The MDC-T led by Thokozani Khupe said it has adopted the MDC Alliance brand with immediate effect and will use the name when nominating candidates for by-elections on October 9.
This was revealed by the MDC-T acting chairman Morgen Komichi on Saturday. He was speaking at the Morgan Richard Tsvangirai House, formerly Harvest House to mark the 21st anniversary of the original MDC.
However, in a statement posted on Twitter, the MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa insisted on its identity and vowed to settle the “battle” politically. The statement read:
We are the MDC Alliance. We contested the 2018 election as the MDC Alliance under the Presidency of Nelson Chamisa.
Our members were unlawfully recalled on account of being members of the MDC Alliance. This battle will be settled politically.
Political power lies in the people.
The development did not come as a surprise as George Charamba, who is the Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet (Presidential Communications), in July hinted that the Khupe-led party will take over the MDC Alliance name.
Charamba made the stunning revelations on July 20th this year during an exchange with MDC Alliance secretary for elections Jacob Mafume.
Mafume had mocked ZANU PF and its leaders for allegedly trying to create a coalition government with Khupe’s MDC-T.
But Charamba, in typically abrasive fashion, hit back at Mafume, telling him that Khupe has taken over the opposition party and very soon, Chamisa will lose even the name of the party. Charamba retorted:
Except you have no party while pretending to be in organized opposition!!! Khupe amhanya nechinhu!! (she is now in the driving seat). Very soon you will be interdicted from using MDC-Anything!!! Watch the space!!!
United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean academic, Alex Magaisa, who has been urging the MDC Alliance to drop the “toxic” MDC brand and adopt a new name, said:
What has just happened should not shock anyone who has been following the MDC saga. It was foreseeable and it was written. The most important question is the response, which should be ready. There has never been a better time to demonstrate that people do not vote for party names.
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SURELY THIS LEVEL OF INTRUSION AND ANTI DEMOCRACY IN UNPRECEDENTED IN ZIMBABWE
1.A peaceful environment should facilitate a peaceful co-existence amongst people, both adults and children. Young boys oftentimes feel the urge to establish who the most powerful is, who the boss is. Using sand, they build their mothers’ breasts, and he who kicks that heap of sand resembling someone’s mother immediately attracts a fight.
2. In independent Zimbabwe, those who had physically participated in the war front witnessing other comrades losing lives and getting maimed were happy to move away from the warring mindset. They ventured into furthering their studies, faring and mining among other economic activities.There is a group that could neither be sent to further studies because they had no papers nor meaningfully participate in a physical fight in the war front. Yet on returning home, they were regarded as comrades, who had fought in the war of liberation.
3. Some of them aware that their role was nowhere near fighting in the war front or studying in preparation for contributing in the economy in an independent Zimbabwe, felt the need to prove to the people that they too were war mongers. Hence, 1983 Gukurahundi in Matabeleland and Midlands, the 2000 unplanned violent land reform, 2002, 2007-8, 2013, 2018 election violence , and 2005 May Murambatsvina, displacing people, was reminiscent of the war for independence, a manifestation on the part of the perpetrators to be regarded as ‘vanhu vehondo,’ people from the war front.
4. Unfortunately because these people had not felt the intensity of the war as that felt by those maimed or those who dodged bullets at the war front, no meaningful healing and reconciliation was done. It comes as no surprise that crude war images are flashed willy-nilly to vividly awaken hatred amongst races, yet the country is supposed to implement healing and reconciliation strategies through the Healing and Reconciliation Commission which has become a Cash Cow, like Gender Commission among others
5. Since independence, Zimbabwe has been and is still being marred by acts of violence by some of those who are supposed to have spearheaded the liberation of Zimbabwe, and now supposedly leading the country to the land of Canaan in 2030.
6. Zimbabweans should note that since these acts of violence causing humanitarian scenarios to which the international community is responding with assistance irrespective of the sanctions, those perpetrating the violence see benefits to continue along that path. It should be noted, and Dr Khupe should be note that she has become the sacrificial lamb in provoking the whole country into a state of frenzy..
7.Therefore Zimbabweans should embark on strategies such as that strategy that has made it possible to stop mining in the well known game park. Progressive strategies should be thought of and applied in addressing the issue of a party that has lost elections, finding itself in parliament mostly representing stooges and not real people in parliament.
8.Unfortunately, Khupe has found herself, no one is clear about her circumstances, the amount of armtwisting that could be taking place or blackmail, whatever it is the whole act is intended to send Zimbabwe to an angry fever pitch and otherwise lead into a civil war, the scenario of violence that has persisted in the country evr since independence bearing certain implications cited below beneficial to the perpetrators.
9.Implications?
• More aid will come to save war victims, but most of that aid unless meticulously monitored will find their way into the pockets of perpetrators and
• More allweather friends can swiftly move in to help themselves to the natural resources whilst those involved make more money for themselves.