Tendai Biti fighting a losing battle

TENDAI Biti, the secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) is straddling a fine line as he pushes for the reversal of the suspension of Elton Mangoma from the party leadership nearly a fortnight ago.

Biti has described the decision made by the national council - the party's highest decision-making body outside congress - to suspend Mangoma from the party, albeit temporarily as "voidable".

This is after Douglas Mwonzora, the MDC-T spokesperson said the decision had been reached "unanimously" by all the party's leadership units. Mangoma faces four charges laid against him that include, the abuse of party funds, fanning factionalism, bringing the party name into disrepute and damaging the MDC-T's relationship with its strategic partners.

Biti's argument is that it was unprocedural to charge Mangoma, who is a standing committee member, without giving him a charge sheet and hearing his side of the story.  He also argues that as the party's secretary general, he should have been the one to charge Mangoma but he did not.  Biti and others also opposed to the suspension questioned the constitutionality of the action and poked holes into how the meeting which suspended Mangoma was constituted.

It now appears that by going against the tide rocking the country's largest opposition party, Biti is setting himself up for a showdown with Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC-T leader, who he has stood alongside for nearly 15 years in a bid to challenge President Robert Mugabe's grip on power. Further fuelling his precarious position in the party is his recent statements which have the effect of endorsing Zanu-PF's win in the elections held last July.

The MDC-T leadership has been most vocal in disputing the outcome of the July 31 elections, which they allege were rigged by Zanu-PF with the assistance of an Israeli-linked firm, Nikuv. They have lobbied unsuccessfully the Southern African Development Community and the African Union to reverse the election outcome.  Biti poignantly pointed to the dearth of policy formulation in the MDC-T when he said that the party "had been selling hopes and dreams during the elections, while Zanu-PF had been selling practical realities".

His scathing assessment is a sharp sting to the leading opposition party in the country, which is still trying to come to grips with where it went wrong in its bid to win the last elections. Mwonzora has downplayed the commentary saying the party had not taken a position yet on Biti.

"We have no position yet on Honourable Biti. It looks like he said one thing first then another later upon reflection. So the net effect of what he has said has been difficult to pin down. Besides, as a party, we are not a trigger happy organisation," Mwonzora said. "I am sure that the good lawyer in him will come out and he will see that as well, we will not as a party leadership be pursuing the matter any further."

A school of thought contends that Biti is working hand in glove with those that are calling for Tsvangirai's ouster and is being tipped as a potential replacement for Tsvangirai, if he was to be removed from office.  But all indications at the moment signal that Tsvangirai will neither be removed by a bloodless palace coup nor by a direct challenge to his power before an elective congress is held in 2016, a reality that is forcing his challengers to step back into the shadows to plot their next move. The path that both Mangoma and Biti are taking, and if they continue on it, can only lead to one thing: ejection from the party, political analyst, Alois Masepe, told the Financial Gazette last week.

"They are going to be ejected. Founding leaders of mass organisations are not easy to dislodge. Mangoma tried to be too clever by half. You do not ask a founding leader to step down. It is impolitic. It is naïve. And there is no need to waste energy trying to uproot a leader who is the face of the organisation. Mangoma is going to be ejected from the party," Masepe said. "Biti and Mangoma are now delving in constitutionalism, political niceties and democratic idioms, this will not help them." Political battles are won on the political arena, not in court or not with democratic idioms, Masepe said.
                           
"All that does not work. No amount of court cases you win can change the fact that political battles are fought on the political arena. No court, no legal process will save you politically. Politics is about activism not legal processes. These battles are decided by the followership and for as long as the followership feels you are going against their wishes you will not get anywhere. As far as the followership is concerned, Biti is going against the grain and they will not support that," Masepe said.

The MDC-T leader last weekend took his campaign trail to Bulawayo - the heartland of his party's dominance - in what turned out to be a public show of numbers and an indication of his strong support base among the grassroots.  The return into the MDC-T fold of Job Sikhala and other leaders linked to the smaller MDC party led by Welshman Ncube has also provided the much-needed wind beneath the sails for the MDC-T leader.

Biti has of late been conspicuous by his absence from the string of rallies held by Tsvangirai, signalling the frosty relationship ensuing.  Unofficially, it is said that Biti fears being attacked by rowdy youths if he was to grace party events. His next move in the MDC-T will be most crucial; will he seek to either mend relations or continue to stir up a hornet's nest by going against the party leadership?

However, Tanonoka Joseph Whande, a United States based political analyst said, "The real question Tsvangirai should ask himself is simple, what really does he think he can achieve without the people who created him? These are the same people he is dumping today because he has failed to utilize the abundance of their knowledge, information and brains."