MDC-T's blundering put to question credibility of its top officials

BLUNDERS which the MDC-T has been making since losing the July 31 elections to Zanu-PF have now become an embarrassment and put to question the credibility of top party officials, analysts have said.

Only last week, the party was forced to make a U-turn on the appointment of mayors who are non-councillors. The MDC-T had to withdraw its application to the Electoral Court after realising it had approached the wrong court, the Standard reported.

It has also invited the wrath of judges, after party leader and former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai openly accused them of being biased in his electoral petition challenging President Robert Mugabe's victory.

But the party continues to approach the same courts it has no faith in.

University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer, Eldred Masunungure said the blunders being made by the MDC-T were a manifestation of the deeper problems within the party.

He said the party was still in a state of trauma after it lost elections resulting in it making mistake after mistake.

"They are suffering from post-election traumatic stress disorder. The problems are a reflection of a leadership trying to recover from that trauma," said Masunungure. "They cannot think clearly and act rationally. They can be forgiven but not when you commit one blunder after another."

He said any ordinary person would have known that the issue of selection of mayors had nothing to do with the Electoral Court.

"There is a lot of confusion and gnashing of teeth. They cannot act rationally and clearly. People are failing to understand what is going on," said Masunungure.

He said it would take some time for the MDC-T to recover from this "traumatic" experience.

"The worry though is the phenomenon reflects a party in considerable decay at leadership level," said the UZ lecturer.

"They need to quickly recuperate from that traumatic experience of losing massively, otherwise their credibility and capacity to attract sympathisers will be undermined."

He said some of the MDC-T sympathisers were already saying the party deserved to lose.

"They are saying if the party can't act right what would have happened when it came to policies if they had captured state power. They need to quickly get their act together, otherwise they risk becoming irrelevant," said Masunungure.

Political analyst, Clever Bere said the blunders being made showed confusion and lack of strategy on the part of the MDC-T.

He said this also exposed indecisiveness on the part of Tsvangirai, as well as confirming his already proven shortcomings.

Bere said the party always rushed to do things without carefully considering the consequences.

"One day they go to the moon claiming the false Sadc Maputo victory. The next day they are attacking Sadc," he said.

"Tsvangirai rushes to claim that he is responsible for co-ordinating election related issues on behalf of the government. The following day he is crying foul on the very same elections he claimed he was in charge of.He goes around claiming Mugabe is not as bad as he had thought; now he is claiming otherwise."

Bere was of the view that the MDC-T, particularly Tsvangirai, appeared to be seeking advice from the wrong people.

"They have their own selfish interest, which I believe motivates them more than the people's interest," he said.

"Lawyers by their very nature are motivated by their interests. Why wouldn't they have advised him in the first place that under the new Constitution, a mayor should have been elected by the people in that constituency?"