2005-10-03,+Tragic+if+Zims+MDC+collapses,+City+Press


 * City Press, Johannesburg, 01/10/2005 18:18 - (SA)**

= **'It will be tragic if Zim's MDC collapses'** =

By Barnabas Thondhlana

PUBLIC confidence in the Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party as an alternative to the ruling Zanu-PF has sagged after the party failed to rally people to protest against a rigged ballot and further sank when the party hesitated to provide timeous leadership in confronting government over the demolition of housing settlements around the country.

The party now faces a stern test of public support after failing to exploit a groundswell of mass discontent following President Robert Mugabe's internationally condemned Operation Restore Order.

The operation resulted in over 700 000 people being rendered homeless after government destroyed houses or slum dwellings.

Formed in 1999, the MDC has provided the only credible opposition to Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party, which has been at the helm of the southern African country since independence from Britain in 1980.

According to Eldred Masunungure of the University of Zimbabwe: "The MDC stormed into the political terrain when Zimbabwe was on the verge of becoming a one-party state.

"The MDC has played a major role in ensuring Zimbabwe remains a multiparty state, though in a deformed way considering Zanu PF's dominance of the political arena."

After the 2000 elections, the MDC had 57 seats in parliament against Zanu-PF's 93, but because the ruling party did not have a two-thirds majority - necessary to push through constitutional amendments without hindrance - it could not ride roughshod over the nation.

Not so this time around, when the MDC only has 41 seats, and Zanu-PF 109 from elected and appointed legislators.

Is the MDC losing its grip on Zimbabwe's political landscape?

"Not so," said MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube.

"Six years since our formation, we are the youngest party in Africa which remains the largest in terms of opposition politics," he said.

"We are the only party in Africa, if not the whole world, which has 12 mayors running 12 cities and one rural council, and councillors throughout the country's landscape. That sort of presence is unprecedented in Africa and even the world and people ought to recognise that achievement," he added.

Ncube said the MDC had survived as an opposition party in Zimbabwe in the face of repression by the "illegal regime of President Mugabe".

"We have survived extreme violence and intimidation and the most repressive legislation in the world. Legislation which would, by the way, make even the former apartheid regime and (former Rhodesia prime minister) Ian Smith proud. We are fighting on and if we were to hold free and fair elections tomorrow, the MDC would romp to victory.

"We cannot be wished away," he said.

But Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity Bright Matonga said: "The MDC is a dying party as it is a creation of the white man. The MDC's financial muscle and ideas emanated from the white commercial farmers and in the corridors of Washington and London. It is not original.

"Once its power base was ruffled up, the party was left hanging. Once its stabilising factor - the white commercial farmers - were removed, the party fell to pieces."

Matonga said the party was now bedevilled by internal fighting, tribalism, trade unionists clashing with "intellectuals", Young Turks taking on the old guard and gender conflicts.

Masunungure agreed.

"The MDC's major challenge now is to survive as a unified political force. Its internal problems are being projected externally and this does not bode well for opposition politics," he said.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) said the MDC had to decide whether to adopt a more confrontational and extra-parliamentary position despite the real prospect that any street protests risked attracting the full repressive power of Zimbabwe's security services.

The Brussels-based think tank said the MDC should establish a clear position on the next steps and the best way to exert pressure on the government.

But MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai thinks otherwise.

"People blame us for not organising protests against the government. But how do you organise a person whose immediate priority is to see where his family is going to sleep or eat next?" he said.

"You cannot tell a person preoccupied with finding alternative accommodation for his family or a temporary place to keep his belongings to join a protest march," he said in response to criticism that the MDC should have seized the opportunity provided by the unpopular clean-up operation to rally people against the regime.

Furthermore the worker constituency the MDC depended on to launch successful mass job boycotts in the past, has been weakened by rampant unemployment as Zimbabwe's economy imploded following a succession of damaging policies. And MDC relations with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) also appear strained.

At one time, ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibebe said the MDC had treated the trade unions like "a caterpillar that digs the road, and as soon as it is smooth and ready for use, the caterpillar is banished and punished if it tries to drive on".

Ncube dismissed reports of infighting.

"What we have is a robust democratic process that allows members to vie for any posts within the party. We are going to a congress this year, and every member has the right to campaign for any post on offer," he said.

"No party in the world does not have robust discourse on issues. One can only stop such discourse if one is a dictator, but in the MDC, it is well and good for people to campaign - and unfortunately there will be what outsiders might term in-fighting."

The MDC appears somewhat disoriented in its focus by the constant detention and harassment of its members, as much as it has been by the suppression of most of the independent press.

"We have survived extreme brutality. More than 400 members of the party lost their lives in the period 2000 to date; thousands are maimed; thousands more have lost their homes and been victimised at work, and practically every member of the party carries scars inflicted by Zanu-PF. But we are still fighting," Ncube said.

Davison Maruziva, the editor of The Standard, said: "If the opposition was more co-ordinated in its approach instead of being fractious, it could easily embarrass the ruling Zanu-PF in Senate elections due before the end of the year."

Maruziva said since the March parliamentary elections, general living conditions for Zimbabweans had worsened to levels never before imaginable. "The worsening conditions, appear a godsend campaign opportunity for any opposition. But the MDC, in a repeat of its indecision just before the March 31 parliamentary elections, finds refuge in prevarication, signaling the dearth of a common position in the party," he said.

"The opposition stands to win a substantial, if not the majority of urban and peri-urban seats in the Senate because of the widespread disaffection among the urban majority because of increasing poverty levels. But it would be misleading to suggest it is only the urban dwellers who are most disaffected. People in the rural areas are beginning to realise how matters have been allowed to get out of control.

"They bear the brunt of the sharp rise in the cost of basic commodities and transport fares and the impact of fuel increases on purchasing and transporting agricultural inputs," he added.

But as has become its norm, the MDC is still to decide on participating in the December senatorial polls amid speculation that the party would not participate after expressing reservations on the amendment of the constitution in order to pave way for the reintroduction of the upper house of parliament.

"The MDC is linked to the future of Zimbabwe," secretary-general Ncube said.

"The party was born out of the people of this country, out of their desire to see the fulfillment of liberty, freedom, economic prosperity and a better life - ideals of independence.

"As long as the people of Zimbabwe remain in a state of deprivation, the MDC will continue to have relevance," he said.

However, Masunungure said: "I am not sure if Tsvangirai has the capacity to keep the party together. It would be tragic if the party were to collapse."

From: http://www.news24.com/City_Press/Features/0,,186-1696_1809728,00.html