Zanu-PF enticing Chamisa

Zanu-PF is making overtures to court former Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) national organising secretary, Nelson Chamisa according to the Fingaz.

Chamisa was defeated by former Nyanga North MP, Douglas Mwonzora, for the MDC-T secretary-general post at the party's elective congress held earlier this month.

Reports say that the Kuwadzana legislator has been on the shopping list of the MDC Renewal Team, which emerged after Tendai Biti, the party's secretary-general, broke away from the MDC-T early this year.  The Financial Gazette has it on good authority that Chamisa is now being sought after by Zanu-PF as well as it seeks to project itself as a youth-centred party.

Chamisa confirmed this week that emissaries were being sent to him from Zanu-PF but said his attention at the moment is on growing his law career.

The 36-year-old politician recently graduated from his law studies at the University of Zimbabwe and is now a practising lawyer.

"Ours is a revolution which is not fuelled by ambition. We don't abandon cause or jump ship. Where I am now is a temporary wilderness. It is good training ground for a permanent paradise. It is a short winter towards a long summer," he said.

"For me, Zimbabwe is far more important than Chamisa. Zimbabwe is in search of answers and not questions and certainly not questions about power and positions. Those who love power and position inordinately love oppression." Chamisa has been with the MDC-T since its formation in 1999. He has held influential portfolios within the party such as party spokesperson and, until last month, was the party's organising secretary.

While the former ICT minister is viewed with suspicion in the MDC-T, the party does not want to lose him all the same.

The MDC-T leadership has been mulling over the possibility of co-opting Chamisa into its leadership ranks, through making him a member of the national council, instead of leaving him as an ordinary card carrying member.

Obert Gutu, the MDC-T spokesperson, declined to be drawn into discussing the post congress agenda within the context of Chamisa's future. "The congress was not about people and positions, as there were more important issues to deliberate on rather than positions. There were issues of the election roadmap, constitutional reform and the institutional reforms which we need to make the party stronger and able to take on Zanu-PF," said Gutu.

"We don't have to discuss one issue of Chamisa. As the leadership, we are not obsessed with discussing individuals."