MDC-T, PDP reunification dismissed but parties in joint statement

By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |

MDC-T and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday issued a joint statement expressing concern over the west’s re-engagement efforts with President Robert Mugabe’s government, but quelled the possibility of reunification.

Tendai Biti led a breakaway from Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T in early 2014 and later former the PDP, accusing the latter of leadership failure.

Biti has vowed never to share the same room with Tsvangirai who caused the expulsion of more than 15 MPs aligned to the former MDC-T secretary general the same year.

Yesterday, PDP’s economic affairs secretary, Vince Musewe, and MDC-T’s shadow finance minister, Tapiwa Mashakada, jointly penned a statement that rapped the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and western governments for seeking re-engagement with the Zanu PF government.

In September 2014, the European Union (EU) resumed direct engagement with Mugabe’s government.

The IMF is currently engaging the government under a Staff Monitored Programme (SMP) that seeks to bring back financial discipline to Zimbabwe as a precondition for resumption of aid, in addition to meaningful settling of arrears.

However, Mashakada and Musewe said re-engagement was ill-advised since the Zanu PF government had failed.

“Zimbabweans are certainly not happy with the status quo and want substantive political and economic reforms now.

“Yet it seems to us that the West, including the IMF, are pursuing an agenda to re-engage and assist what to us is essentially a rogue regime whose time to go has come,” read the joint statement.

The two parties warned against imposing misplaced solutions on Zimbabwe and Africa and described that as “welfare colonialism”.

“This, of course, has happened many a time in Africa, where the West comes with its own political and economic paradigms and imposes them on Africans without really understanding or taking into account what the people want or what is sustainable,” noted the two parties.

However, MDC-T spokesperson, Obert Gutu, told Nehanda Radio that the joint statement did not mean that the two parties were re-merging.

“The joint statement merely shows our approach when it comes to dealing with institutions that are like-minded. We converge where we would have found common ground.

“However, don’t read too much into the fact that we issued a joint statement with PDP. The issue of coalitions or mergers is being dealt with directly by the presidency and there is no position on that yet. We are just collaborating,” said Gutu.

Musewe said: “We want to show the world that we can partner and collaborate as the opposition. It is a small gesture that demonstrates that we can still unite, without necessarily merging.”

Musewe and Mashakada, Nehanda Radio learnt, are working on setting up a think tank that would promote national debate on economic issues in Zimbabwe.

The two economists said, instead of re-engagement with Mugabe, the “only viable solution for Zimbabwe is for Mugabe to go and the replacement of his looting machinery with a new team that will take our country forward”.

They expressed concern that the IMF and the West were now seized with stability of the country instead of substantive political change.

“Unfortunately, the pursuit of appeasement and not confrontation of the dictator continues to fuel some false hope in the minds of this regime that everything is going to be okay,” read the statement.

The two parties bemoaned the worsening economic crisis characterised by a cash crunch, high unemployment and deteriorating service delivery.

They also accused Mugabe’s government of a renewed clampdown on human rights defenders.

“Our country is at the brink and we expect those who wish to assist us out of this quagmire such as the IMF to be at least well informed about the realities being faced by ordinary Zimbabweans on the ground before prescribing solutions,” noted the two economists. Nehanda Radio