The Telegraph
By Sebastien Berger, Southern Africa Correspondent and Peta Thornycroft in Harare
26 August 2008
Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe suffered a major blow to his attempts to hold on to power when an MP from Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change was elected as speaker of parliament.
In a stunning upset Lovemore Moyo, chairman of Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC faction, defeated Paul Themba Nyathi, of the smaller MDC grouping led by Arthur Mutambara, by 110 votes to 98.
Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party did not put up a candidate itself, instead ordering its newly sworn-in MPs to support the Mutambara faction’s man. Mr Mugabe will undoubtedly have been infuriated by the result.
The indications are that Mr Mugabe had been hoping to engineer a deal with Mr Mutambara’s faction to exclude Mr Tsvangirai from a government of national unity, and that enough of its MPs would support the government in parliament to enable it to function.
As of yesterday, those plans are in ruins. In Zimbabwean politics the speakership is a powerful role, with the ability to determine parliament’s agenda, and the octogenarian leader now faces the prospect of having to deal with a lower house fully controlled by his opponents if he decides to abandon the deadlocked negotiations being brokered by the South African president Thabo Mbeki and form a government of his own.
“Whatever game plan Mugabe had has been complicated and this greatly diminishes his capacity to form a cabinet and govern,” said Eldred Masunungure, professor of politics at the University of Zimbabwe. “Mugabe is seriously weakened and he and Zanu-PF will have to take the negotiations more seriously.”
David Coltart, a lawyer and Senator for Mr Mutambara’s MDC, added: “This is highly significant because it means Zanu-PF have lost the legislative control of parliament. It shows there is a determination throughout the opposition that there should not be any two-party arrangement with Zanu-PF and it will force president Mbeki to take Morgan Tsvangirai’s concerns more seriously.”
The house of assembly, which is reminiscent of the House of Commons with its wood panelling and green leather benches, was standing-room- only for the vote, despite two MDC MPs being arrested before they could be sworn in – the opposition has raised fears that Zanu-PF will try to circumvent its majority by detaining its legislators.
In the parliamentary poll earlier this year, Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC took 100 seats, Mr Mutambara’s 10, and Zanu-PF 99, with one independent.
It was the first time Zanu-PF had lost its majority since independence in 1980.
Initially the MDC’s MPs sat down on the government benches yesterday, shouting at Zanu-PF representatives: “You sit on that side. You are now in the opposition.” They sang and cheered when Mr Moyo’s victory was announced, hoisting him on to their shoulders.
Zanu-PF was forced to put a brave face on events. The hardline rural housing minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, a key player in the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s and long seen as a potential successor to Mr Mugabe, congratulated Mr Moyo.
“Mr Speaker, Sir,” he said. “This is a truly historic event and I would like, on behalf of the president, our party and this side of this august House, to congratulate you.” But in the internecine world of Zimbabwean politics, the result may actually work in Mr Mnangagwa’s favour, by potentially hastening Mr Mugabe’s departure.
The vote for speaker is held by secret ballot, so it is impossible to determine exactly what went wrong for Mr Mugabe. But it is understood that eight of Mr Mutambara’s MPs rebelled to back Mr Moyo against their own candidate, as did four members of Zanu-PF.
It is a clear indication of divisions within Zanu-PF. As it happens, Mr Moyo’s mother-in-law Sithembiso Nyoni is a former minister and a senior member of Mr Mugabe’s party, and is understood to have been campaigning quietly for her relative.