via UK, SA branches back MDC Renewal 02/06/2014 NewZimbabwe
MDC-T supporters fed-up with Morgan Tsvangirai’s leadership held meetings in South Africa and the United Kingdom at the weekend as the leadership renewal campaign gains traction in the party’s external structures.
In the UK, Renewal supporters met in Luton on Saturday and established a taskforce to help see the idea through.
Eight of the MDC-T’s UK branches attended the meeting according to Lovemore Mazivisa of Renewal Team UK.
“The meeting was attended by members who sympathise with the idea that the party needs leadership renewal; those who believe that Morgan Tsvangirai has had his chances and someone else must take over to carry forward the fight for democratic change in Zimbabwe.”
In South Africa, supporters gathered in Johannesburg’s Diepsloot suburb. They denounced Tsvangirai and called on the former premier to step down.
A war of attrition has rocked Zimbabwe’s biggest opposition party following its crushing defeat in last year’s general elections.
Tsvangirai and his supporters claim the vote was a monumental fudge.
But a section of the party is now pressing for Tsvangirai’s ouster, accusing him of failing to topple President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF from power and using violence against internal opponents.
Tsvangirai has refused to step down and denies losing elections to Mugabe. He accuses the Zanu PF leader of being a serial cheat who uses violence and vote rigging to hold onto power.
Even so, argues the renewal group, one cannot be cheated by the same opponent in three different but successive instances and still insist that they are the right person to lead the party to victory at the next contest.
In a statement issued after the Luton meeting, the UK Renewal team said: “With Tsvangirai as our leader we have been like eggs for fifteen years and it seems we will remain thus as long as he is the leader.
“What we are saying therefore is that we are not willing to go on indefinitely being just ordinary, decent eggs. We must hatch or go bad and by all means that is how life should be.
“We do not see it as democracy to continue to give Tsvangirai endless chances to quench his own thirst for power the same way the leader of the regime the MDC was formed to unseat has done.”
The group dissociated itself from a statement issued by members of the UK executive backing Tsvangirai saying the group was illegitimate, having been imposed through fraudulent elections presided over by Lovemore Moyo and Theresa Makone in 2011.
Tsvangirai, the group added, was outfoxed by Mugabe during the coalition administration and completely ignored the party’s reform mandate and agenda as he enjoyed the trappings of power.
They also took issue with the leader’s “personal indiscretions and lack of restraint, lack of clear judgment and a life of extravagant taste which do not resonate with the ordinary folk.
“The conduct of massive ,irregular and unmitigated elections in and outside Zimbabwe which included imposition of candidates ,suspension of office holders without due process, and lack of clear direction in many policy areas.
“The MDC UK missing funds which were investigated and the report shoved under the carpet totally against the spirit of article 3 of the MDC constitution which is clear on the fact that the MDC is a Social democratic party whose core values are solidarity, justice ,equality, liberty, freedom, transparency, accountability and a servant leadership.”
SA backing renewal … Some of the MDC-T members who attended Jo’burg meeting
In South Africa, NewZimbabwe.com attended the Johannesburg meeting where the Renewal Team’s Brett Holley explained: “We are advocating for a movement which moves along with the people.
“Few people realise that Tsvangirai is no different from Mugabe. Tsvangirai should have refused the US$4million government house and stayed at his Strathaven property and that money used in more pressing issues.
“Tsvangirai is no longer the same Tsvangirai we knew. What can he do with a Zanu PF wife, a Zanu PF father in law, a Zanu PF farm, Zanu PF riches? He even tried to impose Giles Mutsekwa and block the people’s choice Arnold Tsunga in Manicaland.
Innocent Jeke, suspended from the MDC-T South Africa executive, said the party was not going anywhere under Tsvangirai’s leadership.
”Tsvangirai and his crew benefited in terms of posts in the unity government and they became comfortable and went to sleep. There is now horsewhipping in MDC.
“We do not hate Tsvangirai but love him and think he has to step aside and put in his place a person who is hungry for freedom. We are doing door to door campaigns and people are welcoming the renewal team’s ideology.”
Jeke also accused Tsvangirai of imposing his friends as candidates for Parliament in the last elections, citing the likes of former DJs Eric Knight and Ezra Sibanda. He said Tsvangirai is no longer with the people.
The Renewal Team also claimed that there was widespread violence against their members in Johannesburg and other parts of South Africa.
”Zimbabweans in South Africa are tired and want democracy to return to Zimbabwe. I decided to show my position and fight to change things in the MDC-T,” added Angeline Ngwenya, the group’s interim organising secretary.
COMMENTS
Ten years is enough period for any leader to do what he can and what he is worth .That is why the two term period is universally practised
Ten years is enough period for any leader to do what he can and what he is worth .That is why the two term period is universally practiced
The penny has finally dropped on the MDC supporters; they now see Tsvangirai as the flawed and blunder leader he is. It has taken them 15 years and a mountain of evidence to see this.
What is worrying is that they see Biti and Mangoma as good leaders! How anyone can think after the blundering incompetence shown by MDC over these years can be blamed on Tsvangirai alone is a complete mystery. We will have to wait another 15 years for the penny to finally drop – God forbid!
Well said Wilbert. Tsvangirai is a perennial loser, refuses to be accountable, is corrupt and no longer fit to continue leading the party. He abandoned the diaspora during the GNU and abandoned loyal cadres like Roy Bennett.
It is high time the diaspora’s voice becomes more active and much louder!!!
GO HOME! YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME! BRAND vs NDONDABO BRAND! WE STILL ARE BEHIND MORGIE IN THE UK! FORGET IT, YOU THINK THE MAKHIWAS WILL DISH OUT MONEY!
@Tjingababili. You SHOUT like a true zanoid
NO VOTE, NO POWER!
Well there you go. Morgan has made the admission that ZPF stole the elections. This just goes to show that we will not beat ZPF through the standard political process. A popular uprising is really the only option left for us, and we had better do this before Moyo makes it constitutionally illegal. There are enough disenchanted citizens within the ZPF system to make this a real option
@ Madevu
Yes Mugabe stole the 2013 elections because by failing to implement the reforms Tsvangirai made it easy for the tyrant to rig! You problem is that you have completely failed to see what the reforms were about and now, like the blundering fool that you are, are advocating yet another armed struggle! The last one delivered Mugabe and Zanu PF what makes you think the next one would produce a better government?
Tsvangirai wasted many chances to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but the tyrant has overreached himself when he thought he could rig the elections too. The economic meltdown is forcing Mugabe to admit he has failed and it is up to us the people to make sure that he steps down. But we will not get him to do if people like you continue to blunder along and fail to seize the opportunity because you have, as usual, your eyes shut and minds are impermeable to the light of reason.
The “popular uprising” you are advocating will only result in the destruction of property and the deaths of many people because that is exactly what Mugabe would want to see happen, he has degrees in violence, remember! When the fighting is over nothing would have been gained be-cause it was only the solution the brain-dead would consider! And since when have the brain-dead come up with anything good?
The person we had hope on gets cheated at the table. He allows voting to go on while systems are not in place. Similarly the renewal team is talking more about Mdc than the enemy. Their time is up. They all failed.
I say amen to that!
The more I read about this renewal team the more I begin to see how flawed these guys are.
Can they tell us how they are mitigating against Zanu PF stealing the next elections. It’s no use blaming Morgan when you don’t have a solution of your own.
As things stand now the election process is cockeyed towards Zanu PF and so what should be done now is to work hard and ensure that the next elections whenever they are held are credible. Anything less is not worthwhile. This should be the work of all opposition parties.
This idea of denouncing someone’s wife and in-law being this and that is so childish and petty and just makes the renewal team look silly. Most people have moved beyond those things and what we need to hear are the plans they have and only then will some of us start listening.
Morgan has no idea how to remove Zpf. He has achieved all that he can achieve as an individual, actually he has over achieved, given his capabilities. People who still support him amaze me, what more can he do now, what has changed. He is a likeable and very fearless man,but you need much more to unseat Zanu pf,and even more to run the country. Give other people achance
@ Tinomunamataishe
You have got it my friend spot on!
Unless the next elections are free and fair, and there is every indication that they will not be, it really is pointless taking part.
The only way to ensure the next elections are free and fair is to go back to the reforms and implement them. I think people like Tsvangirai, Chamisa, Mwonzora, Gutu, etc. do not have the foggiest idea what these reforms are about; they are just too thick. People like Biti, Mangoma, Coltart and a few others know the reforms are the key to free and fair elections. They have shied away from saying so because:
1) they know they will be asked why then they failed to implement the reforms during the GNU years. They too had their snouts in the trough and completely forgot about the reforms. But to admit that would be political suicide and they have chosen to sweep this under the carpet hoping no one will pick this up or walk into the political sunset without admitting a thing.
2) they have not thought of how they will get the reforms implemented now. During the GNU everything was in MDC’s favour to implement the reforms and now everything in Zanu PF’s favour to ensure no reforms are going to be implemented. So these MDC leaders would look real stupid to admit the reforms are necessary but that it is near impossible to get that done now.
The answer is in fact staring us in the face; Mugabe has learnt that he cannot rig economic recovery the same way he rig the elections. The economic recovery is dependent on him restoring confidence in the donor and foreign investors, the only one with the cash to finance the economic recovery, that their aid and loans will not be wasted in mismanagement and corruption and that their investments will be the Zanu PF looters. Mugabe and his regime have failed to restore that confidence because their past record of contemptuous disregard of the law and the suffering of others.
The only way to restore donor and investor confidence in Zimbabwe as a country safe to do business in is for Mugabe to step down to allow an interim administration to implement all the democratic reforms and then hold free and fair elections. The new elected government will have the mandate of the people of Zimbabwe and the support and confidence of the international community!
The trick is to pressure Mugabe to step down and not allow ourselves to be distracted by the nonsense coming from the various MDC factions!
I am one of the brave who has remained home and borne all the violence and economical problems. I remain steadfastly behind Save
@ Stingray
Well if Save had implemented the reforms, God knows he had all the time to do so, then you and the rest of the populous would have said good bye to political violence and the economic hardships. So are you are remaining “steadfastly behind Save” because you failed to see that Save betrayed you or is it that you are craving for more political and economic misery.
Nhamo inenharo!
You started by saying you wanted democratic change and Tsvangirai has failed to deliver any change and now you want to retain him regardless! No wonder the country is in a mess; what else when there are so many brain-dead people, who do not even know what is in their own interest!
Surprising that some idiots say they are fed up with Morgan, what about Mugabe? We are tied of these renewal morons diverting us from real and pressing issues in Zimbabwe.
And what are those pressing issues in Zimbabwe? We are all tired of Mugabe but we, unlike you, also accept that Tsvangirai has failed to remove the tyrant because he is breathtakingly incompetent. Your pea size brain cannot deal with more than one thing and, typical of simpletons like you, you cannot accept that there others with a superior brain than you who can deal with more that one issue.
It is not enough to get Mugabe out we must have someone smart enough to do it – Tsvangirai is simply too incompetent. What else does he have to do for you to finally see him for the blundering idiot he is?
The Ephraim Tapa led UK Renewal nonsense wl not get anywhere. He was fired long back and ever since has been struggling to garner support for his ROHR nonsense without success as it is now dead. Morgan is still the MDC President and has huge followers both in the UK and SA. The statement issued by Tonderai Samanyanga is proper and is supported by genuine MDC cadres not the Stanford Bitis who want to use money raised by South End branch to help his uncle Tendai. Tsvangirai is there to stay until Congress decides otherwise.
Well said, everyone with the interest of MDC and Zimbabwe at heart should have the patience to wait for congress. Other than that we are not convinced of the so called ‘renewall team’ save to say they are a zanu pf project.
Smith used the divide and rule strategy which zanu pf has adapted to scatter the democratic change movement.
@ vovonde
What democratic changes did Tsvangirai deliver in all his years as leader? He was asked to im-plement a raft of democratic reforms in the GPA but failed to get even one reform implemented. It seems you yourself do not anything about democratic changes other than as a empty slogan. Chinja! Chinja! Change what? You do not have the foggiest idea what changes the nation needs do you?
We want a new political dispensation and an end to the Zanu PF and MDC politics of meaning-less slogans. “MDC, a party of excellence!” when the party could not even implement common sense reforms!
What is really astonishing here is that anyone should still fail to see Tsvangirai and his MDC friends for the incompetent leaders they are even with all the mountain of evidence of their failures! You are used to follow leaders like sheep and so you still follow blindly even those who have proven to be breathtakingly incompetent. Astonishing!
Instead of us dwelling into the MDC that seems to have lost their direction and sense of purpose and existence but rather show their interests in the game of thrones that is not benefiting Zimbo’s. We need citizens that are people driven and come up with a party that all citizens will benefit, whether Biti, Mangoma, Tsvangirai, Mnangagwa, Mujuru, Sekeramai, amongst others none of them have people at heart. Its time to have a leader that is chosen by people not the one that seats on the relay to be given the button stick as none of them will ever solve our economic and political dilemma.
These are known renewal team we always see talking rubbish on face book who are a mere handful. There is nothing new. May be they are calling zanupf and Ncube cadres to back them. Anywhere they are allowed to have their gatherings but the majority of us are still behind Morgan. Iam also in the diaspora.
Why are you still behind Tsvangirai? Is it because he has done a good job or are you behind him regardless his pathetic past performance?
Tsvangirai had his chance. He was very brave and all should be quite proud even though he has faultered of late. He should be the first to insist that new leadership be encouraged within the MDC. Thank you Morgan, now please push for a renewal…you know it’s the right thing to do!
Mukori form your own party and see if even your chickens will follow u. Morgan is the main man well into the future!