MDC-T violent, corrupt – Ncube

The Chronicle

20 September 2012

MDC president Professor Welshman Ncube has accused the MDC-T of being a violent and corrupt party.

He ruled out prospects of the two parties collaborating in the forthcoming harmonised elections.
Prof Ncube said this in an interview on British Broadcasting Corporation HardTalk programme on Tuesday.

The MDC leader said they differed with the other MDC faction on policy issues and accused it of perpetrating violence, the same allegation he made against Zanu-PF.

“(I have) absolutely nothing against the person of Morgan Tsvangirai. Our differences are about our political behaviours and the things we do as politicians. I keep underlining, it is on record that our colleagues in the MDC-T often practise violence; it is on record that Morgan Tsvangirai himself has reversed collectively made decisions and it is also on record that the local government structures that they control have acted as corruptly if not more corruptly than the Zanu-PF ones. Those are the things which divide us,” he said.

The MDC split in 2005 after Mr Tsvangirai overruled his national executive decision to participate in Senate elections following the re-introduction of the Upper House of Parliament.

The split was, however, a tip of the deeply entrenched differences between Mr Tsvangirai and some of his lieutenants that include Prof Ncube.

Following the split Ambassador Trudy Stevenson, then Harare North legislator and some officials aligned to Prof Ncube’s MDC, were assaulted by youths belonging to the Tsvangirai-led faction near Mabvuku.

Mr David Coltart also said his decision to align with Prof Ncube was influenced by the violent nature of the Tsvangirai-led faction.

The MDC-T has also witnessed numerous cases of intra-party violence and its congress in Bulawayo last year was marred by clashes of rival factions belonging to Mr Tsvangirai and secretary general Tendai Biti.

MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora, however, denied Prof Ncube’s allegations.
“We have never begged Welshman Ncube and his party to work with us. We have said as MDC that we are willing to work with any democratic forces who share our beliefs and ideals. It is certainly up to a political party to decide to work with us or not.

“With regards to allegations of violence and corruption those are typical of his party to gain relevance by joining Zanu-PF to denigrate the MDC.

“We are the only party that has dealt decisively with corruption as evidenced by our bold decision to fire councillors accused of corruption,” Mr Mwonzora said.

Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo said: “From what I read from the interview it confirms what we have been saying all along that the MDC is a violent and corrupt party.

“The corruption is demonstrated by what we are seeing in councils under their control. It is, however, unfortunate and misguided of him (Prof Ncube) to compare us with the MDC-T. We are a revolutionary party that brought independence through the liberation struggle and the only party fighting for the empowerment of indigenous Zimbabweans”.

In the interview Prof Ncube also questioned the accolades bestowed on Mr Tsvangirai by various Western governments and organisations.

“Well, I’m a Zimbabwean, I live in Zimbabwe. I worked within the united MDC, I worked outside the united MDC and I can tell you the things on which we differ are fundamental. They go to the very heart of the struggle against Zanu-PF. I repeat, we don’t want to replace Zanu-PF in name and not also in terms of the things it does.

“All I can say is that those who might be somewhere in Australia, those who might be in Paris, in Washington are entitled to have their opinions about any of the leaders in Zimbabwe just as much as we are entitled as Zimbabweans to have our own opinions about ourselves and our leaders,” he said.

He said the performance of the inclusive Government had not been a total failure as seen by the improvements in the economy although he said a lot still needed to be done on the political front.

“Well, the inclusive government has not been a total failure, but it could have done better. In terms of political reforms clearly we have failed.

“We have not done the things that we should have done by now, we should have created the necessary conditions for free and fair elections, that has not happened. There are many parts of the GPA on media reforms, on provincial governors that we have not implemented,” he said.

“However, in terms of where Zimbabwe was in 2008 or beginning of 2009 in economic terms we have made a lot of progress. We have a country which was virtually on the verge of collapse if not completely collapsed, that economy we have managed to resuscitate it, it’s now working.

“Yes it could do better and yes people are still poor but you don’t have an economy which is basically on its knees anymore.

“It’s an economy which is on its way to recovery. Whether or not it recovers now depends on what happens at the next election,” he said.