Out in the cold: Welshman Ncube. (Aaron Ufumeli)
The embattled Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party led by Welshman Ncube suffered a blow last week when its director of policy, Qhubani Moyo, resigned.
His departure adds to the cocktail of troubles that is plaguing the opposition parties since their shock defeat at the hands of Zanu-PF.
None of the two MDC formations has had it easy since the elections, which saw Robert Mugabe being swept to a seventh consecutive term in office.
Ncube's MDC did not win a single seat in Parliament, a reversal of the 10 National Assembly seats it held in the previous government.
The party was described as a king maker, as with its support it could have easily put Zanu-PF or the MDC-T (Tsvangirai) in the majority.
In the previous Parliament, Zanu-PF and the MDC-T had an almost equal number of seats.
A political storm
Since the poll, MDC-T has been up against a wall, with its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, persistently having to fight off calls for him to stand down, and with councillors in Victoria Falls, Mutare and Kwekwe defiantly voting for Zanu-PF mayors against their party's will, which seriously embarrassed the party top brass.
Ncube's MDC, which has taken a step back from the political limelight, is battling a political storm within its ranks over the elevation of Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, the party's secretary general, to represent the Matabeleland South province in the Senate.
Edwin Ndlovu, the MDC spokesperson, downplayed Moyo's departure saying an apt replacement would be found soon.
"His departure from the party does not have any impact as the party has many able cadres to fill the void he left and people must not read too much on his resignation. Politics is voluntary, people come and go," he said.
Moyo is the first high-profile official to pull out of the party.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian this week, Moyo said Zanu-PF would stay in power for some time and, in retrospect, he attributed his MDC's poor showing in the elections in Matabeleland to the fact that voters saw Tsvangirai as their only option.
'People voted with emotion and not brains'
"There seems to be an obsession, especially by the people of Matabeleland, to remove President Mugabe from power and there was an illusion, especially in Bulawayo, that Tsvangirai was the only one with the necessary muscle to do so," Moyo said.
"The electorate in what was supposed to be a Ncube stronghold did not know that in other parts of the country there was fatigue over Tsvangirai because of a number of his monumental blunders in government as the prime minister and in his private life.
"People of the region voted with emotion and not brains and, in the process, put pedestrian politicians in leadership, who cannot assist the region to go forward."
According to Moyo, the lack of appetite to deliver a grand coalition with the MDC-T was his former party's greatest undoing.
Before the elections, Ncube formed an alliance with the Zimbabwe African People's Union leader, Dumiso Dabengwa, and Tsvangirai formed an alliance with the Simba Makoni-led Mavambo/Dawn/Kusile party.
"An alliance of the two MDCs could have assisted to improve the parliamentary tally and, in particular, was going to assist the Ncube formation, but it would not have assisted in totally dislodging Zanu-PF.
"The reality is that, while on the surface there was an impression that the MDCs were colossal institutions, a close scrutiny would reveal that they were in fact institutionally weak and could not match the Zanu-PF machinery, which had the advantage of being supported by state organs."
New leadership
Moyo said the issue of the coalition "really hurt the Ncube formation" as there was no appetite in the party to discuss it and Tsvangirai used it to create a public perception that it was the Ncube side that was against uniting.
Regarding calls for new leadership, Moyo said, although Ncube was a good leader working in difficult times, there was a need to transform the party "from a institution of a few" and a need to respect its decision-making bodies.
Ncube denied rumours that he was earmarked for a government job and said he was going to focus on academic pursuits. But, if an opportunity arose in government, he would consider it.