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Maya joins MDC
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
Extracted from Crisis in Zimbabwe Weekly Update
May 31-June 06, 2004

Shakespeare Maya, the President of the opposition National Alliance for Good Governance (NAGG), with four other party members, has joined the main opposition party in the country, the MDC.

William Bango, the spokesperson for MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai said That Maya and his colleagues joined the country’s leading opposition party in their individual capacities.

Bango said Maya announced his membership to the MDC during a press conference at the opposition party’s Harvest House headquarters in Harare this week. He said that Maya told journalists that he has decided to join the MDC in order to forge a united front and confront the deepening legitimacy and governance crisis facing the country.

Bango said the MDC welcomed the decision by Maya but quickly added that Maya was joining the party as an ordinary card-carrying member. The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition believes that the decision taken by Maya is a noble one if its intentions are in the national interest to confront the crisis facing Zimbabwe as one voice.

The Coalition urges both Maya and the MDC to continue to bring other political parties together no matter how small in order to confront ZANU PF as a united front.

It is also in the national good for the MDC to treat such overtures seriously in order to bring confidence to other small opposition parties to join the united front against the oppressive regime of President Robert Mugabe. At the same time the main opposition must be careful of such overtures in order to avoid infiltration. Critics would argue that Maya was a political lightweight who polled 11 906 votes nationwide during the disputed March 2002 presidential election and therefore no miracles should be expected out of his move.

The principle displayed by Maya is well meaning but its operationalisation remains to be seen. If the opposition can learn from the Kenyan example where opponents of former President Daniel Arap Moi came together to form the Rainbow Coalition, which overthrew the Kenyan dictator, then Maya’s move is a step in the right direction.

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