Opinion / Speeches
Welshman Ncube responds to Tsvangirai - Full statement
25 Jul 2014 at 09:55hrs | Views
Press Release
23 July 2014
Response to Morgan Tsvangirai
Zimbabwe lies on its belly groaning under the weight of a clueless and cruel Zanu PF government, with the majority of its people going through severe suffering and hunger; businesses closing down; jobs being lost on a daily basis; the economy in free fall; social services non -existent.
Just about everyone except the corrupt and ruling junta starving and scavenging from hand to mouth on a daily basis; the country crying for leadership. And what do we get? The claimants to that leadership who tell us people must repose faith in them as the leadership that will bring an end to their misery; an incessant and endless myopic, bankrupt and meaningless statements which offer the people nothing . We thus witness a tragic comedy of political clowns in endless conversations about themselves and their lives when what we should be talking about is how we can get Zimbabwe out of the mess it is in.
Enter one Morgan Tsvangirai who thinks at this particular moment what matters to him is telling his people that he will never forgive Welshman Ncube.
Once again the MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai blames everybody else but himself for the unsightly politically mutilated figure starring back at him in the mirror. He knows very well that I, Welshman Ncube have never asked for his forgiveness and will never do so for the simple reason that I have never done anything wrong for which his forgiveness will be desired.
History has recorded that it was his dictatorship that caused the 2005 split of the united MDC. We will refresh the memory of those who might have forgotten.
In mid - 2005 the MDC National Council resolved that it would instruct its provinces to consult its structures and membership on whether or not the party should take part in the pending Senatorial election. On 12 October 2005 the national council convened to consider the report from the provinces and to make a final decision as to whether or not the party should contest.
The provinces duly reported and 9 out of 12 reported that their consultations had disclosed that the majority of the members and structures wanted the party to take part in those elections. This should have been the end of the matter, however Tsvangirai insisted that notwithstanding that the majority of the provinces had resolved that we should participate in the senate election, the National Council should debate the matter and make a determination. As a result the majority view of the provinces was disregarded and the matter debated by the members of the National Council as individuals.
After a debate lasting the whole day, no consensus could be reached by the National Council. As a result it was suggested by Roy Bennet and accepted by the National council that since the matter was divisive it would be unwise to decide it by a vote and the national council therefore resolved that the management committee composed of Morgan Tsvangirai- President, Gibson Sibanda- Deputy President, Isaac Matongo- National Chairman, Gift Chimanikire- Secretary General and Fletcher Dulini Ncube- Treasurer, should determine the matter one way or the other and that the national council would accept whatever the decision of the management committee.
Consequently the national council adjourned to allow the management committee to debate and decide the matter and report back. The management committee duly met in Tsvangirai's office debated the matter for over an hour. All the members of the management committee with the exception of Tsvangirai favored participation in the senate elections. As was usual practice, this meant that there was sufficient consensus in the management committee for us to report to the national council that our decision was to participate in the election. Tsvangirai insisted that our usual rules were inapplicable to a matter of such grave national importance and that the only one way this matter could be resolved was that the national council takes responsibility and vote on it. He also insisted that we should not report to the national council our full deliberations and in particular, that he was in a minority of one in the management committee.
We agreed, returned to the national council and reported that we were unable to resolve the matter as management committee and therefore it was our recommendation that the national council should vote and that way decide the matter. At the suggestion of Morgan Tsvangirai, the national council requested each and every member to make an undertaking that he or she would accept the outcome of the vote. On that understanding, a secret ballot was duly taken and that vote was in favor of participation.
We all know that after that vote Tsvangirai refused to accept the outcome and stormed out of the meeting and thereafter unleashed his thugs on members of the national council who had debated in favor of participation and further publicly lied about the outcome of that vote. It is these actions by Morgan Tsvangirai which triggered the split of the MDC.
In summary the split of the MDC was caused Tsvangirai's repeated refusal to accept collective decisions, his penchant for unilaterally reversing collective decisions, his resort to violence as an instrument of political organization, his frequent deployment of ethnicity as a political weapon and or shield.
Tsvangirai's fixation with tribal paddocking never ceases to amaze, and it comes out glaringly clear in the Southern Eye edition of 21 July 2014, in which he professed his unadulterated hatred of my person. It is however worrying that over the years, this trait has become pathological.
While it is shocking to see a political leader publicly professing an inability to forgive, which in my view automatically disqualifies him as a leader, and while Tsvangirai has every right to hold on to his anger and hatred, I and the MDC bear him no malice. It is however this professed personal hatred that rendered any attempts at reunification or coalition with MDC-T impossible. His confession reveals how insincere he was all along when he claimed he was interested in the same. It also explains why he was willing to side with President Mugabe during the inclusive government.
For the avoidance of doubt, those who ask and in need for forgiveness are those who have done or feel they have done wrong. While the split of the MDC remains a painful and distressing episode, I have no doubt in my mind that given the same circumstances as prevailed at the split of the MDC in 2005, I would make exactly the same decision as I made then.
Prof. Welshman Ncube
President, MDC
23 July 2014
Response to Morgan Tsvangirai
Zimbabwe lies on its belly groaning under the weight of a clueless and cruel Zanu PF government, with the majority of its people going through severe suffering and hunger; businesses closing down; jobs being lost on a daily basis; the economy in free fall; social services non -existent.
Just about everyone except the corrupt and ruling junta starving and scavenging from hand to mouth on a daily basis; the country crying for leadership. And what do we get? The claimants to that leadership who tell us people must repose faith in them as the leadership that will bring an end to their misery; an incessant and endless myopic, bankrupt and meaningless statements which offer the people nothing . We thus witness a tragic comedy of political clowns in endless conversations about themselves and their lives when what we should be talking about is how we can get Zimbabwe out of the mess it is in.
Enter one Morgan Tsvangirai who thinks at this particular moment what matters to him is telling his people that he will never forgive Welshman Ncube.
Once again the MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai blames everybody else but himself for the unsightly politically mutilated figure starring back at him in the mirror. He knows very well that I, Welshman Ncube have never asked for his forgiveness and will never do so for the simple reason that I have never done anything wrong for which his forgiveness will be desired.
History has recorded that it was his dictatorship that caused the 2005 split of the united MDC. We will refresh the memory of those who might have forgotten.
In mid - 2005 the MDC National Council resolved that it would instruct its provinces to consult its structures and membership on whether or not the party should take part in the pending Senatorial election. On 12 October 2005 the national council convened to consider the report from the provinces and to make a final decision as to whether or not the party should contest.
The provinces duly reported and 9 out of 12 reported that their consultations had disclosed that the majority of the members and structures wanted the party to take part in those elections. This should have been the end of the matter, however Tsvangirai insisted that notwithstanding that the majority of the provinces had resolved that we should participate in the senate election, the National Council should debate the matter and make a determination. As a result the majority view of the provinces was disregarded and the matter debated by the members of the National Council as individuals.
Consequently the national council adjourned to allow the management committee to debate and decide the matter and report back. The management committee duly met in Tsvangirai's office debated the matter for over an hour. All the members of the management committee with the exception of Tsvangirai favored participation in the senate elections. As was usual practice, this meant that there was sufficient consensus in the management committee for us to report to the national council that our decision was to participate in the election. Tsvangirai insisted that our usual rules were inapplicable to a matter of such grave national importance and that the only one way this matter could be resolved was that the national council takes responsibility and vote on it. He also insisted that we should not report to the national council our full deliberations and in particular, that he was in a minority of one in the management committee.
We agreed, returned to the national council and reported that we were unable to resolve the matter as management committee and therefore it was our recommendation that the national council should vote and that way decide the matter. At the suggestion of Morgan Tsvangirai, the national council requested each and every member to make an undertaking that he or she would accept the outcome of the vote. On that understanding, a secret ballot was duly taken and that vote was in favor of participation.
We all know that after that vote Tsvangirai refused to accept the outcome and stormed out of the meeting and thereafter unleashed his thugs on members of the national council who had debated in favor of participation and further publicly lied about the outcome of that vote. It is these actions by Morgan Tsvangirai which triggered the split of the MDC.
In summary the split of the MDC was caused Tsvangirai's repeated refusal to accept collective decisions, his penchant for unilaterally reversing collective decisions, his resort to violence as an instrument of political organization, his frequent deployment of ethnicity as a political weapon and or shield.
Tsvangirai's fixation with tribal paddocking never ceases to amaze, and it comes out glaringly clear in the Southern Eye edition of 21 July 2014, in which he professed his unadulterated hatred of my person. It is however worrying that over the years, this trait has become pathological.
While it is shocking to see a political leader publicly professing an inability to forgive, which in my view automatically disqualifies him as a leader, and while Tsvangirai has every right to hold on to his anger and hatred, I and the MDC bear him no malice. It is however this professed personal hatred that rendered any attempts at reunification or coalition with MDC-T impossible. His confession reveals how insincere he was all along when he claimed he was interested in the same. It also explains why he was willing to side with President Mugabe during the inclusive government.
For the avoidance of doubt, those who ask and in need for forgiveness are those who have done or feel they have done wrong. While the split of the MDC remains a painful and distressing episode, I have no doubt in my mind that given the same circumstances as prevailed at the split of the MDC in 2005, I would make exactly the same decision as I made then.
Prof. Welshman Ncube
President, MDC
Source - MDC
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