But before I go too far, let me first of all give Ncube the benefit of doubt as he may have been misquoted. In the past when I have confronted him to clarify positions attributed to him in the media, he has professed ignorance and said he had never had an interview as claimed.
My last confrontation with Ncube was towards the Parliamentary Speaker re-election following the nullification by the courts of Lovemore Moyo's first election, when I asked him why his party was barring its parliamentarians from participating in the election. I told him that was a violation of their rights. He denied his party was barring the parliamentarians from voting, until I produced statements by two senior officials in his party, when he then admitted that such a move was inappropriate, and said corrective action was to be taken.
But if Ncube really said what has been attributed to him by the media, I would love to hear from him his definition of education. For me, education is not measured by the number of university degrees one has attained. I find the idea that education is the delivery of knowledge, skills and information from teachers to students very misguided. There are a lot of people who are self-taught, and have achieved immensely.
It would be unfair to say Tsvangirai has been a failure when he managed to lead a party that defeated Mugabe with all his university degrees in the 2008 elections. When the original MDC split in 2005, Ncube's party took away the majority of the MDC parliamentarians, but wasn't it leadership failure that made them loose the majority of those seats in the 2008 elections? Wasn't that party lead by a Professor as party president, and Professor Ncube himself as Secretary-General?
Ncube seems to be hitting Tsvangirai below the belt. Just a month or so ago, he was in the media shouting that Tsvangirai is empty, and now he is heard saying Tsvangirai is uneducated. In his latest outburst, Ncube goes further to say that the people who started the struggle for freedom realised the need for educated leaders and invited them to lead the existing parties. If that is what you said, Professor Ncube, let me educate you by saying that you are being very subjective and uneducated in your statements. Every Zimbabwean knows that it is Tsvangirai's leadership that has brought Mugabe to the negotiating table, hence the very high prospects now that Mugabe will go soon.
It was the skewed judgement of the professors who were in charge of the then MDC-M that lead to the two MDCs failing to work together in the 2008 elections. Already, when discussion started around the possibility of the two MDCs forming a united front in the next election, Ncube is reported by the media as saying Tsvangirai was not taking the MDC-N as equal partners, suggesting that he would want a bigger representation of candidates from his party fielded than is the party's actual potential – that is crazy.
He must accept that his party is the smaller of the two, especially when their rallies are attracting a paltry 100 to 200 people as has been reported in several newspapers recently. Ncube is a difficult personality, and negotiating a partnership with him may be more retrogressive than progressive. At this rate I see the MDC-N's representation in parliament after the next election severely reduced.
Let me conclude by apologising to Ncube in advance if the statement in the newspapers has been falsely attributed to him, but if he indeed said so, I challenge him to be real.
Post published in: News