News / National
Desperate Welshman courts Tsvangirai
09 Jul 2016 at 03:49hrs | Views
EMBATTLED MDC leader Professor Welshman Ncube has staged a spectacular about turn and is cosying up to his MDC-T counterpart, Morgan Tsvangirai, whom he vowed never to work with because of "his dictatorial tendencies and propensity to breach the party constitution at will."
Reeling under resignations by senior party members with the latest being former acting secretary general Moses Mzila Ndlovu and 64 others, Prof Ncube said his party was willing to join hands with Mr Tsvangirai for a "greater national good".
Addressing journalists in Bulawayo on Thursday, Prof Ncube said: "We obviously can't answer for the MDC-T as to whether it has changed from the caricature we've painted of it since 2005. What we think is important is not what they have been and what we've disagreed over.
"What we think is important is to recognise that an insistence by us or anyone for that matter on adherence to the purest forms of our values and principles will merely lead to us fighting elections in 2018 from three or four different corners. And we don't think that it's in the national interest to do that."
Prof Ncube is on record as saying that he would never work with Mr Tsvangirai because the "Mugabe must go" mantra pursued by the MDC-T was not helpful without looking at its leader's political conduct.
He has all along maintained that Mr Tsvangirai's dictatorial tendencies that led to the first MDC split of 2005, wilful breach of the party constitution and a violent culture in the MDC-T would be major stumbling blocks in them working together.
However, in what can be interpreted as a survival tactic, Prof Ncube sang a different song on Thursday.
He said: "Our view is simply that for the time being, given the national crisis we have, we need to find the minimum common denominator which can bind us to work together.
"That minimum common denominator is not agreement on a whole range of values and principles, we've sufficient records of our disagreements over those things. The minimum common denominator is that everyone who says that they're in opposition, they're in agreement that Zanu PF has failed us.
"We're in agreement that President Mugabe and Zanu PF must go and let's work on that minimum common denominator. The rest will be work in progress, before and after 2018."
MDC has not recovered from its dismal performance in the 2013 elections that led to internal strife resulting in senior members resigning from the party.
Reeling under resignations by senior party members with the latest being former acting secretary general Moses Mzila Ndlovu and 64 others, Prof Ncube said his party was willing to join hands with Mr Tsvangirai for a "greater national good".
Addressing journalists in Bulawayo on Thursday, Prof Ncube said: "We obviously can't answer for the MDC-T as to whether it has changed from the caricature we've painted of it since 2005. What we think is important is not what they have been and what we've disagreed over.
"What we think is important is to recognise that an insistence by us or anyone for that matter on adherence to the purest forms of our values and principles will merely lead to us fighting elections in 2018 from three or four different corners. And we don't think that it's in the national interest to do that."
Prof Ncube is on record as saying that he would never work with Mr Tsvangirai because the "Mugabe must go" mantra pursued by the MDC-T was not helpful without looking at its leader's political conduct.
However, in what can be interpreted as a survival tactic, Prof Ncube sang a different song on Thursday.
He said: "Our view is simply that for the time being, given the national crisis we have, we need to find the minimum common denominator which can bind us to work together.
"That minimum common denominator is not agreement on a whole range of values and principles, we've sufficient records of our disagreements over those things. The minimum common denominator is that everyone who says that they're in opposition, they're in agreement that Zanu PF has failed us.
"We're in agreement that President Mugabe and Zanu PF must go and let's work on that minimum common denominator. The rest will be work in progress, before and after 2018."
MDC has not recovered from its dismal performance in the 2013 elections that led to internal strife resulting in senior members resigning from the party.
Source - chronicle
