Tsvangirai calls crisis meeting over Matibenga

Tsvangirai calls crisis meeting over Matibenga

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By Lebo Nkatazo

A FACTION of Zimbabwe’s feuding main opposition party called a crisis meeting for Saturday as party leader Morgan Tsvangirai came under a barrage of criticism over developing fissures in the organisation’s women’s wing.

One of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)’s key allies, the Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu), came out in support of Lucia Matibenga, the head of the party’s women’s wing who was fired last week. Her supporters say the decision to relieve her of her duties broke the party’s rules.

Zinasu warned Tsvangirai that “the people will punish us by voting for Zanu PF, justifiably so” if an end was not found to “this mudslinging”.

“What kind of government do we want to be when we cannot honour our own covenants and respect the will of the people? What guarantee is there that the MDC as it currently stands will deliver a new constitution to the country and bring back our freedoms?,” asked Zinasu president Promise Mkhwananzi in a ‘solidarity letter’ to the ‘Friends of Lucia’ campaign.

Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman for the MDC faction, on Tuesday said a meeting of the party’s national executive had been called in Harare for Saturday to discuss “party hygiene issues”.

The discussions are expected to be dominated by the schism in the women’s assembly which saw Tsvangirai’s adherents electing a new women’s assembly executive in Bulawayo over the weekend, and Matibenga also calling a congress where she “gap-filled posts of those absent”, her supporters said.

Tsvangirai’s group elected Theresa Makone, the wife of his friend and funder Ian Makone, as their new head of the women’s assembly, while across town in Bulawayo, Matibenga was also claiming she had been re-elected by a properly constituted congress.

Chamisa said: “The MDC national executive will hold a crucial meeting on Saturday, 3 November 2007 to discuss critical issues affecting the party and the nation. The national executive shall deliberate on the dialogue process taking place in South Africa, the national executive of the Women's Assembly, the escalating violence against opposition members as well as the worsening national crisis that is affecting the ordinary Zimbabwean.

“The MDC as a democratic institution has sufficient mechanisms to deal with both the internal and external challenges that are fairly inevitable in such a mass-based organisation.”

The MDC’s latest troubles are testing even Tsvangirai’s most ardent supporters, particularly female backers who feel the party is frustrating ambitious rising stars in their ranks.

Many backed Tsvangirai when half the MDC’s MPs broke away from Tsvangirai when he rejected a vote of the party’s national council on October 12, 2005. The MPs accused Tsvangirai of being a “dictator” when he vetoed a party decision to field candidates in senate elections later that year. The other MDC faction is led by Arthur Mutambara.

Writing on New Zimbabwe.com Sekai Holland, one of the MDC’s leading figures, said: “This latest male chauvinist abuse is dragging all our positive energies to ground. I told Tsvangirai that his handicap is his close friends masquerading as advisors who give him bad advice.”

And Zinasu’s Mkhwananzi added: “We are all devastated at what we see going on in our party, more so at a crucial period before elections. I know that you are the heroines that stood with Tsvangirai during his time of need. We stood with him together with you, because of our genuine desire for a new society based on the respect for and promotion of human and gender equality, but today we are confused. We do not know whether we stood for the right thing or not -- the October 12 question remains unanswered.”

Analysts say that the divided MDC’s electoral prospects in general elections next year are gloomy, unless the party can come into a coalition with other reform-minded organisations and politicians.
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