Academics, economists, lawyers and the Harare-based ambassadors of Britain and the United States have been frantically shuttling between rival factions in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the past week.
Party insiders have told the Mail & Guardian that political scientist Brian Raftopolous, economics consultant Eric Bloch and lawyer Innocent Chagonda have attempted to mediate tensions over the November 26 Senate elections.
The ambassadors of the US and UK have also been in telephonic contact with MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy, Gibson Sibanda, offering to help resolve differences that increasingly look as though they will split the six-year-old party.
Raftopolous refused to be drawn on the detail of the mediation efforts. ”I’m willing to assist … The problem within the MDC is broader. There’s got to be a serious strategy and accountability if it is to be effective,” he said on Thursday. His views resonated with MDC MP Tendai Biti, who described the Senate debate as ”setting a destructive agenda. It raises questions about the quality and capacity of the entire top leadership. It’s a shame … We will not allow them to destroy our home.”
On Tuesday police had to break up violent clashes between rival MDC factions in Mutare in the Manicaland province. The M&G understands that party bigwigs have been engaged in several rounds of crisis talks since Tsvangirai railroaded a national council vote. The MDC leader has borne the brunt of criticism for his party’s waning fortunes at the ballot box since it came close to dislodging President Robert Mugabe from power in the 2000 parliamentary elections.
He has, since last Wednesday, addressed at least five rallies, the latest being in Mashonaland East on Thursday, to drum up support for his boycott call. This appears to have widened the leadership rift, with Sibanda issuing a statement warning his leader that he had ”wilfully violated the Constitution of the MDC and breached its provisions”.
While the bickering in the MDC persists, the names of their entire leadership appear on a security list of 55 political and civic leaders regarded as the ”most dangerous individuals”, who must be kept under surveillance.
The list, drawn up by the Joint Operations Command (JOC), comprising the police, the Central Intelligence Organisation and the army, includes Mugabe’s former chief propagandist and now independent MP, Jonathan Moyo; the National Constitutional Assembly chairperson, Lovemore Madhuku; and Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube.
State security agencies fear a popular uprising, warning that worsening economic hardships were fast eroding the patience of long- suffering Zimbabweans, according to confidential internal police communication shown to ZimOnline.
The police representative on the JOC, Edmore Veterai, wrote in a 20-page internal report dated September 30: ”We must not fool ourselves by believing that the situation is normal on the ground because we risk being caught unawares. People have grown impatient with the government, which they accuse of causing their problems and doing nothing to alleviate them and they will do anything to remove it from power.
”The shortage of fuel and basic commodities and the recent Operation Murambatsvina has seen hostility grow and people turning to the opposition, which they see as their Messiah.”