By Gift Mashoko
MDC’s political history since its formation in 1999 has been characterised by monumental failure from demonstrations, Presidential election and service delivery in urban councils just to mention a few.
The reason behind MDC’s failure is that they are fighting against the will of the majority of Zimbabweans, calling for sanctions which are causing untold suffering of people and organising violent and destructive demonstrations including the recent flopped one at United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
Using the funds the MDC received from Political Parties Funding the opposition party sent a delegation headed by its Deputy Organising Secretary, Happymore Chidziva to New York to organise the protests ahead of the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) which unfortunately flopped.
The protests were said to be on the alleged human rights abuse by the Zimbabwean Government, the so-called abductions, the deteriorating democratic space and bad governance in the country meant to humiliate President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
One would wonder what democratic space the MDC is crying for yet they are always holding rallies, press conferences and posting whatever they want on social media. One would also wonder the bad governance they are also making noise about, when the ruling Government of Zimbabwe is that of servant leadership and with President Emmerson Mnangagwa called for the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) where all political parties that participated in the 2018 harmonised elections are affiliates.
Their New York demonstration also flopped following very little turn up and the resurfacing of ‘self-abducted’ Dr Peter Magombei killing their morale because they had also planned to demonstrate blaming Government for the alleged abduction. Their tactics and timing unfortunately failed, exposing them.
Their plan of embarrassing President Mnangagwa at UNGA failed and they are obviously back at the drawing board. As usual they wanted to take the opportunity at the international forum to portray President Mnangagwa as a President who does not observe human rights and in the end they embarrassed themselves.
Instead of planning for the next 2023 presidential elections they are busy fighting with a President who is doing a good job in leading Zimbabwe.
Instead of MDC standing with the rest of the country and Africa, SADC in particular, in the fight against sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the USA, the MDC is busy fighting against its own fellow countrymen. It only goes to show that the opposition MDC is being used and they are trying to please their masters who want them in power.
As a norm Zimbabwe`s all weather friend D12 movement, a United States-based pan-African group stole the limelight over MDC following its organised anti-sanctions march planned by Friends of Zimbabwe and ZANU PF supporters at the UNGA.
The D12 movement is calling for the removal of sanctions which were placed upon Zimbabwe as they are causing untold suffering to Zimbabweans especially the economy. Maybe, the MDC is not supporting the call for the removal of the sanctions since they are the ones who crafted the infamous ZIDERA and recently called for the addition of more sanctions. Are these MDC leaders forgetting that its supporters are part of and living in the same country, Zimbabwe, where sanctions have wreaked havoc in their lives?
The MDC protestors had to retreat after they realised that the D12 had overshadowed and outnumbered them. This goes to show that people refused to be played for fools by the MDC and they realised the disorganisation and lack of direction of the opposition party.
The MDC demonstration in New York adds to the narrative that the opposition party is working tirelessly to attract international attention to Zimbabwe in a bid to ruin the re-engagement efforts by President Mnangagwa and Government.
The MDC is fast running out of ideas and its members are becoming disoriented with the leadership which has come to rely only on demonstrations in the fight against ZANU PF. The MDC has lost focus as it now focuses more on demonstrations than winning the hearts of the electorate hence the continued losses to ZANU PF in by-elections, with their recent loss to ZANU PF in the Zaka by-elections.
The MDC confusion is also visible in most urban councils where they are concentrating on power struggles diverting from their core mandate of providing proper adequate service delivery to rate payers.
MDC has always had problems in strategic planning, maybe the problem starts with their top management because their leader Nelson Chamisa clearly has no idea what he is supposed to be doing or where he is supposed to be taking the party. All he wants to do is lead but how to lead is something he is still to learn.
