The MDC Alliance has accused newly-elected MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora of being a Zanu-PF proxy, days after he exchanged vows of “cooperation” with President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mwonzora took over control of the opposition party after beating the incumbent, Thokozani Khupe, and other challengers, Morgen Komichi and Elias Mudzuri in a disputed extra-ordinary congress marred by violence and voter fraud allegations a week ago.
Mnangagwa endorsed Mwonzora’s contested victory, regardless, and promised him Zanu-PF cooperation after the new MDC-T leader cozied up to the ruling party saying “we want to work with them.”
MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere branded Mwonzora an “undisputed Zanu-PF proxy” on Monday following an interview with a local daily in which the Nyanga Senator accused Nelson Chamisa’s party of taking instructions from G40 elements.
“Mwonzora has proven beyond any doubt over the last year that he’s a Zanu-PF project. He’s a captured political entity who was used by Zanu-PF to usurp the will of the people to orchestrate a series of unlawful recalls.
“He has obtained the assistance of Zanu-PF to take over funds due to the MDC Alliance in violation of a binding court order. With the assistance of Zanu-PF, soldiers, and state institutions, he violently resorted to self-help and took over Harvest House,” said Mahere in a statement.
In the interview, Mwonzora said efforts to unite the splintered opposition ahead of general elections in 2023 were proving impossible due to interference by former Zanu-PF members in the running of Chamisa’s party.
But Mahere pushed back saying, “the MDC Alliance has no business uniting with an undisputed Zanu-PF proxy who has violated the will of the people at every turn.”
“The reference to G40 is a lie calculated to distract from his unholy alliance with Zanu-PF in which the MDC Alliance will take no part.
“The MDC Alliance has one objective – that is to drive a reform agenda that will remove Zanu-PF and lead to the transformation of Zimbabwe.
“We won’t be distracted by Mwonzora’s anti-people, Zanu-driven sideshows. The people of Zimbabwe deserve ethical leadership, renewal, and change,” Mahere added.
Mwonzora denies being a Zanu-PF project, accusing his critics of mudslinging.
Agent
Meanwhile, a posting by Alex Magaisa on Twitterby United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean constitutional law expert Dr. Alex Magaisa on the Douglas Mwonzora-led MDC-T’s alleged links to the 2017 military coup conspirators.
Dr Magaisa said: “the only surprise is seeing colleagues being surprised by the G40 narrative from the judicially reconstructed MDCT.
To understand the creature that emerged from the EOC one must trace its genealogy to the pre-November 2017 engagements involving coup authors and opposition elites.”
He said; “a story that is yet to be fully told, though snippets have been published here and there. There’s a reason why the MDC leadership got caught up in the frenzy of the coup, mistakenly believing they also had a share in the outcome. They were deceived and fell for the ruse.
“Morgan Tsvangirai was never part of the equation. The system knew the opposition icon was on his last legs. But MT had allowed certain elites in his party to represent him in pre-coup engagements. Now, in a relationship between principal and agent, there’re always agency costs.
“Let’s define agency costs: in representing the principal, an agent faces two choices: promoting his principal’s interests or his own. Some agents are not loyal and they end up promoting personal interests at the principal’s expense. Those are the costs of agency for the principal.
Each time you appoint an agent, you’re taking a risk that the agent might promote his interests ahead of yours. Think of a guy who sends another chap to deliver his well-crafted love letter to a prospective girlfriend. He would say it’s done but he would not have delivered it!
“The gifts you dispatched would be delivered but as his, not yours! After a while, you might find that the chap and “your girl” have a flourishing relationship. Our ancestors have a saying for it, the rock rabbit has no tail because it sent others for it during distribution!
I once said this to MT in 2013, but that’s a story for another time. I was far away in 2017 but the same happened. MT trusted people around him to represent his interests in whatever was being discussed behind the scenes. But these people looked after their own interests” Magaisa said.
“When MT and others apparently backed the coup, they genuinely believed they had a stake in the post-coup outcome. They were misled and deceived. The coup authors already had their preferred horse to lead the opposition, a cat that Matemadanda let out of the bag sometime later.
“Therefore, when you see the alignment of “G40 slurs” on the MDC Alliance between ZANU PF and the judicially reconstructed MDCT, it is not by chance. The coup itself is not ended. It was not just a ZANU PF affair; it also roped in opposition elites playing a deceptive role.
“There was a coup that toppled Mugabe, but a seed was sown for a coup in the opposition in the sense that ZANU PF would capture and remould the opposition in its preferred terms.
It hasn’t succeeded because it is impossible to command people’s loyalties. But they won’t stop,” he said.
