'Tsvangirai admires Mugabe's powers'

The MDC renewal team has sledged Morgan Tsvangirai's attempt to centralise power in his office.

The fourth MDC extraordinary congress that ended at the City Sports Centre in Harare last weekend resolved to concentrate power in the MDC leader's office and dilute the power of the secretary-general.

"Congress resolved to amend the constitution to allow the (MDC) president to be the custodian of the party name, custodian of all party assets, to supervise all in the leadership, to be the party's chief fundraiser and to suspend National Standing Committee members through the National Council for breach of the party constitution," a key resolution from the congress said.

"In this regard the secretary-general shall no longer be responsible ‘for all party affairs in the National Secretariat' and shall report to the president."

The renewal team's national council accused Tsvangirai of morphing into a "power crazed dictator who had turned the party into personal property as demonstrated by the imposition of his face and name on all party symbols and logo."

The Sekai Holland-led renewal team, which broke away from Tsvangirai's MDC, said the sham congress held by the MDC over the weekend vindicates the faction as the former prime minister "manipulated it to entrench his ‘Zanufication' of the party".

"It is now clear that Tsvangirai is not a democrat as he has centralised all powers around himself," the renewal team said in a statement.

"He is now the chief custodian of the party's name, its assets, its finances, its administration, and everything else that defines it. The principle of separation of powers within the various organs of the party has been decimated as Tsvangirai has made himself an ‘emperor' with unquestionable authority."

The renewal team said elected office holders, including the secretary- general and treasurer-general, who are supposed to have the mandate of the Congress to run their respective offices, are now required to report to Tsvangirai, a move the renewal team said was a "serious abrogation of democratic principles and values."

"The net effect of all this is the intensification of the personalisation of the party by Tsvangirai," the statement said.

"Having a man of questionable integrity being the custodian of party assets and finances spells doom for the party as history has taught us that Tsvangirai cannot distinguish between his person and the party in his handling of financial matters."

The renewal team accused Tsvangirai's actions of being similar to President Robert Mugabe's abolition of the post of secretary-general in 1981 to create the all-powerful post of president and first secretary of Zanu PF and the abolition of the post of Prime Minister in 1987 to create the all-powerful post of executive president of the Republic.

"Through this centralisation of power, Mugabe has become a ‘king' whose powers are unchecked both in the party and in the Republic," the renewal team statement said.

"It is now very clear that Tsvangirai secretly admires Mugabe's unchecked powers and he used his interaction with him during the power sharing government as an internship for power grabbing."

The MDC renewal team reiterated its call for a return to the MDC's founding principles and values and condemned in the strongest terms Tsvangirai's ‘Zanufication' of the party.

"As we prepare for a genuine congress of real democrats to be held in March 2015, the party calls upon all democratic forces of the party to unite in rejecting Tsvangirai's attempt to make the MDC another Zanu PF," the renewal team said.