At Global Zimbabwe Forum NPO we advocate for a vibrant political scenario in Zimbabwe which will lead to an enabling political climate for development and voluntary return of Zimbabwe’s diaspora. What I’m articulating here are my views as Acting Coordinator, and not representative of all Zimbabweans inside or outside Zimbabwe.
I’m following the judgement on MDC. If I were the leadership of the MDC I would immediately invite Dr Khupe to come and act as President of the party now, until the May Congress. Write her the invite. Chamisa and Khupe should convene MDC-T executive meeting, Khupe sits in as Acting President and ratify what they did in the past– that Chamisa pulled together an MDC Alliance which confirmed and fielded candidates in constituencies for the past general election and that Khupe confirmed and fielded her MDC-T parliamentary candidates. Confirm both nominations of candidates of the past election. Change the impending congress to an Extraordinary Congress with one agenda – appointing President of the party. All the other party cadres remain in their previous positions or resolve to combine as Extraordinary and elective.
I prefer just electing a President and delaying the full elective general congress preferably to around 2022, close to the 2023 general elections. The delay allows time to cool down and unite the party, and deny President Mnangagwa early knowledge of his opponent and from manipulating behind the scenes.
If the MDC does not ratify together as the old executive, as above, parliament will declare that MDC parliamentarians, although they won their contests, were irregularly appointed to represent their constituencies, and unfit to hold their seats. The speaker of parliament will take legal advice. Legal opinion will find that wherever Chamisa chaired any meeting to confirm or appoint candidature, that meeting was irregular and the confirmations of parliamentary candidates null and void. The speaker will move to declare MDC parliamentary members’ seats vacant and call a by-election in their constituencies, whether MDC regularizes their appointment to participate in the by-election or not. All the MPs will lose their seats and their salaries on the spot. If MDC then decide to rectify the irregularity and field candidates in the by-election half would lose the byelection. It would be shame.
The same situation applies to Khupe. In defiance, she continued with MDC-T, but the rest of the MDC-T executive was not present at any of her meetings. Her own MPs were also irregularly appointed. Her make shift executive is similarly invalid. Khupe’s departure to run a parallel candidate list was also irregular. She might claim she had the power but it was not confirmed, and the other party structure members were not sitting with her in those her decisions. Her MPs will face the same fate.
If MDC continues with the Congress as it is, someone will bring an application to declare the proceedings null and void, because in the meetings to approve to call the congress Chamisa would have chaired some, if not all the meetings. Because Chamisa’s appointment was irregular all where he touched is affected.
Further, the public would be skeptical of a party which failed to heed court decisions. The courts must be respected, as the last arbiter of disputes.
Zimbabwe is run on intelligence. Intelligence is to see ahead of your enemy. A seemingly lay person from Gokwe lodged the court case. This is a plot for 2023. When the MDC MPs are dismembered, they change the law of presidential age to disqualify Chamisa, and there will be few MDC MPs to argue against the motion and ample evidence of puerility. MDC ignore their only super intelligence guru, Sox Chikohwero, a founding member, the first security head who was tortured and banished from Zimbabwe for intelligence reasons, and who never defected from the party, one who carries the message of Morgan Tsvangirai when he was on death bed, and carried his coffin to the airport with Tsvangirai family. What did Tsvangirai say to him about the future of the party after his departure? Why is the party not consulting him on these matters because he knows and is well trained. Without an intelligence system MDC is sailing in muddy waters.
The judgement can be a blessing in disguise, because it is forcing the party to work together to correct a tactical fault.
Post published in: Featured