SW Radio Africa (London)
Tichaona Sibanda
29 April 2011
Co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone has been re-elected chairperson of the MDC-T Women’s Assembly, after trouncing her rival Editor Matimisa, the Kadoma central MP, by 634 votes to 221.
Makone beat Matamisa by 413 votes with six spoiled ballots, in an election that analysts had predicted would be tight. But in the end Matamisa was soundly beaten in a poll that started on Thursday evening and went right through to Friday morning.
In another poll held Thursday, Harare based Solomon Madzore won the national youth chair contest after romping to victory against Mkoba MP Amos Chibaya, by 432 votes to 364. Madzore takes over as the new Youth Chair from Thamsanga Mahlangu, who stepped down to contest for the deputy organising secretary’s post in elections slated for Saturday.
The congress entered its second day on Friday with party leader Morgan Tsvangirai appealing to members to bury their conflicts and keep faith with the MDC, in order to clinch power in the next general election.
He cautioned delegates that, ‘it was important for members to stop internal wrangling to enable them to close ranks and forge a united front against ZANU PF in the next poll.’
Tsvangirai also warned party members against violence, following a spate of ugly scenes that characterized provincial elections.
‘Let me once again state that there will be no tolerance of violence in the MDC. There will be no sanctioning of corruption in the MDC,’ he said, adding ‘it is these traits that our party was born to eradicate.’
Our Bulawayo correspondent Lionel Saungweme told us guest speaker, Raila Odinga, the Kenyan Prime Minister, told delegates that it is high time the African continent embraced the culture of constitutionalism.
Odinga was officially opening the congress at Barbourfields stadium in Bulawayo and he called on Africa to invest in the building of institutions that ‘promote and compel sound leadership’.
Just like Tsvangirai, Odinga was forced to share power with incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, following a disputed 2007 election. In 2008 Tsvangirai beat Robert Mugabe in a presidential poll, but the ageing ZANU PF leader refused to cede power and instead went on a bloody campaign of murder and torture to cow opponents into submission.
In his keynote speech at the MDC-T Congress Odinga said; ‘One-party rule might have withered and died with the introduction of political pluralism in the 1990s but its ugly monolithic vestiges linger. In particular, our ballots have yet to be free and fair. A long list of African leaders with questionable democratic credentials has used the pretension of promoting state unity as an excuse for excess, intolerance, repression, and illegal tenure of office’.
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Theresa Makone Re-Elected Women’s Assembly Chair