by Tawanda Musariri
The double loss the MDC Alliance has suffered at the ballot and at the Constitutional Court has sown divided opinion in the party on the next course of action on the journey ahead of 2023.
Two distinctive camps have arisen; one is for dialogue with the ruling Zanu PF party for political accommodation while another is for direct and indirect confrontation. Both positions have different reasons while sub-differences also exist even among those in the same camp.
The Harare Post has it from well placed insider within the MDC Alliance that opinion gathering exercises in Manicaland and Mashonaland East are unanimous that party president, Nelson Chamisa must seek political accommodation from Zanu PF through negotiation. This school of thought, driven by Tracey Mutinhiri and Trevor Saruwaka for Mashonaland East and Manicaland respectively, has it that the Alliance will be choked out of political relevance if they stay out of the limelight and the only limelight there is, is with Zanu PF.
Mutinhiri’s province has it that confronting Zanu PF through the courts is a tedious, slow and expensive route which will bring any quality of results way after the lifespan of the very government the party is seeking to fight, similar to winning the paternity contest of a child after the death of the very child under contestation. This camp, sources say, feels that if Chamisa negotiates for accommodation in government through a Government of National Unity, the party will be kept vibrant as its officials will get necessary visibility through government business.
The Mutinhiri camp also feels that the party will be favoured with some financial overtures once it has a leg in government.
Meanwhile, voices from Manicaland are more radical than the Mashonaland East thought, calling for Chamisa to negotiate himself into government where he will be president and will have fifty percent ministerial allocation. Further to negotiating, Manicaland is saying Chamisa must take his case to the African Commission for Human and People’s rights for arbitration where the party is hopeful of getting a favourable response, failure of which they say Chamisa must go all the way to the International Court of Justice.
Both provinces are in agreement that if at the least dialogue fails, then they would take the street demonstration route.
Chamisa is on his way to solicit public views countrywide on the way forward following the court outcome. He has branded the national outreach program as thank you rallies.
Meanwhile, another camp opposed to Chamisa’s ascendancy into government wants nothing but confrontation with Zanu PF. This camp has been labelled the Mwonzora camp. The Mwonzora camp is hopeful of wrestling party leadership from Chamisa in the 2019 party congress where every position in the party is to be contested for. Chamisa lost his highest elective attempt to Douglas Mwonzora in 2014 as he sought to land the Secretary General’s post. Chamisa only won his way into presidency through an appointment by Morgan Tsvangirai as the latter sought to douse a sure power struggle as his health waned.
The Mwonzora camp, Harvest House sources say, wants to starve Chamisa of necessary political expediency through joining government via a GNU so that when 2019 comes, Chamisa’s political star would have faded to contestable levels.
Last week, Harvest House was at pains disowning a purported letter suspending Mwonzora from the party. The letter, which had party logo and party chief of staff Sesel Zvidzai’s signature was reportedly authored by the party presidency in order to remove Mwonzora from the way as he poses a realistic threat to Chamisa’s political life ahead of 2019. Whatever the source of the letter, what comes clear is that all is not well in the party and that there are simmering hostilities between Chamisa and Mwonzora.
