Mashakada Reveals Why He Parted Ways With Chamisa
28 June 2020
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By A Correspondent- Former MDC member and Economic Planning former minister Tapiwa Mashakada who recently left the MDC-Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa claiming the party had stopped being a workers’ movement has alleged that the party had no respect for the rule of law after rejecting to accept a Supreme Court ruling that Thokozani Khupe is interim president after the death of president Morgan Tsvangirai in February 2018.

Said Mashakada in an exclusive interview with a local publication:

!Our challenges in the MDC started soon after the demise of our iconic leader Dr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai when we catapulted Chamisa to the helm of the MDC without following the provisions of the constitution.

What should have happened was that after the national council had decided that Chamisa should step in, we should have held an extraordinary congress to choose Tsvangirai’s successor, but we did not, we simply endorsed Advocate Chamisa as the successor without the proper mandate of the congress and the MDC constitution that’s where things started going wrong.

Secondly, we then held a factional congress in Gweru in May 2019 and Thokozani Khupe also held a factional congress in January 2019, all these congresses were irregular and unconstitutional.

Fast forward, the Supreme Court ruling made it clear that Khupe is the acting president after the demise of Tsvangirai.

The Supreme Court judgment has ordered the MDC to revert to its 2014 structures and hold an extraordinary congress.

Regrettably, the Chamisa faction has refused to accept the judgment of the Supreme Court, which brings a lot of questions regarding the observance of the rule of law and court rulings.

My view is that court rulings must be obeyed and followed even if you don’t agree with the court ruling. Yes, you can criticise it, but it’s one thing to criticise and another not to follow the judgment, that’s where the problem started.

The situation deteriorated and led to my departure and that of my colleagues, but what hastened my departure was my criticism of the call for MPs to disengage from Parliament.

I criticised that decision as un-strategic and not warranted and I with other MPs defied that directive.

The second fallout happened when I advised the MDC-Alliance to follow the Supreme Court judgment and go to the extraordinary congress.

My colleagues could not stomach such criticism and they did not tolerate my independent views on these matters so I decided that due to these fundamental differences, we should part ways.

You may recall that MDC was formed by the ZCTU, that’s why it was formed as a labour backed party in 1999. We formed the MDC from the labour movement and we invited other pro-democratic forces like Zinasu, the Constitutional movement (NCA), rural women organisations, academia, churches, non-formal sectors and many other social groups/non-state actors.”

-DailyNews

We held the national working people’s convention at the Women’s bureau, Hillside in Harare where it was resolved that a broad-based movement for democratic change should be formed and after that we as the ZCTU held our own extraordinary congress at the Zesa Training Centre in 1998 to get the mandate from the general council and the congress for ZCTU to facilitate the formation of a political party.

The late Gibson Sibanda, Tsvangirai and all of us were pivotal in the consummation of this labour backed party. That’s how its character and identity emerged as a labour-backed party.

The students were invited through Zinasu activists, students like Chamisa, Job Sikhala, Learnmore Jongwe, Tafadzwa Musekiwa, Alex Musundire and others came to the fold to buttress what Zctu had already started as the godfather of the Movement for Democratic Change party.

Over the years, you have seen that labour union stalwarts have fallen by the wayside, have been marginalised or purged. You talk of people like James Makore and Cephas Makuyana (who was the master of ceremonies at the launch of the party at Rufaro Stadium in 1999.)

Makore was key in the mobilisation of Zctu structures and their morphing into MDC party structures. Side-lining stalwarts like Gift Chimanikire who were founders of the labour movement, Thokazani Khupe, myself, Paurina Mpariwa and many other trade unions veterans who were purged from branch, ward, district, provincial and national structures was a fatal mistake.

Over the years, the participation and representation of labour was watered down in the new-look Zinasu-biased National Executive and National Standing Committee.

Take for instance people like Chalton Hwende, Fadzayi Mahere, Murisi Zwizwai, Obey Sithole, Gladys Hlatywayo and all these people they have no clue about the roots of the MDC. They just joined the bus when it had left the garage or the deport.

That’s where the revolution loses direction when the founders are marginalised by hook or crook through shoddy congresses that are predetermined and are rigged.

The profile and colour of the MDC as it stands today is now dominated by the Zinasu element and all veterans have either left or have been marginalised.