By Correspondent.
This is the imbroglio that the Party’s leadership has become entangled in, as described by the Supreme Court in its judgement on the MDC. It is an imbroglio for sure.
The first is copy of an invoice purported to have been written to Morgan Komichi demanding payment for services rendered in writing the speech which he read post judgement.
The second is copy of a letter purportedly written by Nelson Chamisa to ZEC registering a new party called National Democratic Movement.
The third and fourth are copies of resolutions of the MDC 5th Congress in Gweru in 2019.
Accusations and counter accusations are being thrown around between factions within the MDC. What I have observed since the original party was formed is perpetual blame on Zanu Pf for all the ineptitude within the MDC. Everything that goes wrong is blamed on ZANU PF, and it’s supporters foolishly believe every lie.
When Welshman Ncube split with Tsvangirai in 2005, and took away the MDC name and logo, supporters were told that Welshman was a CIO who had been planted by ZANU PF to split the MDC.
When TENDAI Biti split with (or was expelled by) Tsvangirai in 2014, he was again labelled a Zanu Pf (CIO) agent.
When MDC petitioned the Constitutional Court challenging Mnangagwa’s electoral win, the country and MDC supporters were told that there was indisputable evidence which would prove that the elections had been rigged. According to MDCA and Chamisa’s lawyer, Thabani Mpofu, before the hearing, there were thousands of copies of primary data(V11s). Yet there was no such evidence save for 3 V11s. Yet the Con Court was still expected to make a determination in their favour, and supporters bought the lies. The Con Court dismissed the petition, citing it to be a defective petition for several reasons. Before the hearing, MDC had confidence in the judiciary, but soon after the judgement, the song of a captured judiciary prevailed, and supporters religiously echoed.
In February 2020, Job Sikhala was acquitted by a Masvingo court and there was jubilation in the MDC, citing the impartiality of the courts. Had he been convicted, one would bet, the court would’ve been accused of being captured by ZANU PF.
Fast forward to the recent Supreme Court judgment, the court dismissed the appeal by Chamisa and upheld an earlier judgment by the High Court, nullifying Chamisa’s ascendency to power as unconstitutional.
Immediately, social media was awash with comments accusing the judiciary as captured by ZANU, and this time the party chairman, Morgan Komichi and Douglas Mwonzora became part of the Zanu PF machinery sent to undermine Chamisa and the MDC. Because they accepted the judgment of the Supreme Court, they became CIOs in their speeches post judgment.
Ironically, none of the MDCA leaders, most of them,seasoned lawyers, interrogated the legal arguments in the judgment.
Then, it was Ncube and Biti accused of being ZANU PF(CIO) agents, now it is Komichi and Mwonzora. So I guess Biti and Ncube were eventually fired by ZANU and they’re now genuine MDC cadres!
The MDC and it’s leadership has never been wrong, in the eyes of its supporters, and that’s worrying for a party that aspires to govern a country.
While I have always known and predicated the influence/control of ZANU PF over the judiciary, it is ironic and ingenuous for the MDC to always blame ZANU PF for its ineptitude and mediocrity.
The MDC is led by more than five prominent lawyers, one of them a Professor of law, yet it has perennially botched up, both administratively and legally. They knew very well that Chamisa violated the constitution when he usurped power in the MDC after Tsvangirai’s death, but they turned a blind eye, instead of advising him to do the right thing and follow the party constitution. They knew what the outcome of the Supreme Court appeal would be, because they knew that their submission before the court was flawed.
But they still want to blame everyone else but themselves. They now lie to their supporters that the judgment has no bearing on the MDCA, as it is a separate and independent party, which held its Congress in 2019.
One wonders why Chamisa had approached the Supreme Court, if the judgment would’ve been known to be ineffective. Why did he even bother to appeal a High Court judgment that was “brutum fulmen”?
Albert Einstein retorted that insanity Is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results.
And the MDC in its entirety, indeed repeats the same mistakes perpetually, inclusive of going to the elections knowing fully well that without security sector and other reforms, they won’t win, yet they still expect the courts to favour them.
If the Gweru Congress was a MDCA Congress, why was it celebrated as the 5th MDC Elective Congress? Why was it celebrated as the 20th MDC anniversary? Have they forgotten that the MDC led by Chamisa, whose leadership he unconstitutionally usurped, is the major party in the coalition of 7 parties forming the MDCA? Are they forgetting that the MDCA HQ they’re using was the MDC HQ wrestled by Chamisa? MDCA does not even have a constitution of its own, but uses the original MDC constitution, as it did at the 5th MDC Congress in Gweru. Thus MDCA cannot be extricated from imbroglio of the MDC, and the ensuing Supreme Court judgment. For a bunch of prominent lawyers to be in such denial, only one or more of the following justifications is plausible. They know they are driving the party astray, either for selfish reasons, they are the actual ZANU PF agents as they were previously accused, or they’re simply not the brilliant lawyers they appear to be.
There’s a legal principle in the law of tort, that defines a claimant in litigation, called Contributory Negligence. This principle recognises the contribution of the claimant’s own fault in the tort when assessing damages. The award to the claimant will be reduced in proportion to the value of the claimant’s own contribution to the damage on himself. While this principle applies in the law of tort, I have observed this principle as appropriate in many of the MDC’s legal challenges and internal squabbles, albeit literally.
While Tendai Biti called it a brutum fulmen(ineffectual legal judgment), the Supreme Court judgment will inevitably have devastating ramifications on the MDCA, despite the confidence of popular support.
The MDC needs leadership that is rational, mature and humble. The use of emotions and egotistical behaviour will not take it to state house.
A sober approach is required at this instance!
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