Leadership renewal best option for MDC-T

Political analyst, Shakespeare Hamauswa said there was need for transformation and leadership renewal, if the party was to survive and remain relevant.

"They have to sit down and see how they can transform without destroying the party. There is a need to strike a balance between the various interests in the party," said Hamauswa.

He said if the party decides to replace Tsvangirai, there was a need to come up with a compromise candidate, who can take over the leadership of the party on an interim basis.

Hamauswa said many people still felt that the MDC-T was an alternative to Zanu PF.

But he said the party had to prove that it respected democratic values which it claims to represent.

The political scientist also said it was not to the advantage of the party to ban its members from debating President Robert Mugabe's speech when he officially opened the first session of the 8th Parliament of Zimbabwe.

Another political analyst and University of Zimbabwe lecturer, Charity Manyeruke said the MDC-T was taking an elitist approach and segregating its key supporters.

She said the party now had many nucleuses of power working to outdo each other.

Manyeruke said what the suspended mayors and councillors did was normal in a democracy, where political lobbying at various levels is permissible.

"The magnitude of lack of democracy in the MDC-T is alarming," she said. "Some of the leaders are more worried about their own welfare instead of developing their party."

Manyeruke said some of the MDC-T leaders were interested only in securing their positions instead of advancing the interests of their supporters.

"People come last when it comes to some of these officials, who are only interested in getting positions. This is why the party is alienating itself from its supporters," said the UZ lecturer.

She said if the MDC-T top leadership continues to entrench its authority through undemocratic means, there was a likelihood of more revolts in the party.

Manyeruke predicted that more officials and groups associated with the MDC-T would continue to break away from the party to form their own political movements. The Lovemore Madhuku-led National Constitutional Assembly, co-founded  by the MDC, recently transformed itself into a political party and lashed out at the MDC-T for "abandoning" the people.

However, MDC-T spokesperson Douglous Mwonzora confirmed that internal investigation on councillors who defied the party's Constitution and rules was on-going in Mutare, Victoria Falls, Redcliff, Norton and Gweru.

He said there was nothing wrong with the party taking disciplinary measures against its members.

Mwonzora said while party officials were free to discuss leadership renewal internally, they were not allowed to do that outside the party structures and through the media.

"We are a party of rules," he said.