Source: Whither opposition grand coalition? – DailyNews Live
Mugove Tafirenyika 3 September 2017
HARARE – With Zimbabweans already in an election mode ahead of crunch
polls next year, the coming together of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and
his former allies, who had broken ranks with him under various
circumstances, had brought hope to long-suffering citizens that at long
last change was coming their way.
Amid incessant calls for opposition parties to join forces and field one
presidential candidate if they were to entertain any realistic chances of
defeating President Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai and his erstwhile former
secretaries-general – Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti – recently committed
themselves to a coalition after they formed the MDC Alliance at the
Zimbabwe Grounds in the capital on August 5.
Ncube and Biti had broken ranks with Tsvangirai in 2005 and 2014
respectively in acrimonious circumstances citing irreconcilable
differences.
While Ncube did not agree with Tsvangirai on whether or not to participate
in the 2005 senatorial elections, Biti broke away citing the need for
leadership renewal following the MDC loss to Zanu PF in the 2013
elections.
Despite their well-document rivalry, Biti and Ncube have embraced
Tsvangirai through the MDC Alliance in order to forge a united front
against Mugabe and his Zanu PF party at the forthcoming polls.
Regardless, other opposition leaders seen as vital cogs in any grand
coalition, are still to append their signatures to the coalition deal,
nearly a month after Ncube, Biti and Tsvangirai inked the MDC Alliance,
comprising five other fringe opposition parties.
These include former vice president Joice Mujuru, who has continued to
dilly-dally over the matter because she believes she is the best candidate
who should lead it, and not Tsvangirai, as is the current case.
Mujuru also wants her National People’s Party (NPP) to be given the lion’s
share of seats, and is also unhappy with the fact that the MDC symbols
would be used by the alliance partners going into the 2018 make-or break
polls.
The NPP leader is among several other political figures who emerged out of
the ruling Zanu PF who are still to make up their minds on whether they
should join the MDC Alliance.
The list includes Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn party president Simba Makoni, and
Dumiso Dabengwa, leader of the revived Zapu.
Many are therefore worried that the opposition may end up participating in
the coming elections as fragmented as has always been the case, thereby
splitting the vote in favour of Mugabe and his Zanu PF party.
The scepticism also emanates from the fact that some of the parties that
were claiming to be signatories to the MDC Alliance are beginning to
distance themselves from the coalition.
Zanu Ndonga, for example, signed the August 5, 2017 coalition deal but
hardly a week after the colourful signing ceremony, the party president
wrote a letter to Tsvangirai distancing his party from the MDC Alliance.
“I write to inform you that Zanu Ndonga disassociates itself from the
signing of the agreement relating to the MDC Alliance purportedly on
behalf of Zanu Ndonga,” Musiyarira said, adding that one Sakunje who
signed on behalf of the party “is not a member of the party”.
“He was never given a mandate by myself, as the president of Zanu Ndonga,
to sign or act on my behalf in any capacity in relation to all matters to
do with the party.
“As such, the agreement signed by him on Saturday August 5, 2017 on behalf
of Zanu Ndonga is null and void and as such is illegal,” his letter read
in part.
Commenting on his Facebook page, political analyst Pedzisai Ruhanya
described attempts at coalescing by the country’s opposition parties as
fake.
“Zimbabwe’s opposition; fake coalition, fake leaders, little infantile
tribalists, egoists driven by personal, parochial and childish
self-centred balderdash whose sum total is TRASH!” Ruhanya, who is also
Zimbabwe Democracy Institute director, wrote.
He expressed irritation over the fact that the opposition is failing to
take advantage of the infighting in Zanu PF that has characterised the
ruling party since the ouster of Mujuru in 2014 on allegations of plotting
to assassinate 93 year-old Mugabe.
“You fail to coalesce at a historic moment when the regime’s key
supporters and enforcers openly say `President Mugabe’s mandate to rule
has been lost since 2008′.
“Mugabe’s public bureaucracy is fractured and his storm troopers are in
disarray with several factions of the once feared war veterans now the
occupants of remand prison while the generals are attacked at public
rallies; clearly signs of the times.
“What more do you want you petty, directionless so-called opposition? The
INGRIDIENTS for your vibrancy are there but you can’t capture the moment.
SHAME!!!”
University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Eldred Masunungure said
in a recent interview with the Daily News that while the majority of
Zimbabweans, including some in Zanu PF, would like to see a coalition “but
we know the role of egoism in and out of politics”.
“There is a lot of wishful thinking among some Zimbabweans…. Mujuru was
in government for 34 years and now you want her to be number two again, no
ways,” Masunungure said.
“She was expelled because she had presidential ambitions and those in the
MDC are saying our leader is the face of the opposition.
“He has fought dictatorship and bears the scars and also beat Zanu PF and
on that basis, he has credentials.
“Those are hardened positions, each of the two parties has followers who
are rooting for their leader to lead that is why you see Memorandums of
Understanding being shredded, both leaders are signing their separate
deals with other parties and so the possibility of a grand coalition is
very remote”.
Masunungure added that even if the coalition were to materialise “it will
not fly high or far and I think it will collapse on egoism and on who gets
what”.
While Biti, Ncube and others in the MDC Alliance have since agreed that
Tsvangirai will lead the coalition, there remain grey areas concerning who
should lead between the former prime minister in the stability-inducing
inclusive government and Mujuru.
When almost all the parties forming the opposition converged in Highfield
and pledged to work together again after going separate ways in 2005 when
Ncube broke ranks, hopes were raised once again: Never before had the
former allies-cum foes been brought together under the same platform to
articulate and represent the aspirations of the majority of Zimbabweans
since their acrimonious divorce.
But with the political parties remaining mum on their real intentions,
that hope is disappearing fast as, they, at least in the eyes of long
suffering Zimbabweans, do not seem to have a single clue about how they
would work to converge as a coalition.
Tsvangirai and his sympathisers want the veteran opposition leader to be
the face of the coalition on account of his popular support among
Zimbabweans which saw him beat Mugabe in 2008 although he failed to garner
the constitutionally required 50+1 percent of the vote.
On the other hand, Mujuru’s camp believes that the former vice president
should be president as she is more acceptable to the country’s security
chiefs who have previously blocked Tsvangirai on account of his lack of
liberation war credentials.
They also argue that the former freedom fighter amassed a wealth of
experience in statecraft after serving as Mugabe’s second-in-command for
about 10 years.
“We would have expected that, by now, they should have come up with a
blueprint on how to form a sustainable convergence not only among us
former MDCs but also with Mujuru and others because to be honest we don’t
have all the time in the world on our side,” commented a senior MDC
official who refused to be named as he is not licensed to talk to the
media on coalition issues.
“All you hear is grandstanding propaganda from them – nothing meaningful
outside the political gibberish and if anyone thinks 2018 is still far
away, then we have serious problem.”
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