The+bitter+taste+of+MDCs+failure,+The+Star

The Star, Johannesburg, August 8, 2005
=The bitter taste of MDC's failure=

Frank Chamunorwa was beaten up and left for dead by President Robert Mugabe's thugs when he helped launch the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in September 1999.

But he was bitter and close to tears when he described a more recent political assault, six weeks ago. Though less violent, it was more painful because he was abducted from his Harare home and assaulted on a street corner, not by Mugabe's Zanu-PF, but youths of his own party.

They accused Chamunorwa (55), a veteran of Mugabe's liberation army, of complicity in what he calls an "absurd" plot to oust the president of the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai, in favour of the party's secretary-general, Welshman Ncube.

"I have never been so dejected in my life because my own party perpetrated atrocities on me. I was not only beaten but forced to bend down, lie on the ground by youths, most of them younger than my firstborn.

"Morgan has our mandate. More than half the population want him to rule, but his ineptitude and indecision may cost him and Zimbabwe dearly."

He scoffs at those in Tsvangirai's inner circle, particularly national chairman Isaac Matongo, whom he accuses of "doing Zanu-PF's work" by fanning "false and stupid" rumours of Ncube's ambitions.

He says he remain a loyal elected provincial official but is intensely critical of the MDC, probably Africa's largest opposition party.

He says that even though the MDC is unremittingly persecuted by Zanu PF, it failed to do basic political work before the March parliamentary elections. It did not ensure, for example, that new supporters who turned up at rallies in Mugabe's rural strongholds were registered voters.

Chamunorwa is not sure whether Tsvangirai believed the party's amateurish election directorate's propaganda that the party could win enough votes to overwhelm Zanu-PF. Surely, critics ask, this was the MDC's third election experience and it had seen enough of Zanu PF's methods to know that it rigs polls.

The MDC lost 15 of the seats it had won in 2000 when it came within three seats of defeating Mugabe. The party was then just nine months old. Now, with another 30 appointed seats, Zanu-PF has a two-thirds majority and has already begun steps to change the constitution.

Diamond Karanda (31), an official in MDC security until he was beaten by MDC colleagues on June 16 and accused, like Chamunorwa, of supporting Welshman Ncube, says he still cannot walk properly because his left leg was so badly wrenched during the assault.

"I have many scars from Zanu-PF. They knocked out four teeth, but it is not alright when I am beaten up in the MDC boardroom which has become a torture chamber."

They are not the only two who have been attacked for the same reason, by youths, about 20 of whom have been expelled.

Ten days ago at a meeting of the MDC's national executive committee a statement was circulated from the party's legal secretary David Coltart who was overseas on party business.

"Violence has been used for over 100 years in this country to achieve political objectives and is responsible for the catastrophic state we find our country in today," Coltart wrote. "I cannot believe that the youths involved in despicable acts acted independently. It is common cause that they are unemployed and yet they had access to substantial funding."

Coltart pointed out in his statement that last year MDC thugs tried to murder Peter Guhu, the MDC's former director of security who has now fled to SA.

"I am deeply concerned about persistent allegations ... that Welshman Ncube is vying to be president ... there are only two people in Zimbabwe who have sufficient national support to run for president, Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai. Within the MDC only Morgan Tsvangirai has sufficient status to contest the presidency. Welshman Ncube knows that. I know that," Coltart wrote.

"At the very time we have Zanu-PF on its knees and divided, we appear to be intent on tearing up everything we have worked so hard to build over the last few, very difficult years ... " said Coltart.

MDC national chairman Isaac Matongo brushed off Coltart's statement. "It was not tabled officially. Anyone who says we are fighting among ourselves is helping Zanu-PF," he said last week.

Tsvangirai has declined to comment.

Political scientist John Makumbe says: "Zanu-PF's methods have rubbed off on all of us, including the MDC.

"Morgan Tsvangirai failed to mobilise an aggrieved nation because his advisors tell him all the time: 'Stop, Mugabe will kill you.'

Zanu-PF uses the state resources to crush the MDC. (The party) knew this when it began, or else it didn't understand Zanu-PF."

Commentator Brian Raftopoulos says: "The MDC is paralysed and if this is not dealt with it will lead to its demise."

Tsvangirai, like Chaminorwa and Karanda, are from the majority Shona tribe.

Ndebeles like Welshman Ncube accept, without question, that after decades of Mugabe's ethnic politics, only a Shona can hope to be a national leader at this time.

The MDC has tried to shun ethnic tensions, so many of its leaders were relieved when, in apparent despair with the party's paralysis, both Welshman Ncube and his Shona deputy Gift Chimanikire recently told Tsvangirai they wanted to quit.

Neither has yet resigned through formal channels, and both apparently hope that the MDC will "face its own demons",

Yet discontent with Tsvangirai's leadership is coming increasingly to the surface as the MDC fails to make any headway against Zanu-PF. When Mugabe carried out his recent six-week assault on the urban poor, bulldozing large areas and destroying the homes or livelihoods of 700 000 people, the opposition failed to offer any coherent response.

Morgan Tsvangirai's strongest critics in the party accept that he is the victim of assasssination attempts and treason charges intended to de-stabilise him and that he is demonised in the daily press and on radio and television every day.

But his leadership skills are nonetheless coming under sharp scrutiny. Under the MDC's constitution, if he seeks re-election at its second congress next March, it would be his last term as leader. And if, as expected, Mugabe changes the constitution to merge presidential and parliamentary elections - which will allow him to remain in office until 2010 - Morgan Tsvangirai may never get another chance to lead Zimbabwe.

The MDC held an imbizo last weekend to address these problems and reportedly made progress. But much repair work remains.- Independent Foreign Service


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=327&fArticleId=2820557**