Tinotenda Mutasa
Movement for Democratic Change.
The name denotes a paradigm shift towards democracy and in 1999 it brought with it a profusion of excitement.
Staggering under the heavy weight of high expectation and an economy facing challenges whose origins I shall not explore at this juncture, as they have been over-analysed, the people of Zimbabwe turned to the new political party, MDC, as a plant turns to sunshine.
Most believed that as the name suggests, the party stood for unadulterated democracy and a fresh input into the Zimbabwean political scene.
And for a while, this myth held as firebrand public speakers from the party took the country by storm, promising democracy, milk and honey if they got into power.
However, some sixth sense must have held the populace back from fully trusting these honeyed promises of paradise and time and time again, MDC failed to get into power, more importantly, its original leader, the late Morgan Tsvangirai, failed to become president of the Republic of Zimbabwe.
Subsequent elections, where MDC suffered heavy losses as people got tired of their hate-inspired mantra, proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back and all pretence of democracy within the party was thrown out of the window as bloody fights erupted leading to numerous splits.
Fast forward to 2019 and democracy is once again being trampled in the party. As he fights for political survival, Nelson Chamisa has destroyed whatever semblance of democracy was left in the party and he is daily exposing himself as a dictator- a sin he was fond of accusing his rival, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, of.
Recent statements by MDC officials in the party have since revealed that some people (those in Chamisa’s camp) are more equal than others. One that comes quickly to mind is that by National Organizing Secretary Amos Chibaya, who warned party members against contesting Chamisa at the upcoming Congress. Chibaya told a feedback meeting in Mkoba Gweru that anyone who tried to contest Chamisa would be thrown in the political dustbin. The party’s Deputy Treasurer Chalton Hwende, has also threatened members against contesting Chamisa, labeling anyone who was thinking of doing so a “Zanu PF project.”
The situation now obtaining in the MDC is that it’s either you are for Chamisa or you are the enemy.
Chamisa has also poisoned his lieutenants, or perhaps I am giving them undue credit and they were already poisonous themselves, anyway, they are now so warped in their thinking that they see nothing wrong in Chamisa refusing to open his post to challenge until he has tasted the luxury of State House despite his glaring failures as a leader.
If Nelson Chamisa can refuse to be contested now, when he is just a mere opposition leader, I shudder to imagine how he would behave if he were ever to be president of the country!
What is also evident even at this early stage is that the October congress will not be a platform for free election of people into positions of power but a gathering of sycophants to endorse Chamisa’s dictates.
Given the manner in which conflict is being handled in the party, it would only be prudent to drop the “Democratic” from the party’s name. Movement for Dictatorial Change, perhaps?
