Tsvangirai fights for political life after NEC humiliation

Tsvangirai fights for political life after NEC humiliation

HUMILIATED: Tsvangirai

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By Torby Chimhashu

OPPOSITION leader Morgan Tsvangirai is fighting for his political life after his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party’s national executive council humiliated him by refusing to endorse the election of Theresa Makone as the new head of the women’s assembly.

Tsvangirai had pulled all stops ahead of Saturday’s meeting. He met provincial officials and his party’s parliamentary caucus in the vain hope to secure endorsement for Makone, whose husband, Ian, is one of Tsvangirai’s top advisers and financiers.

Makone was controversially elected as the head of the women’s assembly after the ouster of Lucia Matibenga, who commands widespread support in the trade-union backed party.

Matibenga’s supporters said her ouster was “unconstitutional” and accused Tsvangirai of failing to uphold the party’s internal procedures.

Tsvangirai had tried to whiz through Makone’s “election” in his presidential report, telling party officials that the matter was now “water under the bridge”. But he came out a cropper against officials who insisted on a full debate since the item was on the agenda.

In a dramatic moment, Makone was asked to leave the meeting in a clear message that the national council did not recognise her election. Matibenga, who had indicated she would attend, was asked to stay away.

Several senior MDC officials took turns to attack the process that secured Makone’s “election”, itself a damning condemnation of Tsvangirai, who has staked his political career on the risky move to dump Matibenga for one of his friends.

Exactly two years ago, in October 2005, Tsvangirai suffered another humiliation when the national council voted to participate in senate elections due later that year despite his opposition.

Tsvangirai later prevailed when he vetoed his national council, leading to half the party’s MPs leaving to form another MDC faction. The party has never fully recovered its lustre.

At Saturday’s meeting, national executive council officials heard allegations that Makone, who was elected at a Bulawayo restaurant owned by Tsvangirai’s deputy, Thokozani Khupe, had splashed thousands of scarce South African rands to senior party officials in all provinces in a bid to secure their backing.

The Women in Politics Support Unit (WiPSU) and the Feminist Political Education Project (FePEP), who observed the ‘elections’, said: “The entire electoral process of the MDC (Tsvangirai) Women’s Assembly was severely flawed and could not have constituted a legitimate process in terms of the MDC’s internal party procedures, basic electoral norms and the SADC guidelines regarding elections.

“Some provincial chairpersons and district chairpersons had been given sums of between Z$40 to Z$60 million, cell phones and taken on shopping trips to South Africa."

Nelson Chamisa, the party’s spokesman, emerged as a surprise opponent of Matibenga’s ouster during the meeting. Chamisa was joined in this by former Harare mayor, Elias Mudzuri, deputy secretary general Tapiwa Mashakada, Kwekwe MP Blessing Chebundo and Thamsanqa Mahlangu, the youth leader.

Several other senior officials have thrown their wait behind the ‘Friends of Lucia Campaign’ which has been a rallying point for Matibenga’s supporters.

Following the tension-filled deliberations, the national council agreed to reopen debate on Makone’s “election” on November 11, when the national chairman Lovemore Moyo would be available.

Moyo missed Saturday’s meeting as he is in South Africa, where the MDC is involved in talks with the Zanu PF to find a political solution to the country’s economic crisis and set ground rules for next year’s general elections.

Chamisa said in a sparsely-detailed statement: “We resolved to put the issue about the women’s assembly aside and wait for the report from the national chairman, Mr Moyo, who was not at the meeting as he is engaged in the Mbeki-led initiative.

“The national chairman will compile a report about what happened in Bulawayo regarding the women’s assembly and we expect that report in a few days’ time.

"However, there is consensus on the way forward and the party will soon make its position known to the public.”

Tsvangirai has led the MDC since its formation in 1999. After the split of October 12, 2005, and the latest schism, many observers say Tsvangirai is now ripe for internal challenges for power, with a possibility of senior figures deserting him to form a new political grouping which might attract cross-party backing.
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