Former MDC T Vice President Obert Gutu has listed the following reasons which made him go back to Zanu PF which he said he was a member of during his college days. It is still not clear if Obert Gutu who was once a member of the MDC T and was never part of the MDC Alliance was referring to the now-defunct faction led by Khupe or the one currently led by Mwonzora. According to Gutu’s opinion piece published in The Sunday Mail:
- He says the MDC started as a strong movement but things changed….with time, the MDC’s ideological benchmark became blurred, conflicted and confusing.
- He said the party became a reactionary western funded outfit – Gradually, the MDC became increasingly reactionary by playing to the whims and fantasies of its chief financiers, the white former commercial farmers as well as powerful Western countries who poured millions of dollars into the party both overtly and covertly.
- He says the MDC scorns at Pan African ethos and nationalism: The nationalist and progressive social democracy ideology (of the MDC) was promptly replaced by a clearly reactionary and anti-nationalist sentiment that deliberately lampooned and poured scorn on anything associated with nationalist and Pan-African ethos
- According to him, the MDC scorn at anything that doesn’t fall under his definition of nationalism and pan African ethos Nationalist of respecting liberation fighters and land redistribution: Pan African ethos include respect for the armed liberation struggle as well as the revolutionary thrust to empower historically disadvantaged indigenous people by giving them land that was previously owned and occupied by white commercial farmers
- The MDC was being controlled by outside forces: The MDC was virtually hijacked by powerful local white interests as well as the invisible, but clearly powerful hand of influential and rich Western nations, their main agenda of these alien interests was essential to reverse the gains of the land reform programme.
- He said politics within the party became toxic: Intra-party fighting, violence, intolerance and factionalism became the norm within the MDC ranks as opposing factions fought for control of the levers of power within the party.
- Values were eroded: It became a dog-eat-dog affair, the party’s founding values of peace, tolerance, empathy, solidarity and social democracy virtually completely eroded.
- He didn’t like how people reacted against Khupe at Tsvangirai’s funeral: I wasn’t impressed by this thuggish and uncouth brand of politics and I promptly resigned from the engulfing madness. I was not going to be part and parcel of a violent mob that was only interested in grabbing power at whatever cost.
- The MDC will not win any elections now: In its factions, the MDC is currently ill-disposed to win any national elections. The party has never been this divided in its entire history.
- The MDC Is divided: The leadership in the factions are deeply divided and polarised The level of intra-party hatred is unprecedented. There’s an entrenched lack of party cohesion and there is too much negative energy.
- The leaders are polarised: The leadership in the factions are deeply divided and polarised. The level of intra-party hatred is unprecedented. There’s an entrenched lack of party cohesion and there is too much negative energy.
- The MDC did not call for the removal of sanctions: The lack of decisiveness in calling for the unconditional lifting of all forms of unilateral and punitive sanctions imposed against Zimbabwe made it impossible for me to continue associating with a party effectively propagates and lobbies for the continued imposition of these evil and satanic sanctions
- The MDC is in self-destructive mode: The party has pressed the self-destruct button and at the harmonised elections in 2023, it will suffer a humiliating and crushing defeat at the hands of a resurgent Zanu PF.
- Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe is toxic: Opposition politics in Zimbabwe right now is toxic, divisive and directionless.
- Zanu PF has better ideology: Zanu PF has a clear and well-defined ideological template.
More: The Sunday Mail