MDC Alliance vice president Professor Welshman Ncube says the hijacking of their party name by a rival faction led by Douglas Mwonzora will not deter their supporters from voting for their presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa in the upcoming elections.
The rival factions have been at loggerheads fighting for control of the opposition party, with Mwonzora backed by a Supreme Court ruling recalling legislators and councillors who continue to rally behind Chamisa.
Despite all this commotion, Professor Ncube said there will be no confusion at the polls.
“There would be no confusion mark my words. There will be a lot of hot air, debate, anxiety among a lot of people but the ordinary average voter in Zimbabwe is clear. Even if we assume we were to go to the election and there’s MDC Alliance led by Douglas Mwonzora and there’s MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa on the ballot box, there still will be no confusion,” said Ncube in an interview with CITE on the Breakfast Club Monday.
“If we use our symbol, which is an open palm hand with Chamisa’s face, let Mwonzora dare put his face there as well, there will be no confusion. Put the face of Chamisa and the face of the state-sponsored opposition, people will vote accordingly. I really don’t see confusion.”
The only risk, Prof Ncube cited were shenanigans the state might employ during the candidate nomination process.
“But if the usual practice is followed, mark my words – the people are very clear. In fact, wherever we go people are anxious, they want this election tomorrow so they can speak and reaffirm who they support in this country and who they want to be leaders,” he said.
“There can be no doubt from the majority of the people, even small kids. Where Chamisa walks in any suburb, he is mobbed by people who love him and feel inspired by him, people who feel he can lead to a better future for themselves, something that Emmerson Mnangagwa or anyone else in Zanu wouldn’t do at any given time.”
Prof Ncube noted the concept and idea of the MDC Alliance was to bring back the constituency element of the original MDC after the first split.
The MDC Alliance was to be made up of the founding MDC leaders whose goal was to unite and have a coalition to take down Zanu-PF, Prof Ncube said, noting that the “state-created and judiciary constructed MDC-T has nothing to do with the peoples’ project.”
“Let me take you back to history, where (the late) Morgan Tsvangirai called myself and Tendai Biti to his house when he was relatively sick. He says, ‘Guys we let down the people of Zimbabwe when we split the MDC. I want, as Morgan Tsvangirai to leave a legacy, to live a united peoples project. Are you guys with me on this?’ Both me and Biti said, ‘we are with you, let us put back the Humpty dumpty,’” Prof Ncube revealed.
“There was the first MDC split led by Tsvangirai, then MDC led by Arthur Mutambara, then another split to PDP. We promised Tsvangirai that we were going to do all in our power to make sure that the legacy of a united peoples project, a united MDC is realised and we have worked very hard,” he said
Prof Ncube also dispelled rumours that he has left the MDC Alliance and that he was he joining Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) saying the fake news was a construction of the military-led state which used disinformation to squash its enemies.
“We live in the age of disinformation where it’s now easy to create a story that has absolutely nothing to do with you. This is what has been happening around the MDC Alliance and we know where these stories are coming from. They are generated within ourselves because we are heavily infiltrated by a military regime, which has deployed its own people among us and created these stories.”
Nonetheless, the MDC Alliance VP declared the party was “strong and we will always be strong.”
“There will always be infiltration and disinformation, if you are not strong enough to survive this then we are not strong enough to lead this country but I assure you, we will overcome notwithstanding all these things,” Prof Ncube summed.
