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Theresa Makone

SUSPENDED MDC-T deputy treasurer Elton Mangoma’s “harvest of thorns” at Harvest House, the party’s headquarters, raises a number of issues regarding due process. It also speaks to the role of women in the body politic because it is very unfortunate that some of the events in this unfolding saga happened on an important day for women, the world over – March 8, International Women’s Day.

It is MDC-T’s right to hold political rallies any day of the week, but where was the voice of reason among the women within the MDC-T (especially the leadership) to allow their party to use the day to bash those who disagree with them, instead of using it to build bridges?

Globally, International Women’s Day is commemorated on this day, as both women and their male counterparts celebrate womanhood and reflect on how best to increase the spaces that women occupy.

This year’s theme was “Inspiring Change” and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s International Women’s Day message said in part: “Countries with more gender equality have better economic growth. Countries with more women leaders perform better. Peace agreements that include women are more durable. Parliaments with more women enact more legislation on key social issue such as health.”

I will add that political parties with more women in leadership positions have a vehicle to ensure peace and non-violence.
But as the Mangoma/Tsvangirai saga plays out, we ask whether the women leadership in MDC-T is doing it, and also inspiring change considering that women are usually at the receiving end of most acts of violence.

Unfortunately, the MDC-T’s Women’s Assembly through its chairperson Mrs Theresa Makone played some balancing act in defence of “main actor”, party president Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, but in the process killed the letter and spirit of womanhood, and International Women’s Day in particular.

She has always been a very close ally of Tsvangirai whom she has known since 2000, just after the formation of the MDC. She was also friend to Tsvangirai’s late wife, Susan, and is alleged to have played an important role in his relationship with Locardia Karimatsenga-Tembo.

Despite criticism from within the MDC-T and outside, she probably is one of the few people that Tsvangirai can count on for support.
During the lifespan of the inclusive Government she was part of what was popularly known as the former Prime Minister’s “kitchen cabinet”. Insiders claim that this group calls the shots in the Tsvangirai-led faction.

And on March 8, she publicly demonstrated her unwavering support for Tsvangirai’s leadership at a rally held in Chitungwiza. This was not at a gathering to celebrate International Women’s Day, but it was a political rally to drum up support for Tsvangirai’s waning fortunes.

Mrs Makone is reported to have said that it was the Women’s Assembly that overwhelmingly endorsed the suspension of Mangoma from the party.

Media reports claim that at the Chitungwiza rally speaker after speaker indirectly denounced secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti and Mangoma, but Mrs Makone took the bull (sic) by the horns and called a spade a spade.

It is alleged that she was the only one who made direct reference to Mangoma, and did so using unsavoury language. Whatever happened to the disdain for hate language?

She is quoted as having said that it was the Women’s Assembly that “initiated” Mangoma’s suspension since the “rebels” were going to form their own political party. “Women are very clear. We were the first ones to pass a resolution that Mangoma must go,” said Mrs Makone at the Chitungwiza rally.

The Daily News of March 10 also says Mrs Makone in her efforts to unmask Mangoma as Biti’s front said: “Hanzi kana uchida kuona amai vechidhoma, unorova chidhoma chacho. (They say that if you want to know who the goblin’s mother is, the best way is to attack the goblin because the mother will come out in defence).

Is the situation so dire for Tsvangirai and the MDC-T that Mrs Makone had to use imagery from the dark world to support her boss’s quest for power?

This was also an open admission about women’s role in politics and decision-making which contradicts the claims that we usually make.
It is public knowledge that on February 15, Mangoma together with other officials opposed to Tsvangirai’s continued leadership of the party, was assaulted by MDC-T youths loyal to Tsvangirai at Harvest House.

I would like to believe that Mrs Makone was present when this incident occurred, and even if she wasn’t, the first question that I pose to the former co-Minister of Home Affairs is, was this procedural that someone is assaulted in full view of the party leader and other members of the leadership, and the best thing that is done is to drive the victims to Mr Tsvangirai’s home instead of making a police report and taking them to hospital?

Where was womanhood and motherly instinct when these acts of violence were taking place, considering that the Women’s Assembly had already labelled dissenting voices rebels?

The men might not have bothered, not members of the Women’s Assembly! The inaction goes against the grain of what Mr Ban said, and if the Women’s Assembly says it was the first to recommend expulsion, you ask yourself in whose interests they are working?

Agreed, the youth and women’s wings are major pillars of political parties and are sometimes kingmakers, but they do not work in isolation, and they are also bound by laws of the country. Surely, the former co-Home Affairs Minister cannot say that she sacrificed the rule of law on the altar of political expediency!

Her deep-seated support for Tsvangirai is also in contradiction of the sentiments she echoed in the run-up to the July 31 harmonised elections.

While campaigning in Chitungwiza in April 2013, Mrs. Makone told party supporters to elect women into leadership positions. She accused MDC-T male councillors of being corrupt: “We have never heard of a corrupt woman councillor, but most male councillors have proved they are corrupt. Let us vote for women, especially in those areas where the male counterparts were corrupt.”.

Violence, not just gender-based violence, is a cause for concern and the violence in the MDC-T, which for a very long time has been blamed on Zanu-PF is now worrisome, especially when women seem to back it.

Why should Mrs Makone’s support for Tsvangirai’s leadership be always mired in controversy?

In the run-up to the 2013 harmonised poll, she also condoned Tsvangirai’s behaviour in a manner that left women wondering whether this was a typical example of women in authority wearing symbols of equality, but working against women’s interests.

While campaigning in Hatcliffe on July 29, she turned to Tsvangirai’s philandering with women and retorted: “Hapana akarepwa. Pakawandwa ndopavanoda vakadzi kunzwa kuti pane chiiko? Kwedu mabhuru ndiko kwaakawanda. Hakuna ngochani. (None of these women was raped. When there are more women after one man, this attracts women because they would want to find out what the centre of attraction is. In the MDC-T we have many “sex” bulls. There are no gay men”).

Who then will be the peacemaker in the MDC-T if the men and women in the party join in the fray of the children’s game of “zamu ramai vako iri; ramai vangu iri, tanga tione” (here is your mother’s breast and here is my mother’s breast, so let’s see if you can floor me)? For, the mothers are cheering on as their “breasts” are being kicked by the fighting men.