THE MDC-ALLIANCE DEBACLE

I found myself watching a random Douglas Mwonzora interview on Youtube this evening. What I immediately found intriguing was his ability to substantiate his arguments with laws and documents which are otherwise supposed to support his lines of argument. What I found ridiculous and hilariously sad however, is the fact that quotes none-existing provisions, and jumps from one narrative to the other, with the journalists who interview him, allowing him to do so. As I patiently watched the whole interview, I felt compelled to write this short response, in light of some of the MDC-T lies and half-truths, which I found to ridiculous to ignore. After all, a lie told too often might very well become the acceptable truth. Douglas Mwonzora needs to realize that whereas he and his colleagues are entitled to their own opinions, they are not entitled to their own facts.

Dr Khupe is the new and automatic President of the MDC-ALLIANCE.

The first lie, which Zimbabwean journalists have strangely allowed to go unchallenged, as propagated by Douglas Mwonzora and Morgen Komichi is that the MDC-T President is the defacto President of the MDC-ALLAINCE as per the ALLIANCE Agreement, prompting the decision by the MDC-T to participate in all by-elections as the former. Both men say this without quoting the relevant provision of the agreement. But how then would they do this, when no such clause exists? The assertion is wrong in two ways. Firstly, the MDC-ALLIANCE coalition had NO PRESIDENT. It only had a PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE for the purpose of the polls, who acted as Chairperson, the actual position Chamisa held when he was first left in charge of the ALLAINCE by Morgan Tsvangirai. The reason why he was left as Chairperson relates to the second evidence which exposes the fallacy which is the assertion that any MDC-T Leader automatically became President of the MDC-ALLIANCE. But perhaps it’s important to expand the first point.

Morgan Tsvangirai was the MDC-ALLIANCE PRESIDENTIAL candidate as a consequence of clause 3(b) of the agreement, which allowed the partners to elevate the most popular candidate amongst them, as their Presidential candidate. The candidate would also automatically lead the whole coalition, pre and post the elections, perhaps so as to guard against creating two centres of power, with the parties maintaining their individuality. The ALLIANCE agreement made this coalition a replica of European and American parties’ setup, where these institutions do not have a full time President, but just Presidential Candidates. Secondly, Tsvangirai was the Chairperson of the ALLIANCE, chairing its management body, the ALLIANCE’s Principals’ Forum. One would recall that through this set up, Professor Welshman Ncube was the ALLIANCE Spokesperson. Now, Morgan Tsvangirai actually wore three political jackets. He was the MDC-T President, the MDC-ALLIANCE Coalition Chair, and it’s Presidential Candidate.

The second myth, is that the President of the MDC-T automatically becomes the MDC-ALLIANCE President. Again, this is not true. The real reason why Chamisa was left as the Chair of the ALLIANCE by Tsvangirai was because he was doing so on an interim basis, only as his direct replacement, through the MDC-T party, which Chamisa was Deputy President of. A statement by Luke Tamborinyoka, on the 7^th of February 2018, clarified Chamisa’s position:

“President Morgan Tsvangirai has with effect from today, 7 February 2018, affirmed Vice President Hon. Nelson Chamisa as the acting President of the party by operation of the Constitution until the President’s return. This is in light of the President’s absence and that of the two other vice Presidents who are both in South Africa. VP Chamisa also continues in his assigned duties as the acting chairperson of the MDC Alliance.”

But more importantly, Dr Tsvangirai also understood that he had no mandate nor authority to leave Chamisa as MDC-ALLIANCE President. This was because one, no such position ever existed, and secondly, being the ALLIANCE Presidential Candidate was a position which required the input of other parties through clause 3(b). It was neither hereditary, nor directly affected by MDC-T internal politics. Consequently, someone being MDC-T President, forwarded by the MDC-T as MDC-A Presidential Candidate, could have easily been rejected by the other six parties. The agreement Douglas quotes so much, allows for this. In actuality, the MDC-A Coalition Principals’ Forum actually sat and on the 3^rd of March 2018, the ALLIANCE Spokesperson, Prof Ncube addressed journalists saying:

“The most important thing that we considered today was the issue of the candidacy of the alliance for this year’s presidential election. We all know that in the alliance agreement we had agreed that the late party president Mr Morgan Tsvangirai would be our candidate in the election and after his sad passing, we agreed as the MDC Alliance on his replacement. I am happy to announce that that the MDC Alliance principals unanimously agreed in terms of the alliance agreement that Advocate Nelson Chamisa will be our candidate as we campaign for the election. We believe that he has all the credentials to represent our party and experience needed to win this election, he has been with the people and has been for the people and it is our duty as an alliance to ensure that he is elected to the next president of Zimbabwe so that we begin the process of rebuilding our country. We are happy that he is the person we are putting forward to the people of Zimbabwe so that he can provide us with the requisite leadership needed”

Ever since Morgan passed on, Douglas Mwonzora had a torrid time with his party supporters who accused him of never publicly acknowledging Chamisa as President. Whenever he addressed the very very few MDC-ALLIANCE rallies he addressed, he would call Advocate Chamisa “our Presidential candidate”. Firstly, this was his own “tough guy” way rejecting some the political realities. Secondly, this was his own way of communicating to his audience that Chamisa was yet to be a product of any Congress. True to this, Douglas was to throw in his name into the ring, towards the MDC Gweru Congress, for the coveted price. Thirdly and more importantly, Douglas also knew that as per the agreement, Chamisa was the MDC-ALLIANCE Presidential candidate, although it was a legal position that had been overtaken by political events, as many aspect of the agreement itself had begun being slowly discarded.

As per the agreement for instance, the parties were to have a distinct coalition logo, with the Presidential candidate in the middle of a circle of seven parties logos. Yet at the polls, the ALLIANCE only had one logo and one Presidential face. The agreement also dictated that the parties would each have its Chief Whip in Parliament, yet there is only one. Whereas these changes clearly show a departure from the constitutive document itself, there is little paper trail to support these changes. It would seem like, post Tsvangirai, there were changes to the actual agreement itself, changes which continued up until the Gweru Congress. 

      

Anyway, what is this ALLIANCE which Dr Khupe is now President of?

Let’s disregard everything I have said thus far, and accept the grand deception that Dr Khupe by virtue of being MDC-T President, is now MDC-ALLIANCE Leaders. This would need to be understood in the context of what the MDC-ALLIANCE is, as per the MDC-T. Is it a party? Is it a coalition? If the MDC-T maintains that it is still a coalition, then Dr Khupe is the MDC-ALLIANCE PRESIDENTIAL candidate, and not PRESIDENT, because the latter post never ever existed. But even if we were to pretend otherwise, who then are the ALLIANCE partners? Which Coalition Forum is Dr Khupe Chairing? Has such a Forum sat, as per the agreement, and accepted the illegality of Chamisa’s MDC-T Presidency takeover, and accepted Dr Khupe’s elevation to the ALLIANCE Leadership? It is important to remember that the MDC-ALLIANCE ran its own affairs even when its constitutive parties had internal matters to handle.

But let’s look at what the document itself says. According to clause (iii), the MDC-ALLIANCE as signed by Morgan Tsvangirai was a “non-compete pre-election alliance” which was to turn into a “post-election Coalition government”. In both set-ups, the individual parties maintained their identities. But the important thing, as per the agreement, for those who feel it is still in effect, is actually that the agreement was binding for 5 years. But this was only to be in effect if it won the elections. In the event that it failed to do so, it was to review its standing and relevance. History students would remember that this formally happened, leading to the reconfiguration of the same, into one party, something which the likes of Transform Zimbabwe rejected. This explains why the likes of Biti, Ncube and others held positions in the MDC, by the time the Gweru Congress ran.

Which party went to the Gweru Congress?

The other important question is on which party went to the Gweru Congress. According to available documents and logos, it was the MDC 5^th Congress. The narrative is usually that it was the “MDC-T 5^th Congress” since the latter used both names interchangeably. When one looks at the Congress Resolutions, some related to MDC-T issues. One would then conclude that it was a MDC-T Congress, yet this clarifies nothing, but only aids to the confusion. This MDC-T itself was too young to hold its 5^th Congress? It only came into existence in 2005, and only held its first Congress as such, post 2005. But let’s ignore all this by concentrating on the fact that the “T” was only for electoral purposes, with the party simply being MDC. A look at its constitution would expose how the Congress could not have allowed anyone to hold a national position unless they were fully paid party members, having had been in the party for a consecutive five years. How then did Senator Coltart, Advocate Biti and Prof Welshman Ncube run for MDC-T Treasurer, and Vice Presidents respectively, if they were only re-admitted into the party the same years, with the readmission being validated at the same congress? Where are their MDC or even MDC-T fully paid up membership cards? In fact, one would recall that towards the Congress, Professor Ncube and Tendai Biti were already Vice President and Vice Chairperson respectively. Which MDC-T law permitted this?

The answers to all these questions lie elsewhere. The Gweru Congress couldn’t have been a MDC-T event. It was actually a different party being born. Yet this also raises two critical issues Douglas Mwonzora raised in the same interview. Firstly, his argument is that, if the MDC-ALLIANCE was conceived at the Gweru Congress, in 2019, how then does it claim ownership of MPs elected in 2018? This is a very key question. His second question was on the availability of this party’s constitutive documents, such as the constitution. As for the first question, what happened in Gweru did not signal the formation of the MDC-ALLIANCE, but rather, a ratification of a political reality that had existed ever since the party came into effect. Not only is Mwonzora himself caught on video calling the MDC-ALLIANCE “a full-fledged party”, but the Chamisa appointment presser addressed by Prof Ncube (find the highlighted sentences as quoted earlier) made reference to the MDC-ALLIANCE as “…our party…”.  If one goes back into history, you would recall that the MDC itself only had its first congress in early 2000, yet it was actually formed in September 1999. Using a hopefully clearer analogue, a baby is not formed the day it is born. The time between 2018 and the 2019 Gweru Congress was nothing but a pregnancy period. The baby was eventually born in Gweru, yet its political parent had been carrying this political foetus for more than nine political pregnancy months.

The second issue is on the MDC-ALLIANCE constitutive document that is the party constitution. The question is irrelevant because a constitution IS NOT a party constitutive document. There is no law that actually requires parties to have a constitution, let alone a written one. But this isn’t to say that constitutions are not important. If that was the case, how would the MDC claim to be pro-democracy and constutionalism? Constitutions are the basis on which the Leaders are held to account. Yet this doesn’t change the fact that requesting the MDC-ALLIANCE to provide its constitution, or proving that “the constitution was only written by Charlton Hwende after the ruling” is of no legal nor political effect whatsoever.

The confusion

This confusion being experienced in the MDC-ALLIANCE is certainly not unique to it. Generally speaking, party members tend to sit comfortably inside their pools of confusion. More often than not, the political always overrides the legal. For instance, Douglas Mwonzora maintains that Professor Welsh dissolved his MDC-Green and re-joined the MDC-T. He says this with a straight face, even though he knows it is not true. When did this happen? Professor Ncube has no individual authority to dissolve a party. If there was such an intention, only a MDC-Green Congress, or its National Council sitting as the former, would have had the legal authority to sit and initiate this dissolution. Neither happened. Where are the supportive documents of this dissolution and the subsequent request for admission into the MDC-T, or readmission into the MDC, depending on how one individually sees this? How then did Douglas Mwonzora, in his capacity as MDC-T Secretary General, authenticate the dissolution of MDC-Green party and subsequent readmission of its leaders into the MDC-T, as per the “MDC-T 5^th Congress Resolutions” he most certainly wrote?

Douglas Mwonzora, whereas on one hand accept the existence of the “new ALLAINCE party”, and ridicules it in the process, he also questions the wisdom towards appointed Fadzai Mahere as Spokesperson yet she was never a member of the party for 5 years as per the MDC-T constitution. The confusion is dumb folding. Only he knows why he expects the 2 years old “ALLIANCE party” to have members who have been part of it for 5 years. He also proffers ignorance on the existence of the ALLIANCE constitution, nor the authenticity of the one he says was authored by Hwende yet still expects the “new party” to be bound by the provisions of the MDC-T constitutions, the 21 year old party formed in 2005.

What is clear however is that, post the 2018 elections, the MDC-ALLIANCE showed inclination towards being known simply as MDC. The “T” became Dr Khupe’s property, whilst the “ALLIANCE” would from time to time be interchangeably used with the simpler “MDC” name. Yet this doesn’t show that the new party was the “MDC-T”. If this was the case, then the Gweru Congress would have been a MDC-T Extraordinary Congress, the same way the Bulawayo Khupe Congress was actually an Extraordinary Congress. In reality, Chamisa actually ran an elective congress, moving further away from the MDC-T issues. But truthfully speaking, so many things were left to chance. With the intention to satisfy existing political realities, many things were handled with a certain degree of recklessness. Yet the recklessness wasn’t premised on ignorance. Rather, there was a feeling that such issues were internal, and could be held however the leaders and membership felt fit. If someone was to ask me whether or not I feel things could have been handled better, then certainly yes. I do say so, fully cognisant of the fact that hindsight makes fools look like fountains on wisdom.                                                  

“Chamisa has come back to his senses but it’s too late for him”!

Lastly, the MDC-T feel vindicated. Due to the latest developments, the Chamisa camp has shown inclinations towards being involved in the MDC-T EOC as per the court ruling. However, the MDC-T is resisting this development, arguing that its “too little too late” The argument is that those in the MDC-A cannot be involved in choosing their opponent. Ofcourse, those thinking that the move is based on a genuine desperation to be inside MDC-T because its “cold out there” are slow thinkers. The banter that the MDC-ALLIANCE “project has suffered a still-birth” would have been funny if it wasn’t stupid. The “somersault” whereas strategic, was actually forced on the MDC-ALLIANCE by the Supreme Court ruling and the MDC-T itself, which have invited the MDC-ALLIANCE into matters they wanted no involvement in.

a.                                        a. The Supreme court ruling invite

The contentious and disputed Supreme Court ruling which breathed life into the MDC-T party purported to do something which it has neither a legal nor political authority/ability to initiate. The ruling pretended to “reunited MDC-T factions” as per the demise of Dr Tsvangirai. This would have made sense only if two MDC-Ts existed by the time the ruling was passed. Unfortunately, there was no such a thing. Dr Khupe was the undisputed MDC-T President having been elected at a Congress in Bulawayo, at Stanley square. She had gone on to participate at the 2018 polls in the same capacity. On the other hand, Nelson Chamisa was the undisputed MDC-ALLIANCE President, was also a product of the Gweru Congress, and had run the 2018 elections as such. It is thus strange that a court felt it had a jurisdiction to resolve a non-existing dispute, even though the same court observed that the matter had become moot and academic. It is also self-serving to characterize the Khupe and Chamisa groupings as MDC-T factions. This is only useful in sanitizing the confusion currently persisting.

b.                                    b.  The MDC-T invite

Yet even post the ruling, the MDC-ALLIANCE clearly spurned the invitation. In unambiguous terms, Tendai Biti, just after the ruling, held a prompt presser and distanced his party from the ruling. This was a political reality many Zimbabweans had become accustomed to. Ignoring the ancient wisdom that warns against the stupidity of kicking a dead donkey back to life, the MDC-T embarked on a MDC-ALLIANCE decimation exercise, outside the court ruling itself. Whereas the focus should have only been on running the Extra Ordinary Congress and using the period between then and 2023 to rebuild the MDC-T post Tsvangirai, all energy was directed towards Chamisa and the MDC-ALLIANCE. Sense only dictates that Chamisa shifts his focus back to the MDC-T, with only one clear agenda. It’s thus laughable that the same people who insisted on implementing the ruling are now suspending and firing everyone, fearing for what will become of their temporary authority, which they have exercised with reckless abandon, even outside the MDC-T Constitution itself. So as the Chamisa group implements its strategy of dealing with the MDC-T headache one and for all, for Mwonzora and company, they should introspect and blame themselves for abusing temporary and otherwise none existing power, thereby attracting a fight-back. More often than not, an attack is nothing but an act of defense. As for the MDC-T officials, after all is said and done, spectators will realize that he who picks the meat before the soup is not destined for greatness.

 

enkosi!!