MDC leader Welshman Ncube says the regrouping of democratic forces does not have to be about recreating the united Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to dislodge President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF.
NDUDUZO TSHUMA/ NJABULO NCUBE
In an exclusive interview with Southern Eye on Friday, Ncube said the MDC was committed to being the alternative choice to the people of Zimbabwe, but the obtaining situation needed a united movement of all democratic forces.
“While it is necessary for us to build a strong movement of our party as MDC and to recommit ourselves to those values, we realise that in the national crisis that we are in, we are not in a democracy where you say, let people choose whatever the outcome,” he said.
“Because of the party in the Zanu PF we are dealing with, our vision is for all of those opposition parties committed to the same values and principles to seek to come together in that rainbow movement that hopefully would have clouds, which actually bear rain.
“That is basically what we are trying to do, if we are to quicken change in this country, our vision is for all political parties which exist, which have done some work, they might have 20 people, a 100 or thousand people it doesn’t matter, but if you put those people together and work for the same objective fully knowing that if we win and the person we have reposed confidence in to be the president will not betray us, that is the critical condition.”
Ncube said while the 2008 and 2013 efforts were to reunite the MDC of 1999, the strategy had changed for a broader approach beyond a united MDC.
“What we tried in 2008 and 2013 was not even what I am talking about, what we were trying then was, how to bring back the humpty dumpty, which was the MDC in its united form,” the law professor said.
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“What we are talking about is not just reconstituting the humpty dumpty with pieces scattered all over everywhere to what MDC was once was. We are going beyond the nomenclature. We are going beyond the MDC, and we are looking at all democratic forces which exist in the country far beyond the MDC in its united form.
“Yes, those were attempts, but those were attempts to put together the humpty dumpty and I don’t think the putting together of humpty dumpty together today will be adequate to do the things we want to do.”
Ncube said the 2008 and 2013 unity efforts failed as those who violated the party’s fundamental values failed to acknowledge their actions.
“A lot of things went wrong, we refused to acknowledge things that we did wrong. We refused to acknowledge the mistakes, the violations of the fundamental things which glued us together,” he said.
“As long as there is denial, it’s like a drug addict, one of the basic cardinal rules is that if you have an addiction, for you to be treated of that addiction, you need to admit that you have a problem.
“When you admit of no problem, you will never be able to beat your addiction and in this instance we have a situation where people refuse to take responsibility for their actions and inactions and as long as we are in denial, we are a nation of denialists, no one will take responsibility, so and so is to blame but never me, we can never do anything wrong,” he added.
“As long as we are in denial mode, we cannot do the things we need to do.”
Ncube said after the Unity Accord of 1987 between PF Zapu and Zanu, the country had a de facto one-party state where all governance was constituted for the comfort of the perks of the government and no responsibility to the people.
“The things that went wrong from independence to 1999, we captured them very well in my view in what we called the programme for change in 1999 which preceded the formal formation of MDC,” the former Industry and Commerce minister said.
“We had the first convention of working people and at the second we adopted a blueprint for the programme for change.”
“What bound us together was basically the coming together of democrats existing in every organised formation in the country at that time and we had a unity of purpose and we committed ourselves to certain values and principles, those values were a total negation of what Zanu PF had done on issues of violence, on issues of collective decision-making, proper economic management, empathetic leadership among other things.
“In essence that was the Bible we adopted and because we had that collectivity, we had the momentum to mobilise the people, we had situations where people were voting for the MDC parliamentarians in 2000 who had never actually met an MDC official in faraway rural areas.
“But because we had acquired a momentum, which reflected the will of the people and that the ordinary people who had never met an MDC official believed in our sincerity because we had come together and spoken sincerely.”
Ncube said things went wrong over the years, in that “we began to negate to act contrary to those things which inspired so many, we said we opposed Zanu PF, we opposed beating up of people, Gukurahundi, genocide, youth militia, and yet we began to exhibit the same vices as we went along.
“We said we opposed Mugabe because he dictates to everyone, he doesn’t have collective decision processes and we began also to say exactly the same things as Mugabe. You can’t contradict me, I am the leader, in other words you had a systematic betrayal of those things which acted as a glue that bound us together which inspired people into believing that what we sought to do was different from what was prevailing in the country.”
The MDC leader said unless opposition parties were able to recapture the spirit of 1999, “by actually being sincere in the things we say, in the things we do, you can’t say you oppose sin and you are a pastor and you shall not covet thy neighbour’s wife, the Bible says and you preach it the following day you covet thy neighbour’s wife and clearly you cannot inspire your congregation that way.
“As a leadership, we need to capture that spirit and that is why we have said if we continue to fight from our little corners, our big corners, or what we think are big corners, we will not be able to achieve the things we undertook to achieve at the second people’s working convention in 1999,” Ncube said.
“What we need is to go back to those values and principles, to rededicate and recommit ourselves to them and all democrats where ever they are located in our view, should come out and should begin to build towards that momentum of coming together whether in a convention, congress as long as we can locate ourselves in the same corner with sincerity, with real commitment, what we say must match in exact form what we do.”
Ncube said if there was a mis-match between “what we say and what we do, you are not going to inspire anyone, in other words you just come out as hypocrites and who is going to follow hypocrites? And that is why our politics at the moment doesn’t have that momentum.
“I am one of those who support all of those people who are calling for people to come together if you borrow foreign terminology, rainbow coalition, united front, call it what you will as long as it brings together all democrats committed to the future of this country where ever they might be located, only then will we acquire momentum to inspire people to stand up once again against the failures of the current government.
“We cannot walk away from the responsibility of providing an alternative party.”
