'Tsvangirai emerges weaker from MDC-T congress'

Whenever the going gets tough, in the face of fierce opposition; leaders of political parties often call for congress to measure their popularity and consolidate power.

That appears to have been the same tactic employed by MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai who called for congress a year earlier than scheduled to fill the void in positions left after the party suffered a second split in April.

Officials led by former secretary general Tendai Biti and former deputy treasurer general Elton Mangoma walked out citing irreconcilable differences with Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai used the congress to entrench his powers, assuming authority as the custodian of all party assets and to supervise all in leadership.

Tsvangirai will now superintend the secretary general, treasurer general and all party leadership. The MDC-T congress resolved that the secretary general shall no longer be responsible for all party affairs but would do so through Tsvangirai.

He also got powers to suspend any national executive through the national council.

Political analyst Eldred Masunungure said from a democratic perspective Tsvangirai has ceased to be a democrat due to the constitutional amendments that have made sure he has amassed power.

"Tsvangirai has literally become owner of the party as the amendments have allowed him to privatise the party instead of it being a public institution," said Masunungure a professor of politics at the University of Zimbabwe.

"He is not stronger. A dictator cannot be stronger than a democrat."

Masunungure said Tsvangirai failed to seize an opportunity to reconnect with the people in the grassroots and missed a golden chance to plant the ingredients of democracy.

"This was a golden chance for him to foster democracy. He needs to reconnect with the people, which is one thing he failed to do whether by default or by design all the time he was in the government of national unity, to connect the national leadership with the grassroots," Masunungure said.

Social commentator Maxwell Saungweme said Tsvangirai had emerged stronger in consolidating power and the congress elevated him to supreme leader of the party.

"He can literally do what he wants with the party, suspend or fire officials he does not like, and use resources of the party in a way he deems fit without being accountable," Saungweme said.

Saungweme said Tsvangirai emerged weaker with regards to positioning himself and MDC-T to win elections in 2018 and lead government and the country.

"The congress made many people who used to sympathise with him lose the little trust they had left in him. He has shown that he can be a dictator. And after 34 years of Mugabe [President Robert Mugabe] dictatorship, I don't think Zimbabweans need another dictator just for the sake of change," Saungweme said.

"He, in a typical Mugabe fashion, surrounded himself with his loyalists, people who will not dare ask him any question, and this makes him a very weak contender for any national elections."

Saungweme said the congress "was bereft of any meaningful resolution or strategy to respond to programmes of government that are damaging the economy like indigenisation".

"It had no strategy which the MDC would want to implement as an alternative to Zanu-PF government's failure to deal with the liquidity crunch and other economic ills. It had no discussion on issues such as the west reengaging the Zanu-PF regime. It was all about elevating Tsvangirai to a village king," he said.

But MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu last week defended the amendments claiming MDC-T came out stronger and more united after the congress and that the party was focusing more on building a strong institution rather than personalities.

"The constitutional amendments were not about Morgan Tsvangirai the individual but about MDC-T as an institution. If you peruse all the MDC-T 4th congress resolutions you will, no doubt, appreciate the fact that the party came out stronger, more united and more focused," said Gutu.

"No other political party in Zimbabwe has got a more progressive constitution than the MDC-T. Our critics are largely driven by their personal hatred for Morgan Tsvangirai more than anything else."