via Bulawayo24 NEWS | Grand coalition to unseat Mugabe takes shape 15 May 2014
THE MDC-T renewal team yesterday said moves towards a grand coalition with other progressive democratic forces in the country to unseat the ruling Zanu-PF in the 2018 elections were taking shape.
The team’s interim chairperson Samuel Sipepa Nkomo told journalists in Harare that the party was engaging churches, political parties, civic society and other democrats to form a formidable force against President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.
He said their idea had found takers in the country, region and the international community.
Sipepa Nkomo said talks had been held with the MDC led by Welshman Ncube, Zapu led by Dumiso Dabengwa as well as Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn led by Simba Makoni.
Efforts were being made to engage the National Constitutional Assembly led by University of Zimbabwe law lecturer Lovemore Madhuku.
“I do know that a preliminary meeting has been held and we have agreed in principle that it will be good to work together in a grand coalition. Hopefully next week we will hold a second meeting on the issues and hope to agree that it’s futile to work separately hoping to get results,” Sipepa Nkomo said.
On whether MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai would be part of the arrangement, Sipepa Nkomo said: “This coalition is a coalition for democrats and all democrats are welcome. The criterion is one must be a democrat and if the party you refer to is democratic and not violent, they are welcome.”
Sipepa Nkomo said the Mandel declaration, which led to the suspension of Tsvangirai and other members of the standing committee, stood as it was done within the confines of the party’s constitution.
Sipepa Nkomo also condemned the brief detention of Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya over the alleged theft of MDC-T property as a legal nullity.
“How can someone steal property that belongs to him? That is a nullity and you see he was released because really, there was no issue,” said Sipepa Nkomo.
He said following the announcement by Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda, last Thursday that the MDC-T factions must fight their case in court, more MPs and councillors had indicated their intention to join the renewal team.
Sipepa Nkomo challenged Zanu-PF to engage other stakeholders, including foreign investors, the church, political parties, labour and business for a national indaba on how the current economic downslide could be halted.
MDC-T treasurer-general Elton Mangoma, who also attended the Press conference, said the party had met diplomats accredited to Africa last week to explain their position and how they intended moving forward.
COMMENTS
Lets hope that the grand coalition to unseat the MEGA-EGO (Mugabe) is not unseated itself by other large egos… and there are plenty of those in Zimbabwe politics.
This grand coalition is spending more time fighting Morgan than Gabriel so do you think anything will come out. Sipepa we are saying you have started the race with the wrong foot and Usain Bolt is already gone. Personally I would want Morgan to go but how is what we differ with these lunatics calling themselves renewal, I don’t know if they have renewed themselves. Biti comes up and say ZanuPF is part of the solution, so join them and solve the problem. Now when you get lies you really know what a politician looks like, Sipepa knows all payslips for MDC employees where from that company they now say it is theirs. It was an MDC vehicle for sourcing funds and fundraising. If they genuinely control MDC-T they should be addressing press conferences at Harvest House. They are like saying I am president of Zimbabwe whilst in Tanzania.
I think the renewal started on the wrong foot in accusing Tsvangirai of being incompetent but failing to accept that they too had been incompetent in allowing MDC to drift with no sense of direction or purpose all these years!
The thinking people accept Tsvangirai has been a total failure but they also know that all those in the renewal team should have put their foot down a long time ago and said this was not right. And so by pretending they did nothing wrong the renewal team lost the support of the thinking public.
The rest of the people who followed like sheep did not have a clue what the renewal team was talking about when they said Tsvangirai was incompetent. Of course it is not surprising that they came out in support of Tsvangirai.
So in the end the renewal team ended up with no supporters because the alienated those who understood them by insulting them with half truths and insulting the herd by telling them what they did not understand!
Ah, so by some miracle (and many broken heads later) this grand coalition manages to unseat Robhati & ZPF.
Then what? Who in your band of fools is qualified to manage a country?
Do you have a ‘Finance Minister’ in waiting and has he held meetings with any international financial organisations to get guarantees of funding when they come into power?
Minister of Health in waiting……talked to any medical equipment & mangement specialists?
Minister of Commerce & Industry…….any meetings with global brands etc to convince them to set up factories in Zim?
Minister of Agriculture…… etc etc???
One bunch of fools replacing the other clueless fools. God help our beloved country.
When Mugabe first took power he did not have a Minister of Finance, etc. that did not stop him getting into power?
Zimbabwe under Mugabe/ZPF rule is doomed.
Zimbabwe under Tsvangirai/MDC-T or whatever other initial you want to is doomed.
Mugabe is a very old idiot.
Tsvangirai is an old very uneducated idiot.
Any one support the above to may also dub themselves as idiots.
Democracy is about good gevernance/politics based on performance.
Never of the above two have a very good record in performance.
Mugabe has failed the people for the last 34 years.
Tsvangirai has failed the people for 14+ years.
Where is there any hope.
The hope is in the people, I just hope they know what to do with their hopes. HOPES = VOTES
FYI for the 34 years that mugabe has ruined the country 20 years were on silver platter, all offside with no goalkeeper scores. Last 14 years MT is the one person who has given him a run for his money. Actually that is wrong for 14 years MT has clearly been the people’s choice and hope and he clearly won all elections. Only baffoons promote the idea that MT has failed the people, blessing rigging that takes months to accomplish as winning. The education you mention is a non factor otherwise ncube and mutambara would be ruling.
People voted Tsvangirai and MDC to bring democratic change and not to “give Mugabe a run for his money” whatever that means!
For as long as Tsvangirai is not cleansed of his traitorship/puppetry for the British count him out of the leadership roll call. Tsvangirai is of the Satanist club and no saint would ever want to be associated with him. For aurgument’s sake, Tsvangirai got 5 votes at a polling station in his rural home. To assume that one day his own villagers who discarded him will change their opinion overnight is far fertched. Tsvangirai sang a deep borehole at his rural Buhera that affected all surrounding wells and communal boreholes. This is how deep the man is selfish. For the daydreamers of the so called grand coalition, it will really not matter whether you bring together against a lion many zebras, antelopes, giraffes, or buffaloes, the lion will continue to prevail. Surely what do you expect from tribalists such as Dabengwa/Welshman and from the divorcee Makoni and the all out of sorts Mabhinya Tsvangirai. ZANU PF will govern this country until Jesus’s second coming.
Roving Eagle, this is the truth that all people know although some pretend that they don’t know it….
Really! grand coalition to unseat a 90 year old dying man!!
Exactly he is olllllllllllllllllllllld
Is mugabe going to be around to contest another election? Mbiti is a fool of fools. All he is doing to promote the sickening idea that mugabe has been winning elections genuinely. A man and his cohorts this foolish are not fit to run a country.
Why have the Miniorty Groups, e.g. Mixed race and caucasions et. beeen excluded from assistance from Foreign NGOS
The likes of Samuel Sipepa Nkomo should know that by failing to implement the reforms he and all his MDC friends proved they were incompetent and their betrayal and treachery is not going to be swept under the carpet.
All people like Nkomo want is to get back on the gravy train and they will never change anything! The nation needs a serious debate on a way out of this mess and people like Nkomo and Biti are the background empty-drum noise the nation could do without at a time when it needed to concentrate! How can the nation hear its think with all this racket!?
If they cannot put their house in order, a government in exile is probably other option to exert pressure on ZANU by exposing and attacking its mafia philosophy.
I remember once Tswangirai said he can’t stape on dead bodies to the state house,i think that shows that the guy is not Bufoon,come on lets give a guy some credit
I am surprised that Sipepa Nkomo is drumming this grand coalition of the elite as if its something formidable.
Okay, you get small parties with no meaningful support and castigate the party with the biggest support. All I can see is in-fighting as they jostle for positions and with four years to go to the election I can see another grand coalition of the elite II emerging.
And seriously what all these parties must be working on is changing the electoral process now and well before 2018. By 2017 the platform for free and fair elections must be firmly in place.
As long as the electoral process remains the way it is now, Zanu PF will win the 2018 elections and wait for it also the 2023 elections.
It doesn’t matter whether grand coalition or no grand coalition Zanu PF will make sure a lot of people will not register to vote and not only that deliberately remove known supporters of the opposition from the voters roll. You just turn up on election day and you are told your name is not there. Right now they are quietly working on other ways to stay ahead of the game whilst Nkomo and company are busy arranging press conferences.
Lets all remember that Zanu PF is a minority party and has been like that for at least the past 12 years but they are in power now because of the way they manipulate and skew the voting process in their favour. That’s for me is where all the energy should be spent but I can’t see it at the moment.
What a bloody joke…….a grand coalition for 2018?…….so that is 4 years away, and what, pray tell, will be the state of the country be by then?…….
Zimbabwe does not have 12 months left to implement sensible policies to try to get the RoW to support an economic revival, let alone til 2018……
Certainly Zim does not have any internal hope of “getting things going”…….
So we remove Mugabe ,which is OK ,then we put in another handiendi. Are we serious? Let’s get rig off all these dictators dance and for all. The world is not waiting for us.
We should have learnt by now not to accept the mediocre. Mugabe and Tsvangirai have got no ability to get this nation going.
Mugabe is corrupt ,treasonous and immoral.Tsvangirai is immoral and duft.
We can do better than this ladies and gentlemen.
That’s my take.
Political leadership in Zimbabwe, be it in the ruling party or the splintered opposition parties, has failed the nation. We the people, in turn, have failed both to hold our various leaders accountable, or to stand up for our rights.
This is a desperate, desolate place for any nation to find itself.
The best one can hope for from the so called grand coalition is the addressing of both our national failings; by awakening us the people from our current fear/slumber/collusion and/or unearthing the nucleus of a new leadership.
Zapu led by Dumiso Dabengwa is a REVOLUTIONARY and not DEMOCRAT. Dont mislead people.
Waste of precious time , a grand coalition of bloody idiots and losers its like a case of a blind person leading another blind person!Lets wait and see , if l was allowed to vote l would not vote for this overzealous lot!!!
Wait until they decide to elect leaders. That is when you will see the true colours of these opportunists. They will all want to be presidents!
The Grand Coalition is the only way forward. This Tsvangirayi and rallies nonsense is just that, NONSENSE!!
Every single opposition force in Zim today should now come under the Grand Coalition; ZAPU, MDC-T, MDC, NCA, KUSILE/MAVAMBA, everyone. There should be one voice against the gukurahundis; just one voice and nothing else. All the current noise makes should stand aside from the Coalition’s leadership. Let Makoni be the face of the Coalition.
To hell with personal egos.
If the mdc renewal team are saying they do not want Mr Tsvangirai, they are fooling themselves.This man that they do not want was voted by over a million voters who believed that his manifesto and future government programmes were noble.In my view the more they denigrate Mdc-t by Morgan, there more hardened and strong resolve his supporters become.Thus the grand coalition will be futile with the divided vote and come 2018, Zanufpf will win the election with its unshakable 2.5 million support base- we will be back to square one! It is encouraging that the talk of the grand coalition is starting now, but the crucial advise to THE LEADERS OF THESE SMALL OPPOSITION PARTIES IS:LOVE AND FORGIVE ONE ANOTHER AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT EVEV THOUGH THEY ARE MORE EDUCATED THAN MT, HE IS AN ASSET IN OPPOSITION POLITICS BECAUSE OF HIS CHARISMATIC ATTRIBUTES.
cypriano
No, its only Welshman who has so far expressed reservations over the inclusion of Tsvangirayi; and then again this is just his personal opinion. Its not even his party’s position – read today’s contribution by Chihwayi on NewZimbabwe.
So, the idea of including Tsvangirayi and his dancing; stupid hero-worshipping grassroots supporters is a popular one. We dont want him continuously going off on a tangent. He and Welshman should put aside their egos and non of them should lead the Coalition, and this also includes Biti. Only Makoni should be considered for the leadership of this coalition since he has not been involved in the blood letting and name calling; not necessarily permanently.
Personally I envisage a Front along the same lines as the Patriotic Front of the ZAPU and ZANU liberation struggle days.
After dislodging gukurahundi ZANU PF through an election they should establish a Caretaker govt to, in the meantime run the country, while they organise an all-party conference along the lines of the Lancaster House Conference and hold fresh elections under the auspices of the UN/SADC and the AU, where all of them will then run as independent parties.
This should be done after cleaning up all the gukurahundi mess in terms of the Constitution; the voters roll and the electoral legislative environment.
I’m with the straight shooter, the grand coalition is the way to go. Problem might be that many who should be there will be afraid to participate.Morgan should be there if he wants and so should the diaspora and civic society.The stronger it is the more likely sadc and au will bring pressure to bear to implement the reforms we voted for to provide a creditable election.They can break up into political parties later
Good luck to the ‘Grand Coalition Daydreamers’.
I say this with a heavy and yet very honest heart. This brilliant ides is clearly founded on sandy ground. Therefore, no rocket science required to state that it will not even withstand the mildest winds from any direction.
I have a dozen of reasons to support this, and I’m not a prophet, but I’m more than convinced it will not work. It is indeed built on a very shaky foundation.
Those who think I’m being pessimistic please copy this comment & keep it safely for future reference. And that future is not even far for that matter.
That coalition is a still birth! Without Morgan they will not go anywhere. Morgan is the only credible ,genuine and recognisable face of opposition in Zimbabwe,the rest are hangers on. Biti,Mangoma and now Sipepa are just hallucinating for they are not known in the MDC-T and even in the country. Tsvaangirai connects with voters from border to border. They will be history soon.