Political commentators have urged MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa and his erstwhile colleague Thokozani Khupe, the acting MDC-T president to settle their differences for the opposition to stand a chance of upsetting the ruling ZANU PF party in 2023.
A political analyst, Maxwell Saungweme told the Daily News that MDC-T officials acknowledge that Chamisa is their best foot forward and are open to lending their support if he respects and recognises them, not just his favourite people only. Said Saungweme:
None of those leaders doubts that Chamisa is more popular than all of them and that he is the best foot forward if they are to release some political shock to Zanu PF in 2023.
The disgruntled MDC leaders just need respect and recognition, not necessarily the presidency that Chamisa has no competition on.
But if both sides remain headstrong, the train will just sink. Politics is not about just being legalistic and eloquent, but also about being calculative and meticulously combining this with dialogue, compromise, leadership and the law.
Renowned University of Zimbabwe Political Science lecturer Eldred Masunungure opined that Chamisa and Khupe’s differences are a matter of personality and the two can be reunited by astute mediation. He said:
They are offshoots of the same stem and they worked together for a longer period than they have been adversaries. It is almost 20 years of working together, and so there is scope for unity.
… It makes sense to hold a congress that resonates with the MDC base because the problems between the two leaders are basically a matter of personality, and with astute mediation unity is possible.
Of course, there is bad blood, but there has not been any bloodshed during their political gladiation.
Masunungure further argued that if ZANU and PF ZAPU could work together in the aftermath of the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres, then it is much easier for Chamisa and Khupe to work together.