The beleaguered opposition Movement for Democratic Change — at least the pro-senate faction — buckles down this weekend for a congress, the outcome of which could set the tone for ”reunification” talks with the wing headed by party president Morgan Tsvangirai.
Ironically, the schism was caused by differences over whether the party that has come closest to toppling ZanuPF and President Robert Mugabe at the polls should take part in reintroduced senate elections.
Revisiting the events that led to the split, rebranding the party and taking stock of the past six years will top the agenda of the pro-senate group when they meet in Bulawayo. The election of their leader is likely to be influenced by whether the 4 000 delegates from 10 regions opt to mend fences with their estranged comrades. In the past few weeks, there has been intense lobbying for scientist and businessperson Arthur GO Mutambara, a former firebrand student activist, to take over the reins.
In a statement issued this week, the 42-year old Mutambara said he had ”witnessed with distress” the split within the MDC, after the ”top party leadership failed to unite the ranks of the movement. The infusion of new leadership, untainted by current disagreements, is imperative to facilitate the reunification process.”
But his ascendancy is not without challenge. This week, MDC deputy secretary general Gift Chimanikire claimed he had the backing of seven provinces. He lambasted colleagues for attempting to foist an ”outsider” on the party. ”He [Mutambara] wants to dish a meal he hasn’t prepared,” Chimanikire fumed. But this outburst, his detractors say, is exactly what makes him unsuitable for the top job.
Political analyst and chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly, Lovemore Madhuku, dismissed Mutambara as an ”elitist package” that would not work. ”The name of a credible future leader is not one that jams the Internet, but one you hear on the lips of passengers in a Chitungwiza township-bound bus or in a rural beer hall in Mwenezi,” he said. ”A good leader excites popular feelings, and Mutambara was just a popular student activist whose popularity did not go beyond the borders of urban centres.”
But, in an Internet column, UK-based corporate lawyer Alex Magaisa hailed Mutambara for putting a ”lucrative and controversy-free career” on the line.
”Mutambara could have joined politics at the height of his public profile in the late 1980s … but Mutambara was no opportunist. Instead, he probably realised that his time had not yet arrived. He wanted to chew first, before swallowing.”
Magaisa urged Zimbabweans to give Mutambara a chance. ”At a time when allegations of tribalism are ripping the life out of opposition politics, here is a man whose impeccable credentials speak louder than his tribal origins or any other index.”
Whoever emerges as the leader of the pro-senate faction is likely to have a bearing on the attitude and discussions of Tsvangirai and his supporters when they meet next month.