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MDC leaders 'out of harm's way'
22/04/2008 13:23 - (SA)
Harare - As Zimbabwe sweats on the result of last month's presidential election, awkward questions are being asked of the opposition leadership's decision to stay abroad and out of harm's way.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai had been out of the country more than two weeks since he proclaimed himself victor over Robert Mugabe in the March 29 poll, while the party's number two, secretary-general Tendai Biti, also appeared in no mood to head back home.
With both men facing the very real danger of arrest for treason if they step foot back on Zimbabwean soil, any reluctance on their behalf was perhaps understandable.
But observers said the strategy had helped create a dangerous vacuum as the MDC tried to co-ordinate its response while awaiting the final results.
Poor, counter-productive strategy
Scholar and labour activist Takavafira Zhou said: "The absence of the country's top leadership is creating a gulf between the leadership and the general membership who voted for the party."
"The general membership are unaware of the party's way forward. If it's a strategy, it's a poor, counter-productive strategy, whatever the rationale behind it," added Eldred Masunungure, a University of Zimbabwe political studies lecturer.
"The ruling party is going to have field day. That is going to be costly in terms of maintaining and building on its (MDC) support base."
Having twice been charged with treason and endured a series of assaults at the hands of Mugabe's security services, there is little doubting Tsvangirai's courage.
But it was not the first time his political acumen had been questioned.
Lack of leadership
A row over whether to contest elections to Zimbabwe's largely ceremonial upper house of parliament, the senate, led to nearly half the party's parliamentarians splitting from Tsvangirai and forming a breakaway faction in 2005.
More recently, he had been accused of showing a lack of leadership by failing to take part in protests organised by the trade unions, which were crushed at the outset by the security services.
Although he restored much of his credibility when he sustained serious head injuries in March 2007 as he tried to spearhead a "prayer rally", his latest absence had reawakened criticisms he was reluctant to push things to he limit.
Zhou said: "There is very little he has done to galvanise internal support. People are frustrated, people want action. It's like having a loaded gun, but with no trigger."
Zimbabwe's government last week accused Tsvangirai of treason by plotting with former colonial power Britain to oust veteran President Robert Mugabe.
After the last presidential elections, which he narrowly lost in 2002, Tsvangirai was tried for treason before being later acquitted.
Fears of fresh treason charges might be there, but his party said one of the greatest concern was possibility of attempts on his life.
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