Khupe takes aim at coalition partners

MDC vice president Thokozani Khupe might have delivered a knock-out blow to the party’s former secretary-general Welshman Ncube when yesterday she publicly declared there was no need for the largest opposition party to have coalition partners in Bulawayo province.

This comes as there are growing suspicions within the MDC that some senior party officials are working to scuttle the mooted grand coalition which is seen as the opposition’s best prospect of ending President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF’ long rule in the 2018 polls.

Zanu PF holds most seats in Matabeleland North and South but has been losing to the MDC in the Bulawayo province since 2000.

Khupe, while throwing her weight behind the mooted electoral alliance, questioned the wisdom of the MDC having to open the door to rival opposition parties when it has been dominating Bulawayo since its formation.

“I am not against any coalition but for me, the question that we must ask ourselves is why we want a coalition as a political party,” Khupe said after being asked about the coalition deal with Ncube.

“As a political party, when you want a coalition you will have realised a gap in your party and as the MDC, where is our gap? It is clear our gap is in Mashonaland East, West and Central where we have consistently not done very well.

“So when looking for a coalition partner you must look for a partner who is going to be able to cover that gap. What value are they going to add when we have been winning consistently? You can’t look for a partner who will come and disturb where you have won consistently since 2000.

“What value are they going to add? In a coalition, you must want value addition to what you already have. You don’t want someone who will come and disturb what we already have.

“What we don’t have right now is Mashonaland and that is where we need a strong coalition partner and that is the only way we can be able to remove Zanu PF,” added Khupe.

MDC insiders have previously said its leader Morgan Tsvangirai is on the verge of sealing a historic pact with Ncube, and the leader of the Zimbabwe People First (ZPF), Joice Mujuru — with whom he has been meeting behind the scenes over the past few months.

Ncube yesterday said it was retrogressive to send conflicting signals of the mooted coalition.

“Those responsible for preventing others to walk away from the 2008 coalition agreement need be careful that they are not seen today to be working against the clear public sentiment that we must all do everything in our power to give the people of this country a fighting chance to remove the Zanu PF regime from power in 2018,” his party’s spokesperson, Kurauone Chihwayi, told the Daily News.

“We would have thought that some basic common sense understanding will reveal to anyone involved in our politics that winning Parliamentary seats in whatever parts of the country and whatever quantities, is wholly irrelevant to the primary question of garnering the requisite number of votes for the presidential candidate which is what is required to cause a change of government.”

Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka has also revealed that the MDC leader was warned that some of his lieutenants may want to fight the alliance, not for any objective reason but for subjective motivations driven by selfish and personal interests to do with positions.

Last week, during the tour of Matabeleland North, Tsvangirai was told by traditional leaders and ordinary villagers that there was a strong likelihood that Mugabe and Zanu PF would use some of the smaller opposition parties to destabilise the mooted coalition alliance.

Last year, Tsvangirai also told diplomats that he was wary of the “real prospects” of the panicking ruling Zanu PF using some of the country’s smaller opposition parties to put spanners in the works of a viable grand coalition.

“Once again on this issue, Your Excellencies, you must understand that we reserve our right to determine who we will work with.

“There are about 42 political parties in the country, some of them deliberately created by Zanu PF to muddy the political waters.

“Some of them are not even institutions in the true sense of the word.

“We will do our own necessary diligence checks before we work with anyone,” the MDC leader told the diplomats. Daily News