Zimpapers Logo

Professor Welshman Ncube

DURING the 2013 harmonised elections in which Zanu-PF coasted to a landslide victory attaining a clear majority in Parliament and clinching the presidential poll with a wide margin — the party also made serious inroads in the Matabeleland region which was perceived to be an opposition stronghold.

The revolutionary party swept all 13 seats in Matabeleland South and bagged six out of 10 seats in Matabeleland North to reassert its dominance in the two provinces. It also cruised to victories in by-elections held in Bulawayo in 2015 and for the first time since 2000, Zanu-PF has five legislators from the city in the House of Assembly.

The Bulawayo MPs have acquitted themselves well with their constituents since their election and have been steadily building their profiles and working to remind voters that their needs, hopes and dreams can only be attained through a Government formed by the ruling party.

The country goes to the polls next year and the opposition is at sixes and sevens with talks of a coalition suffering a stillbirth. The MDC-T is on the cusp of another split precipitated by the decision by its leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai to go into a coalition with the Professor Welshman Ncube-led MDC and the Zimbabwe People First party.

MDC-T vice president Ms Thokozani Khupe is fiercely opposed to the coalition particularly one involving Prof Ncube as it threatens her hegemonic designs in Matabeleland. Her argument is that the MDC has no constituency in the region but is seeking to ride on her party’s popularity to win seats. According to sources privy to the MDC-T/MDC proposed deal, Prof Ncube’s party will be allowed to contest some seats in Matabeleland unchallenged by MDC-T and ZimPF with this scenario calculated to allow them a soft landing into Parliament.

Ms Khupe and her cabal are steadfastly opposed to this deal and are threatening to scuttle it. This has escalated the divisions within the party with Ms Khupe coming out strongly last week in which she attacked the coalition negotiations saying the MDC-T does not need partners in Matabeleland because it has always done well in the region.

This drew a sharp rebuke from her leader, Mr Tsvangirai, who defended the party’s position and slated her deputy for seeking to pursue personal interests at the expense of the bigger picture.

This is likely to further inflame tensions as Ms Khupe is already seething with anger after being undermined and sidelined by the elevation of Messrs Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri to the vice presidency of the party. Other opposition parties angling for a coalition with the MDC-T have also rounded on Ms Khupe with the ZimPF and MDC slating her for magnifying her party’s dominance in the region. ZimPF senior official, Dr Samuel Sipepa-Nkomo told a party meeting in the city at the weekend that the MDC was no longer popular as it used to be as political dynamics have changed in the region while the MDC said Ms Khupe’s arguments were patently false.

“There is no opposition party which has all the seats let alone all the votes in the Southern Provinces of the country. As of today Zanu-PF holds all the 13 seats in Matabeleland South. So where is the 100 percent victory there?

“Zanu-PF holds 6 of the 10 seats in Matabeleland North. Again where is the 100 percent? Even in Bulawayo where the MDC-T won all the seats in 2013 in terms of vote counts, the MDC had 20 967 votes and Zanu-PF polled a total of 30 290 votes. Again where is the 100 per cent?” said MDC national spokesperson Mr Kurauone Chiwayi.

It appears the die has been cast and the fall-out from the coalition negotiations will have serious ramifications for the future of the MDC-T. Ms Khupe and her faction are unlikely to take the humiliation of being sidelined lying down and Mr Tsvangirai should brace for staunch opposition to this mooted coalition. Most MDC-T MPs from Matabeleland are opportunists who rode on a protest vote to get into Parliament and the thought making way for people from other parties might not be palatable to them.

To them, their Parliamentary seats are a meal ticket without which they would be condemned to a life of poverty. Their cushy legislative jobs are more important to them than the idea of a coalition with people who jumped ship under acrimonious circumstances. It is therefore inconceivable that they would give them up without a fight.

The coalition negotiations could be long-drawn and most probably ill-fated given what is at stake. Mr Tsvangirai clearly has his hands full and given the state of his health, we wonder if he has the stomach to ride it out.

We predict a season of long knives, skullduggery, back-stabbing and ugly fights leading to a damaging split of the MDC-T before the 2018 general elections.