Will Morgan Tsvangirai survive a leadership Coup by Simba Makoni?

Zimbabwe Guardian

Wed, 05 Mar 2008

SIMBA Makoni enters opposition politics in Zimbabwe and tells us that he is not standing AGAINST President Mugabe but FOR the presidency. He goes on to insist that despite compromising Zanu PF’s chosen presidential candidate’s position at the polls, he is still Zanu PF.

The Simba Makoni Project’s aim was to unify the two MDCs first and then later with Zanu PF under the leadership of Simba Makoni. The reason why Dr Simba Makoni had to be seen still carrying the Zanu PF brand was meant to put at ease the rural electorate who perceive MDC as a “puppet”. It must have been perceived by the project co-ordinators that it would be easy to elbow the two MDC leaders from contesting the race, and therefore by default, all their supporters would automatically rally behind Dr Makoni.

Simba Makoni has been Zanu PF for half his life. He understands how to get the key to No.1 Borrowdale Rd. The key holders are the rural dwellers who mostly happen to be staunch Zanu PF supporters. This electorate has held this key since the liberation war and has since bonded with the Zanu PF brand when it comes to politics just in the same way Coca-Cola brand was used to describe any other soft drink on the market in the 70’s. You go to the remotest part of Zimbabwe during that time and you hear people talking about “orange coke” meaning Fanta or “red coke” Sparletta raspberry.

Even if President Mugabe calls Dr Simba Makoni names, he is not likely to answer back harshly (at least for now) not because he is a “nice” person but because he doesn’t want to offend this very electorate he is trying to woo.

We are told that Simba Makoni is “his own man” and is not in alliance with anyone. In fact the project is in alliance with Mutambara MDC, the so-called elite intellectuals/businesspeople and certainly enjoys a cosy relationship with the “international community”. (For some reason, David Coltart and Trudy Stevenson seem to be listened to by the “international community”, so it is important that we listen to their “opinions” as this gives us an indication of what the international community is thinking) Roy Bennett also told us that Simba Makoni was being imposed by the Western diplomats.

It appears that the “international community” has succumbed to African concerns, and particularly SADC that MDC in its present form cannot be acceptable in Africa. The unanimous decision with regards to the Lisbon EU-Africa Summit last year where Africa declared a “A No Mugabe, No Summit”, solidarity may have forced the international community to review their position on Zimbabwe.

Add also the fact that the “international community” led by the UK, made a subtle acknowledgement that Tsvangirai had failed and therefore they were willing to work with Zanu PF reformists – the report was carried by BBC soon after Morgan Tsvangirai was beaten by police in March 2007.

Makoni is wearing a Zanu PF mask but holding an MDC manifesto. His policies are very vague especially Land Reform, restoration of rule of law and how he will articulate these, taking into account that the international community is not willing to accept Zimbabwe should the white farmers who were dispossessed of their land not be allowed back onto their farms. Land “audit and reviews” can meaning anything. Is he going to remove those resettled and hand back the land to the white farmers or compensate the white farmers instead? If the latter, where is the money going to come from?

What is also interesting though in this “Makoni Project” is the inclusion of Edgar Tekere. We know Zanu PF’s relations with the West broke up irretrievably when the farm invasions started. Prior to that President Mugabe was a darling of the UK, especially in the 80’s with the Queen even conferring him a knighthood, without any mention of “human rights abuses”, even though Gukurahundi happened during that same time.

It is, therefore, common knowledge that the UK started to “notice” human rights abuses when the white farmers were dispossessed off farms. Given this fact, why is it that now the “international community” have decided to support Dr Simba Makoni whose main man is Edgar Tekere?

Edgar Tekere was the first Zanu PF member to shoot a white farmer soon after independence. I remember Edgar Tekere claiming that each time he sees a white man his eyes turns red with anger. Why has Edgar Tekere been exonerated from this “abuse of human rights and disregard of rule of law” crimes?

Nothing seems to add up in this project. Probably that explains why the project co-ordinators decided to ambush the voters on the eve of an important election. The idea appears to have been a shock-and-awe across the political divide.

Hard evidence so far shows that Simba Makoni has the sympathy Mutambara MDC MPs and website(s) and it should not have surprised anyone that the first star rally was held in the Mutambara MDC stronghold.

Makoni has been invited into opposition politics to dispel the “puppet tag” that has been haunting the MDC just in the same way Mutambara was hired to neutralise the “tribalism tag” that was attached to the Welshman Ncube MDC faction. It is just the style that is different.

So far the project has managed to bag the Mutambara MDC faction and Zanu PF rejects, the main job now seems to be trying to convince Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw his presidential candidature.

If Morgan Tsvangirai smells the coffee and refuses to handover his faction to the “messiah”, Dr Simba Makoni, who is perceived as a neutral unifier, then he may end up in trouble and probably losing “important allies” both at home and abroad.

The “international community” doubled-faced as they have proved to be, will certainly hold Morgan Tsvangirai personally responsible if Zanu PF wins this coming election.

All the while up until the eleventh hour, Morgan Tsvangirai will certainly be under extreme pressure to withdraw his candidature to give a “united front” a chance at the polls.

Will he remain defiant and face the consequences or will he succumb? We wait anxiously as the clock ticks towards March the 29th 2008.

Nancy Nyamhunga
Leicester, United Kingdom