via People’s movement on cards – NewsDay Zimbabwe September 2, 2015 by Richard Chidza
ZIMBABWE’s political landscape is set for a major change with organisers of the National Convergence Platform (NCP) indicating a “people’s movement” could be on the horizon.
In an interview with NewsDay yesterday, NCP spokesperson, Vince Musewe said his organisation, led by respected Anglican cleric, Bishop Sebastain Bakare, was tying up loose ends ahead of the function.
“We already have many political parties and they are not doing so well. Maybe what will come out of the gathering will be a movement, a people’s movement. Our problem has been of what should happen after the convergence. We have since reconfigured our secretariat and I can say we are now ready and sure of what we want,” he said.
He said all interest groups, will be invited, including the ruling Zanu PF party.
“The NCP is meant to redress a political problem and we will invite all interest groups including the 42 political parties in the country so far, the youths, churches, non-governmental organisations and business leaders. We should be ready in the next six to eight weeks, at the earliest we should convene late September and latest October,” he said.
The platform has been beset by problems since it was mooted early this year amid reports that some political parties wanted to hijack the project.
In January this year, opposition MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai clashed with Bakare after he allegedly tried to “steal” the idea of the indaba. Tsvangirai had told journalists at a Press briefing that his party was organising the event, drawing howls of disapproval and accusations of trying to turn the cause into a “partisan” event.
Tsvangirai, however, after meeting Bakare later made a volte-face with his MDC-T party announcing it would wait to be invited.
It remains unclear whether Zanu PF will attend the event as party spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Zimbabwe has been in a tailspin since the turn of the century, stuck in political, economic and social crises that President Robert Mugabe’s successive administrations have failed to resolve.
COMMENTS
In 1980, Smith, the RF and Muzorewa’s UANC were not entirely sure as to how much support ZANU or ZAPU PF had. In addition there was no voter’s role to manipulate, the UN provided observers and 20 seats were reserve for the RF.
Zanu PF, on the other hand, knows they cannot win a free and fair election. They have the real results of the last 3 elections to guide them.
Whatever umbrella movement emerges, it will have 2 enormous challenges. Creating conditions for a free and fair election. Secondly, how to entice or steer Zanu PF into what will amount to a suicidal election.
I believe there are (one or two) ways to achieve this. It happened in 1980. And in 2013 the MDC were successfully steered into a (rigged) suicidal election. But whichever way, these must be the key considerations for the NCP if it is to come up with a game plan that has any chance of success