The Herald
From Bulawayo Bureau
A MEETING of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change national council -the party’s supreme decision making body – called for tomorrow in Harare by MDC president Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has been thrown into doubt after members of a faction led by Professor Welshman Ncube said they were not aware of the meeting.
Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Mr William Bango said in a statement after a meeting of the two feuding factions of the MDC on Monday that the MDC leader had called for a national council meeting tomorrow to “present a report on the state of the party, preparations for the congress and the campaign for a new constitution”.
Mr Tsvangirai is also expected to press ahead his call for a boycott of the senate elections.
In an interview yesterday, MDC spokesman, Mr Paul Themba Nyathi said the secretariat of the party which was charged with organising national council meetings – had not communicated with various structures of the party regarding the meeting as was the norm.
“We are waiting for the correct channels of calling for a national council meeting to be followed. So far I have not heard from the SG (secretary general)’s office. As things stand I don’t know what is going to happen and I wouldn’t want to speculate but what I know is that the secretary general is responsible for organising such meetings and he has not been in touch with us,” he said.
MDC secretary general, Prof Ncube could not be reached for comment but his deputy, Mr Gift Chimanikire told Chronicle on Wednesday that he was not aware of the meeting and had only read about it in the Press.
“I don’t know much about that (meeting) except what I read in the Press,” he said by telephone from Harare.
Efforts to get a comment from Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Mr Bango were fruitless yesterday but sources said the MDC leader would use the meeting to call for an extraordinary congress to elect new party leaders and in the process pave way for the purging of his opponents.
Insiders also said that Mr Tsvangirai, wanted the congress held before Christmas.
“There are several issues to be discussed at Saturday’s meeting but indications are that Tsvangirai will press for an extraordinary congress to resolve differences rocking the party,” said a senior official of the opposition party, who did not want to be named.
The meeting is also expected to review the state of the party and its internal cohesion and discuss the fate of candidates who registered to stand in the senate poll.
Mr Tsvangirai is expected to recommend to the council that outspoken legislator Mr Job Sikhala be expelled for claiming that MDC illegally received foreign funding.
Meanwhile, Mr Nyathi said MDC candidates for the 26 November senate elections were pressing ahead with preparations for the poll and had hit the campaign trail.
He said the candidates were the only opposition to the ruling ZANU (PF) contestants “visible” on the campaign trail.
“We have held meetings right across the country and we are the only group out there taking on ZANU (PF). We are doing everything necessary to make sure that our campaigns are sustainable,” said Mr Nyathi.
In a related development, the MDC Member of Parliament for Harare North and party secretary for Policy and Research, Mrs Trudy Stevenson, has blasted Mr Tsvangirai for leading calls to boycott the senate elections.
In a statement, Mrs Stevenson said many members of both the party (MDC) and the general public had indicated that they had heard no arguments for participation in the Senate election, or had only heard the argument “Keep them out”.
She said the MDC legal committee presented a paper to the party’s national executive committee on Friday 16 September outlining the pros and cons of participating and this led to the resolution to consult the party structures.
“It is most unfortunate that the “consultation” was never properly carried out, in that the so-called consultative meetings were actually an overt effort at indoctrination of the “No to Senate” view, and that the other side of the story never saw the light of day since the beginning of this debate.
“All structures should have been informed of all the arguments both for and against participation before making their decision. In view of the fact that few, if any at all, were made so aware, readers should consider the implications of this state of affairs in considering the arguments for and against, and the bigger picture of the divide within our party MDC,” said Mrs Stevenson.
She said the legal committee listed arguments against participation as:
. Participation would be hypocritical. Participation would legitimise the Senate and the process of amending the Constitution. Participation would not remove Mugabe. Participation would be expensive and drain the party of resources. Participation would draw the party’s attention away from holding Congress
It also went to outline arguments for participation as:
. Participation would maintain the MDC’s strongholds. Non-participation would deny the people the right to keep out Zanu (PF). Winning more than one-third of the seats in Senate would prevent Zanu (PF) from unilaterally amending the Constitution. Non-participation may create in the minds of the electorate the notion that the MDC has capitulated. Participation would exacerbate the divisions within Zanu-PF. Participation would keep MDC structures focused on fighting Zanu (PF). Participation could enable the MDC to place key people in Parliament.