Tendai Biti messed up

Tendai Biti's attempt to overthrow Morgan Tsvangirai outside congress and head off an alleged imminent transformation of the MDC into a "fiefdom for the opposition leader" was blatantly unconstitutional, a top MDC policy chief has said.

Months before an extraordinary congress to put the leadership challenge to rest, Biti and his co-conspirators have refused to subject themselves to the special congress convened by the MDC leader, who the rebels have accused of "remarkable failure of leadership."

There is a veritable power crisis in the MDC that continues to generate instability ahead of the congress, but top policy chief Eddie Cross has said the ex-secretary general-led walk out of senior leadership was doomed to consign the renewal team to the dustbin of history after congress.

Notably, Biti's action immediately violated the parameters of the MDC constitution, when the pretence of leadership renewal manifested into a regime change operation, Cross said.

Legal advisers in the Biti group administration then made the claim that the MDC's national council had voted to suspend Tsvangirai because the party had been "transformed into a fiefdom of the leader."

Tsvangirai dismissed the meeting that suspended him as "illegal, unconstitutional, illegitimate and bogus".

A few days later, Tsvangirai's MDC responded by expelling Biti, Elton Mangoma, Samuel Sipepa-Nkomo, the interim chairperson of the group, and others.

Cross said the intervention by the renewal team was legally dubious from the beginning.

Like 2005 when the then secretary-general Welshman Ncube led a putsch to oust Tsvangirai, Cross said elements in the MDC again manoeuvred to try and take control and eventually, in a weird rerun of October 2005, only a small minority joined the "dissidents" in their call for leadership renewal outside the rules laid down in the MDC Constitution.

While Ncube had five out of the "Top Six" when he walked out of the MDC in 2005, this time Biti is backed by an insignificant number of the top officials, denting his power challenge, Cross said.

"We are now well down that road and again, Morgan Tsvangirai has retained the support and loyalty of the great majority of MDC supporters nationwide," Cross said.

"This support is reflected in all structures, the standing committee, the national executive, the national council and all provincial and district assemblies. The most recent meeting of MDC councillors in Harare that attracted well over 90 percent of all elected officials nationwide was just another example of this ascendency."

The dispute has spilled into Parliament where Tsvangirai's group sought the recall of all legislators backing Biti.

But Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda told the feuding factions to take their fight to the courts.

The divisions in the MDC follow its defeat in the July 2013 elections. The election ended the coalition the MDC and Zanu-PF had formed after disputed elections in 2008. Cross said he was flabbergasted by Biti and Mangoma's attempt to use illegal means to dethrone Tsvangirai.

"What I find difficult to understand is how such capable and intelligent people like Biti and Mangoma, both good friends of mine, can talk of leadership renewal via a route that is totally outside the provisions of the very party constitution that they crafted when they were in the MDC," Cross said.

The MDC policy chief predicted that the congress would buoy Tsvangirai and put the leadership challenge to rest.

"We are now preparing for our national congress likely to be held later this year and when we do come together, I have no doubt at all that Morgan Tsvangirai will be re-elected president of the MDC and charged with the responsibility of carrying the flag of real change into the electoral battles that lie ahead," Cross said.

"And if Zanu-PF continues to carry on in the manner that they are doing at the moment, then I for one would not be surprised at all to see them beaten, soundly this time, by a resurgent MDC under Morgan Tsvangirai's leadership.

"The leadership debris of the process in the MDC is not made up of bodies but of failed challengers who are simply cast aside by the democratic process and the loyalty of ordinary Zimbabweans from every walk of life to the man who has literally given his life so that they can expect better from their elected leaders in the future."

Jacob Mafume, spokesman for Biti's renewal team, alleged there were "blunt attempts" at re-branding and rehabilitation of the "expelled" leader of the MDC.

"We all love Eddie Cross and his effervescence, unfortunately, like effervescence, his predictions often disappear into thin air, like the effervescence of a bottle that has been opened," Mafume told the Daily News yesterday.

"If you look at his colourful past, he has always given these predictions that bring a warm feeling to one's heart and I am sure Morgan Tsvangirai's heart and his colleagues have been warmed but tragically that is the only thing they will gain from the prediction coming from the analysis given by Cross.

"We all know that he is the one who initiated the renewal discussion and he wrote an email that was well circulated urging Morgan Tsvangirai to step aside for the good of the movement and the country.

That was a well reasoned opinion devoid of ‘hail Mary' optimism."

The renewal team spokesman said there was nothing unconstitutional about calling for Tsvangirai's ouster after serving beyond two terms.