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Nduduzo Tshuma, Political Editor
THE recent appointment by MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai of two additional deputies, as expected, caused a storm in the party, unsettling Ms Thokozani Khupe whose powers were eroded by the coming in of new colleagues.

The appointments also riled members of a faction led by Ms Khupe, key among them the party’s spokesperson, Mr Obert Gutu, secretary general Mr Douglas Mwonzora and national organising secretary Mr Abednico Bhebhe.

A number of theories were raised to explain Mr Tsvangirai’s shock appointments ranging from fixing the party’s succession problems to curbing internal fights that have fractured the embattled party.

Some argued that Mr Tsvangirai was losing steam from the cancer of the colon he was diagnosed with recently and felt he needed to rejuvenate the presidium with fresh blood.

In the eyes of some, Mr Tsvangirai wanted to clip Ms Khupe’s wings with accusations that her faction was on an overdrive to succeed Mr Tsvangirai and her plot included elbowing the troubled leader from the leadership of the party ahead of the 2018 elections.

In response, there were accusations levelled against Mr Tsvangirai of regionalism, planning to sideline Matabeleland which Ms Khupe represents in the party and the insensitivity towards gender parity in the party.

It is the supposed lack of gender sensitivity and the regional argument that this article seeks to address, because gender and region alone should never be qualifications for a position but rather substance and capacity.

Obviously for a national organisation to have that outlook there has to be representation of the country’s regions but not just mere geographical location, it goes further than that.

The MDC-T since its inception has provided the Bulawayo constituency and the Matabeleland region at large with some of the most dubious candidates to represent the people in the history of the country.

To start with Ms Khupe herself, while she can be commended for advancing her education after joining the country’s national politics, sadly the transition has not been felt on her political conduct and strategies.

Armed with education, Ms Khupe has engaged in chaotic politics, fragmenting the party’s Bulawayo structures instead of being the glue that holds the people together.

She has manipulated structures and perhaps the greatest illustration of her limitations in terms of political acumen is the recent “beat the pots” campaign where she rallied a few women to march on the streets of Bulawayo in a self-serving, albeit poor mission to prop herself in the ongoing party succession battles.

She failed to utilise the Western links her party enjoys to at least model herself along the likes of Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel.

Ms Khupe also falls short of female African leaders like Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma who has shown great leadership qualities in both South Africa and the African Union.

The gender argument thus falls away. It can never be gender alone but capacity and sophistication.

Perhaps Ms Khupe’s best description is best captured by The Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru who said of her: “She has not been able to be the glue to hold together Bulawayo, only small Bulawayo.

How is she expected to be the glue that kneads a whole party? And when Tsvangirai was away on sick leave, her rolling addresses were a little lower than pedestrian, thick dour unable to rouse even the most excitable.

You cannot present her as a national figure, let alone pit her against Robert Mugabe, the Zanu-PF 2018 presidential candidate.”

The columnist adds that the response by Ms Khupe serves nothing further than laying bare her ambition to take over from Mr Tsvangirai and sees the two latest additions as a stumbling block to what she has been thinking was an automatic takeover from her leader.

There is an issue that Bulawayo and the greater Matabeleland region needs to deal with the thorny issue of the quality of politicians the region backs for political office.

In Bulawayo, for example, the MDC-T is responsible for catapulting postmen, shebeen queens, messengers and a whole lot of chancers into the political fray with the hope of them carrying their aspirations.

In the very same party, elsewhere they have elected people of substance, lawyers, doctors, engineers among other professionals and it is not surprising that in the deciding moment, Mr Tsvangirai chose Mr Nelson Chamisa and Engineer Elias Mudzuri to join the presidium and one day one of them will succeed him.

There is always a cap for the not so sophisticated politician in the mould of Ms Khupe with education and worse those postmen, shebeen queens, netball coaches and messengers without education that the MDC-T has imposed on the people of Bulawayo and Matabeleland at large.

These dubious characters have won seats in parliament, got there and failed to represent the people only getting cars and sitting allowances without doing anything for the people.

In real political terms, one should not bank on region or sex to shoot to the helm of a party: one needs to possess the sophistication to appreciate the politics of the country and that of the globe.

This brings us to the argument of underdevelopment in Matabeleland with some laying the blame on the government but never on the representatives that people have rallied behind since the formation of the MDC.

It can be argued therefore that the greatest enemy to this region has been the quality of politicians that the people have backed, the very politicians who are rejected by their own parties in the decisive moment.

Bulawayo and Matabeleland at large need sound political leadership, something the MDC-T has failed to offer, and not leaders selected on the basis of tokenism, regional or gender balance.

The greatest lesson from Mr Tsvangirai’s appointments of Eng Mudzuri and Mr Chamisa for Bulawayo and Matabeleland at large is that capacity matters more than anything.

The region does not need representatives who fill positions just because they come from Matabeleland or on the basis of gender.

While gender equality and regional balancing is required for anything that terms itself a national organisation, there has to be accompanying qualities and characteristics in those leaders.