Correspondent|THE MDC Alliance’s Standing Committee held a meeting at the party’s headquarters in Harare on Wednesday afternoon to strategize the road-map for the elective Congress which the party has set for 24 to 26 May.

We give you below the key points raised by party leader Advocate Nelson Chamisa during a press conference held after the Standing Committee meeting:

Zimbabwe has a leadership and legitimacy crisis and which if not resolved will continue to erode prospects of having an economic narrative that will improve the livelihoods of Zimbabweans.

We are seeing the reincarnation of yesteryear politics where there is closure of democratic space. There is corruption, patronage and poverty and the devaluation of our people’s lives and well as the widening of inequality gaps.

The interbank platform is also proving to be a problem. The floating of the RTGS dollar is quite problematic and the cash situation in the banks has not improved. We have offered as an alternative to restore confidence but with the crisis of governance we have, the problems will continue and the livelihoods will continue to be destroyed.

We have also seen a systematic targeting of strong MDC leaders, MPs and civil society in order to silence them. The level of human rights violation is worsening. At least 17 people from our records have been killed since January.

Zimbabwe has attracted isolation from the international community due to its level of intolerance. There have been invasion of homes, abductions, mass trials and fast-tracking of cases which are all a violation of rights.  We have seen our leaders such as Tendai Biti, Lloyd Mukapiko, Settlement Chikwinya, Joana Mamombe, Amos Chibaya, Levy Chiminya, Happymore Chidziva, Morgen Komichi and many others.

Zimbabwe has gone further down in terms of democracy indicators, and all this is self-inflicted by the regime of Emmerson Mnangagwa.

This is why we have emphasized dialogue. We have clearly stated that we are prepared for dialogue with Mr. Mnangagwa to discuss the issues affecting Zimbabwe. We do not know why he is afraid of having a brow-to-brow, eye-to-eye conversation of the issues affecting us.

We wrote to Mr. Mnangagwa on the 6th of February telling him we cannot be part of his type of dialogue of like-minded losers of the 2018 elections.

There is a sideshow that has been disguised as a dialogue. But we have seen that a lot of leaders are withdrawing from that sideshow of a dialogue.

On the State of the MDC

The MDC is going into the 5th Congress since its formations. The MDC is a giant that will emerge stronger from the Congress. This year we celebrate 20 years of resisting tyranny, of fighting for democracy. We have to acknowledge that in last year’s elections, our party made a good showing in the presidential and local ward elections.

We have revitalized the party. That is why you can see Mr. Biti is here, Mr. Welshman Ncube and many other leaders are here. You are aware of the outstanding performance that we made in gaining ground across the whole country. Our competitor ZANU-PF is losing ground while our party is gaining ground.

If you are honest, you will accept we got 2.6 million votes. If you are dishonest you will say we got 2.1 million votes, but all the same, we gained support including from some very prominent people from across the political divide.

The Congress will give us a chance to renew out team. I am going to be the first who will congratulate whoever emerges victorious from this Congress.

This is a chance and opportunity to have a fresh set of leaders, new structure, new ideas, new strategies… that is the thrust we are taking.

The theme of our Congress is Defining a New Course for Zimbabwe.

After the Congress, Mr. Mnangagwa must be ready for us because we are going to retool our party for the task of taking leadership and responsibility of this country in a democratic manner.

We are going to show the world that we are a democratic party; that we do not only talk democracy but we practice democracy.

As we go into Congress, tensions will rise. We must however not exchange blows. we have also resolved as leadership that we are not going to do things the ZANU-PF way where leaders are endorsed. In our party, leaders are nominated.

We want to ensure that democracy is there in our party. Mr. Chamisa is not the first or the last born leader in the MDC. Mr. Tsvangirai groomed me, but he also groomed many other leaders in the party. In fact, we have shown to ZANU-PF that by killing Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, if they thought that our movement was dead, we managed to rebuild it from the ashes.

We are MDC and we can’t do that which we are running away from: dictatorship. We will have the best Congress ever. There will be an independent body to run our Congress, and all the leaders are going to be a part to constituting that body so that there is no foul cry. We do not want to create a ZEC within the MDC.

Our agenda is to grow this party and to fish from the other parties across the political divide. We will resist the temptation to use violence to settle differences within our party. 

But we will not allow our leaders to be spokespersons of our party… we have only one spokesperson. But the leaders will be spokespersons to themselves as they campaign.

We have our own Congress road-map. The key dates will be as follows as we head to Congress:

• In March we will have the branch and the ward elections;
• In April, we shall have the district congress;
• Towards the end of April, we will have the provincial congress. This is where nominations will be done. In our party, people get nominated.
• in May, all the nominated candidates will go into caucuses for campaigns or “beauty contests”. Those nominated will address the address the membership, articulating what they will be able to do.

So there will be a full month of campaign in those caucuses. Then we will go into congress at a venue to be announced. But we will also have the women’s congress and the youth congress during that same period.

The MDC is a people’s project and cannot afford to split. There is nothing wrong with people wanting to be chosen to lead the party. That is democracy, it can be painful but that is the essence of democracy.

The most important things for us is to bring our people together and a remain formidable party.

On utterances by war veterans leader Victor Matemadanda that they prefer a mature leader in party, let me tell you that Matemadanda prefers the MDC to ZANU-PF. I know that inside his heart, Matemadanda actually prefers Chamisa. If he continues with what he is doing I will produce the v11 (euphemism for evidence) to expose him that he really supports our movement. He should not try to divide us.

There is no division in the MDC.  We are a party with protocols, rules and regulations. We will not see any name-calling going forward. If there is any crossing of the line, I promise you that there will be gnashing of teeth. We have now set the do’s and don’t’s of how we will conduct ourselves going forward.

Whatever happened in the past weeks — the name-calling and all that — it is regrettable but you shall not see any of that again going forward.