Welshman Ncube explains why MDC Alliance boycotted meeting in South Africa

By Welshman Ncube

The MDC Alliance was invited to participate at the Cape Town Meeting of Zimbabwean opposition political parties currently in progress in South Africa and the Principals of the MDC Alliance unanimously resolved to decline the invitation on several grounds, chief among which was the patent attempt to dismember the MDC Alliance under the guise of seeking to build a grand coalition of opposition parties.

When the MDC Alliance was invited to the meeting the leadership of the Alliance sought clarification on a number of issues including the agenda of the meeting and the composition of delegates to the meeting.

We were advised that the agenda would be decided at the commencement of the meeting but no information could be obtained on the composition of delegates save for general statements two days before the meeting that Principals from the three Coalition/ Alliance groupings were being invited. It turned out that only three of the seven MDC Alliance Principals had been invited.

Engagement with the South African coordinators and logistic organisers yielded invitations to the other four principals but also yielded the information that the list of invitees had been given to the South Africans by a group of four or so Zimbabweans, some of whom the Alliance is aware have been working tirelessly against the MDC Alliance to dismember it.

When the MDC Alliance finally obtained a list of the delegates from other Coalitions/Alliances and parties, the insidious agenda of those responsible for handpicking the MDC Alliance delegation to exclude more than half of its Principals while including every Tom, Dick and Harry from other groupings became self -evident and the MDC Alliance consequently resolved that it would not be party to a process calculated to divide and dismember it.

The MDC Alliance remains committed to genuine dialogue with other democratic coalitions/alliances /parties so as to build the broadest possible coalition of democratic parties. However the MDC Alliance will resist all attempts to place it in the service of any ZANU PF faction.

Professor Welshman Ncube, MDC Alliance Spokesperson