Primary elections – like a coalition – are a necessary evil

By The Standard | Jul. 28, 2017 | 5 Min read

What with all the brouhaha going on every which way you look and at many levels? If you do not keep your eye on the ball, you will be pulled in all directions, resulting in total stasis — that state of paralysis caused by countervailing or opposing equal forces. That’s the real danger the opposition faces just months before next year’s elections.

IT’S getting harder and harder to keep track of political developments in Zimbabwe.

echoes: CONWAY TUTANI

But despite all the political comings and goings, the nation should be grateful to some of our compatriots in Zanu PF who — like black soldiers, police and other civil servants during the Rhodesian era — have not sold their souls to the devil despite being part of the repressive and rapacious system. Where would the nation be really without their discreet forewarnings? Their support behind the scenes? As we speak, things, as bad as they are, could be much, much worse without these conscience-led people.

That said, there are some really positive movements, however small, with the long overdue political maturity now surfacing. People are now accepting that you don’t have to like each other to work together and, most crucially, you don’t have to agree on each and every point to be in one and the same party. Said Pishai Muchauraya last week, in defecting from the Elton Mangoma-led Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe to rejoin the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC-T, the biggest opposition party in the country by every measure: “It was not a fallout between myself and Mangoma. He is a person I respect so much, but at times you have to listen to what the people are saying.” Indeed, it’s the people’s voice which matters. You have to defer or submit to the people, unlike some armchair loudmouths want to hear their own voices, who tend to use an unworkable inverted model of politics.

People ought to sacrifice for the greater good, and not behave like free agents — those characters who act freely or without respecting a higher authority, who confuse democracy with licentiousness, disregarding accepted hierarchical rules in the vain and misguided pursuit of freedom of speech and action, thereby disrupting and destabilising every party they join. Freedom is shared territory. Your freedom ends where my freedom begins and vice versa. Equally, your rights end where my rights begin. Without that, it will be a chaotic and disastrous free-for-all. Although they take this too far, valuable lessons can be learnt from Zanu PF about how it purges disruptive and destabilising elements from its ranks. For instance, is it any surprise that no sooner had Rugare Gumbo been expelled from Zanu PF did he have a fallout with former Vice-President Joice Mujuru in their new party, Zimbabwe People First? And, without condoning the atrocious

torture he was subjected to, is it any surprise that, before that, Gumbo also fell out with his comrades in the 1970s during the liberation war while based in Mozambique?

Continued Muchauraya: “In this case, people are saying Tsvangirai is the best candidate to remove Zanu PF. It’s not the time to form other parties and then try to seek coalitions. We just need to rally behind Tsvangirai because he is the best person to remove Mugabe.” Muchauraya is best qualified to see the futility — or even folly — of jumping from ship to ship because it has taken him a circuitous route — taking a detour in Tendai Biti’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) — to finally get back to the MDC-T. Why should one go all the way via Lusaka to travel from Harare to Bulawayo? It’s like playing musical chairs — a situation in which many changes happen in a way that is even more confusing and harmful. And, even, worse, why do something pointless and insignificant that will soon be overtaken by events, or that contributes nothing to the solution of the current problem — like re-arranging the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic?

Keep Reading

That is why the nation can ill-afford to listen to protestations from Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa last week, when he accused the MDC-T of acting in bad faith over coalition talks, accusing Tsvangirai of acting dictatorially. Dabengwa said some political parties, including his, were in the dark over memoranda of understanding (MoUs) being signed by Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders including Mujuru, Biti and MDC leader Welshman Ncube.

But isn’t this the same Dabengwa who openly gloated some years after the 2008 presidential election that it was him — and him only, not the voters — who had ensured that Tsvangirai would not win the election? Now if you engineer such over and above the voters, are you not even more dictatorial than Tsvangirai? The last time I heard, subverting the people’s will was the complete opposite of democratic behaviour.

And why should Dabengwa not be left in the dark about the MoUs being signed with the other parties? Can there be a more valid reason for excluding him than his own admission that he plotted for Tsvangirai not to win? The truth of the matter is that Dabengwa has unresolved credibility issues. These are justified enough grounds for freezing him out.

By his own admission, he is as guilty as the regime for the continued suffering of the nation.

Now, to Tsvangirai himself. He is reported as having “banned” the holding of primary elections in the MDC-T, on the grounds that they are divisive. “We will select our candidates through consensus.”

Well and good, but, venting out and ventilating feelings by party members is not necessarily bad because by the time of the general election next year, tempers and hostilities caused by the anger and resentment over losing primary elections will have cooled down and even dissipated, resulting in people closing ranks around the official party candidate. Many a good thing has come from showdowns. People should not shy away from fights. Sometimes it takes direct confrontation to truly find each or appreciate each other. It can have a most cathartic effect — a purifying, cleansing and healing effect. You can come out stronger from the experience.

Furthermore, consensus can be manipulable — like the Speaker in Parliament can handpick who to allow to speak while not appearing as being selective.

I witnessed with my own eyes how the MC at a burial last week was roped in in a plot to exclude a close relative from making a speech. It was quite hilarious when the relative saw through this and demanded to address the gathering. He got his way, leaving the “plotters” with egg on their faces. If this can happen at such solemn occasions, hallowed occasions as funerals, what more in politics? Let people lose fair and square. Let the party members choose for themselves. If you disrespect people, they will hit back — like Sunningdale voters did in 1995 by opting for independent candidate Margaret Dongo against the late Vivian Mwashita, who had been imposed by Zanu PF.

By the way, it’s not about singling out Tsvangirai as PDP leader Biti has also done the same after his party handpicked some 100 parliamentary candidates without going through the primary election process.

So, primary elections — like a coalition — are a necessary evil — something which you would rather not have or do not like, but which you know must happen or be done.

Conway Nkumbuzo Tutani is a Harare-based columnist. Email: [email protected]