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Christopher Farai Charamba Political Reporter
Much has been reported and discussed about factionalism within Zanu-PF.

Lacoste and G40 have been splashed on headlines across the media divide, and Zanu-PF rallies have seen factionalism play out and been denounced all the same by various actors.

Battle lines seem to have been drawn and while unity is preached from the pulpit, one wonders how much of it is being practised particularly when factional issues are there for all to see in traditional and social media.

As Zimbabwe approaches 2018 elections, the risk that Zanu-PF faces with a house divided is that of its supporters boycotting candidates belonging to other factions.

Thus by the time primary elections come around it would be prudent for the ruling party leadership caught in this factional storm to bury the hatchet and focus on putting forth the best candidates in each ward and constituency and rallying their supporters around such a person.

In the absence of this concerted effort then the party may find itself with disillusioned supporters and an absent electorate on polling day. For Zanu-PF their problems are of their own creating and the solutions lie within the party itself. Fortunately for the ruling party the external threat from opposition political parties is not severe and should they close ranks soon enough Zanu-PF can easily defeat them at the polls.

MDC is itself faced with its own factional crisis that could possibly lead to an implosion of the newly birthed alliance. One should perhaps not group the opposition under the banner of the MDC and its many derivatives, now Alliance, but they are and have been the main contenders for the longest time. The newcomers while welcome are unlikely to cause more than a ripple in the grand scheme of things come the polls.

Over the weekend Morgan Tsvangirai as the leader of the coalition dubbed MDC-Alliance held a rally in Bulawayo with other members of the union, MDC’s Professor Welshman Ncube, now vice president of the alliance, People’s Democratic Party’s Mr Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe People First’s Brigadier-General (Retired) Agrippa Mutambara, Transform Zimbabwe’s Mr Jacob Ngarivhume and Multi-Racial Christian Democrats’ Mr Mathias Guchutu.

Notable once again at this rally was the absence of the MDC-T vice president Thokozani Khupe. This was an Alliance rally in her backyard and Khupe along with MDC-T national chairman Mr Lovemore Moyo and suspended national organising secretary Mr Abednico Bhebhe boycotted the event.

They had also missed the initial Alliance signing ceremony in Highfield, Harare at the beginning of August. The day after that event, Khupe and her cohorts were attacked by people purported to be MDC-T youths and from Tsvangirai’s camp while they held a meeting in Bulawayo.

Tsvangirai denounced the violence, members of the youths who participated and the MDC-T senior leadership who spoke out of turn on the issue were suspended pending a full investigation. But the crisis did not end there and it is blatantly clear from her non-appearance this weekend that Khupe is not behind the Alliance.

Her position has unduly been diluted by the Alliance and more so by Tsvangirai himself. Currently Welshman Ncube has assumed the role of vice president of the Alliance. In July last year Tsvangirai unilaterally appointed Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri to the positions of vice presidents in the MDC-T. This was a message to Khupe.

One can argue that Tsvangirai was attempting to balance the looming divisions in the MDC-T at the time and ward off any threat from the two he promoted particularly after he had announced he had cancer, but what he did showed the little respect he has for Khupe who happens to be the only vice president elected to the position by the party.

This means that Tsvangirai cannot get rid of her of his own volition, only the party can do that. Khupe knows this and is perhaps of the belief that she holds the trump card to the Bulawayo constituency.

While the Alliance has gone with Ncube as vice president and will likely turn to him to win the Bulawayo and Matebeleland constituencies for them, his party fared terribly in the 2013 election, only winning two seats.

The impasse between Tsvangirai’s Alliance and Khupe might thus continue for a protracted period as the contest over positions and seats persists.

Such a situation does not bode well for the opposition. They already know that without the alliance they do not have the capabilities, stamina or resources to beat Zanu-PF. But even with this knowledge there is a leadership crisis which has failed to bring unity among the parties.

Tsvangirai may have the upper hand as leader of the party with the most supporters but those joining with him only do so out of convenience and not conviction that he is the right person for the job.

Ncube and Biti demonstrated this when they left his MDC to form their own outfits. Now they have returned — though Biti did not sign the Alliance agreement — because they know on their own they stand no chance.

Ncube particularly learnt this lesson in the 2013 election. National People’s Party’s leader Joice Mujuru has thus far stayed out of the Alliance due to the fact that she does not want to play second fiddle to Tsvangirai. The leadership of the alliance is however a done deal and anyone interested in participating will just have to come to terms with it.

The biggest elephant in the room and where the house will divide further is who gets how many seats and where. It is why Khupe is playing coy and holding out. It is why Biti is yet to sign the Alliance agreement because he is allegedly unhappy with the numbers that he has been offered.

Tsvangirai has said that there will be no primaries in MDC-T to elect who will run for parliamentary seats rather an agreement must be reached by consensus.

This is a potentially disastrous situation particularly where the alliance is concerned and what is likely to happen is that those snubbed will run on their own ticket outside the alliance.

With all these internal issues and an alliance built on shaky ground the opposition will likely struggle to find the time to take its message to a national audience. It will not be able to compete with Zanu-PF which has already begun mobilisation through the Presidential Youth Interface Rallies.

What is clear is that for both the incumbent and the contender the internal threat is currently their greatest challenge and whichever side is able to sort theirs out faster, positions themselves well for 2018.