Mwonzora terrified of grand coalition

Although many people complain about ZBCTV's mediocre programming, especially the street theatres, I discovered last Sunday that if you spare some minutes for them, you can learn one or two things. In one of the episodes, Aphiri, who is under petticoat government, circuitously attacks his domineering wife by artfully directing the diatribe at his innocent friend.

This tactic is also being used in the political circles.

It was at play in Douglas Mwonzora's piece titled Grand coalition and politics of exclusion, in which he launched an astonishing tirade on the proposed grand coalition. He accused the players in the proposed coalition of a myriad of democratic deficiencies. However, Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC-T in general, are equally at fault on most, if not all, of the accusations levelled by Mwonzora.

Closely scrutinising these accusations, one is left wondering whether the attack was really directed at the coalition players or it was an indirect attack on Mr Tsvangirai, in the Aphiri style.

I am also not an advocate of the grand coalition for the sole reason that it is doomed to fail. I have said umpteen times that a coalition of people with a hotchpotch of ideologies will never stick. That's as far as I can agree with Mwonzora, the rest of what he said was a cheap attempt to discredit the coalition which he believes would relegate and diminish his party into Tsvangirai's political fiefdom. Mwonzora's article is also motivated by fear of losing donor funding to the coalition.  

Mwonzora said Zimbabweans need deliverance from poverty and misery. What he deliberately omitted to tell readers is that they were plunged into poverty and misery by the sanctions which his party called for. Usually the best person to exorcise a spell is the sorcerer who cast it in the first place. We all expected the MDC-T to take the country out of the economic quagmire in its four year stint in government.

The inclusive government exposed the MDC-T's ineptitude to proffer any meaningful solution to the economic challenges facing our country. Instead, those who were seconded to government were completely preoccupied with amassing illicit wealth for themselves. It's too early to forget how Mwonzora's colleagues in the councils and ministerial positions rose from rags to riches.
In his article, Mwonzora shamelessly goes on to say people of Zimbabwe need change. Change must begin in the agent of change itself. The political attitude of the opposition parties in this country needs re-orientation and hopefully this is what the MDC-Team is trying to achieve. The MDC-T misspent the opportunity to showcase the change it has been preaching since 1999.
I vehemently dispute Mwonzora's erroneous belief that Tsvangirai and his party have the greatest mass appeal among the workers, the unemployed and peasants. This group of people are wallowing in sanction-induced poverty. Their eyes have since been opened.

During the MDC-T's policy conference last year, ZCTU's secretary general, Japhet Moyo bemoaned the abandonment and betrayal of workers' aspirations. He told the MDC-T that it had deviated from its pro-poor foundations. It was a true observation as these people eventually gave vent to their anger in the July 2013 election.  Which mass appeal is Mwonzora referring to?
The MDC-T has been attacking the indigenisation law that seeks to empower the worker, unemployed and the peasant. The standard of living of workers and their families have been increasingly getting worse since the MDC-T came into existence.

Their sanctions have caused the massive folding of companies, resulting in the loss of jobs.  According to the Brenthurst Foundation survey, there were 350 manufacturing enterprises in Bulawayo employing 100 000 workers before the inclusive government and as of 2012, when those who claimed to have the keys to the economy came on board, the companies were reduced to 250 with a mere workforce of 50 000.

It is on record that Tsvangirai himself scoffed at the civil servants' demand for a pay rise despite promising them one, a few hours after his inauguration as Prime Minister. According to Manuel Nyawo as quoted in The Herald of 15February 2012, Tsvangirai told civil servants in a meeting that he "was not government that puts food on the table for civil servants." He reportedly told them that they were expecting too much and were daydreaming. It's strange that Mwonzora believes his boss is a darling to these workers.

Mwonzora also accused the proponents of the coalition of trying to turn churches and the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) into political parties. It's interesting that he knows the importance of impartiality and independence of the same. However, his statement smacks of hypocrisy. Mwonzora and Tsvangirai shouted the loudest Amen when some men of the cloth prayed for the death of a political rival.

Mwonzora did not lecture the church that their God-prescribed political duty was to pray for the leaders. The Bible say leaders are installed and removed by God, thus the church that attempts to remove a God appointed leader is working against Christian principles.  

MDC-T did not raise the issue of CSO's impartiality when the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (ZESN) and NCA, among others, appointed themselves as foot soldiers in the regime change project. Mwonzora and his party were mum when these CSOs used money and food handouts in 2008 to bribe the electorate into voting for the MDC-T.

Mwonzora forgets that the CSOs and his party used to be as inseparable as Siamese twins.  The CSOs propped up the MDC-T and they provided breeding and grooming ground for MDC-T politicians.
The MDC-T leaders cannot escape blame for being elitists. Tsvangirai lived large amid a sea of poverty during the inclusive government. It's only hard times that are now forcing him to live an artificially modest life.

The greatest culprit in manipulating party constitution is Tsvangirai. He made many unilateral amendments to his party's constitution to give himself sweeping powers. Insiders say Mwonzora has been tasked to change the constitution so that it gives Tsvangirai appointing powers of all posts, save for the presidency.

With all these contradictions in Mwonzora's article, I am tempted to conclude that he is terrified of the damage a coalition can bring to the MDC-T and is frantically trying to warn his master before he drags them all to a political abyss.