Tsvangirai speaks out!

Tsvangirai speaks out

Njabulo Ncube Political Editor

Opposition leader gives his side of the story

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FACING the strongest internal challenge in years and with more questions being asked about his leadership style, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai has come out all guns blazing, insisting he is still in full control and has his eyes set firmly on next year’s elections.

The backlash from Tsvangirai’s sacking of Lucia Matibenga as head of the party’s Women’s Assembly, and her subsequent replacement by Theresa Makone, the wife of one of his top advisers, has caused alarm among opposition supporters and key allies in civic society.

The controversy has sparked intra-party violence and raised the spectre of new divisions in the opposition, already severely crippled by the October 2005 split that has minimized the MDC’s chances of dislodging ZANU PF from government.


Tsvangirai’s decision, which ignored recommendations made after an internal inquiry and the advice of the national executive council, has once again exposed his leadership to intense scrutiny.

But in an exclusive interview with The Financial Gazette this week, Tsvangirai was defiant, saying he would not allow what he called “the Matibenga sideshow” to distract him from “the main goal” of fighting President Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF in polls scheduled for March next year.

The MDC’s participation in the elections is however, conditional.

Speaking on the row for the first time, days after surviving a threatened rebellion by senior lieutenants irked by his decision to ignore their advice not to oust Matibenga, the MDC leader shrugged off criticism that he had become increasingly autocratic and that his style of leadership had reduced the opposition party to its weakest point since its formation eight years ago.

“Far from it, the MDC is as united as it can ever be,” Tsvangirai insisted, when asked to respond to suggestions that power was slipping from his grip.
“Our leadership, based on the principle of collective responsibility, is firmly in charge. Any suggestions to the contrary are the figment of the imaginations of those bent on destroying the people’s project towards a new Zimbabwe. What you see is vibrant intra-party democracy, which tolerates divergent views on those matters affecting the party.”

Officials have reported that at last Saturday’s national executive meeting, held at a private venue and not the party headquarters at Harvest House as usual, Tsvangirai was humiliated after being forced to climb down on the Matibenga issue.

The MDC leader, however, insisted the reports were a “gross exaggeration” by the media.

He maintained that the MDC national standing committee did not violate the party’s constitution when it dissolved the women’s assembly headed by Matibenga.
The former trade unionist alleged that people on the payroll of state security agents and ZANU PF were “peddling falsehoods” to ruin his reputation ahead of the elections.

“The problem is that, suddenly, so many people have become MDC constitutional experts,” he said.

“The majority of them have never read the MDC constitution. You see, if the national council, through the national standing committee had, as suggested, blatantly violated the constitution in the dissolution of the assembly, then the High Court would obviously have set aside the decision and interdicted the congress. But it didn’t. The fact of the matter is that the national council resolved that at the conclusion of the inquiry (into the affairs of the women’s wing), the leadership must make a decision.”

That inquiry, as reported by The Financial Gazette, in fact recommended that the party’s leadership must “change its attitude towards the assembly, be accommodative, and resource it accordingly.”

On his backing of Theresa Makone, Tsvangirai said in terms of the constitution of his party, the national executive or the National Council did not have the powers to either endorse or reject elected officers of Women’s and Youth Assemblies.

While acknowledging that the meeting was highly charged, he however, said the national executive resolved that any further discussion of the extraordinary congress of the Women’s Assembly would take place when the faction’s chairman, Lovemore Moyo presents his report on what transpired.

In his report, Moyo backs Tsvangirai’s decision, and says that at three meetings of the national council and the women’s wing held since July, members, including Matibenga herself, had conceded that the Women’s Assembly “was largely dysfunctional due to bad relations between the members of the leadership.”

Under party rules, Moyo’s report, says, Tsvangirai was entitled to take action.
Tsvangirai maintained that Makone and the 19- member executive, consisting of eight officers directly elected at the Bulawayo congress and the 11 provincial chairpersons, were the bona fide leaders of the Women’s Assembly “until removed by the women themselves during an ordinary or extraordinary congress.”

He denied that his support for Makone was based on her close friendship with his wife, Susan, or because Theresa is the wife of his close associate and elections director, Ian Makone.

Critics say Makone is part of a “kitchen cabinet” Tsvangirai has increasingly tended to depend on for key policy decisions, thus sidelining formal party structures.
But he said: “Firstly, you need to understand that the issue, from the point of view of the party, is not about Lucia Matibenga or Theresa Makone. We do not manage the party with the objective of either pleasing or hurting individuals, but in the best interests of the party as a whole. The party is bigger than any individual, and that includes myself.

It is about the performance of an organ of a party or its officers as we prepare for the 2008 elections, subject of course to a free and fair environment. Matibenga is a respected member of the party, and she will remain so.”

He said the MDC, which had procured more than 40 new Isuzu vehicles in preparation for the elections, was “ready for an election tomorrow”.

“The level of suffering of the majority of our people cannot be extended by any day longer. People have no food, jobs, transport, drugs, water and power. The list is endless. We need to resolve the national crisis now, rather than later. This can only be done by creating the necessary environment for a free and fair election where Zimbabweans can freely choose a government of their choice, which can then immediately resolve the myriad economic problems besetting the country,” he said.
But his bullish remarks about the election are clouded by suggestions that his faction’s participation would be conditional.

Before any elections, and after the conclusion of negotiations being brokered by Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, there would be need for “a healing period during, which an agreement on the electoral environment arising out of the Southern African Development Community facilitated talks would be put to a practical test, a test that ZANU PF must pass”, he said.

”We need to rebuild the shattered confidence of our people, confidence that it is still possible to effect democratic change through a secure ballot.”