South Africa based business tycoon Mutumwa Mawere has given his indepth analysis on the Supreme Court judgment relating to the leadership wrangle in the MDC family.
In a leaked whatsapp conversation with MDC Alliance’s Dr Tapiwa Mashakada Msawere said, “It is common cause that the court has ruled that the first sin had a domino effect including the consequential involuntary creation of the so-called MDT-T (KHUPE) that MT would not recognize. This entity was created by Chamisa through the attempt to cash in on MT’s patently illegal appointments. If the decision to appoint Chamisa was invalid, then the true creator of the Khupe MDC-T would be Chamisa.”
Read the full analysis below:
Thanks, Hon Mashakada. I hope you will take my comments in the spirit in which they are made and out of utmost respect for you.
I respond as follows:
1. Noted suffice to say that it would follow that Morgan Tsvangirai (MT) was a representative of an organization. In addition, that the only organization known and associated with MT was the subject matter of the judgment. Also that that the said organization was the anchor of the alliance. Absent the MDC-T, there was and could never have been an alliance. At the time of MT’s death, the alliance existed not as a body corporate but through its constituent organizations.
2. Noted suffice to say that Chamisa in terms of the judgment did not lawfully acquire the right to step into the shoes of MT let alone be a principal of the MDC-T and, therefore, make him eligible for consideration as the substitute of MT. If the judgment is implemented in its spirit, then the meeting of principals to choose a leader who was not legitimate in terms of the Constitution of the MDC was irregular and unlawful. Nothing should turn from this. It means that the meeting and its outcome automatically becomes invalid. So in simple terms, Chamisa was not eligible to be considered as a Presidential candidate of an alliance built from a simple construction of member body corporates.
3. I am sure you will agree that the Constitution of the MDC-T is complete and must be binding on its members. If this is true, it follows that the alleged impediment in retrospect to Khupe’s eligibility falls away. Chamisa absent the ascendancy that was disputed and found by the SC to be invalid, automatically disqualified himself from any consideration as the President of an alliance in which the MDC-T had any rights. There can be no alibi. The people who should shoulder the responsibility of the mess ought to be the ones who engaged in a self-help scheme to hijack the baton even before MT died. They could have avoided the self-created quagmire by simply observing the Constitution.
The failure to do so must be fatal. The SC did not frown upon this naked takeover of power outside the four corners of the Constitution. It is significant that in the court proceedings any dispute as to which constitution was the applicable one was resolved leaving the central question to be determined as to the legality and constitutionality of MT’s appointment of the two Vice-Presidents. This dispute appears to have been conclusively resolved. In the premises, one would have expected senior members of the party to stand on your feet celebrating the victory of common sense, logic and reason that may have escaped Morgan Tsvangirai at a critical time in his health. Now that a judgment exists, what should be the call to action? Defy it or comply?
4. Was there any causal link between MDC-T and MDC-A? Your response above in paragraph 2 is instructive. Absent Khupe’s deprivation of the right to be Acting President, the narrative would be different. I am mindful that the Goodwill of Morgan Tsvangirai was acquired by Chamisa in MDC-T otherwise Chamisa could have independently formed his own alliance. However, there is an umbilical cord that connects Morgan Tsvangirai to the alliance. The seed determines the crop.
Whose seed was the alliance? Morgan Tsvangirai v Chamisa? I think the answer is simple. If MT had not appointed Chamisa as VP, what would have connected him to the alliance? Alternatively, if Khupe as Acting President had decided to abandon the alliance, what would have been the fate of this creature. It becomes self-evident that there is a direct and causal nexus. Only Steve Wonder may legitimately claim otherwise.
5. It is a common cause that the court has ruled that the first sin had a domino effect including the consequential involuntary creation of the so-called MDT-T (KHUPE) that Morgan Tsvangirai would not have recognisd. This entity was created by Chamisa through the attempt to cash in on MT’s patently illegal appointments. If the decision to appoint Chamisa was invalid, then the true creator of the Khupe MDC-T would be Chamisa. Khupe could easily have established her own party under Morgan Tsvangirai but she chose to remain in the family.
It so happened that he was the next person in line to step into Morgan Tsvangia’s shoes but she was denied this right by a scheme hatched by known persons. Such persons must own up to this mischief and allow lessons to be learned. The idea that MDC-A MPs belong to the alliance is, therefore, a contested issue but the judgment is instructive for any rational actor. If Chamisa did not lawfully acquire the Vice-President post, then everything that flowed from this false narrative is also invalid. Even an infant who is rational would know better.
6. The tragedy, your Hon is that history never lies. It tells its own story. One cannot seek to hide behind a match-stick. The facts above will assist you in answering the question of where the MPs truly belong. The SC by default ruled in favour of Chamisa who stands to take over from Khupe is maturity and balance are the orders of the day.
However, it is instructive that even a person of your calibre would choose to be a cheer-leader at a time when people are crying our for answers as to what a coup is and is not. With legitimacy questions hovering all over, surely you would see the wider and broader implications of failing to understand the critical importance of respecting the rule of law. Your party has been given a unique opportunity to self-correct by the party. Please don’t squander this real chance to regularize the irregularities for political expediency.
