By Tonderai Samanyanga
People that have not been close to the people’s struggle for real change may not understand why the Grand Coalition was a still birth. Besides the fact that Welshman Ncube and Dumiso Dabengwa were invited to this, they walked away from it and formed their coalition.
Welshman was a respected and trusted leader in the MDC until he showed us his true colours.
In 2000 he successfully mobilised the young intellectuals to fill in the urban constituencies which were left without candidates two weeks to nomination. Most of us went back to contest in our rural homes. I for one left a possible urban constituency, Chiredzi to put my CV for Makoni East.
Although Welshman doubled as a full time Head of the Faculty of Law at the University of Zimbabwe and an efficient Secretary General of our party, he was never arrested or detained like most of our leaders.
It was Welshman and the late Renson Gasela who introduced President Morgan Tsvangirai to Ari Ben Manashe. After taking him to a purported political consulting meeting, our President had a noose around his neck for treason while Welshman and Gasela were cleared of any wrong doing.
In 2005, Welshman engineered an unsuccessful “Boardroom Coup” that split our beloved party. In 2008, he speared in the vote Simba Makoni campaign that deprived our President and the nation an outright win and led us into a bloody run-off.
This has cost the nation and retarded the possible change of Zimbabwe to a better nation for nearly five years. If people parade their Leaders, they should not call any one tribal when they raise important issues for consideration.
People have talked about Tsvangirai in many ways but he kept the dream alive and pressed on. His personal life in search of a mother figure for our party and the country was laid bare but he pressed.
His drinking tea with Mugabe in his effort to craft the best way for a better Zimbabwe made negative headlines but he pressed on.
His first job as a tea-boy at Trojan Mine before he became a “Statesman” was used to demean him but he pressed on. Lets press on and let the people be the judges on the 31st of July 2013. After this day Zimbabwe will never be the same.
Chronology of Suspicious Events
1. Ari Ben Manashe introduction and treason charges, Welshman and Gasela
2. In 2005, during the fight to stop introduction of the creation of the Senate, Welshman and six other MDC MPs who where present at parliament mysteriously vanished at the time the vote was called, giving the Senate vote a win by one vote.
3. In 2005, he engineered the “boardroom Coup” that split the party and he left with all the party monies and most of the party assets.
4. In 2006 after the split the Acting Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa deliberately released the MDC component of the political parties finance money to Welshman Ncube.
5. In 2008, he spearheaded the vote Simba Makoni for President while de-campaigning President Tsvangirai resulting in a bloody re-run.
6. In 2013 he walks away from a Grand Coalition that would have galvanised the pro-democracy movement and unseated Mugabe, opting to form his own coalition with Dabengwa. In 2008 Dabengwa openly admitted that he had supported Simba Makoni to split the vote and deny Tsvangirai an outright win.
Tonderai Samanyanga is the chairman of the MDC-T UK province
