POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Opposition Calls for United Front to Oust Mugabe

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Wilson Johwa

HARARE, Dec 22 2003 (IPS) - Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is gearing up for more strident resistance to the government, but this time through a broad alliance with the country’s major civic organisations.

Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is gearing up for more strident resistance to the government, but this time through a broad alliance with the country’s major civic organisations.

MDC president Morgan Tsvangirayi says, as the party enters 2004, it faces vastly changed political fortunes where the danger of "isolated autonomous action" plays into the hands of the government.

"Our circumstances demand the formation of a broad alliance for progress towards democracy," said Tsvangirayi in an address to about 3,000 delegates gathered for the party’s second national conference held in the capital Harare over the weekend.

"If we reconcile and unite our communities, we are able to harness all our energies and confront the regime through organised democratic resistance and mass action," Tsvangirayi added.

The MDC’s announcement marks a major policy shift. But it is also a tacit admission that disgorging the ruling ZANU-PF party, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is a daunting task, much more than the MDC had bargained for.

Among those welcoming the MDC’s new approach was Lovemore Matombo, the president of the powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which has run its own programme of civic disobedience.

Reminding delegates that the labour body sired the MDC in 1999, Matombo took a jibe at the party for being slow to consult with the ZCTU despite converging interests.

"It can be very fatal for the MDC to go its own way, forgetting the parent," he said. "If the kitchen is hot, get out, let men and women of stamina stand there."

Matombo, however, re-affirmed the need for a common front, saying: "Let’s be together, we just need to be together".

Lovemore Madhuku, who chairs the influential National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), another MDC "parent" that is pushing constitutional reforms, also echoed similar sentiments.

"We are ready to be part and parcel of a common platform that is fighting for a new Zimbabwe," Madhuku said.

Launched in Jan. 1998, with Tsvangirayi – at the time also president of the ZCTU – as its first chairperson, the NCA argues that given the country’s flawed electoral platform, Zimbabweans should refuse to take part in any general election until the rules have been changed.

Its relation with the MDC has at times been frosty. But all this was forgotten over the weekend as the three bodies agreed to join forces.

Said Madhuku: "We share the same vision. We all want a democratic Zimbabwe, a prosperous country; we want social justice and human dignity."

Held under the theme ‘Courage and Hope Overcome Fear’, the two-day MDC conference came at a time when the party is facing receding fortunes.

Since the closure of the country’s only independent daily newspaper three months ago the party has almost disappeared from public discourse as the dominant government-controlled titles ignore it but are too glad to lampoon its leaders and discredit its policies.

Further proof of the MDC’s waning star is borne by its loss of an urban by-election this month. Since 2000 when at only nine months, the party surprised ZANU-PF by bagging 57 of the contested 120 seats, it has won only three of the 12 by-elections held.

The number of MDC legislators has declined to 53. ZANU-PF has 66 elected MPs and another 30 appointed by the President, as provided by the constitution.

However, some of the MDC’s woes seem to be beyond its control.

During the urban council elections held four months ago, voter turnout was about 30 percent. Although the MDC scored major victories and now runs all the major urban centres with a combined population of almost six million people, analysts pointed out at the time that Zimbabweans were losing faith in politics given the stalemate in the country.

The reported on-off nature of the talks between the MDC and ZANU-PF did not seem to help matters.

But this weekend Tsvangirayi said it was a question of time before ZANU-PF came to the negotiating table.

"The regime is cornered. They have no friends, no fuel and no foreign currency," he said. "It’s a question of when they will come to the negotiating table. I want to assure you that they will come. They have no choice."

The European Union (EU) and the United States have slapped sanctions on Zimbabwe. The Commonwealth, an organisation of about 53 independent states which were formerly parts of the British Empire, has also suspended Zimbabwe from the association.

The MDC also stated that although the electoral playing field was heavily tilted in favour of the government, it will participate in the forthcoming parliamentary elections of 2005 but after securing minimal standards.

"If the MDC does not participate in the election then it becomes irrelevant," Tsvangirayi said.

Only after securing victory will the MDC seek to make a new constitution through a participatory exercise. "We don’t believe you can make a democratic constitution in an undemocratic environment," reiterated the party’s secretary-general Welshman Ncube.

At the conference, which came weeks after ZANU-PF mapped out strategies at its own conference, the MDC took a determined position on land.

Tsvangirayi said the party would not go back to the pre-2000 land distribution and ownership position, nor would it endorse and maintain the "chaotic" fast-track land reform programme incepted by the government on the eve of the last parliamentary elections.

"Our correct approach will be based on need, not greed," said Tsvangirayi, referring to the white-owned farms most of which were distributed to President Robert Mugabe’s supporters.

Summing up the mood of the conference, MDC legislator and youth leader Nelson Chamisa said the gathering marked a critical turning point in rejuvenating and re-energising the party.

"As the youth, we are determined to take our struggle from the boardroom to the streets, from the newspapers to the streets," he said. "We are simply going to fight to ensure that we deliver democracy to the people of this country."