Biti’s Party On Shaky Ground

THE Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Renewal Team has gotten off to a shaky start amid revelations that the political outfit is struggling to lure donors while at the same time suffering an undefined leadership which might force it to settle for someone outside its rank and file to take the party through the teething stage.

Indications are that the MDC-Team, as the Tendai Biti camp has rebranded the breakaway faction, has plunged into a financial crisis after failing to secure donor funding and are counting on members of the party who are rich to step to the begging bowl. Biti, the renewal team lynchpin, was a longtime MDC-T secretary general before his expulsion from the party, following the ouster earlier of former deputy treasurer-general, Elton Mangoma, after they fell out with party president, Morgan Tsvangirai, when they called for leadership change in the country’s biggest opposition party earlier this year.

A split became inevitable as others favouring the status quo stuck with Tsvangirai whom the Biti group wanted to step down before the elective congress. According to inside sources, it has become apparent that the MDC Team faces a bleak future with indications that they could not convince donors to ditch Tsvangirai in their favour. An MDC-T official disclosed that several MDC Team members approached Tsvangirai three weeks ago, pleading to be re-admitted into the fold but the former Prime Minister turned them down.

“They had very big ambitions when they started this project which was pinned on the background that Jacob Mafume, the renewal team spokesman, had been with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition previously and had established a vast network with close links to the donor community,” said the source.

“So you can see that they had hoped to harness that donor community to their fold but that has not worked and all the people who had joined the team hoping to make money are disgruntled.”

The donors, said the sources, have already started the process of re-engaging Tsvangirai and successive meetings were being held as the party tries to raise funds for its elective congress set for October this year. A Financial Gazette source at Harvest House, the MDC-T’s headquarters in Harare, revealed on Tuesday that acting treasurer-general, Tapiwa Mashakada was currently on a whirlwind tour of Europe, holding meetings with the donors.