Last year a High Court judge ruled that the process leading to the elevation of Nelson Chamisa as MDC-T President; following the death of then President of the party, Morgan Tsvangirai in February 2018; had violated MDC-T’s own constitution. The Supreme Court has since upheld that judgement.
The Court declared every party decision after Chamisa’s succession null and void. The MDC-T was to revert to party structure that emerged out of the 2014 party congress and Thokozani Khupe who was elected VP was to lead the party until an extraordinary congress to elect a new President.
Not even one Nelson Chamisa loyalist with an democratic credentials worth a spit has ever dared to deny that the process Chamisa had followed in seizing power was undemocratic. Now that the Court had judged the process indeed undemocratic, the sensible and only thing for Chamisa and his followers to do was to publicly acknowledge the mistake and prepare for the extraordinary congress.
Since when has MDC leaders done anything remotely sensible and logical! Chamisa went back into the mountain, supposedly for divine inspiration, and promised to comment on the Court judgement on his return. He has returned and said nothing.
Meanwhile, Chamisa’s loyal supporters have greeted the Court judgement with the characteristic hysteria, anger, defiance, threats, etc. They maintain the Court judgement is all Mnangagwa and Zanu PF’s doing. Mnangagwa is imposing Khupe as the MDC leader.
As much as Zanu PF stands to benefit from a distracted and confused MDC; Zanu PF’s blunders, especially in the handling of the covid 19 pandemic, are not being scrutinised. Still, the fact remains that by violating the MDC-T’s own constitution Chamisa shoot himself in the foot. And now he and his supporters must accept the consequences and not waste time blaming others for his own folly.
“MDC Secretary-General Douglas Mwonzora has recalled Tabitha Khumalo, Chalton Hwende and Prosper Mutseyami from Parliament following their expulsion by MDCT,” reported Bulawayo 24.
“The announcement was made by the speaker of parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda on Tuesday.”
The recall was an expected consequence of the Court decision and the failure by Chamisa and those around him to defuse the situation by accepting the court judgement. The individuals recalled are known Chamisa loyalists and Mwonzora had them recalled as a warning to the remaining MDC MPs, Senators and Councillors still loyal to Chamisa to switch their allegiance to Khupe a.s.a.p.
The recall has shaken the bee-hive and the Chamisa loyalists are even more upset, angry and agitated than ever and, worst of all, confused and incoherent. Some have been asking the remaining MPs, senators and councillors to resign from their elected position en masse “to embarrass Zanu PF”.
How so? Anyone, anyone at all, with common sense knows that what Chamisa did in seizing power was irregular, to say the least. So why should Mnangagwa be embarrassed that Chamisa shot himself in the foot!
If all the MDC MPs, senators and councillors were to resign; Zanu PF will probably ask Thokozani Khupe to appoint replacements. Mnangagwa will argue the nation does not have the money to hold so many by-elections and given the need to stop mass gatherings during the lockdown.
Chamisa and his supporters are all but the “poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It (MDC story) is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” as William Shakespeare have aptly surmised.
The real tragedy here is that Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because of four decades of bad governance. The country needs a competent government desperately, more so now with the outbreak of covid-19. It is a nightmare that the nation should therefore find itself still stuck with the corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging Zanu PF as the governing party. And for the main opposition the equally corrupt and incompetent MDC party.
The Court judgement stripping Chamisa of the leadership of MDC leadership has divided and confused the opposition into utter uselessness. Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence is making the covid-19 pandemic spread faster and more widely. Many more people will be infected with covid-19, suffer and die unnecessarily and the economic recovery, if it should ever happen, will be that much harder to achieve and take longer.
The nation is still stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging Zanu PF dictatorship because MDC leaders failed to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. And during the covid-19 period and thereafter MDC leaders were not even there to stop Zanu PF blunderings because they were fight over the title of President of MDC like puppies fighting over an ox thighbone! This is just a nightmare!
However, Biti said there is no battle for democracy without scars hence the MDC cadres would soldier on under the leadership of ousted leader Nelson Chamisa.
ReplyDeleteKurumwa nechokuchera!
Biti is accusing orchestrating this and yet not even he can dare deny the way Chamisa seized power after Tsvangirai's death is what one would expect from a party of thugs!
Former Minister of Education David Coltart has sensesionally claimed that president Emmerson Mnangagwa together with Thokozani Khupe and Douglas Mwonzora are focusing on destroying the opposition party MDC during the country's total lockdown.
ReplyDeleteThis is a common Zimbabwe political weakness where the leaders refuse to own up to their own foolishness only to make complete fools of themselves. There endless fighting in MDC now was caused by Chamisa's seizure of power following Tsvangirai's death. By refusing to admit this MDC leaders have destroyed themselves beyond the pale!
When Chamisa was interviewed on BBC Hardtalk in 2018, just before the elections, he failed to justify why he had rashed to elected a new leader without give the other two VPs a chance to contest. "Nature hates a vacuum" he claimed!
The root cause of this crisis was the unconstitutional seizure of power by Nelson Chamisa following Tsvangirai's death in February 2018, Instead of acknowledging this failure Chamisa and his friends are ignoring this and are blaming on Mnangagwa and Zanu PF for what has happened. Did Mnangagwa advise or better still coerce Chamisa to seize power? If so, then Chamisa should say so.
ReplyDeleteEven if Chamisa was coerced into acting unconstitutional, he cannot pretend it was constitutional much less expect to get away with it!
The decision to seize power was a foolish decision and Chamisa and all his supporters must submit themselves to democratic accountability. Tendai Biti and others are making complete fools of themselves by defending the indefensible!
The real tragedy here is MDC is wasting time on this fool's errant when they should be holding Zanu PF to account for the blundering incompetency with which Zimbabwe is handling the covid-19 pandemic. The regime failed to mount an effective isolation and quarantine scheme to stop the virus getting into the country. And now the regime is not testing to establish how the virus is spreading.
Covid-19 is killing our people already and will kill a lot more before it is done. It must be said that with a competent government the nation would have been spare much of the suffering and deaths. And having a corrupt and incompetent ruling party was bad enough but having a corrupt and incompetent opposition to boot has made the situation worse!
What is happening in MDC is a circus the tragedy is this is a circus that has turned a nominally feeble and weak opposition into one that is totally useless! Sadly this is all happening at a time when the nation need a competent opposition to hold the corrupt, incompetent and blundering Zanu PF to account for its mishandling of the covid-19 pandemic. We are in deep, deep trouble!
ReplyDeleteThe remarks come after the parliament recalled four of the MDC Alliance MPs in the in instigation of Douglass Mwonzora the secretary general of the MDC-T as at 2014.
ReplyDelete"While we wait for a comprehensive statement from the Party Leader Adv Nelson Chamisa or his designate, I urge us to remain calm and focused. All what is happening was predictable. Politics is about proffering solutions and providing leadership. Beyond recalling MPs, Khupe and crew have nothing to offer to the people of Zimbabwe. The only leader and savour is President Chamisa and his time is now," said MP Settlement Chikwinya.
"While as your MP I will stand guided by MDC Alliance, a party that sponsored me to Parliament, at a personal level I reiterate what I said in one of our CCC meetings, that is, ALL MDC ALLIANCE DEPLOYEES MUST RESIGN ENMASS, this is my personal view subject to guidance by President Chamisa and the Party."
“Politics is about proffering solutions and providing leadership!” What a sick joke!
Zimbabwe is stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship these last 40 years and counting; what solutions has MDC proffered to the problem. The party has been on the political stage for the 20 years and has failed to implement even one democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. The party had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the GNU but failed to do so because Tsvangirai et al, Settlement Chikwinya amongst them, had their snouts in the feeding trough and forgot about the reforms.
The root cause of the present MDC political fracas was the Court ruling that Chamisa’s seizure of the leadership of the party was unconstitutional. Normally you cannot shut up Chamisa; he is giving press conference, press interview, on twitter, etc., etc. And yet since the Court judgement on 30 March he has been as silent as a grave! Is that “providing leadership”?
Chamisa shot himself in the foot when he acted like a Zanu PF thug and seized power in February 2018. By refusing to own up he is turning the gun to his own head! All those pretending Chamisa did nothing wrong are themselves being foolish; only a fool defends the indefensible.
@ Koni
ReplyDeletePutting my political lenses with a bird's eye view, I can see the hand of powerful politicians and political gladiators masquerading as genuine political messiahs but are there to kill and destroy.
These days when you hear a lot of jubilations and ululations in Zimbabwe's revolutionary party, its either the party has walloped and defeated the opposition or the Supreme Court has ruled in their favour thus Zimbabwe's politics.
On Tuesday 5 May 2020 the MDC-T Acting President Thokozani Khupe recalled four MDC Alliance MPs from parliament as the MDC leadership saga rages on.
The MPs were recalled are party MDC Chip Whip Prosper Mutseyami who is also Dangamvura-Chikanga MP, MDC Secretary-General and Kuwadzana MP Chalton Hwende, MDC chairperson Tabitha Khumalo and Senator Lilian Timveous.
This was after a follow up to the Supreme Court ruling passed on Khupe who was reinstated as acting president of the MDC replacing the late founder leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Again the timing of recalling the MPs at a time the country is fighting the global pandemic #Covid19 raises eyebrows on the government's willingness and seriousness to solving very important issues affecting the country.
The recall of the MPs is a consequence of the Supreme Court ruling which you are not commending on for fear of making a fool of yourself. The Court judgement is correct, what Chamisa did is the kind of thuggery the nation has come to expect from Zanu PF and to pretend there was nothing wrong is just idiotic.
To blame Zanu PF for what Chamisa did is no different from Zanu PF blaming the west for Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown when we all know the root causes are Zanu PF corruption and mismanagement.
Today a total of 1 492 tests were done, giving a total of 14 821 screening and diagnostic tests done to date.
ReplyDeleteResults to follow tomorrow.
The Ministry continues to be on HIGH alert to the COVID-19 pandemic and would like to remind the nation the most effective ways to protect yourself and others against COVID-I9 are to practise good personal hygiene and exercise social distancing.
If this is true then Zimbabwe has gone from doing less than 500 test a day last week to now doing 1 492 tests a day, nearly three times!
The government was giving a breakdown of how tests were done in each of the country’s ten provinces and now it is just giving one ball-figure. Why?
The way this Zanu PF government has handled this covid-19 outbreak so far has been shambolic, to say the least. The regime allowed the late Zororo Makamba to mix freely in society even when immigration officials had noticed he had the corona virus symptoms and wanted him detained. A high ranking Zanu PF leader instructed the officials to let him go.
Zimbabweans returning to the country are being sent to government’s quarantine centres where they have to share toilet facilities with 20 plus others, with no clean running water, etc. These centres have become covid-19 hotspots in their own right!
This Zanu PF regime is corrupt and incompetent and, to hid its blunders, is very secretive. With a deadly virus like covod-19, being secretive is counterproductive because pretending it is not there will only help the virus spread.
There have been a number of deaths in the country and the regime has attributed them to malaria and stubbornly refused to have many of the cases tested for covid-19.
This Zanu PF regime blatantly rigged the 2018 elections and rigging the covid-19 data will be a piece of cake. The price of falsifying covid-19 figures is that many, many more people will be infected with the virus and many will die. This is a price to high to pay!
"It's happening Zimbabwe. National Sports Stadium still has some work to do but our Athletes (and fans of course!) will have a better home. Update from Bulawayo coming soon." Coventry said. "Making sure the Athletes have a home is top priority, that means change rooms, field, first aid etc gets sorted out. Bucket seats will come."
ReplyDeleteWhat are you blubbering about! Belvedere Teachers’ College, a covid-19 quarantine centre for Zimbabwean returnees has been in the media recently. It is less than a kilometre from the National Stadium. Did it ever occur to you to visit and see for yourself how many returnees are having to share a toilet, washing facilities with no clean running water? The hygienic conditions in all the other covid-19 quarantine centres in Plum Tree, Mutare, etc. are even worse!
These quarantine centres are covid-19 hotspots in their own right!
By failing to supply something as basic as clean running water at these covid-19 quarantine centres, government is risking the spread of the virus and lives hundreds if not thousands more innocent Zimbabweans. Do you really believe any Zimbabwean would be thrilled to know government had no money to supply clean running water for covid-19 quarantine centres but had money to plant a manicured turf in the National Stadium complete fitted changing room, etc. There no clean running water at Belvedere Teachers’ College, in most offices and homes in Harare and even hospitals but there is clean running water to water the manicured turf!
Kirsty Coventry just like Professor Mthuli Ncube were asked to join this Zanu PF dictatorship, to spruce up the regime’s tarnished pariah state image. Power has transformed the two, their have lost their humanity, they now think like any other Zanu PF thug and totally indifferent to the suffering and death of the ordinary Zimbabwean.
Minister Coventry, where is your Mnangagwa multicoloured scarf? You should wear it regardless of the weather, just like every other Zanu PF thug; you are one of them now! It becomes of you!