Mutasa airlifted to India
P
2 - 23 March 2014 - The Observer
KODZEVU SITHOLE
residential Affairs minister
Didymus
Mutasa,
who is seriously
ill, has been
rushed to India for
treatment.
He
left last week on
Sunday.
While
his ailment is
not known, it
is suspected he
could be suffering
from high blood
pressure.
“Mutasa
might not recover
[sufficiently]
to
become
active
in
politics again,” said an
official in the Zanu PF
party’s
administration,
pointing out that it was
not President Robert
M u g a b e ’s
habit to
retire ¬ailing comrades.
Late vice-presidents Joshua
Nkomo, Simon Muzenda and
John Nkomo all died in
office.
Mutasa joins a
growing list of
Zimbabweans
opting to have
specialist
treatment in
India because
it is cheaper
compared to
local charges.
Indian
Embassy
first secretary
Rakshpaul
Malhotra recently
told the media that
between five
and six local
patients travel to India for surgery and a wide
variety of other treatments every month.
“Although the figure is not high,
Zimbabweans and other foreigners are
seeking treatment in India,” he said.
“Every month, an average of five or six
people apply for medical visas to travel to
India to seek treatment.” Malhotra said people
sought treatment in India because hospitals
there offered cheap, but high quality medical
services.
News of Mutasa’s illness was revealed in
Parliament by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs minister Emmerson Mnangagwa
recently. During a question and answer
session in the National Assembly, Mnangagwa
disclosed the illness after MDC-T Chief Whip
Innocent Gonese complained that there were
issues Minister Mutasa had not responded to
on the Order Paper since December 2013.
“The Honourable Minister of State for
Presidential Affairs is indisposed and the
need to answer questions here is a matter
uppermost in his mind when he becomes
well,” said Mnangagwa.
Mutasa’s illness has reportedly thrown wide
the ruling Zanu-PF party’s succession battle.
Mutasa’s failing health would prevent him
from actively pursuing promotion at the
party’s elective congress, which is expected
this year.
Mutasa had aligned himself to a faction
led by Vice-President Joice Mujuru, who is
angling to succeed Mugabe.
Malhotra told the media that patients
from developed countries such as the United
Kingdom and the United States were also
seeking treatment from India.
Some medical aid societies are also
deliberately referring patients to India because
they find it cheaper.
“If you add the costs of airfare,
accommodation and food, it will still be
cheaper than to have the same operation done
locally,” an official from one of the medical
aid societies said.
According to EzineArticle.com, as many
as 200 000 medical tourists went to India last
year.
The Indian government predicts that the
country’s US$17 billion a year health-care
industry could grow by 13 percent in each of
the next six years.■
Tsvangirai battles the elites
T
BARNABAS THONDHLANA
he battle of the elites
is behind the troubles
that currently face the
MDC-T, it has emerged.
Party leader Morgan Tsvangirai
has reportedly lost the battle – the
elite battle that is – resulting in a
faction in his party plotting his
ouster.
The Observer can exclusively reveal
that the military elite does not have
confidence in Tsvangirai. While they
question his credentials as a leader,
the military is on record as stating
that they would not salute anyone
who did not have any history in the
revolution.
Zimbabwe’s liberation war,
waged in the ‘70s, led to the country
gaining its independence from
Britain in 1980.
Troubled MDC-T secretary
general Tendai Biti recently said
there was need to come up with a
party that recognises the role the
liberation struggle played in bringing
the freedom that the country enjoys
today.
“This is Biti’s way of endearing
himself to the military elite, whose
role on who can rule the country
in the future is crucial,” said one
political analyst who requested not
to be named.
The intellectual elite is the
second which has found Tsvangirai
wanting.
It has always been a bone of
contention that Tsvangirai’s lack
of higher educational qualifications
was a bane around his neck.
His humble history, rising from
the backwaters of nowhere to
become the first person to pose
a threat to President Mugabe,
made him a darling of millions in
Zimbabwe and the western world.
But the intellectual shortcomings
have been blamed for his lack
of decisiveness. At one point
party treasurer Roy Bennett said
Tsvangirai usually took the advice
of the last person he talked to,
regardless of how valid earlier
arguments had been.
The ruling Zanu PF party has
long taken pot shots at Tsvangirai,
calling him a flip-flopper for his
conflicting chameleonic changes in
decisions. In 2005 when Welshman
Ncube split from the party, there
had been moves to try and suspend
Tsvangirai.
The original MDC, formed by
Tsvangirai and trade union allies as
well as civil society activists, split
in 2005, when founding secretary
general Ncube – himself an
interlectual of note - led a revolt
against the party leader over a
disputed national council vote on
senate elections. Ncube does not
think much of Tsvangirai’s interlect.
Although the national council
had voted for participation in the
senate elections in November that
year, Tsvangirai defied the outcome
and claimed he had the final say
on the matter, leading to serious
confrontations and, eventually, a
split.
However, before Ncube and
his faction left they had tried to
oust Tsvangirai by suspending
him, together with the late MDC
chairperson Isaac Matongo.
Tsvangirai’s faction retaliated
by claiming to have suspended
Ncube, the late deputy leader
Gibson Sibanda, senior official Gift
Chimanikire and others who had
clashed with Tsvangirai.
The business elite has voted
with its feet where standing with
Tsvangirai is concerned. While in
its early years the MDC received
massive funding from corporates,
including banks, these executives
have turned their backs on him.
Companies used to fall all over
themselves to fund the party,
hoping it would bring the necessary
challenge and change in political
power that the country - and industry
in particular - so desperately needed.
But today, Tsvangirai cuts a
lonely figure with no funding.
This has resulted in him calling
on the rank and file in his party to
fund party operations.
The
elite
multi-national
corporates elite has also turned
its back on the party and its
president. Tsvangirai’s numerous
trips to regional countries and
internationally were funded by
multi-national companies some of
whom felt threatened by Zanu PF’s
growing calls for indigenisation
laws.
Now that their favourite horse
has sadly failed to win the race, the
elite multi-national corporations are
looking elsewhere for a better horse
to bet on.
And the diplomatic community,
that elite grouping of bucksed up
westerners, has thrown in the towel.
After three attempts at unseating
incumbent Mugabe, the elite
community is withdrawing into its
shell and restrategising.
The EU block has lost a lot of
ground – and money – by being
on the sidelines of the resourcerich Zimbabwe. Instead, China
gleefully jumped in and reaped all
the benefits.
Without committing itself to
funding Zimbabwe’s budgetary
needs, China has been looting
anything and everything it lays its
eyes on. From diamonds, to chrome,
to gold, to construction projects,
to liquid gas, to the greenback; the
Chinese are smiling all the way to
Pyongyang and back.
The west now wants a piece
of the cake – and they are now
prepared to deal with Mugabe and
develop their flailing economies.
Back home, the faction keen to
see leadership renewal in the party,
allegedly led by Biti, has come up
with a two-pronged approach to
seize power.
Suspended deputy treasurer
Elton Mangoma, whose cardinal sin
was to ask Tsvangirai to step down,
Mangoma’s lawyer, has challenged
his expulsion in court.
Mangoma’s
lawyer,
Jacob
Mafume, himself an MDC member
aligned to Biti, is behind the court
application to challenge Mangoma’s
suspension. The papers are expected
to be filed this week.
“Once we do that, we then move
to suspend Tsvangirai and then the
real fight begins,” one Biti-aligned
senior official said.
“We are keeping all options
open …our plan A is to get rid of
Tsvangirai and seize control of the
party. Our plan B is to break away
and form a new movement based
on the original MDC founding
values, which include democracy,
human rights, transparency and
accountability.”
Since the Mangoma issue
exploded, Biti has boycotted
Tsvangirai’s meetings and MDC
officials have been insulting
each other on social media, with
Facebook becoming a battleground
of choice.
In an interview this week,
Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, Luke
Tamborinyoka, said the leader’s
rallies were not a response to the
dissent, but rather an exercise the
party has been carrying out since
last September.
On the issue of Mangoma
and Biti boycotting the rallies,
Tamborinyoka said Tsvangirai does
not send special invitations to party
leaders as they all know when the
rallies take place.
Tamborinyoka
added
that
Mangoma had been suspended
by the national council and not by
Tsvangirai.
“[The national council] is a body
of over 200 people. Tsvangirai
did not utter a single word at that
meeting, but the provinces were
unanimous in their decision. He
[Tsvangirai] has no power to
suspend anyone.
“The issue of Mangoma is not
about Tsvangirai, but it is an issue
between Mangoma and the party.”
Biti and his group are said to
be moving behind the scenes to
outmanoeuvre Tsvangirai. They
are allegedly addressing private
meetings and mobilising structures.
They also reportedly have the
support of Western donors who
have abandoned Tsvangirai.■