|
MDC factional war rages on
The Herald, 30 December 2005
By Tichaendepi Chuma
THE two factions battling to control the MDC after disagreements over participation in the November 26 Senate elections have been setting their troops on all fronts in readiness for whichever direction the fight will take.
The first arena of the fight is the media where the Ncube and Tsvangirai factions are engaged in a bitter war characterised by accusations and counter-accusations that sometimes degenerate into personal tirades. Both the public and private media have had a bumper harvest of news from the mudslinging between the now increasingly irreconcilable sides.
The Press wars have ended in a deadlock although there is still some fighting on this front.
The belligerent camps have also taken the fight to internal disciplinary structures. The anti-Senate faction was the first to use this option by suspending the Member of Parliament for St Mary’’s, Job Sikhala, for ostensibly bringing the name of the MDC into disrepute through allegations that differences within the party were spurred by the need to control US$2,5 million in foreign funds the party reportedly received from the governments of Ghana, Nigeria and Taiwan.
The suspension was, however, nullified by the High Court.
The Ncube faction then decided to go for the big one by suspending party president Morgan Tsvangirai for overturning the constitution of the party and going against the national council resolution of October 12 to participate in the Senate elections.
Members of the Tsvangirai faction responded by convening a special council meeting to set aside the suspension of their leader.
Again, having seen that the use of internal disciplinary structures would not give either side any headway, the Ncube faction decided to shift the front to the courts of law by applying for Tsvangirai’’s interdiction from performing duties as party president. The High Court dismissed the application with costs, prompting the Ncube faction to appeal to the Supreme Court.
What is interesting is that the two sides seem to have sensed that the judiciary is unlikely to be dragged into intra-party disputes and might order that the MDC hold a congress to decide on who should lead the opposition.
Both camps are now vigorously preparing for this front.
The Tsvangirai group seems to have taken an early lead by assembling the trio of national chairman Isaac Matongo, women’’s assembly chairperson Gladys Lucia Matibenga and youth chairman Nelson Chamisa to embark on a spirited restructuring exercise of the party’’s provinces and districts to weed out all who support the pro-Senate faction.
According to the Tsvangirai camp’’s scheme, only delegates who subscribe to the anti-Senate position should attend the congress set for February next year to make it easy to vote out of office the "rebels" —— party secretary-general Professor Welshman Ncube, vice president Gibson Sibanda, deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikire, party spokesman Paul Themba-Nyathi, treasurer Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, MPs Trudy Stevenson and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga.
Readers may be interested to know what the factions are doing in provinces of the country.
The Tsvangirai faction, which has been very visible, restructured Mashonaland West province at Harvest House in Harare on November 29. Japhet Karemba from Makonde was elected new chairman of the province while other Tsvangirai loyalists J. Vhurumu and a Mukudzei were elected to lead the women and youth assemblies, respectively.
The same faction proceeded to restructure Harare province on December 10, again at Harvest House. The elections for Harare province saw Morgan Femai being rewarded for supporting Tsvangirai on the issue of the Senate enabling him to retain his seat.
From Harare, the Tsvangirai camp moved to restructure Chitungwiza province on Dece-mber 12, again at the party’’s headquarters at Harvest House. Prior to the elections, there was pandemonium as known and suspected Ncube faction members were barred from participating. Martin Magaya was elected new provincial chairman for supporting Tsvangirai while the suspicious former chairman Edward Musimbe slipped to the position of deputy provincial chairman.
The majority of former provincial members for Chitungwiza failed to retain their posts as they aligned themselves to the pro-Senate group. From Chitungwiza, the anti-Senate group headed east to restructure Manicaland province on December 17 at the MDC provincial offices in Mutare. Roy Bennett won the Manicaland chairmanship with Cresencia Chasuka and Knowledge Nyamhoka emerging as chairpersons of the women and youth assemblies, respectively. Tsvangirai was not happy with the outcome of the Manicaland elections because he had preferred that the province be led by Misheck Kagurabadza with Tiniel Mwedzi as deputy chairman.
However, Tsvangirai got solace from the fact that Prosper Mutseyami was deposed from the chairmanship because he had initially supported the pro-Senate stance.
As tasked, Matongo, Chamisa and Matibenga restructured Mashonaland East province on December 15 at Harvest House, Masvingo province on December 18 at Mucheke Hall, Midlands South province on December 19 at Midlands Hotel, and Mashonaland Central province on December 21 at Madziwa Business Centre in Shamva
The test for the Tsvangirai faction exercise is yet to be seen in Bulawayo, Matabeleland South and North where elections are still pending. The pro-Senate group is unlikely to have problems in restructuring the MDC Midlands North province where restructuring is also pending.
The Ncube faction has vowed that it will not recognise any structures established by the Tsvangirai faction after the historic October 12 national council meeting.
The pro-Senate camp is following behind demolishing the pro-Tsvangirai structures in the districts.
Already, the Ncube-camp, which dominates the three Matabeleland provinces, has set up a committee to carry out restructuring in the region and then spread to other provinces.
The developments outlined above mean that the forthcoming MDC congress is likely to be characterised by disagreements and possible violent clashes as the two sides try to bar each other’’s delegates.
The other likely scenario is that the two factions would hold separate congresses to give two different sets of resolutions. This will mark the final split of the MDC.
After that the fight is likely to go to the courts in earnest to determine who should use the MDC name, symbol and assets.
Certainly, the MDC will continue to make news in the year 2006.
Back to homepage |
