Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is split over what action to take in the final showdown with President Robert Mugabe regarding the country’s economic and political crisis, official sources said this week.
Apparently, dovish senior officials such as MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai and party spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi, would prefer to drag Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party back to the negotiating table. This group claims their strategy is at the instigation of President Thabo Mbeki, Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo — both of whom are said to be frantically trying to persuade Mugabe to re-enter into talks with the MDC — regional leaders and the Commonwealth.
Mugabe walked out of the South African-backed talks last year after insisting that the MDC abandon its court action against his controversial 2002 victory before they could sit with him at the same table.
MDC sources said younger but more senior members of the party, such as party secretary general Welshman Ncube and youth chairman Nelson
Chamisa, were leading a faction agitating for more militant action.
There have been reports in Harare that after the MDC’s successful two-day mass stayaway last month the opposition party would embark on a massive street protest, including a march on State House.
The MDC itself had fuelled the reports by issuing a 15-point ultimatum to Mugabe to restore the rule of law and allow democratic institutions to flourish or risk some unspecified action from its supporters. When the deadline expired on March 31, party sources said this week, many of the hawks in the MDC expected Tsvangirai to call for the protest that was expected to be the final showdown with Mugabe, who had earlier promised that he would ruthlessly crush the opposition.
When questioned about what sort of action the MDC would take now that its ultimatum had been ignored, Tsvangirai was non-commital.
”Mugabe is ready and viciously prepared to crush the people. We, therefore, need to avoid a situation which we will later regret,” said the MDC leader, who is facing treason charges for allegedly plotting to assassinate Mugabe.
However, senior party officials said the MDC would meet this weekend to decide the action to take against Mugabe’s regime. It is widely expected that the hawks’ agenda for an all out push against Zanu-PF would prevail.
Meanwhile, reports Andrew Meldrum, The Guardian has obtained a copy of a confidential Commonwealth report that was distributed to heads of government this week. The report, by Commonwealth secretary general Don McKinnon, says Zimbabwe has suffered significant ”deterioration” in the political, economic and social spheres and blames Mugabe’s land seizures for the famine.
The report, commissioned in March 2002 when Zimbabwe was first suspended from the Commonwealth, categorically refutes assertions made last month by Mbeki and Obasanjo that the situation in Zimbabwe had improved. It will make it increasingly difficult for the two African leaders to gain support from Commonwealth members for the lifting of Zimbabwe’s suspension.
The report is designed to convince Commonwealth leaders that Zimbabwe’s suspension should continue until the heads of government meet in Nigeria in December. The findings are also expected to fuel the demand for the Commonwealth to send a team to Zimbabwe to investigate state-
sponsored violence against the MDC. — Â