The Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) is planning to amend its constitution to strongly address hero-worshipping of individuals as well as to limit the tenure of the party president to two terms.
This decision was taken at its Policy Conference held in Bulawayo on April 27, 2024, paving the way for the upcoming MRP National Elective Congress that will take place on August 30, 2024.
The amendment, said Interim spokesperson Mbonisi Gumbo, is an effort to stop a culture of building ‘cults’ where members are devoted to one leader rather than the institution as a whole.
“We are amending Rule 3:10 and want to address hero-worshipping and factionalism by avoiding phrases like the president or secretary general shall. We also resolved that a single term is five years and one is expected to do two terms maximum,” he said.
Rule 3:10 of the MRP’s current constitution states that “in all MRP structures there will be a decided position against hero-worshipping of individuals which give birth to factionalism and cliques” but Gumbo said they wanted to clarify the section and state the exact position the party will take in dealing with hero-worshipping.
“As seen in our politics, blind allegiance to a leader and even in national politics can lead to disaster because human beings are not perfect. As MRP, we are striving to build a strong party with a corporate culture built on collective ideals, not the wishes of one person,” said the interim spokesperson.
Last year MRP broke into two factions after the National Interim Committee (NIC), which was formed to momentarily take charge of the party until its congress relieved party leader Mqondisi Moyo of his duties and dissolved the National Executive Committee he was leading.
Moyo was accused of failing to lead the party and ignoring structures.
Interim co-chairperson of MRP, Chilumbo Mudenda, added that political party members must learn to confront their leaders if they are failing them.
“We aim to push for democratic leaders, leaders who are accountable to others, not those who run a one-man show. Accountability will see more involvement from everyone but if leaders do their own thing that will divide the party,” he said.
Mudenda said the lack of ability of leaders to hold conversations about hard issues was one of the major causes of why people were so aggressive and divisive on social media platforms.
“Political parties have such unproductive political discussions and people like insulting each other instead of confronting the truth. It’s because parties build cults around one person and their followers are deployed to attack you if you oppose but that is not politics it is cowardice,” he said.
“Politics is the coming together of everyone for a common cause and addressing the problem and this is what as MRP we want to do.”
Commenting on the move, critical studies scholar, Dr Khanyile Mlotshwa, said ideally in politics, there should be no supporters for politicians but the party.
“Supporting a party is not the same as supporting a politician because you support a vision not one agenda’s,” he explained.
“If supporters or members find themselves failing to talk to their politician, that is problematic and counterproductive. Hero-worshipping in politics often leads to destruction and breeding of camps as people tend to outdo each other in their praise and forget about building the party.”
Dr Mlotshwa lamented that nowadays politics has produced a culture of individualism which reeks of status and personal greed.
“When politicians or generally leaders don’t care for others but themselves that results in a society of egotism, self-absorption and toxicity,” he said.
