Financial Gazette (Harare)
2 July 2009
Harare — FORMER finance minister Simba Makoni launched his long-awaited opposition party, Mavambo-Kusile-Dawn (MKD), yesterday with promises of delivering real change to the country's treacherous political landscape.
The launch comes more than a year after he abandoned ZANU-PF over policy issues and went ahead to contest the March 2008 presidential election against President Robert Mugabe and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Nearly 300 people attended the launch at Mbare's Stodart Hall - an event that was boycotted by his former top allies against the backdrop of a vicious power struggle that emerged over the usage of party resources during the synchronised polls that saw ZANU-PF lose its majority in Parliament to the MDC-T.
Makoni, an acclaimed technocrat, lost his presidential bid, garnering slightly over eight percent of the vote while President Mugabe and the MDC-T's president Tsvangirai, respectively picked up 43 percent and 48 percent of the votes cast.
"We will aim to affirm the role of the State as a developmental agency, as a developmental and facilitating State, not an overbearing and imposing State," Makoni said.
"We believe in a governance system that is compassionate and caring, a government system that is not cruel."
The former executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community said people had lost confidence in the three parties to the inclusive government, ZANU-PF, and the two MDC formations.
He referred to them as "MDC PF."
Makoni castigated the parties for bickering over parliamentary vehicles and the controversy surrounding the constitution-making process.
The former ZANU-PF politburo member, however, said his members were willing to assist the inclusive government as resource persons in an endeavour to save the nation from further collapse.
The MKD interim leader said he salutes Prime Minister Tsvangirai and other opposition political party leaders such as Edgar Tekere of the Zimbabwe Unity Movement as well as the late Enoch Dumbutshena of the Forum Party for their efforts in opening up democratic space in Zimbabwe.
The party chose to be launched yesterday in commemoration of the late Father Zimbabwe Joshua Nkomo who passed away on July 1 1999.
MKD's interim chairperson Godfrey Chanetsa said for the past 15 months the party faced a myriad challenges but did not elaborate save to say they had overcome some of them.
One of the notable challenges the party faced was when national coordinator Ibbo Mandaza and mobilisation chairperson Kudzai Mbudzi ditched MKD over the usage of party resources.
The case is now before the courts.
"MKD under the stewardship of Simba Makoni stands for real change. Go out there and organise and help us build a party of truth and freshness that the Zimbabwean people have been longing for," said Chanetsa.
Asked to comment on the launch, Mandaza said: "The case is before the courts and has to do with: one, accountability with respect to the funds and property of the movement which he (Makoni) has allegedly privatised to himself. He was recalled by the movement to become an ordinary member. If Makoni has gone ahead with launching the party, he is pre-empting the court's decision."
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