As MDC fight for scraps hots up it underlines need for new national consensus Nomusa Garikai

Ever since President Mugabe came into power following Zanu PF’s 1980 election victory, he has systematically undermined the country’s democratic institution and eroded the people’s individual freedoms and basic human rights to create and retain the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship. By the late 1990s the nation had reached a consensus that President Mugabe was a corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrant and for the need for far reaching democratic changes to end the dictatorship.

Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends founded their political party to champion the nation’s popular cry for democratic change and named their party the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to capture this popular sentiment. The party was launched in 1999. Over the years, the people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his colleagues into political office so that they can bring about the desperately need political change.

Millions of Zimbabweans have been lost their property, harassed, beaten, and/or raped and over 500 were murdered in the wanton violence of the 2008 elections alone.

The people’s sacrifice has paid off as they have managed to elect MDC leaders into political office. The return on their treasure, life and limb investment has been a great disappointment. MDC have failed to deliver even one democratic change although they have had many opportunities to make good on their promise to bring about democratic change.

The best chance to delivery change was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when all MDC had to do was to implement the democratic reforms agreed in the GPA and underwritten by SA’s President Thabo Mbeki on behalf of SADC, the guarantor of the agreement. MDC leaders failed to get even one reform implemented because President Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office and, in return, they kicked the reforms into the tall grass.

Many Zimbabweans blame SADC leaders for the GNU’s failure to deliver any democratic change. The truth is SADC leaders did their best to remind Tsvangirai and company to implement the reforms but were ignored. Indeed, SADC leaders condemn the MDC leaders “for enjoying themselves during the GNU and forgetting why they were there,” according to a report in The Independent newspaper.

It was SADC leaders who warned Tsvangirai & co. of the futility of contesting election with no reforms in place. They argued that the 2013 elections must be postponed until the reforms are implemented. And one sure way of forcing Zanu PF to postpone the elections is for the opposition to refuse to take part.

“Of course, they (elections) can be postponed,” explained Dr Ibbo Mandaza, in an interview with Violet Gonda.  “In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit.

“I went there. I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.

“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told ‘If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.”

As we know, MDC leaders ignore SADC leaders’ warning and participated in the elections. We also know that, as SADC leaders had rightly predicted, Zanu Pf went on to blatantly rig that elections. It is David Coltart who has spelt out in black and white why MDC disregarded the warning and contested the flawed elections.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart. 

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

If anything, the blatant easy with which Zanu PF rigged July 2013 elections has only served to underline the futility of contesting elections with no reforms. If MDC leaders would put aside their selfishness that stopped them implementing the reforms, then contesting the flawed July 2013 elections, etc. and revisit their original promise to deliver democratic change; they will admit that contesting flawed elections constitute treasonous betrayal of the common people.

MDC leaders are determined to contest next year’s elections, flawed and illegal as they clearly are, and the fight over the few gravy train seats is hotting up! The recently launched MDC Alliance is all about how those few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away are to be shared.

The smaller opposition parties like Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube’s parties are keen to have the Alliance as it is their only hope of winning some electoral seats. Members of MDC-T, the bigger opposition party in the Alliance, will have to give up their chance to contest to allow candidates from the smaller parties to contest. This is something party members are resisting especial MDC-T VP Thokozani Khupe and her colleagues.

"In terms of Clause 3(c) of the Composite Political Co-operation Agreement, the party which is strongest electorally in a given constituency must field the candidate for the coalition. It is for this reason that we are against the allocation of the seats that have been allocated to other coalition partners from Bulawayo, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North. We are certain that the party is strongest electorally in these provinces . . . ," said a top MDC-T official in the Khupe camp.

"More specifically, we are concerned about the formula or method that has been used to come up with the distribution. Precisely, because mathematically, the party has given away 45,7% of the parliamentary seats and remained with 54%.

"Our concern is that even if the party is to win all the contested seats, it may not achieve outright majority presidential victory."

This lot knows the elections will not be free, fair and credible; many voters will be denied the vote by hook and by crook by ZEC failing to register them or corrupting the voters’ roll, many rural voters will once again be frogmarched to vote for Zanu PF, etc. They do not give a damn how flawed and illegal the electoral process has become. They will continue to contest, just to win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away.

If the people of Zimbabwe still care about democratic change, they should because that is their only ticket to end the economic meltdown that has forced millions into a life of abject poverty and despair, then there is need for the nation to reach a new national consensus. The 1990s consensus was that the country needed democratic changes to end Zanu PF’s corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical rule. The new consensus is that Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends will never deliver the democratic changes the nation has been dying for. And it is folly to continue to support and follow MDC.

But most important and of immediate demand is the need for the nation to reach a consensus on the need to stop participating in flawed elections. We do not need SADC or anyone else to tell that, without reforms, Zanu PF will blatantly rig next year’s elections; we can see that for ourselves. And the obvious solution here is to nothing to do with these flawed elections and demand the implementation of reforms BEFORE elections!