The veteran politician recently trounced National Healing Minister Sekai Holland in elections held to elect the Midlands South representative to the National Executive – the party’s highest decision-making body outside congress, equivalent to Zanu (PF)’s politburo.
Mkahlera joined the MDC-T at its inception in 1999. He won a parliamentary seat in the bitterly contested 2000 general elections – becoming the first opposition legislator in Gweru since Independence.
When the party split in 2008 over an impasse on whether to participate in the first round of senatorial elections, Mkahlera, who strongly believes in a bicameral legislative system, joined the splinter group led by Arthur Mutambara.
At the MDC-T’s 10th Anniversary Celebrations in 2010, Mkahlera re-joined the party and was drafted into the provincial structures as secretary for economic affairs.
“You do not solve problems within any institution by leaving it.
This is what dawned on me after I had left the first MDC group to join MDC-N,” says Mkahlera. “My heart has always been with the MDC and now that I will be representing the people of Midlands South in the highest body of the party, I submit myself to the agenda of bringing positive change in the country in all spheres,” he added said.
“When I became an ordinary card-carrying member of the MDC-T in 2010 I realised that you see a lot when you are a spectator rather than a player in the game.
This makes me confident that great things lie ahead because of what I have learnt.”
Being an expert in economics, Mkahlera believes he will add value to the party by giving progressive input on World Trade. “There are a number of things we need to address in the manner in which we involve ourselves in World Trade,” he said.
“For instance, we need to deal with the issue of dumping. So many local vehicle companies have scaled down operations rendering thousands of local employees jobless.
Second hand cars are being imported from Japan at a pittance greatly affecting the local industry,” he said.
In 2005, Mkahlera was picked by the European Union to present a paper on protectionism in Hong Kong.
Post published in: News