Morgan Tsvangirai drums up support

Beleaguered opposition MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai will soon embark on a nationwide tour to galvanise grassroots support, amid an escalated push for his ouster.

Party policy chief Eddie Cross Friday told The Zimbabwe Mail that Tsvangirai would, from Monday, begin marathon meetings with lower end structures in all provinces to "sound out their views on the issue of an early elective congress".

Cross, who wrote to the MDC-T leadership last August informing it that party structures in his Bulawayo South constituency were demanding an early congress, said Tsvangirai would roll out his nationwide tour next week.

The legislator confirmed authoring to the party bigwigs.

"It is true that the message from the structures was clear, they wanted leadership change through an early congress," Cross said. "I then wrote a memorandum to the party leadership telling them of the instruction I had received."

Cross said those against an early congress were mainly found in the top echelons of the party.

"We are likely going to congress in 2015 because the leadership agreed that the renewal process should begin as soon as possible. The higher you go up the party the more you are likely to find resistance to an early congress," Cross said. "Maybe because people do not want to exacerbate the acrimony already there or they fear for their positions which are definitely under threat, except for Tsvangirai who I can tell you still has substantial support. But at the lower end more of our structures want an early congress."

MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora was not picking up his mobile phone last night.

Tsvangirai's spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka would not comment on Cross's memorandum, but confirmed his boss would soon be meeting party structures.

"The is a programme that began on September 3 last year in Chivi and he has since met with all structures in Masvingo and Harare and that exercise will be continuing at a date to be advised," said Tamborinyoka.

Critics said Tsvangirai wanted to drum support from party structures.

"There is no way he can expect a district chairperson or youth organising secretary at ward level to tell him straight in his face that he must go. It is scandalous that he is trying to usurp the independence of other structures that must make their decisions without coercion," said a senior party member.

Tsvangirai's woes have mounted in recent weeks as party hawks baying for his blood upped the ante, demanding that he steps down and pave way for an elective congress because his continued stay was becoming an albatross to the party's aspirations of wrestling state power from Zanu PF.

Top on the list was former Energy Minister and MDC-T deputy treasurer general Elton Mangoma who wrote a damning letter to Tsvangirai arguing that using the law of diminishing returns, the veteran trade unionist's continued stay at the helm of the MDC-T "will result in diminishing returns and eating into your legacy" and ultimately deny the party the chance to win in 2018.

Cross said Mangoma had every right to raise the issues that he brought up and these were "common currency" in the party.

"In fact the issues in Mangoma's letter are common currency within the MDC; they are not new, only that he had the guts to take the bull by its horns. For your own information, Mangoma received so much support in the national executive that I was shocked," said Cross.

The Bulawayo South legislator, however, said Tsvangirai's position remained strong.

"He still has massive support, but positions of most leaders around him are under threat. However, it is likely that Tsvangirai will be challenged at the next congress," he said

As the succession debate in the MDC-T gathers momentum, Cross revealed that the opposition party has slated for March an All-stakeholders conference to discuss the emotive matter.

Among critical questions Mangoma asked Tsvangirai were issues to deal with his many affairs with different women, abuse of funds and failure to provide leadership in the run-up to the general elections last year.

Other senior officials who have called on Tsvangirai to resign include former Harare mayor Elias Mudzuri, party treasurer general Roy Bennett and former Marondera legislator Ian Kay. However the former Zimbabwe Prime Minister has dug his heels arguing the "people still want me to lead".