Opinion / Columnist
MDC-T decision to recall MDC Renewal MPs and then boycott by-election was a monumental blunder!
13 Apr 2015 at 01:49hrs | Views
Having triggered the recall of the 21 MDC – Renewal MPs and Senators, MDC-T have confirmed they will not try to win back the 14 seats to be contested in the by-elections but reallocate the 7 seats the party got from the proportional representative system.
The decision has left MDC-T divided with one camp led by Mwonzora, Gutu and Theresa Makoni, who all lost their seats in the July 2013 rigged elections keen as mustard to ditch the party's October 2014 resolution to boycott elections until reforms are implemented. They were all eyeing the vacated seats as their chance to get back into parliament and the gravy train.
Nelson Chamisa, who won his seat in the July 2013, led the group demanding that the party should stick to its resolution to boycott elections. Chamisa lost the contest for party's secretary general post to Mwonzora last year. Some people believe Chamisa is having his back because having taken part in the July 2013 elections MDC-T has no rational reason to boycott any elections. None!
It is nonsensical for an of the MDC factions to boycott elections because they want reform to be implemented first when it was them who should have implemented the reforms, had five years to do so, but failed to get even one reform implemented. They took part in the July 2013 elections, knowing that no reforms had been implemented; so why the big fuss now?
Now there is no pressure to implement any reforms because the GPA expired with the end of the GNU and Zanu PF has more than the two-thirds majority in parliament already, winning the 14 contested seats will boost their majority even more. Mugabe is not going to implement any reforms just because MDC made a blunder and failed to implement the reforms when they should have done so and it took the rigged July 2013 to open their eyes!
Zimbabwe had a golden opportunity to implement the reforms and thus dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship; MDC wasted the chance because they were corrupt and incompetent. Now the nation is paying dearly for that blunder and will continue to do so for, possibly, years to come. If Zanu PF is going to be forced to implement the reforms it would have to be something else that forces them to and because the MDC village idiots who wasted the golden chance to implement reforms are boycotting elections to force Zanu PF to implement the same reforms!
Elections cost money and if you have no money you are certain to lose elections. Given that Zanu PF can also rig the elections because no reforms were implemented turns the "certain to lose" into definite; no wonder MDC are not keen to contest an elections right now! The other political parties are not going to join in the election boycott and rightly so too. If we are going to boycott the elections then let it be for the right reasons; to do so because MDC are broke is no reason.
Most of the MDC politicians who lost their seats in the rigged July 2013 elections have certainly missed the good life of the GNU years, with party funding drying up, many of them have hit hard economic times. Tsvangirai lost to Mugabe in the presidential race and he has hit hard times; it is hard to keep up the good living appearance of one living in a $4 million mansion - his bribe for making sure no reforms were implemented during the GNU - on zero income! 7 of the former MDC-renewal seats will be uncontested in the bye-election and all the MDC-T leaders like Mwonzora, Gutu, etc. will be fighting to these seats. Tsvangirai would, no doubt, want his name put in the hat too! They are all dying to get back into parliament and the gravy train. Whoever of them are lucky to get these seats, they will be surprised to find the gravy train lifestyle in not the pampered one of the GNU years!
Parliament was adjourned last week, earlier than expected, and resume 5 May, but with a distinct possibility of being postponed to a later date, because government has run out of money. Most hotels in Harare are refusing to accommodate MPs and have parliament pay their bills because government has not been paying the bills. Government has been struggling to pay not only civil servant wages but MP salaries and allowances.
So those MDC - T leaders who had campaigned to have the 21 MDC –Renewal politicians recalled as their own chance to get back in parliament will be disappointed the party has effectively donated 14 of these seats to Zanu PF and there will be no significant financial gain for the 7 who will get back on the gravy train whose wheels are coming off. Of the many political blunders Morgan Tsvangirai has made, God knows he is blundering man, recalling the 21 MPs and then boycott the subsequent by-elections is one of his self-inflicted blunders.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders are corrupt and incompetent; they have proven this beyond all reason doubt in failing to implement even one reform during the five years of the GNU; it would be folly to even again entrust them with the destiny of this great country! They should all have apologized to the nation after the July 2013 rigged elections and retired. We must make sure that they never get back into power ever again; they will only blunder and betray the nation again if they do!
Source - Wilbert Mukori
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
