First and foremost, let me say that Tsvangirai, like any other human being, has his own shortcomings, but to say that he lacks vision and political acumen to lead the country, is being unfair and biased in the assessment of the MDC president and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe.
The 2005 split, which is regarded in some circles as an unfortunate chapter within the MDC, actually threw Tsvangirai to the deep-end, and it needed someone with good leadership qualities to pick up the pieces, re-organise the party and successfully hold a second national congress in 2006. It is to Tsvangirai’s credit that he successfully campaigned for the 2008 elections in which he defeated the Zanu PF candidate Robert Mugabe and Simba Makoni of the Mavambo project, who was supported by the smaller MDC faction in the 2008 harmonised elections.
If Tsvangirai had no vision and good leadership qualities, as suggested by Moyo, he could not have achieved that feat. Over one million Zimbabweans voted for Tsvangirai as their president and that underscores the faith the people have in his leadership What Moyo should understand is that there are no schools the world over where political leaders at any level, let alone the presidents, are groomed. It is therefore unfortunate for Moyo to judge Tsvangirai as having no vision to lead the country. I wonder what yardstick he used to draw this conclusion.
I am not in anyway insinuating that there should not be constructive criticism of the MDC president, but to suggest that he is a village politician is taking matters too far. It is not Tsvangirai’s problem that Ncube’s popularity is only confined to one region. I do not know how many MPs from his party are from other regions except Matabeleland.
All I know is that Ncube himself lost to MDC vice-president Thokozani Khupe in a parliamentary contest in the last elections. If I was the organising secretary of Ncube’s party, I would occupy myself with organising the party structures in all the 10 provinces of the country and not try to popularise Ncube in newspapers.
Probably, Moyo was trying to cover-up for his inability to organise and give his party the national outlook that it seriously lacks. The organising secretary should be told in no uncertain terms that political structures are the basis for political survival and success.
Mamuse Maunganidze, Harare.
