Letter from America:with KENNETH MUFUKA
In the debate over the just released Constitutional Court decision concerning the dispute between Sister Thokozani Khupe and the MDC-Alliance, the question that must be answered has not been posited in the MDC-Alliance portfolio.
My learned brother, Alex Magaisa, has traced the problem to 2016. In appointing two additional deputies (in addition to Khupe) MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai sought unsuccessfully to marry the law and what he deemed necessary for the good of the party.
Law professor Richard Christie told us as students that when such an issue arises, the leader must execute a legal fiction, whereby he performs all the legal requirements, while in fact undermining the spirit of the law. My friend Fabian Mabaya has a gift of simplifying difficult issues. A man who seeks a second wife is required by custom to consult his first wife (kuti sadza riwande). The legal fiction is not whether she approved (very unlikely), but that the procedures were followed in good faith (again unlikely that there was good faith).
My information is that Tsvangirai ran roughshod over the hierarchy. I was home at the time, and the explanation, which was whispered in hushed tones was that Mr T was doubtful of Khupe’s ability to steer the ship through the storms when he (Mr T) went to meet his maker.
Be that as it may, there is no bitter woman as one scorned. Further, Mr T’s appointments were ultra vires. Do not blame Zanu PF for that self-inflicted wound. But there is more which my learned brothers have only skirted. If, there is a chance that aspiring secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora was at least by December 2018, according to brother Hopewell Chin’ono, allegedly in secret consultations with Zanu PF, then you have a perfect Judas Iscariot problem.
I have not yet posed the question which the MDC-Alliance must answer.
If as seems now clear, the court challenge on the part of Khupe and her supporters was generated (and possibly financially supported) by Zanu PF surrogates, one wonders how deep the rot inside MDC-Alliance is.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
If former party chairperson Morgen Komichi, as a leaked email letter supposes, was in consultations with the judiciary before the public court pronouncement was made, one wonders how many Judases are lurking inside the MDC-Alliance itself.
Issues not settled It is true that the MDC-T has moved on and morphed into a new creature called the MDC-Alliance since February 2018. I know it and our readers know it.
That may turn out to be a chimera in the eyes of Zanu PF and the enforcers.
I see only dark clouds gathering. The enforcers can be found in the High Court and in the Supreme Court. Already Khupe wants an account of the $7 million from government sent to the MDC during preparations for 2018 elections.
The aim is to drag the matter, raise all sorts of issues, imply malfeasance galore, never be satisfied with answers and then return to court.
Here is part of my question: In the eyes of the court, who is the legal entity called MDC?
The next issue will be the recall of all MDC-Alliance parliamentarians. Now you will say: “Ken, please be reasonable. All MDC parliamentarians fall under MDC-Alliance banner. The old MDC has ceased to exist.”
My brothers, how many times have I told you that Robert Mugabe introduced a state of anomie? When white farmers approached the Supreme Court for relief, Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku wended in the middle of the night (no pun on his name) his way to consult Mugabe.
Chidyausiku boasted about it.
I return to Mwonzora. If Mwonzora was in cahoots (we must say allegedly), all the secrets of the party and expenditures are deeply compromised.
Magaisa points out the hypocrisy of the people who are celebrating the court’s decision also say that they are guardians of Mr T’s legacy. There is even a more glaring example in Zanu PF. While the Zanu PF stalwarts overthrew the tyrant Mugabe for misbehaviour, they also say that they are guardians of “Restore (Mugabe’s) legacy”.
Were I to count the number of hypocrites in Zimbabwe’s political life, I would not see the end of it.
The fact that Khupe polled 45 000 voters as compared to 2.3 million for MDC-Alliance’s Nelson Chamisa is irrelevant to the matters at hand. The point is to build her up, pretend that she is Mother Maria walking in Jerusalem. The whole MDC-Alliance will be dragged into an all-out war over trivialities until the elections.
If Chamisa loses the election, the name of Khupe will disappear from the face of all Zimpapers titles as if by magic.
Conclusion and mortal question With this evidence in plain sight, first, that MDC members at a very high level were complicit with the authorities in pursuing a legal case against their own party, it is established that the authorities have an interest in the outcome of the case.
The MDC-Alliance will be facing new charges in the near future, abuse of party funds, recall from parliament and other trumped-up charges by Sister Khupe and her surrogates.
The MDC-Alliance and its protagonists, who, we now know, have the sympathy of the authorities, can present itself before the judiciary if it has some assurance that the judiciary is an impartial referee.
That is a mortal question. If the answer is negative, as I have referred to earlier, the MDC-Alliance is playing in a state of anomie (lawless state).
Common sense points in the direction that continued participation in the polity that does not provide an impartial judiciary is suicidal to the MDC-Alliance.
But prudence dictates that such unfair systems, long established, cannot be changed without great suffering to the populace, because such systems monopolise instruments of violence.
Americans saw the oppression by English monarch George III very clearly. If they participated, usurpations continued with only one aim, to confirm the King’s tyranny. If they resisted, they faced loss of life and limb.
I want somebody to tell me that by participating in the 2023 elections, there is hope in achieving an outcome other than the present dispensation.
l Ken Mufuka is a patriot who writes from the US.
