Former Harare Mayor, Bernard Manyenyeni claimed that the leadership crisis in the opposition MDC started with the appointment of two Vice Presidents by then party leader Morgan Tsvangirai. He added that the ruling ZANU PF took advantage of the crisis and and is now visibly involved. Manyenyeni says it is not clear whether the MDC leadership can weather the storm or not. Below is Manyenyeni’s Facebook post.
I pick a blend of issues in the painful drama playing out in our MDC “family” – in its former context and content.
1. The very source of our problems was the appointment of the 2 Vice Presidents followed by Morgan Tsvangirai’s death.2. Then the eventual succession, after his sad demise, was not handled to the satisfaction of (certainly) some of the aspirants and also many observers3. The struggle for change had/has taken too long to the frustration of voters4. These succession concerns and also the frustration seem to have hit the leadership even harder.5. Subsequent fallout from and among the following ( Khupe, Chamisa, Mudzuri, Mwonzora and Komichi) all stemmed from personal political interests and NOT public political interests.6. The behaviour of all these leaders in varying degrees was bent on defending personal political interests first and foremost.There is evidence of insincerity and inconsistent behaviours and utterances in how each and every one of them handled this matter of threatened personal designs and desires.7. That background was fertile for ZanuPF to take advantage of.The MDC family made sure that dialogue and reconciliation were not priority early enough.Now it is way too late for that route.If you want to see an MDC person fight fiercest just give him an internal enemy to fight.Within the party the glaring absence of grey-haired ELDERS and custodians of the common good who have nothing to gain has been so noticeable.No internal remedies are on record.8. ZanuPF has taken advantage of the internal fights to mount a bigger brutal external campaign.This shameless involvement has been the decider.9. ZanuPF’s hand is very visible in the worsening crisis.MDC has crafty people and brutal people but not so many criminally brutal people to have orchestrated what has been unfolding.Only the broader ZanuPF ie including state institutions has that capacity.10. What we have seen the last few months is a shrewd HIGHLY TECHNICAL operation fully funded by the State in all material respects.11. The abuse of the State institutions to torpedo democracy particularly the police and the courts reached unprecedented levels.12. Most of the splinter factions are operating what I would call “Project Shaisano” – a fatal scorched earth policy which has attacked and overturned democratic outcomes and put the party on life-support.13. Accusations of leadership cluelessness from the terraces are not entirely unexpected.Our people play their bare minimum parts but prefer to watch, observe and make comments.14. Our people have very little time for detailed analysis and critical performance attribution.They hardly interrogate what is there to achieve what with in the conclusions.Most markedly our population is third party the political issues are not theirs.They don’t belong to politics.They view and comment from a distance.Because of this they demand that MDC must outsmart the ZanuPF apparatus which includes police, judiciary, CIO, army, ZEC, and most Gvt offices etc.90% of ZanuPF work and costs are on the account of the taxpayer while MDC depends on the poor membership and the voters15. Is the people’s party leadership in denial? NO!They know what has SINCE hit us.Is the party in a position to respond to this ZanuPF-enabled tsunami?
……..remains to be seen.