White MDC-T legislators endorse Tsvangirai

Michael Carter, the Bulawayo Metropolitan Senator and non-constituency MP Jane Nicola Watson, have rallied behind their leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is shrugging off an internal rebellion from some senior party members.

Both Carter and Watson last week said Tsvangirai was not to blame for the party's dismal showing in the July 31 harmonised elections.

Watson said she has faith in Tsvangirai. Carter and Watson's endorsement of Tsvangirai comes at a time Roy Bennett and Ian Kay are gunning for him to step down as the party president.

"We need to take responsibility for 2013 elections outcome collectively as leaders of MDC and not to blame Tsvangirai alone," Carter said.

"There is need for leaders' introspection and I still stand behind Tsvangirai and I believe he can lead us to a new democratic country in the future.

"I know that Tsvangirai still commands support of the grassroots people in the party and countrywide despite what some MPs are saying that he must step down."

Watson also said she has faith in Tsvangirai.

A founding MDC member, Watson  is one of three white MDC MPs after an election in which the opposition won only 68 of the 210 seats contested.

Watson, who is the Bulawayo  treasurer for the MDC, is  in Parliament, thanks to the newly-introduced proportional representation that imposes a women quota.

Carter and Watson's endorsement of Tsvangirai comes at a time Roy Bennett and Ian Kay are gunning for him to step down as the party president.

Bennett, the MDC treasury-general, is being supported by Elton Mangoma, his deputy, who says the MDC leader should step down to give the party a fresh impetus.

"It is my humble submission that, at this juncture, it is time you consider leaving the office of the president of the movement," Mangoma said in his letter to Tsvangirai.

"2014 marks 15 years of Morgan Tsvangirai as president of the party.

"You have done the best that you could and continuing will result in diminishing returns and eating into your legacy. The party is in dire need for new ideas, new thinking, a new trajectory and new stimulus."

Watson believes that MDC under Tsvangirai will be able to assume power in the next elections under a free and fair electoral environment.

Carter and Watson's endorsement of Tsvangirai flies in the face of claims that  the white community no longer supports him.

Since independence, the country's 75 000 whites, who form less than one per cent of the country's 13 million population, have been expected to steer clear of politics in a tacit quid pro quo for being allowed to stay.

But that changed with the 2000 vote, when four whites won parliamentary seats.

Since then, more and more whites have openly engaged in politics, and currently the MDC has quite a handful of white members.

President Robert Mugabe says the MDC is a front organisation for British settlers and the MDC whites have particularly aroused his anger.