| The best Zimbabwe news site on the world wide web |  |
Morgan Tsvangirai must go!
By
Obert Madondo
WITH the latest crisis
in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Zimbabweans
are justifiably agonising about the future of the democratic project.
There is only one way to save the sinking ship and resuscitate the struggle against the Robert Mugabe dictatorship: Morgan Tsvangirai must go. He has irretrievably degenerated into a Robert Mugabe incarnate.
The dominant thesis that the 2005 MDC split, disputed wholesome dissolution of the UK branch and recent nullification of the Lucia Matibenga-led Women’s Assembly highlight weaknesses in the opposition misses the point. Under Tsvangirai the MDC is fast mutating into a Zanu PF in a democratic face mask.
The 2005 split and Tsvangirai’s subsequent failure to reconcile the two factions or develop winning alliances with other democratic forces, undoubtedly questions Tsvangirai’s leadership qualities. But, so far, analysts have deliberately avoided handing him a harsh verdict. His many questionable decisions are variously posited as “breach of party rules”, “failure to consult members”. He has “vetoed” party decisions. Lack of “intra-party democracy” or “good governance” are two of the many subtle terms that mask his inept leadership.
Hasn’t our painful history with Robert Mugabe taught us anything? Cuddling leaders make them untouchable saints and despots. Either we kill our cuddly attitude toward leaders now or turn Tsvangirai into another Robert Mugabe. As Mugabe is responsible for every drop of blood his party and supporters shed, Tsvangirai is responsible for every crisis that has visited the MDC since its formation.
With the three major crises of the last two years, Tsvangirai breached constitutional and democratic principles. He gave us encore excepts from Mugabe’s dictatorial rule. The dictator engineered the 1987 constitutional amendment that entrenched his position in Zanu PF and the country. He ruthlessly purged dissent. As his power waned in the early 1990s he developed a clientelistic system of politics where he rewarded loyalists. Thanks to the partisan economic indigenisation program of the 90s, and lucrative government contracts, these loyalists became filthy rich overnight. Recently, they benefited from the corrupt land reform programme.
With his march to State House stalled, Tsvagirai’s position is under scrutiny. He faces real and overt challenges to his leadership. In response, he has now adopted Mugabe’s clientelistic leadership style. Theresa Makone, Ian Makone’s wife, was just “elected” to the leadership of the faction’s Women’s Assembly. Ian Makone is Tsvangirai’s most loyal disciple and friend.
There’s no doubt that Tsvangirai, like Mugabe, now has imaginary enemies too. Lucia Matibenga did not directly challenge his leadership. The overwhelming grassroots support she still commands after the inconclusive coup against her testifies to her growing influence in the faction. By refusing to yield to her undemocratic demotion, she personified potential rivalry with Tsvangirai.
Similarities are now being drawn between the Matibenga saga and the Margaret Dongo saga of 1995. Dongo engineered her own expulsion from Zanu PF after she openly challenged Mugabe on the electoral turf in Harare South. In Parliament, she challenged those who rubberstamped his every wish.
There is something about women and politics at play here, something clearly too hot to handle for Tsvangirai. Matibenga, like Dongo, posed a clear and present danger to male hegemony in Zimbabwean politics. Let me put it all in a global context. Liberia recently elected Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Africa’s first female President. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is set to become Argentina’s first female president. In the USA Hillary Clinton is certain to win the Democratic nomination for the US presidency. The dawn of female political leadership is upon us.
By sanctioning the arbitrary sidelining of Matibenga, Tsvangirai has lent credence to emerging theses of “male chauvinism” and “male patriarchal privilege” in Zimbabwean politics. He said yes, I’m scared as hell of powerful, independent women. The same Tsvangirai the Western media touts as principled and democratic responds to political challenges and dissent by adopting Mugabe’s patronage style of leadership where internal opposition is purged and loyalty is heftily rewarded.
Absolving Zimbabweans would not help. Stoicism and blind loyalty to leadership are quintessential Zimbabwean qualities. But, in the context of our current politics, they’re tragic qualities. Recently Sekai Holland, an MDC founding leader, said of a recent conversation she’d with Tsvangirai: “I told Tsvangirai that his handicap is his close friends masquerading as advisors who give him bad advice.” Sounds familiar? Some Zimbabweans have made careers of defending Mugabe’s dictatorial rule. These apologists credited the late Edison Zvobgo for crafting the dictatorial constitutional amendment of 1987. They blamed Nathan Shamhuyarira for Dongo’s costly expulsion from Zanu PF and the CIO for Murambatsvina.
Zimbabweans’ reverend and protectionist attitude toward the political leadership makes it hard for junior politicians in opposition parties to follow the dictates of democratic principle or criticize the leadership. It reduces them to leader-worshiping zombies who will do anything to defend corrupt leaders, especially when such loyalty guarantees them a cabinet post in government.
Tendai Biti is a case in point. During Margaret Dongo’s 1995 High Court challenge, I supervised Dongo’s investigation into Zanu PF’s rigging of the Harare South parliamentary election. I regularly updated Biti, then lead advocate for Dongo, on the investigation’s progress. Biti the non-political, private individual, the professional, acquitted himself as the most ardent disciple of constitutionalism and democratic leadership. As a politician and member of the current Tsvangirai MDC faction, though, he is prone to moral degeneration.
Some analysts have called for the unification of the two factions of the MDC, and an immediate alliance of all democratic forces in the country. These measures alone will not resuscitate the democratic challenge to Mugabe’s dictatorship. The crisis in the MDC is no longer a Tsvangirai MDC faction crisis. The entire democratic project is under siege. Tsvangirai’s inept leadership has plunged the opposition forces into a quagmire where they must put their house in order and, simultaneously, confront the Mugabe dictatorship. Tsvangirai has become a liability to the democratic process.
Zimbabweans must reclaim the democratic project. The MDC owes them for the many second chances they gave Tsvangirai. The least the MDC can do is liberate us from Tsvangirai. He is unfit to replace Robert Mugabe, let alone rule Zimbabwe.
Obert Madondo
is a Zimbabwean social commentator based in Canada
JOIN
THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com
All material copyright newzimbabwe.com
Material may be published or reproduced in any form with appropriate credit to this website