THE MDC-T has quashed a bid by its top leadership – including Cabinet ministers and members of the party’s standing committee – to go unchallenged in the party’s primary elections to be held soon. Report by Staff Reporter
Several party bigwigs have been pushing to stand unchallenged in the forthcoming general elections, but that was ruled out by the party’s standing committee following a meeting at the party’s headquarters at Harvest House in Harare last week.
MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora confirmed the development yesterday, adding all seats would be contested and that there would be no sacred cows when the party holds its primary elections.
“No one will go unchallenged. Everyone will be subject to the due processes and no one will get special treatment,” Mwonzora said.
MDC-T national organising secretary Nelson Chamisa also confirmed the matter when he officiated at a function to debate the late Mozambican leader Samora Machel’s legacy at the Quill Club in Harare last Friday.
“There are no two dip-tanks in the party and there won’t be sacred cows. We will not entertain the Animal Farm kind of thing where some animals are more equal than others. In the party we are all leaders and comrades,” said Chamisa.
Chamisa confirmed that MDC-T would use an open palm with the face of their presidential candidate and party leader Morgan Tsvangirai only for election purposes to differentiate their symbol from that of other MDC formations.
“The symbol will not change. We will put the face of the presidential candidate, but the symbol will not change.”
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On Machel’s legacy, Chamisa said some African leaders had betrayed what the former Mozambican leader fought for.
“Why should the struggle continue, even beyond paper and flag independence or any assumed arrival point?
“Precisely because leaders are mortals and it is the habit and character of mortals to be fallible. Leaders sometimes betray struggles, leaders can mislead the masses, leaders can hijack revolutions instead of being hijacked by them and, of course, leaders grow old,” he said.
“A struggle is a project for all, by all and to all. It is for the led and not the leader.”
