Trouble brews for Tsvangirai as Youth council meet over Matibenga

By Lance Guma
09 November 2007

Trouble is brewing for MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai after the party’s Youth Assembly called an emergency meeting of its National Council to discuss the controversial dissolution of the Women’s Assembly. Although press reports suggest Tsvangirai is trying to appease ousted women’s chairperson Lucia Matibenga with a post as Deputy National Chairperson, Matibenga is not interested and the youths in the party are backing her to the hilt. A Youth National Council member who spoke to Newsreel on Friday ahead of the Saturday meeting said the Youth Assembly did not recognise Theresa Makone as chairperson and will use the platform to make their position clear to Tsvangirai.

The party’s own legal committee chaired by Mutare lawyer and legislator, Innocent Gonese is alleged to have met and produced a damning report condemning what they called the unprocedural removal of Matibenga. Six of its members who comprise lawyers Jessie Majome, Douglas Mwonzora and Gonese have recommended the ouster of Matibenga be revoked and Makone’s election be nullified. Tsvangirai is however said to be in defiant mood and just this week told the Financial Gazette he would not allow the ‘Matibenga sideshow’ to distract him from the goal of unseating Mugabe in next years elections.

He told the paper, ‘The problem is that, suddenly, so many people have become MDC constitutional experts. The majority of them have never read the MDC constitution. You see, if the national council, through the national standing committee had, as suggested, blatantly violated the constitution in the dissolution of the assembly, then the High Court would obviously have set aside the decision and interdicted the congress. But it didn’t. The fact of the matter is that the national council resolved that at the conclusion of the inquiry (into the affairs of the women’s wing), the leadership must make a decision.’

He maintained his support for Makone saying, ‘We do not manage the party with the objective of either pleasing or hurting individuals, but in the best interests of the party as a whole. The party is bigger than any individual, and that includes myself. It is about the performance of an organ of a party or its officers as we prepare for the 2008 elections, subject of course to a free and fair environment. Matibenga is a respected member of the party, and she will remain so.’ The problem for Tsvangirai however remains that many of his top lieutenants disagree with him. The position of the Youth Assembly particularly could create serious problems for him given they form the backbone of the party.

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