Five scenarios for MDC-T to survive

A senior member of the Movement for Democratic Change faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai has offered five scenarios for the party to survive arguing that if there is no introspection within the party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front will rule “until the cows come home”.

Elias Mudzuri, the party’s former organising secretary and former executive mayor for Harare, gave the five scenarios last week but The Insider has decided to revisit them following reports that pressure is mounting for Tsvangirai to go.

The reports say the party has stopped funding his trips around the country and Tsvangirai is reportedly funding them from his own pocket.

Mudzuri who retained his Warren Park seat in the last elections is reported to be one of the people vying to replace Tsvangirai as party leader.

Some MDC supporters believe that Mudzuri did a better job as organising secretary than incumbent Nelson Chamisa because it was during his tenure that Tsvangirai beat Mugabe and the MDC won more seats in parliament than ZANU-PF.

Here are his proposed scenarios:

Scenario one:
The status-quo remains and MDC go for the 2016 Congress with the current leadership.

Scenario two:
There is an urgent Extraordinary Congress before 2016.

Scenario three:
Morgan Tsvangirai and the whole team are contested at the 2016 Congress and a new leadership emerges in the MDC.

Scenario four:
Morgan Tsvangirai is the godfather of the party. He steps down ceremoniously and a new leader is elected. He becomes a “Mandela” of the party. Structures are re-engineered including the party constitution which will limit the future party president to two terms only.

Scenario five:
Morgan Tsvangirai does not step down. He keeps the support base and those not happy can form their own party or join the various sprouting political outfits in the country.

“With the above scenarios, I think debate can be initiated with the hope of finishing the democratisation process of Zimbabwe. There should be a national debate on these and other issues. The MDC is still alive but without introspection and debate, ZANU- PF will rule this country until the cows come home.

“People need mature, serious and an integrated approach to change,” Mudzuri said in an opinion piece in The Standard.

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