herd, notably the rogue war veterans like Jabulan Sibanda, Victor Matamadanda, etc. Look where they have landed the nation! Trust me a MDC wildebeest herd will not do any better!
There are some who know and understand Chamisa behaved like a thug and still they follow Chamisa for no better reason than that they are thugs too!
I would like to believe there are some Zimbabweans out there with a bit of useful grey stuff between their ears who will see Chamisa and the rest of the MDC leaders for the corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs they are. Zimbabwe is facing a serious existential threat and we are not going to get out of this hell-on-earth we landed ourselves in by being dogmatic and irrational.
Chamisa is a fallible mortal he did something wrong and must be held to account. If he thinks he is not accountable then he could not be more mistaken. He is accountable and, to prove it, his political career is finished!
We have requested for US$300 000 for air tickets from Treasury but nothing has come. We now rely on well-wishers. Only a contingency fee for the embassy staff of US$10 000 has been made available. We have no money.
Zimbabwe does not have US$300 000 to fly back home its citizens now stuck in foreign lands and yet the country continues to lose millions of dollars every month from the wholesale looting of diamonds and other resources that have been doing on for decades. Some of the looted wealth is now be spent building Mnangagwa’s state-of-the-art under bunker just as Mugabe had used his share to build the sprawling palatial Blue Roof mansion.
Our failure, as a nation, to stamp out the corruption all these last 40 years have forced many outsiders to give up on helping Zimbabwe. How does one help a nation that is so wasteful and, worst of all, will not lift a finger to end the criminal waste!
For a healthy and functioning democracy, the people must be educated, at least enough to have a rough idea where they are going, and must understand that it is their duty check those given the responsibility to lead know what they are doing and are accountable to the people at all times. How can the people hold the leaders to account when they, the people, have no clue what they want.
MDC supporters are often called "MaChinja" (Change people!) because that has been the heart of their political ethos, democratic change. They have been calling on Zanu PF to change and stop rigging elections, amongst many other changes, and yet when Chamisa rigged the MDC elections the supporters either failed to notice it or they did not care.
So these MDC supporters are not exactly after democratic change. They want to remove the Zanu PF dictatorship but only to replace it with an MDC dictatorship. We are just going round and round in circles!
One only hopes that recent events will force the MDC supporters to finally open their eyes so they see MDC leaders as the corrupt and incompetent leaders they are. MDC leaders have failed to bring about even one democratic reform in 20 years, they have given up the fight for free, fair and credible elections; these men and women are not worth following.
This Mnangagwa government is illegitimate and knows it is not democratically accountable to the people and so it will do as it pleases. Until the people demand free, fair and credible elections and mean it; Zanu PF will continue rigging the elections and looting the nation blind!
THE MDC National Council met Wednesday and resolved to abandon its highly divisive order for its MPs to boycott all parliamentary business.
It was business as usual at the National Assembly Wednesday afternoon as the majority of MPs from the main opposition party returned for sitting.
MDC Alliance Deputy Spokesperson Clifford Hlatshwayo confirmed the lifting of the boycott saying it was a directive from the party’s grassroots which indicated MPs should continue with their parliamentary work.
Only a few MPs who included MDC Alliance co-vice presidents, Tendai Biti, and Lynette Kore were absent. However, senior officials like Job Sikhala, the MDC Alliance Deputy Chairperson; Organising Secretary Amos Chibaya and Sesel Zvidzai, Harare Central MP were in attendance.
Job Sikhala and everyone who participated in the 2018 elections knew Zanu PF was rigging the elections; they did out of greed. They knew Zanu PF would give away few gravy-train seats as bait and it was these they were after. Having secured the few gravy train seats, these opposition leaders were not going to give them up.
When the wind was blowing in Chamisa's direction the gorilla silver backs came out in support of Chamisa. Now that the winds are blowing in the opposite direction the silverbacks have quietly given up their posturing and grandstanding.
After all that stomping up and down, raising a Sahara Desert sand storm, drumming his chest in support of Chamisa; the big silver-back Sikhala too has switched his support to Khupe. Indeed, Job Sikhala is nothing but a harmless gorilla air balloon! Kick the balloon and a farting sound comes out of gorilla’s behind, to everyone’s amusement!
On the 3rd of June 2020, the National Council of the MDC Alliance met in accordance with
the party's constitution. The following resolutions were passed:
1. The MDC Alliance will preserve the existence of the name, constitution, slogans and assets of the MDC Alliance.
2. We restate that the MDC Alliance is a duly constituted political party and a legal persona in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act. We validly contested the 2018 election and fielded a presidential candidate, parliamentary candidates and local authority candidates in line with the provisions of our constitution and the law of Zimbabwe.
Having came this far with the denial that Chamisa did not do anything wrong when he seized power following Tsvangirai’s death it is no surprise that Chamisa and his supporters are sticking to their story. It is not in the nature of Chamisa and his followers to admit doing anything wrong, there are a no different from Mugabe, Mnangagwa and the rest of the Zanu PF family.
Mugabe denied to his death that he was not corrupt even though he could never explain where he got the money to build his palatial Blue Roof mansion and all the other amassed wealth. Mnangagwa is using the same mysterious source of wealth to build his nuclear bomb proof palatial bunker!
You will never get Chamisa to admit he rigged the MDC elections no more than you will get Mnangagwa to admit re rigged the July 2018 national elections. We have an illegitimate opposition party participating in flawed and illegal national elections to give legitimacy to an otherwise illegitimate ruling party!
Still both Zanu PF and MDC have lost political credibility their illegitimacy is now impossible to hide! Chamisa is desperately trying to hang on to power but his political career is well and truly over! He is finished! Mnangagwa has the coercive power and the looted wealth to help him stay in power; Chamisa has no such power.
MDC Alliance MPs who have been boycotting Parliament yesterday started trickling back to the House and were heckled by their Zanu-PF counterparts, who jeered and labelled them MDC-T instead of MDC Alliance.
Fifteen opposition MPs, mostly proportional representation legislators, turned up and the most senior was Hatfield MP Tapiwa Mashakada, who later told journalists that they had not defected and were still MDC Alliance MPs as they were elected by the people.
But the party immediately shot down his claims, with secretary for presidential affairs Jameson Timba saying only the national council, which sits today, would make a resolution on whether to attend Parliament business or not.
“God is in it!” Chamisa loved to say! Well one has to now ask which “God”, because the God most of us know will never be involved in rigged elections! Never!
The God we know about welcomes “repentant sinner” and Chamisa is sticking to his original claim that his succession was in accordance with the MDC’s constitution when it clearly was not! Why he still considers himself a pastor is a complete mystery!
@ Kufandada
“MDC Alliance is not finished. We know the history Cde, kana amai vako vari muroyi hauvarase. Tsvangirai is dead. Chamisa is alive. What have you done for the country yourself armchair analyst.”
I had hoped that after 40 years of this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship we have finally moved on from the Zanu PF mentality of “Zanu PF is the party of liberation and therefore has the divine right to rule the country and everyone else shut up!” The country is in this economic and political mess precisely because of this idiotic mentality.
It has taken 40 years to hammer home the message that every Zimbabwean has the right enjoy all the freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and the right to life – regardless of whether they played a role in the war of liberation or not! I thought we had finally given the message home in the heads of village idiots like Matamadanda and Mnangagwa.
Alas! I was wrong! We are getting rid of one lot of village idiots only to inherit another lot.
So you, Kufadanda, thinks that only you MDC leaders and supporters have the divine right to have a say in Zimbabwe because you are an MDC leader or member and everyone else, “armchair analysts” must shut up. I have defended the right of every Zimbabwean to enjoy the freedoms and rights against Zanu PF thugs, I am not going to be intimidated into silence by a nincompoop like you.
If you or anyone else believe Chamisa is “alive and is not finished” tell me why but what you cannot tell me is shut up. You cross that line and you will be put in your place. Zimbabwe is not going to remove corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs only to replace them with another lot of equally corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs!
Anyone who holds public office in Zimbabwe, be he/she Zanu PF, MDC or whatever is democratically accountable to the people and, yes that includes any armchair analyst like me. If you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen; especially when you know you are corrupt and incompetent because I am determined to smoke you out! You ain't seen nothing yet!
Kufadanda (I am willing to die!), you say your name is! Well let put your name to the test!
OPPOSITION leader Nelson Chamisa says President Emmerson Mnangagwa's style of leadership is worse than that of the late former president Robert Mugabe, adding his time is up.
Speaking at the Harare Magistrates' Courts where he had attended a court appearance of top lawyer Thabani Mpofu yesterday for allegedly defeating the course of justice, Chamisa said: "Like I indicated, the lawyer (Mpofu) is in good spirits. He knows that in a dictatorship, when you are a lawyer, you are then misconstrued to be an enemy of the State, yet he is only doing his professional duty to represent those who are supposed to be represented.
"It's a banana republic, so you can also see the banana conduct of Mr Mnangagwa. We never thought that Mnangagwa would be worse than Mugabe, but he has proven Mugabe to be a toddler in dictatorship.
Comparing Mnangagwa to Mugabe is like comparing a black mamba to a cobra; only a village idiot would waste his time on such a futile exercise!
ZIMBABWE'S cash-strapped government has splurged millions of United States dollars on top-of-the-range vehicles, which include Toyota Hilux and Land Cruisers, for senior military officials at a time President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government is pleading for an economic bailout package from international financial institutions.
Military sources this week revealed that lieutenant-colonels, colonels and brigadier-generals were among officers who benefitted from the vehicle acquisition at a time of growing disquiet within the rank and file of the army over the deteriorating economic environment.
This comes as the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, which is in charge of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, this week flighted an advertisement, inviting bids "from suitable and reputable suppliers for the supply of brand new double cab vehicles". The advert was flighted yesterday, but did not specify the number of vehicles the ministry wants to procure.
Here we go! The looting will never stop even now with the nation facing this corona virus existential threat!
Said Chamisa, "I've just been to MRT house where soldiers &police are obstructing our leaders and staff from occupying their place of work. Riot police earlier arrested VPs Kore and Biti, other leaders at MRT Hse after they went to their place of work. It's time to draw a line in the sand!!"
How many lines in the sand, yellow line and red lines has MDC drawn which Zanu PF was dared not to cross only for the later to ignore them and cross with no consequences. What makes this case particularly foolish is that Chamisa does not want to accept that his takeover of the party after Tsvangirai’s death was unlawful. He is making a complete fool of himself because the takeover was indeed unlawful!
Journalist Hopewell Chin'ono said, "My open advice to the MDC and Chamisa is DON'T be forced into any physical action. What is happening cements the PARIAH status of ZANUPF & distances any decent foreign powers AWAY from this regime! It confirms that it is a military regime that doesn't respect the RULE of LAW."
No one would dispute that Zanu PF has no respect for the rule of law but that does not change the fact that what Chamisa himself did in seizing MDC leadership was unlawful. If Chin’ono thinks the international community will view Chamisa as the victim of lawless in this matter then he has understood nothing! The international community is not so easily fooled!
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