Opinion / Columnist
Big Saturday read: The other side of the story
17 Jan 2021 at 11:13hrs | Views
On the 27th of July 2017, the late President Morgan Tsvangirai convened an Extra-Ordinary National Council Meeting at his Highlands home.
On the Agenda was the ratification of the Coalition Agreement that the party had been negotiating with other political parties namely; NDP led by Joice Mujuru, People's Democratic Party led by Tendai Biti, MDC led by Welshman Ncube, ZimPF led by Agrippa Mtambara, TZ led by Ngarivhume Jacob, MCD led by Guchutu and Zanu Ndonga.
The President gave his report to the National Council that the deal with Joyce Mujuru had hit a brick wall despite signing a Memorandum of Understanding and she would no longer be part of the pact to be ratified but the rest of the other parties were on board.
The report of the Coalition Agreement was presented by Jameson Timba who then was the lead negotiator.
The National Council wanted the MDC-T to remain independent of all other political parties as well as to maintain its Logo, Symbol, Slogan and its Identity. The Council was worried about the name of what the Coalition would be called because the Council did not want to cede the MDC brand.
It was resolved that the name of the Coalition would be the MDC Alliance but each political party would continue to operate as separate entities with different constitutions, save for the parts agreed to in the Composite Political Co-operation Agreement otherwise known as the MDC Alliance.
On the 6th of August 2017 the signing came into fruition but the signing sent major tremors in two of the political parties signing the agreement that day; one in the MDC-T as the Vanguard invaded the Bulawayo offices of the party where the VP Thokozani Khupe and Lovemore Moyo and other party leaders from that region were holding a defiance meeting. At the same time in the same town, the PDP Faction of Biti's party was also distancing itself from the agreement due to what they called sticking points and leading that rebellion in the PDP was the Secretary-General Gordon Moyo and Lucia Matibenga the Party's National Chairperson.
Came the death of Morgan Tsvangirai (May His Soul Rest In Peace) on the 14th of February 2018, Nelson Chamisa using the Vanguard usurped the throne on the 15th of February just hours after the death of the political icon.
The Lucia Matibenga faction went on to sign a Coalition Agreement with Teurai Ropa Mujuru Nhongo as the Rainbow Coalition and The Thokozani Khupe faction fielded a Presidential candidate as the MDC-T outside the Alliance and that was after she had held her Congress in Bulawayo.
Nelson Chamisa went on to be the torch bearer of the MDC-T in the MDC Alliance a political outfit that had come after negotiations and had an agreement signed in Zimbabwe Grounds on the 6th of August 2017.
I have gone back to history to school my dear brother Alex Magaisa that the signing of the MDC Alliance Agreement was not a dissolution of the MDC-T and or any other political party within the Alliance outfit.
Having been invited to work in the late Prime Minister's by the late MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai, Mr Alex Magaisa has now grown a big shadow and has been taking Douglas Mwonzora as an errand boy whom they sent to write the country's Constitution whilst he enjoyed the luxuries of state power.
When the MDC-T held its ill fated Gweru Congress it was not an MDC Alliance Congress but an MDC-T Congress because one of the resolutions was to readmit Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube back in the MDC-T and all their supporters.
Now the question is, how do you readmit someone in a new party that he is helping to found.
Yes, Morgan Tsvangirai said he would not go to state house on dead bodies but Magaisa has accused Douglas Mwonzora of literally killing MPs by the recalls forgeting that some of these very same MPs were present on the 27th of July 2017, ratifying a legal document and they were also present on the 6th of August when the document was officially signed binding them to the MDC T.
At the very bottom of the Composite Political Co-operation Agreement on Chapter 9 it categorically states that the Laws of Zimbabwe shall govern this agreement.
The laws meant are the recall clause on MPs and Councillors who after the Supreme Court Judgement were misled by Nelson Chamisa that they had formed their own party, even if he Chamisa was opposing Mashavira in Court day in and day out. These MPs and Councillors went on to resign from the MDC-T by signing sworn affidavits swearing loyalty to Chamisa and that their inaugural Congress was held in Gweru.
These MPs and Councillors are law makers and if they could not understand a simple Cooperation agreement and one last chapter which had a single phrase, should we honestly trust them to write and even defend the supreme law of our country; the Constitution and write acts of Parliament.
The electorate was present on the 6th of August as they ululated and danced as all Party Principals appended their signatures to the Agreement. The very same electorate that Alex Magaisa seeks to mislead, also voted for the Recall Clause during the 2013 Constitutional Referendum. Maybe Magaisa has forgotten that he was also part of Douglas Mwonzora's Copac team which included the Recall Clause.
May I remind the nation here that when in 2018 Nelson Chamisa recalled Thokozani Khupe, Luwas Sibanda, Nomvula Mguni and many who had refused to recognize his unconstitutional leadership and usurping the throne, Magaisa was there and he chose to see no evil and write no evil. When Tendai Biti and his Renewal outfit rebelled against Morgan Tsvangirai in 2014 all 19 Renewal renegades were recalled and Magaisa said nothing.
Still on dead bodies; may I remind him of his former workmate Denis Murira. They worked together in the Prime Minister's office along with Ian Makone. Denis Murira was a founding member of the party and had worked with Morgan Tsvangirai and Douglas Mwonzora at the ZCTU.
Well, Denis Murira was dragged out of Harvest House like a rabid dog by Nelson Chamisa and Charlton Hwende at around 9am, when he was attending a staff meeting. He collapsed and died of hypertension the very same day around 7pm. He was pronounced dead by the time he reached the avenues clinic.
I was privileged to be one of the persons whom he spoke to about what had happened and what had gone wrong in the party. He had a lot of misgivings about Nelson Chamisa.
Even Nelson Chamisa did not attend Denis Murira's funeral sending Amos Chibaya instead.
So is this not a dead body in Chamisa's hands, Magaisa?
I do not know why the Big Read would elude your former workmate Denis Murira and concern yourself with people who do not comprehend the laws they celebrate and yet want to write laws for the general citizenry. Is this not short changing the citizens.
Maybe Magaisa does not know of the silent purges that also took place around the 15 Administrative Provinces of the MDC when Chamisa took over. All those suspected of being against the unconstitutional rise of Chamisa were pruned from the structures and were barred one way or the other from being candidates.
A crack team was assembled and led from the National Chairperson's office. Its main purpose was to make sure that anyone who is not "A Cobra" must not become a Council or Parliamentary Candidate. Technical Staff was not spared either as Chamisa fired staff that had been employed by Morgan Tsvangirai. From Collin Gwiyo the Deputy Chief of Staff Ambassador Habson Makuvise, security, personal drivers, office clerks, Provincial administrators, the list is endless.
All these people are alive to tell their stories that Mr Magaisa is not writing in his Big Read. Is this not also death in the hands of Nelson Chamisa?
In that same illusion he still peddles that there are still pending court cases and yet they are none. A lie repeated several times begins to sounds true. Nelson Chamisa and his outfit were defeated in every court case that brought before the courts. One does not just go to court for the sake of it.
The issue of what the MDC Alliance is has been settled by the Courts and even Kudakwashe Bhaskiti knows it. It's of imperative importance that we wait for the right time to see what I mean by this.
It is very funny that Alex Magaisa is a lawyer and he teaches law but he calls the Supreme Court Judgement controversial as if the judges rewrote the MDC Constitution, when the only thing the judges did was to make Thabani Mpofu read Article 9 of the MDC Constitution and told him and every MDC principal to go and do as Thabani read.
The Big Saturday Read is BIG in saying a lot of nothing and has become a propaganda piece to cover up all the wrongs that happened in the MDC ever since the death of Morgan Tsvangirai.
MR LLOYD DAMBA
WRITER AND RESEARCHER
On the Agenda was the ratification of the Coalition Agreement that the party had been negotiating with other political parties namely; NDP led by Joice Mujuru, People's Democratic Party led by Tendai Biti, MDC led by Welshman Ncube, ZimPF led by Agrippa Mtambara, TZ led by Ngarivhume Jacob, MCD led by Guchutu and Zanu Ndonga.
The President gave his report to the National Council that the deal with Joyce Mujuru had hit a brick wall despite signing a Memorandum of Understanding and she would no longer be part of the pact to be ratified but the rest of the other parties were on board.
The report of the Coalition Agreement was presented by Jameson Timba who then was the lead negotiator.
The National Council wanted the MDC-T to remain independent of all other political parties as well as to maintain its Logo, Symbol, Slogan and its Identity. The Council was worried about the name of what the Coalition would be called because the Council did not want to cede the MDC brand.
It was resolved that the name of the Coalition would be the MDC Alliance but each political party would continue to operate as separate entities with different constitutions, save for the parts agreed to in the Composite Political Co-operation Agreement otherwise known as the MDC Alliance.
On the 6th of August 2017 the signing came into fruition but the signing sent major tremors in two of the political parties signing the agreement that day; one in the MDC-T as the Vanguard invaded the Bulawayo offices of the party where the VP Thokozani Khupe and Lovemore Moyo and other party leaders from that region were holding a defiance meeting. At the same time in the same town, the PDP Faction of Biti's party was also distancing itself from the agreement due to what they called sticking points and leading that rebellion in the PDP was the Secretary-General Gordon Moyo and Lucia Matibenga the Party's National Chairperson.
Came the death of Morgan Tsvangirai (May His Soul Rest In Peace) on the 14th of February 2018, Nelson Chamisa using the Vanguard usurped the throne on the 15th of February just hours after the death of the political icon.
The Lucia Matibenga faction went on to sign a Coalition Agreement with Teurai Ropa Mujuru Nhongo as the Rainbow Coalition and The Thokozani Khupe faction fielded a Presidential candidate as the MDC-T outside the Alliance and that was after she had held her Congress in Bulawayo.
Nelson Chamisa went on to be the torch bearer of the MDC-T in the MDC Alliance a political outfit that had come after negotiations and had an agreement signed in Zimbabwe Grounds on the 6th of August 2017.
I have gone back to history to school my dear brother Alex Magaisa that the signing of the MDC Alliance Agreement was not a dissolution of the MDC-T and or any other political party within the Alliance outfit.
Having been invited to work in the late Prime Minister's by the late MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai, Mr Alex Magaisa has now grown a big shadow and has been taking Douglas Mwonzora as an errand boy whom they sent to write the country's Constitution whilst he enjoyed the luxuries of state power.
When the MDC-T held its ill fated Gweru Congress it was not an MDC Alliance Congress but an MDC-T Congress because one of the resolutions was to readmit Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube back in the MDC-T and all their supporters.
Now the question is, how do you readmit someone in a new party that he is helping to found.
Yes, Morgan Tsvangirai said he would not go to state house on dead bodies but Magaisa has accused Douglas Mwonzora of literally killing MPs by the recalls forgeting that some of these very same MPs were present on the 27th of July 2017, ratifying a legal document and they were also present on the 6th of August when the document was officially signed binding them to the MDC T.
At the very bottom of the Composite Political Co-operation Agreement on Chapter 9 it categorically states that the Laws of Zimbabwe shall govern this agreement.
The laws meant are the recall clause on MPs and Councillors who after the Supreme Court Judgement were misled by Nelson Chamisa that they had formed their own party, even if he Chamisa was opposing Mashavira in Court day in and day out. These MPs and Councillors went on to resign from the MDC-T by signing sworn affidavits swearing loyalty to Chamisa and that their inaugural Congress was held in Gweru.
The electorate was present on the 6th of August as they ululated and danced as all Party Principals appended their signatures to the Agreement. The very same electorate that Alex Magaisa seeks to mislead, also voted for the Recall Clause during the 2013 Constitutional Referendum. Maybe Magaisa has forgotten that he was also part of Douglas Mwonzora's Copac team which included the Recall Clause.
May I remind the nation here that when in 2018 Nelson Chamisa recalled Thokozani Khupe, Luwas Sibanda, Nomvula Mguni and many who had refused to recognize his unconstitutional leadership and usurping the throne, Magaisa was there and he chose to see no evil and write no evil. When Tendai Biti and his Renewal outfit rebelled against Morgan Tsvangirai in 2014 all 19 Renewal renegades were recalled and Magaisa said nothing.
Still on dead bodies; may I remind him of his former workmate Denis Murira. They worked together in the Prime Minister's office along with Ian Makone. Denis Murira was a founding member of the party and had worked with Morgan Tsvangirai and Douglas Mwonzora at the ZCTU.
Well, Denis Murira was dragged out of Harvest House like a rabid dog by Nelson Chamisa and Charlton Hwende at around 9am, when he was attending a staff meeting. He collapsed and died of hypertension the very same day around 7pm. He was pronounced dead by the time he reached the avenues clinic.
I was privileged to be one of the persons whom he spoke to about what had happened and what had gone wrong in the party. He had a lot of misgivings about Nelson Chamisa.
Even Nelson Chamisa did not attend Denis Murira's funeral sending Amos Chibaya instead.
So is this not a dead body in Chamisa's hands, Magaisa?
I do not know why the Big Read would elude your former workmate Denis Murira and concern yourself with people who do not comprehend the laws they celebrate and yet want to write laws for the general citizenry. Is this not short changing the citizens.
Maybe Magaisa does not know of the silent purges that also took place around the 15 Administrative Provinces of the MDC when Chamisa took over. All those suspected of being against the unconstitutional rise of Chamisa were pruned from the structures and were barred one way or the other from being candidates.
A crack team was assembled and led from the National Chairperson's office. Its main purpose was to make sure that anyone who is not "A Cobra" must not become a Council or Parliamentary Candidate. Technical Staff was not spared either as Chamisa fired staff that had been employed by Morgan Tsvangirai. From Collin Gwiyo the Deputy Chief of Staff Ambassador Habson Makuvise, security, personal drivers, office clerks, Provincial administrators, the list is endless.
All these people are alive to tell their stories that Mr Magaisa is not writing in his Big Read. Is this not also death in the hands of Nelson Chamisa?
In that same illusion he still peddles that there are still pending court cases and yet they are none. A lie repeated several times begins to sounds true. Nelson Chamisa and his outfit were defeated in every court case that brought before the courts. One does not just go to court for the sake of it.
The issue of what the MDC Alliance is has been settled by the Courts and even Kudakwashe Bhaskiti knows it. It's of imperative importance that we wait for the right time to see what I mean by this.
It is very funny that Alex Magaisa is a lawyer and he teaches law but he calls the Supreme Court Judgement controversial as if the judges rewrote the MDC Constitution, when the only thing the judges did was to make Thabani Mpofu read Article 9 of the MDC Constitution and told him and every MDC principal to go and do as Thabani read.
The Big Saturday Read is BIG in saying a lot of nothing and has become a propaganda piece to cover up all the wrongs that happened in the MDC ever since the death of Morgan Tsvangirai.
MR LLOYD DAMBA
WRITER AND RESEARCHER
Source - medium.com
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