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'We'll confront and decimate Mugabe, Tsvangirai'
THE Arthur Mutambara-led formation of the MDC’s national council met last Saturday and reportedly resolved to pull out of coalition talks with the Morgan Tsvangirai camp ahead of next year’s harmonised presidential and parliamentary polls. The Zimbabwe Independent's CONSTANTINE CHIMAKURE caught up with Mutambara at his Harare home to find out what transpired during the council meeting and the implications of the camp’s move. Below are excerpts of the interview.
Chimakure: Your national council met at the weekend and reportedly resolved, among other things, to pull out of coalition talks with Tsvangirai’s formation of the MDC. Will your move not weaken the objective to dislodge Zanu PF and President Robert Mugabe from power next year through vote splitting — the Kenyan syndrome?
Mutambara: Let’s get the facts right. As a party we have always believed in a united front inspired by a single candidate principle. In the past 10 months we have been engaged in negotiations with the MDC formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai and two products came out of those efforts: the code of conduct and the coalition agreement. The code of conduct was eventually signed by the two secretary-generals, Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube, and the two presidents.
Tsvangirai initially refused to sign the document for almost six weeks and he eventually signed after pressure from certain quarters. One further key requirement was that there was to be a press conference by the two presidents to launch this code of conduct. Although he has signed the code, Tsvangirai has up to now refused to attend a press conference as agreed by his team of negotiators. Consequently, that code of conduct is currently an unimplemented agreement.
The second result from our efforts for a united front was a coalition agreement between the MDC formations. In this agreement Tsvangirai was proposed as the sole presidential candidate. This framework was crafted and agreed upon by the two teams led by Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti. So,what we did on Saturday July 28 was to formally adopt that agreement. This means that our party has adopted a coalition agreement that makes Tsvangirai the only opposition candidate for the presidency of our nation. Those are the facts.
After that formal adoption, our national council also formally acknowledged that the MDC formation led by Tsvangirai has actually rejected that coalition agreement. I am sure they will confirm that they have rejected the agreement. They will also confirm to you that both Biti and Tsvangirai signed the code of conduct and thereafter Tsvangirai refused to launch the code through a press conference. They will also provide you with his reasons.
Our national council has resolved to continue providing leadership to the people of Zimbabwe. We will provide decisive, capable and strong leadership in Zimbabwe by presenting a presidential candidate and contestants in every constituency for all elections . . . senate, parliament or council. Why and how did it come to this, people might ask? Our colleagues led by Tsvangirai have rejected a coalition agreement that would have made every vote count against Mugabe. Ordinary people are demanding unity of purpose. We agree with the national sentiment that is why we were prepared to have a coalition headed by Tsvangirai.
Unity of purpose is essential, moreso when it is clear that conditions for our next elections will be neither free nor fair. If Tsvangirai is such an insecure, weak and indecisive leader who cannot embrace what ordinary Zimbabweans are demanding; unity of action and purpose in the opposition, is he worthy of the presidency of this country?
We are going to continue with the efforts of talking to all stakeholders in Zimbabwe about building a united front inspired by a single candidate principle and philosophy. We hope common sense and sanity will prevail.
Chimakure: Given the current position, if both formations of the MDC field candidates in next year’s polls, will this not work in favour of Mugabe and Zanu PF?
Mutambara: These are the questions you should ask Tsvangirai. Don’t ask Mutambara. Mutambara has already answered them. That is why we were prepared to campaign for Tsvangirai in spite of our grave reservations about his ability and values. But Tsvangirai is not prepared to be supported by Mutambara. He feels he can go it alone. Not a single ordinary Zimbabwean shares his delusions. This is a manifestation of leadership failure, poor judgement, strategic incoherence and organisational incompetence.
We totally agree that a divided opposition will hand over victory to Mugabe. That is why we have adopted the coalition agreement. In pursuit of unity and a united front my party and I specifically have taken so much abuse from the media and detractors. Screaming headlines and statements such as "Mutambara gives way to Tsvangirai", "The Mutambara faction is desperate for unity", and "The Mutambara faction cannot mount a political challenge on its own" have been thrown at us.
We never corrected these lies because of our desire to pursue the national interest. Yes, we were prepared to back Tsvangirai lock, stock and barrel. We said "it doesn’t matter, let’s take the abuse in the national interest because there is a bigger objective; the liberation of our country from the tyranny of Robert Mugabe".
Chimakure: Do you have the support to unseat Mugabe alone?
Chimakure: So if the Tsvangirai faction refuses to adopt the agreement, are we going to see Mutambara squaring up against Tsvangirai and Mugabe in next year’s presidential polls?
Mutambara: Our party is more democratic than the Tsvangirai MDC formation and Zanu PF. The leader of our party is not automatically the presidential candidate. We believe in a democratic nomination and election process to determine all candidates participating in national elections. This means that all the leaders and ordinary members of our party are eligible to become the presidential candidate.
So, Mutambara is not yet the presidential candidate of our party. He is one of the many Zimbabweans who will be available for the supporters of the party to select from.
Having laid out the technical framework, I must make an unequivocal declaration: if the Tsvangirai grouping does not see the wisdom of working with others, they should have no illusions about our preparedness to confront and decimate them.
Arthur Mutambara will be prepared to stand against both Tsvangirai and Mugabe. It is our duty and obligation to present viable and inspired options to Zimbabweans. I stand good and ready to take on Tsvangirai and Mugabe.
Zimbabwe demands leaders who can understand and leverage globalisation, science and technology. We are living in a very competitive world where successful countries are allowing their best minds to run their nations. We cannot afford to have mediocrity running our country.
Chimakure: Your national council also deliberated on the current Sadc initiative to resolve Zimbabwe’s crisis and seem to have insinuated that it had lost confidence in South African President Thabo Mbeki’s mediation efforts. Was it out of a realisation that talks between the MDC and Zanu PF were collapsing? Why did the council resolve to intensify a campaign of defiance?
Mutambara: It has always been our position in the party that Zimbabweans cannot outsource their liberation to foreigners. We must take responsibility for our own circumstances. Hence, much as we appreciate the mediation through Sadc and Mbeki, we are saying the buck stops with us Zimbabweans.
This means in addition to embracing the Sadc initiative we must develop an independent programme of action that we control as Zimbabweans. We must create conditions for free and fair elections. All the political parties, civic society organisations, the labour movement and the churches must work together in the streets in pursuit of liberation and emancipation.
We must be demanding that the Zanu PF government stops the torture, murder and the incarceration of members of the opposition and civic society. We cannot have free and fair elections when members of the civic society are being brutalised.
We also need a new constitution and we must fight for it in the streets. There must be new electoral laws that will allow free and fair management of our elections. Posa and Aippa must be removed from our statutes.
We want to allow every Zimbabwean the opportunity to vote, including those in the diaspora. Lastly, we want international supervision of our first election under the new constitution.
These are the demands we should be fighting for in the streets through an alternative programme of action. Yes, we should also pursue the same matters through the Sadc mediation. What is criminal is for Zimbabweans to sit passively while waiting for President Mbeki to rescue them. Our council resolutions are not a reflection of lack of confidence or worry about the mediation efforts but rather a statement of principle, which principle we have always believed in.
Chimakure: Give us an update on the Mbeki mediation given that the Zanu PF negotiating team comprising Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa and Labour minister Nicholas Goche has on several occasions failed to travel to South Africa.
Mutambara: One of the ground rules defining the terms of reference for the mediation was that there will be no negotiations through the media. We must allow all the deliberations, the processes and the activities of the mediation to remain confidential in order to protect the integrity and effectiveness of the whole exercise. Hence, we are not going to discuss the details of the mediation except to say we are committed to give the Sadc initiative a chance to run its course and deliver results.
Chimakure: President Mugabe recently said that Zimbabwe does not need a new constitution as the one in place was serving the country well. What do you say to that? Do you also think Zimbabwe still has time to craft a new constitution when elections should be held next March?
Mutambara: The issue is not about the time required to produce a new constitution. It’s about the political will and the principled basis to have one. Do we agree that Zimbabwe deserves well crafted institutions that enable good country governance and economic prosperity; and that one of such institutions is a people-driven democratic constitution? Do all the Zimbabwean stakeholders agree as a matter of principle and values that we need such a constitution? Those are the questions to ask.
Once we establish a common understanding then the issue of the time required to do a good job of developing a new constitution can then be resolved. The problem in this country is that Mugabe does not believe that Zimbabweans deserve a people-driven democratic constitution.
He doesn’t have the political will to embrace the agenda of a new constitution. He doesn’t believe as a matter of values that we need good governance enshrined in a new democratic constitution, manifested by functional separation of powers, an independent judiciary, an empowered legislature, a servant government as opposed to a master government, and a solid bill of rights.
In addition Mugabe does not believe in the requisite value system and democratic culture that buttresses good governance and constitutionalism. That is the crux of the matter.
Beyond politics and governance, a major challenge that Zimbabweans are grappling with is the lack of both economic vision and strategy. We are being led by a visionless regime, a content free dictatorship that has no capacity to make Zimbabwe a globally competitive country.
We in the opposition seek change that has both form and substance. Our vision is that of a Zimbabwe characterised by people-centred social development and economic growth. We want a nation of prosperity, economic opportunities, affordable high quality public services, social justice, equity, and gender justice. We want a country of business growth, productive commercial agriculture and innovative entrepreneurship
Yes we have a stabilisation
plan, yes we will deploy an economic recovery plan, but more importantly,
we have an economic transformation programme that will make Zimbabwe
the Singapore of Africa, the Malaysia of Africa. Zimbabwe has so much
potential in terms of human capital, natural resources and infrastructure.
What is missing is strategic leadership rooted in an imaginative economic
vision and backed by technocratic capacity.
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