Vincent Tsvangirai

“Thank you Zimbabwe, residents of Glen View for continuing to vote for your party, MDC. Congratulations to Hon Vincent Tsvangirai for being elected MP for Glen View South.The electoral system is still fundamentally flawed. We need urgent electoral reforms & a credible ZEC!” Chamisa said before Vincent’s win.

After the victory Chamisa said; “Great campaign rally in Glen View today. Thank you Glen View South for supporting our party candidate Vincent Tsvangirai. Victory is certain!”^[1]

Accusing Alex Magaisa of being a G40

Vincent accused UK based Law lecturer and well renowned Zimbabwean lawyer Alex Magaisa as one person not to trust with opposition politics since he said is a G40 sympathiser. Vincent Tsvangirai, son to late opposition MDC founding president Morgan was abusing his father’s name in his ongoing fight against MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, UK based law expert Dr Alex Magaisa and political commentator Dr Pedzisai Ruhanya have said.

This came after Vincent wrote an article accusing Magaisa and Ruhanya of working with G-40 members, former cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo in particular, to denounce the smaller MDC-T and its leader Douglas Mwonzora.

Vincent wrote this, After the disastrous 2013 election the MDC-T family and its president Morgan Tsvangirai woke up to see a picture of Alex Magaisa, Jonathan Moyo, Saviour Kasukuwere and other G40 kingpins at a lodge on the outskirts of Harare. Immediately, it began to dawn on the over trusting MDC-T that the man whom it had entrusted with the duty of advising its president could actually have been secretly dining with their opponent, the then united, if not a faction of, Zanu PF. After the coup in November 2017 it was clear that Dr. Magaisa’s sympathies lay with the Zanu PF element that had been ousted from power.^[2]

After analysing Vincent’s article, Ruhanya and Magaisa alleged that the article was written by Tapiwa Mashakada who defected to the Mwonzora camp together with Vincent, after the MDC-T started recalling MDC Alliance MPs, senators and councillors in 2020.

In his article, Vincent blasted Magaisa’s Big Saturday Read (BSR) of supporting; “Chamisa’s violent and unconstitutional take-over of the party”. He also labeled Paddington Japajapa, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, Dzikamai Mavhaire, Jeppy Jaboon, Shadreck Mashayamombe and Jim Kunaka as G-40 officials in the MDC Alliance.

“His (Magaisa) writings were very clear. After the death of Tsvangirai, there was a rush by G40 to try to influence his succession within the party.

Warning from Sikhala

MDC Alliance vice-chairman Job Sikhala warned the late MDC founding president Morgan Tsvangirai’s son, Vincent, against picking up fights with “adults” and being angry on behalf of other people. This came after Vincent, the Glen View South MP, wrote an opinion piece accusing Tsvangirai’s former advisor, Alex Magaisa of bringing the G40 faction of Zanu PF into opposition politics.

Sikhala pleaded with the young Tsvangirai to listen to academics Pedzisai Ruhanya and Jonathan Moyo and to avoid creating enemies on behalf of others presumably MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora.

Quitting Active Politics

Tsvangirai announced in July 2023 that he was no longer happy being a member of MDC and was quitting politics because of its toxicity.^[3] He said:

The reason why I want to move away from representative politics is also because of the current opposition and I am not apologetic about that.

What I mean is that we have started moving away from democratic systems within our own political organisations.

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