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Absolute Nonsense
Yesterday the local rag, the Chronicle, State owned and CIO managed,
published a banner headline "Sibanda stages Coup in MDC". This is
interesting because it follows a large article in the same group of
newspapers covering Welshman Ncube. Both the fact that these State
controlled papers publish such articles and their content is
informative.
They are having a field day over the so-called MDC split.
In the article and in other interviews, Gibson Sibanda is arguing that
he
has the support of the people and commands the support of a majority of
Members of Parliament of the MDC. Quite frankly that is twaddle.
Much is made by the Ncube group about the split decision on October the
12th
in the MDC National Council. Since then the Council has met 3 times. On
each
occasion a two-thirds majority of the Council has voted unanimously to
support the position of the President, Morgan Tsvangirai and to plan
the way
forward for the MDC. The situation in the National Executive has been
the
same - it has also met three times since the debacle on the 12th
October and
on each occasion the Executive has had a quorum and has also voted
unanimously.
The Senate elections revealed in stark electoral terms that the MDC did
not
want to participate in what the great majority regarded as a total
waste of
time and resources. The people want change - real, fundamental change,
and
they know that this is never going to come out of the current electoral
process, Parliament or any Senate election.
If the Ncube faction can only marshal a 2 per cent turn out in their
stronghold - Bulawayo, in an election in which they spent Z$20 billion
dollars, then they must understand they have missed the boat somewhere.
They
must stop this charade and decide if they are in politics or out of it.
If
they are in, then please go ahead and form a new Party with its own
name and
let the mainstream of the MDC get on with its own agenda.
They have tried the legal route and got a pasting from even a Zanu PF
bench.
They lost the Court Case with costs and this should tell them
something. The
leadership of the MDC has been very careful since October, to ensure
that
its meetings are properly convened, attended by properly accredited
individuals and conducted in the manner laid down in the Constitution.
There
can be no doubt as to who is in control of the Party, its branches,
ward
committees and provincial executives. After the Party Congress in
March, we
will then finish the task of cleaning up our structures and resume
normal
political activity.
In business we often allude to the "80:20" principle - 80 per cent of
sales
from 20 per cent of customers and so on. In Politics I think we should
also
judge our activity by the same criteria - do we spend 80 per cent of
our
energy, resources and time on the goals we set ourselves? That goal,
set by
the Congress in late 1999 was very simple - to take power and bring
real
change in the way this country is governed. The answer to the question
is
frankly no - we have been spending 20 per cent on this goal recently
and
wasting 80 per cent on this nonsense. It must stop, we have a job to do
and
if we do not get on with it, the people we are responsible to will hold
us
accountable.
At the last meeting of Council one member said "lets stop talking about
how
to react to what the Ncube faction are doing, lets get on with the task
that
lies ahead of us." I think that made a lot of sense and we are now
doing
just that. As far as the MDC is concerned, this spat is over, people
have to
decide where they stand and we are getting on with the business of
securing
change for a desperate and dying Zimbabwe.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 11th January 2006
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