There is no honour amongst thieves

The defections that continue to hit the beleaguered MDC-T led by Morgan Tsvangirai are hardly surprising, given that the party was and remains a grouping of highly excitable individuals whose only quest is political fame and the accompanying wealth.

As such, it is a no-brainer to see said individuals swinging whichever way the donors' purse swings.

At its formation in 1999, the Movement for Democratic Change was supposedly a political party meant to bring about democracy and change for the betterment of the lives of Zimbabweans.

The party was ostensibly made up of like-minded democratic, honest, principled and upstanding citizens bent on fighting for citizens' rights nomatter the cost.

For a long time, the populace was swayed, seeing the MDC-T as nothing short of saviours.

Alas, all it took was a slight wiggling of their donors' finger for the centre to begin to unravel, as long back as 2005.

The recent en masse' defection of party members from MDC-T to the Biti- led Renewal Team faction and an emerging "Third Force" faction ,merely serves to confirm the adage that there is no honour amongst thieves.

Thieves will always turn on each other if they think there's a deal to be had.
First it was Welshman Ncube, Trudy Stevenson and others in 2005, followed by Secretary General Tendai Biti, Elton Mangoma and others earlier this year.

As steadily as a stream flows, more and more members continue to slink out of the party now that the party's coffers have run dry, democracy long forgotten.

They are all singing the "we have seen the light" hymn which I find hard to swallow.

The Renewal Team accuses Mr Tsvangirai of failing to provide "competent leadership" and acting in a manner detrimental to party objectives. They also accuse him of violating the constitution and using violence as a political tool.

Last Friday, former MDC-T Bulawayo provincial chairman Gorden Moyo quit his post citing "violence, hate language, mudslinging matches, and the pursuit of parochial and personal interests" in the party.

Mr Moyo announced that he was resigning from the helm of the party in the province citing what he termed confusion, infighting and violence which was similar to the chaos that had taken place in the building of the Biblical tower of Babel.

Close on his heels was former MDC-T Women's Assembly chairlady and Kuwadzana MP, Lucia Matibenga who has since crossed over to Biti's camp.

Seeing that the floodgates had been opened, the entire Manicaland provincial youth executive reportedly resigned from Tsvangirai's camp over the weekend to join the Biti faction.

Is it that all these people have finally had a damascene after more than a decade persecuting their kith and kin in the party?

Where their eyes closed for the past 15 years?

The speed with which the so-called democrats are abandoning ship, as it were, leaves a lot to be desired and shows that there really was nothing tangible tying them together.

No common, noble cause to speak of. Rather a banding together of thieves who won't hesitate to turn tail and run at the first sign of an empty purse.

True democrats would have stuck out and found a common cause as they presumably had in the beginning.

MDC-T is not the first political party to experience problems emanating from difference of opinion.

What separates the wheat from the chaff is the manner in which the party absorbs and deals with these differences and MDC-T is fast setting a record for the highest number of defectors, quitters, sell-outs, chickens, whatever shoe fits!

This lack of common purpose and tolerance calls for an introspection on the core that holds the party together.

Is it really the desire for democratic change or desire for loose change?