Zimbabwe Situation

Chamisa vs Khupe, Mudzuri

Source: Chamisa vs Khupe, Mudzuri | ZimEye

MDC-T leadership struggles



By Brett Holley
| First and foremost, one must state very clearly that the only reason we in Zimbabwe had a military coup and now massive confusion in the opposition is because both parties did not stick to term limits for their respective leaders. Simply put, if ZanuPf stuck to term limits, they would be on their 4th president.

If MDCT did the same, they would be on their 2nd president 1 year away from their third.

As we can see now, the MDCT has clearly drawn themselves into 2 factions. One led by Chamisa the other by khupe/mudzuri.

If they don’t solve their constitutional crisis of term limits- which they wont- then we may have the following future in MDCT;

If the Khupe 54 years /Mudzuri 60 years faction win, one of them will rule for at least another 20 years or 4 terms.

If the Chamisa 40 years faction win, that could be easily another 35 years or 7 terms.

Saka just based on giving others a chance in future to lead, the Khupe/Mudzuri faction would be less damaging.

You see comrades, we can debate this leadership issue but in fact the biggest problem in the MDCT is the lack of a constitution and to those that argue there is one, the lack of leaders following that constitution. By just debating leadership, we have only addressed the results of a weak constitution and the leaderships willingness to bend that constitution to suit their individual agendas.

We would suggest that along with leadership renewal, the members of the party INSIST on term limits for the next president. Not term limits that are debatable at congress or changeable at the next NEC meeting. No. We are talking of water tight term limits as follows;

1- The term limits cannot be changed by any congress. It is a non changeable law and if the party leadership should insist on changing this aspect in the constitution, then the party must be liquidated and all party assets donated to charities and a new party not carrying the same name can be formed and adopt any changes they so wish to have in their new constitution.

2- The President will only be allowed to run for 2 terms of 5 years each if elected at the congress, and then they become a Good Will Ambassador for and on behalf of the Party and an Automatic seat in the Guardians Council till death.

3- No matter how popular a president may be, even if 100% of delegates want him/her to serve a 3rd term, no matter if the party has not ruled the country, no matter if there is no other popular candidate, no matter anything else, the term limits will be upheld at all times.

4- No-One over the age of 70 or younger than 40 is allowed to contest to lead the party and cannot be elected as president. If we have a minimum age requirement, it only makes sense to have a maximum cut off as well.

These points must be written into the constitution. In black and white.

Remember, if a party has constant, predictable and expected renewal of leaders, it will result in the next generation patiently waiting their turn to be leaders, and in the meantime, will support the current leadership. On the other hand if the leaders do not step down, the younger generation get impatient and this results in splits, factions and Coups.

Will MDCT take this advice?

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