Opinion / Interviews
'I'm still on the political stage,' says Welshman Ncube
27 Nov 2013 at 20:55hrs | Views
IN his first interview after the July 31 elections, Welshman Ncube (WN), the president of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), spoke to the Financial Gazette's Assistant Bureau Chief, Ray Ndlovu (RN), on a range of issues, among these the challenges that lie ahead for the new Zanu-PF government and the MDC's place in opposition politics. Below are excerpts of the interview.
RN: Since the July 31 election results were announced, you appear to have stepped off the political stage. What brought this about?
WN: We have never stepped off the political stage at any time. We do different types of political work depending on the context of the situation and strategic objectives. Since our congress in January 2011, our strategic objective was to be with the people in their communities across the breadth and length of Zimbabwe. So you will see that we had a relentless non-stop campaign day in and day out from January 2011 up until the elections canvassing and campaigning for that election, which is why it would appear that we stepped off the political stage as we were meeting people in different parts of the country day in and day out. We might have lost an election, but we certainly didn't lose our brain which is why we are using our brain to think and reflect quite seriously because as far as we are concerned we had the best opportunities in government…so we can't just go on as if you are a mad person, you step back and reflect and that's all we did.
RN: What is your assessment of the new government led by President Robert Mugabe?
WN: Our view has always been that Zanu-PF is incapable, has no capacity, has no ability to resolve the problems of this country. It has no capacity to bring prosperity to the people. We look at the vote of the people, if this is the way the people voted, we begin to see a trend where it appears a significant number of voters can no longer make the link between their condition in life and the government they elected. As far as we are concerned we are very clear that Zanu-PF doesn't have the wherewithal, the capacity, the policies that will change the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans for the better. We are going to see the same old policies, tired, failed and the condition of the people will remain the same.
RN: Critics argue that the opposition has veered off track since it lost in the July 31 election. Is this a fair position?
WN: The essence of opposition politics, if you are in an opposition political party your responsibility is to be able to provide a mirror to society to say here is the government of the day and this is what it is doing. You also show what you are capable of doing and in my view that is what the position is for all the opposition parties, (we are) under very difficult circumstances that do not permit democratic discourse. The opposition parties continue to exist under those difficult circumstances and I don't see any party which has veered off-track. It may be that some opposition parties are not pretty when you look at them in the mirror, but they are constantly placing themselves before you to be able to judge whether they are able to do better than the government of the day.
RN: Qhubani Moyo, your director of policy and research left the MDC recently. How significant has his departure been on the strength of the MDC?
WN: The loss of any member and any leader in the party is something that should worry us. The more of us that have our shoulder on the wheel, the easier the job we have to do. Clearly knowing that politics is always a game of numbers, losing people is always something that is not to be welcomed. So clearly we don't welcome his departure, however we have sufficient cadres in the party to play the role that he played. He has said politics is a relay, he has done his part of the relay and he wants someone else to continue and take the stick from him and run the next mile. I wish him luck in the endeavour that he indicated to me that he wanted to do. We hope that we gave him an opportunity in the party to use his talents and to develop his skills and that after the years in the party he learnt something that he will hold in good stead.
RN: Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga's appointment into Senate has been contentious and is widely seen to be the catalyst of disgruntlement in the MDC. Have you defended Mushonga ahead of party interests?
WN: Every member of the party was requested through various circulars to make an application to be a candidate. In the case of the proportional list, the party sent the list of all the applicants to the provinces concerned to say these are your applicants in your province. Please provide us a list of those you want us to include in proportional representation, so there was the senate list, women's list. When the Matabeleland South list came, Mushonga's name was on the list of those wanted. The ranking of the candidates was now the prerogative of the leadership of the party to say how do we rank these names that have come out of the provinces. We looked at the list and ranked the candidates, using the rank of seniority in the party. It would have made very little sense to have the Secretary General of the party who was on the list that we had been given by Mat South outranked by others. On the list we were given she was by far the most senior.
RN: What do you see as the biggest challenge to the rule of Zanu-PF in the next five years? WN: The one thing that it can't Nikuv, it can't rig, is the management of the economy. Therefore the biggest challenge for this government whether in government by rigging or by the will of the people, the one thing in my respectful opinion (that) presents the biggest challenge is the management of the economy and it (Zanu-PF) doesn't have the capacity to deal with it. Come 2018, we have no doubt that the condition of the people of Zimbabwe will be worse than in July 2013.
RN: Tough questions have been asked about Morgan Tsvangirai's leadership capacity since his defeat in the July 31 polls. Do you also face similar questions within party ranks?
WN: Every leader of a political party that loses an election will naturally face tough questions. Members will naturally ask themselves if we have the leadership that can take us to victory, is it the best leadership that we have? I think that is normal. As leadership we have to constantly justify the faith that the owners of the party placed on us. We believe having regard to the strategic work that we did, notwithstanding the result of the election, we did more work than any leadership could have done. We will give our report in 2016 at the congress then we will let the owners of the party to decide who will lead them.
RN: Since the July 31 election results were announced, you appear to have stepped off the political stage. What brought this about?
WN: We have never stepped off the political stage at any time. We do different types of political work depending on the context of the situation and strategic objectives. Since our congress in January 2011, our strategic objective was to be with the people in their communities across the breadth and length of Zimbabwe. So you will see that we had a relentless non-stop campaign day in and day out from January 2011 up until the elections canvassing and campaigning for that election, which is why it would appear that we stepped off the political stage as we were meeting people in different parts of the country day in and day out. We might have lost an election, but we certainly didn't lose our brain which is why we are using our brain to think and reflect quite seriously because as far as we are concerned we had the best opportunities in government…so we can't just go on as if you are a mad person, you step back and reflect and that's all we did.
RN: What is your assessment of the new government led by President Robert Mugabe?
WN: Our view has always been that Zanu-PF is incapable, has no capacity, has no ability to resolve the problems of this country. It has no capacity to bring prosperity to the people. We look at the vote of the people, if this is the way the people voted, we begin to see a trend where it appears a significant number of voters can no longer make the link between their condition in life and the government they elected. As far as we are concerned we are very clear that Zanu-PF doesn't have the wherewithal, the capacity, the policies that will change the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans for the better. We are going to see the same old policies, tired, failed and the condition of the people will remain the same.
RN: Critics argue that the opposition has veered off track since it lost in the July 31 election. Is this a fair position?
WN: The essence of opposition politics, if you are in an opposition political party your responsibility is to be able to provide a mirror to society to say here is the government of the day and this is what it is doing. You also show what you are capable of doing and in my view that is what the position is for all the opposition parties, (we are) under very difficult circumstances that do not permit democratic discourse. The opposition parties continue to exist under those difficult circumstances and I don't see any party which has veered off-track. It may be that some opposition parties are not pretty when you look at them in the mirror, but they are constantly placing themselves before you to be able to judge whether they are able to do better than the government of the day.
RN: Qhubani Moyo, your director of policy and research left the MDC recently. How significant has his departure been on the strength of the MDC?
WN: The loss of any member and any leader in the party is something that should worry us. The more of us that have our shoulder on the wheel, the easier the job we have to do. Clearly knowing that politics is always a game of numbers, losing people is always something that is not to be welcomed. So clearly we don't welcome his departure, however we have sufficient cadres in the party to play the role that he played. He has said politics is a relay, he has done his part of the relay and he wants someone else to continue and take the stick from him and run the next mile. I wish him luck in the endeavour that he indicated to me that he wanted to do. We hope that we gave him an opportunity in the party to use his talents and to develop his skills and that after the years in the party he learnt something that he will hold in good stead.
RN: Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga's appointment into Senate has been contentious and is widely seen to be the catalyst of disgruntlement in the MDC. Have you defended Mushonga ahead of party interests?
WN: Every member of the party was requested through various circulars to make an application to be a candidate. In the case of the proportional list, the party sent the list of all the applicants to the provinces concerned to say these are your applicants in your province. Please provide us a list of those you want us to include in proportional representation, so there was the senate list, women's list. When the Matabeleland South list came, Mushonga's name was on the list of those wanted. The ranking of the candidates was now the prerogative of the leadership of the party to say how do we rank these names that have come out of the provinces. We looked at the list and ranked the candidates, using the rank of seniority in the party. It would have made very little sense to have the Secretary General of the party who was on the list that we had been given by Mat South outranked by others. On the list we were given she was by far the most senior.
RN: What do you see as the biggest challenge to the rule of Zanu-PF in the next five years? WN: The one thing that it can't Nikuv, it can't rig, is the management of the economy. Therefore the biggest challenge for this government whether in government by rigging or by the will of the people, the one thing in my respectful opinion (that) presents the biggest challenge is the management of the economy and it (Zanu-PF) doesn't have the capacity to deal with it. Come 2018, we have no doubt that the condition of the people of Zimbabwe will be worse than in July 2013.
RN: Tough questions have been asked about Morgan Tsvangirai's leadership capacity since his defeat in the July 31 polls. Do you also face similar questions within party ranks?
WN: Every leader of a political party that loses an election will naturally face tough questions. Members will naturally ask themselves if we have the leadership that can take us to victory, is it the best leadership that we have? I think that is normal. As leadership we have to constantly justify the faith that the owners of the party placed on us. We believe having regard to the strategic work that we did, notwithstanding the result of the election, we did more work than any leadership could have done. We will give our report in 2016 at the congress then we will let the owners of the party to decide who will lead them.
Source - The Financial Gazette
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