The embassy, in a cable released by Wikileaks eight years later, said Stevenson, described four young MDC members whom she did not trust as being possible ZANU-PF plants. These were Members of Parliament Tafadzwa Musekiwa, Job Sikhala and Learnmore Jongwe (the party’s spokesman), and national youth leader Nelson Chamisa.
The embassy said it had no evidence to substantiate Stevenson’s suspicions but added: “We can say with a fair degree of confidence that her distrust of certain younger members is a result of ZANU-PF’s strategy to sow doubt and discord within the opposition party.”
It seemed that this was the same game all over again but I asked my young colleague why he thought Chamisa was ED’s man.
He said Chamisa was deployed to the party to keep a close watch on Tsvangirai. There was even a tussle after Susan’s death in 2009 over which group would get him a replacement wife. One group close to the Makones brought Locardia Karimatsenga and Chamisa got Elizabeth Macheka. Macheka won at the end of the day.
My colleague said it was Macheka who got Chamisa to be appointed vice-president of the party after he lost the post of secretary-general to Douglas Mwonzora at the 2014 party congress and was relegated to secretary for policy coordination.
When I reminded my colleague about this conversation last week in view of the turmoil now within the party, he said, “Mukoma, I still stand by that story”.
“Some MDC cadres have brushed me off saying Elizabeth had no say in how the party was run, but I told them that they were underestimating bottom power.”
Do I believe the story? Yes and No.
A lot of our politicians have been either members of ZANU-PF or the Zimbabwe African People’s Union ZAPU. Even Tsvangirai was a member of ZANU-PF in Bindura before he moved to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
So people can change. But there is one thing for sure that I have learnt about ZANU-PF.
It has infiltrated almost all important organisations in the country, be they political parties, non-governmental organisations, companies, associations or privately owned newspapers. Their plant is usually within the top five of any such organisation.
I also wondered whether the Macheka-Chamisa connection could have been the reason why Tsvangirai’s mother did not want the two at her son’s funeral, or was there something more?
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