MDC leader Nelson Chamisa’s decision to drop the legitimacy issue against his Zanu PF nemesis, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has been hailed by Zimbabweans across the political divide as pragmatic.
In an alleged recent interview with one of Zimbabwe’s dailies, the youthful opposition president reportedly laid out his desire to give negotiations an opportunity.
Another faction of the MDC has, however, dismissed the said interview as a figment of the daily newspaper’s imagination, saying the legitimacy issue remained as the cornerstone of the party’s dispute with Zanu PF.
University of Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure was noncommittal with regards the authenticity of media reports concerning the purported change of tact on the part of the MDC.
Masunungure, however, said negotiations between Zanu PF and the MDC were good for the country.
“The country needs the negotiations, and not the two political parties per se.
“Zimbabwe has endured a lot of political and economic pain; both Zanu PF and the MDC need to humble themselves and find each other for the good the country,” Masunungure said.
Despite denials by a section of the MDC concerning the interview and the setting aside of the legitimacy matter, other political analysts interviewed believe that the former University of Zimbabwe students’ union leader already has his work cut out for him, arguing that many in his position would also have buckled under the circumstances.
Chamisa has found himself having to fight energy-sapping battles from more than one frontier.
At the turn of the 21st Century, Zanu PF embarked on a brazenly violent land reform programme, which the country’s late former President Robert Mugabe justified as meant to redress skewed colonial land ownership patterns that tended to favour white Rhodesians.
But it was the widespread 2002 election violence that finally “justified” intervention by the United States and the European Union into Zimbabwean issues, slapping the country with “economic” sanctions in the same year.
Ironically, the sanctions matter has now become a Chamisa problem, with Zanu PF turning the issue inside out, blaming the opposition MDC party for the country’s economic tailspin at every opportunity.
The Southern African Development Community has not helped matters for the youthful trade unionist and his MDC party, apparently also blaming them for “inviting” the ruinous economic measures against the country.
The other problem that seems to have turned around Chamisa and thrown him into a damascene moment, according to MDC sources, is the ongoing internal political intrigues within the party, in particular the Douglas Mwonzora factor.
The former MDC secretary-general is reportedly fighting for his political life in the party, with some within the opposition ranks suspecting that he is the brains behind the approach to the Supreme Court by an obscure Gokwe party member who is challenging Chamisa’s legitimacy as MDC president.
Many have said by appearing to warm up to dialogue with Mnangagwa, the MDC president intends to seek respite for himself, and probably believes that the pending Supreme Court judgment could somewhat be “manipulated” in his favour, thereby preserving him as MDC party leader on that basis.
