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Someone shooting Tsvangirai in the foot
Geoffrey Nyarota, The Zimbabwe Times
May 23, 2008

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=178

Our story today on Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai-s pending return to Harare tomorrow appeared in my email queue from Johannesburg just as I was putting the finishing touches to the original of this article.

I had rather belatedly jumped onto the bandwagon of impassioned pleas to the MDC president to immediately abandon his controversial sojourn in the foreign wilderness to return home to take up the cudgels to engage once more in final battle against his bitter rival, President Robert Mugabe, the Zanu-PF leader. I was obliged to tweak the article considerably.

Various calls have been made by individuals of different stations in life and diverse political persuasions. All the appeals had a common thread, which was to admonish the MDC leader to instantly terminate his brief exile and return to Zimbabwe.

Speaking during an interview with Associated Press last week, the United States ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, called on the MDC leader to immediately return to base, notwithstanding claims by his party that his life was in danger if Tsvangirai set foot to Harare.

"There are a lot of people in Zimbabwe who have paid the ultimate price by voting for Morgan Tsvangirai," McGee said. "We believe that as a strong leader, he should be back showing his people that he cares every bit as much for them as they do for him."

None in the MDC leadership could have argued with the simple logic of the ambassador-s advice. Tsvangirai-s detractors in the former ruling Zanu-PF will no doubt immediately deride the MDC leader tomorrow for "confirming" by his immediate return that he is, indeed, at the beck and call of the foreign powers.

These are politicians, however, who are largely discredited, their party and its leader, Mugabe having endured most humiliating rejection through the will of the people in a humiliating democratic process on Saturday, March 29.

During in an interview with Violet Gonda of London-based SW Radio Africa last Friday, National Constitutional Assembly chairman, Dr Lovemore Madhuku, made the same clarion call to Tsvangirai. He argued that a leadership vacuum had now been created within the MDC in the absence of both the party president and its secretary general, Tendai Biti. Incidentally, sections of the international press obstinately refer to Biti as Tsvangirai-s Number Two, thereby effectively sidelining Thoko Khupe, the party-s vice-president. The MDC does not seem to have taken measures to rectify this grievous error.

"Tsvangirai should not have been out of the country for more than a few days," Madhuku said, "and I think that point must be made. And I think there are people around Tsvangirai who keep telling him that it is appropriate that he should do what they call 'diplomatic work- outside the country. In political leadership it is important that you are there with the people that you lead. Diplomatic initiatives are secondary."

These are valid points which are hardly disputable by anyone in the MDC leadership. Whoever advised Tsvangirai to launch an extended diplomatic crusade outside Zimbabwe weeks before a presidential election definitely misled him. Hopefully he was not deliberately misled.

The members of the Joint Operations Command, Emmerson Mnangagwa, in particular, may have proved beyond reasonable doubt over the past month that they have a ruthless streak running through them. But they would have to be seized by bouts of worse insanity than so far displayed for them to contemplate the assassination of an already popularly elected candidate for the presidency of Zimbabwe.

In any case, as one top official of Dr Simba Makoni-s Mavambo Project, Retired Major Kudzai Mbudzi, said on Wednesday, Tsvangirai "faces a bigger risk of being assassinated while in South Africa than he would be in Zimbabwe . . . ."

Mbudzi admonished Tsvangirai as he announced what will most likely be the news of the week, if not of the month of May. He revealed that the Mavambo Project had, obviously after mulling over the issue for a considerable length of time, decided to throw its weight behind Tsvangirai. Mbudzi was no doubt dismayed that Tsvangirai was not personally available to convert this political capital to his electoral benefit.

The MDC leadership will probably rush to defend their decision to keep the party president far away from Harare with a crucial presidential election looming over the horizon. They will probably point out that Tsvangirai is not the only Zimbabwean to seek refuge outside the borders of Zimbabwe. Or that Mugabe waged the campaign for the liberation of Zimbabwe, while ensconced in the seaside ambience of the Mozambican capital, Maputo, far away from Harare. Such attitude would most certainly be ill advised.

The three million Zimbabweans currently living in the Diaspora are not the leaders of a popular political party; neither did they win a presidential election on March 29. Neither, for that matter, had Mugabe won any election up to the time of his arrival back in Harare on February 27, 1980.

Tsvangirai left Zimbabwe in the middle of a violent backlash stage-managed by vicious Zanu-PF militants against a rural electorate that defied intimidation and violence to courageously vote an ageing dictator out of office. The MDC leadership literally went AWOL at a time of renewed crisis in the country, as state-sponsored violence ravaged the countryside like a wild fire during the dry season.

At the time of writing a total of 43 mostly MDC supporters have lost their lives, while hundreds have been maimed and thousands rendered instantly homeless.

Tsvangirai has a crucial election to fight on June 27, only a few weeks away now. He can only exploit the current wave of goodwill towards him if he is on home-ground.

Tsvangirai-s place right now is among his people. Politics cannot be without risk. Opposition politicians both before and after Zimbabwe-s independence, have always faced the risk of assassination. If the MDC has received details of an assassination plot or plots, they should place them in the public arena. Going public becomes the security of the targets. In any case, if the MDC has details of a genuine plot to assassinate its leader why on earth should they treat such information as confidential.

Making unsubstantiated allegations, as Biti did on Monday will merely expose the MDC to ridicule by Zanu-PF and undermine their credibility.

Meanwhile, the MDC should be careful not to accept all information received from their so-called sources in the security forces at face value.

Some of the information could be leaked strategically to the MDC in order to compromise or throw Tsvangirai-s campaign into total disarray, as had already started to happen. The JOC is aware that Tsvangirai is a very strong contender for the presidency and there is abundant evidence that they are running scared, especially now with Tsvangirai, Makoni and Mutambara all in one fortress.

Whatever new plots are unearthed by the MDC it is hoped that that Tsvangirai-s return to Harare will not again be aborted at the last minute. He still has time to recover lost ground.

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