To the victors, the spoils!

If recent press reports are anything to go by, it appears that the MDC era has arrived. The goings on in entities run by the MDC at local and national levels suggest that party leaders have started gouging from the crumbs left over from the ZANU-PF looting orgy. MDC politicians are growing fat at the expense of the rate and tax payers.

Surprise! Surprise!

It is clear that as far as most of these MDC politicians are concerned, the struggle against ZANU-PF was a struggle for the perks, legit or otherwise, that come with control of local and national resources. Naturally, party apologists have already begun dishing out an endless list of excuses, inter alia, the truly ludicrous suggestion that some of the nefarious practices were inherited from the former ruling party. By implication, there was nothing that the MDC could do about it but to continue the robbery.

Talk about a code of conduct for party leaders seems to be lifted right out of the ZANU-PF playbook for the sole purpose of deceiving the people of Zimbabwe into believing that something is being done about these corrupt activities. Party leaders have been visiting local councils and ministries to do something which they are not qualified to do: investigate and find evidence of corruption and presumably recommend disciplinary measures against perpetrators.

This is not only a recipe for intra-party strife but also will be greeted with glee at Chibuku house.
It is not my business to advise any political party and if the MDC would like to destroy themselves from within, that's something I cannot do anything about.

Suffice it for me to suggest that the movement should use this transition phase in the affairs of the nation to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of its internal screening and election systems for party leaders.

Let the rotten apples expose themselves in the meantime. In the end, the only true disinfectant is the sunshine. This means that any member of the party should be able to run for any position within the party and government- from branch secretary to party president, from councillor to state president. Such a system would ensure that that the party was continually renewed in terms of leadership and ideas.

The current party leadership ought to be seen as a transitional one, which should be replaced in a more open political environment, not one designed principally to foil ZANU-PF infiltration.