Third way minus Makoni = ?

The story said the group’s national coordinating committee had reduced Makoni, a presidential hopeful in those elections, to a mere member pending the outcome of internal investigations and immediately warned the matter could be reported to the police.
But could Mavambo/Kusile/ Dawn survive without Makoni, the man who succeeded in frustrating President Robert Mugabe’s re-election ambitions last year?
Can the movement of independents be viable and make any meaningful political impact without  the “Black Russian,” Dumiso Dabengwa, who openly declared his support for Makoni in the run up to the presidential election, before embarking on the project to revive PF-ZAPU?
Dabengwa, a former home affairs minister who joined ZANU-PF under the unity accord of 1987, was the only big fish to stand his ground and defect from the party to join Makoni in his bid to make sure President Mugabe did not get the majority vote to maintain his grip on power.
Dabengwa said: “We succeeded in making sure (President) Mugabe did not win the election. That was our main goal and we achieved it.”
Dabengwa was elected interim leader of the new PF-ZAPU last month.
University lecturer Joseph Kurebwa said it was difficult to say whether Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn would survive because the movement has too many shadowy characters.
“The problem with the Mavambo project is that it has too many shadowy characters and as a result is it difficult to say anything at the moment until they expose themselves if they ever will,” Kurebwa said.
At one stage the project was heavily linked to retired army commander, General Solomon Mujuru and other unnamed ZANU-PF stalwarts who were speculated to be ready to withdraw their membership from President Mugabe’s party in support of Makoni’s presidential candidature.
But on the eve of the election, the so called bigwigs developed cold feet and cost Makoni dearly.
Kurebwa agreed with Dabengwa’s statement that the movement was meant only to stop President Mugabe from winning the election.
“After succeeding in making sure that President Mugabe failed to secure a majority of the votes needed to be declared the winner, Mavambo has remained a project, just that, a project. It was probably meant to vanish immediately after the March harmonised elections,” Kurebwa said.
Makoni, who boasts a doctorate in Medical Chemistry from Leicester Polytechnic in the United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Chemistry and Zoology from Leeds University in the UK, was the first to advocate a government of national unity soon after the harmonised elections.
The losing presidential candidate argued that a run-off was not the panacea for the country’s flagging economy and suggested that ZANU-PF, the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations and other political stakeholders form a five-year transitional authority to resolve the conflict in Zimbabwe. Could he have been right?
Patrick Chinamasa, who was in April 2008, ZANU-PF’s chairman of the sub committee on information scoffed at the suggestion saying: “We will have no discussions with Makoni. He is trying to pretend to be a political player. Results do not show that. What is credited to him are votes of MDC (Arthur) Mutambara. To make pretensions that he is a political leader is false.”
But here is the reality, Zimbabwe yesterday formed a government of national unity led by President Mugabe as Head of State while his rival Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as Prime Minister with Mutambara of the smaller faction of the MDC coming in as one of the deputy prime ministers alongside MDC-T’s Thokozani Khupe.
Constitutional lawyer and chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly Lovemore Madhuku said Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn would not survive without Makoni, arguing he embodies the grouping’s identity.
“It’s very unfortunate that such a thing had to happen,” Madhuku said. “Makoni is the identity of that group and I do not see how it is going to survive without him. Initially, I thought it (Makoni’s recall) was a joke, but it seems those against him are shooting themselves in the foot. Without Makoni, that project will not survive. It will lose its political relevance and fail to become a force to reckon with in the political arena. So I think they need to think seriously about the consequences of some of these actions.”
Madhuku added that the move, however, dented Makoni’s political ambitions. “If his inner circle cannot trust him, then it is going to be very difficult for him to become a serious political contender,” he said. “His relevance was used up in the presidential election last March and all he needed to do was keep his grouping intact and become a third political force in the country following the MDC’s decision to form a unity government with ZANU-PF.”
Another political commentator who preferred to remain anonymous said: “The movement has never really been substantive. It’s just been a rag-tag team put together and now they are trying to find their own identity. Makoni has never been elected from grassroots politics so he has never really been in touch although he commands a lot of respect from the business community.
“But this sad development does nothing to ensure that even the inclusive government is kept on its toes and accountable. For all you know they (ZANU-PF and MDC) could work in cahoots knowing fully well that there is no referee. So the squabbles in Mavambo do not bring any freshness to the political playing field,” the commentator said, adding: “Makoni is credible and so is Dabengwa and without them I don’t see this project working. Their survival now depends on who they elect as their leader. Maybe an unknown, because the current crop will not attract any meaningful crowd on its own.”