UK silence presents problems for the MDC

PRESIDENT Mugabe has always maintained that he was not fighting MDC-T but the British; that the opposition party in Zimbabwe was a creation of the former colonial master; and that without their creators and funders, this party would not exist.

The events of the last seven days appear to have proved him right. Here is why. Last Saturday evening, Sky News and all the rest were reporting repeatedly that the meeting of MDC-T in Harare, chaired that day by the Vice President, Mrs Khupe, had been inconclusive in its deliberations. The purpose of the meeting, we were told, had been to decide whether or not the party would take part in the presidential run-off elections. But no decision had been taken.

This seemed strange. This was a simple enough decision to make, much simpler than putting the election result "beyond any shadow of doubt" as Biti, the secretary general would have us believe. But it was not that simple and the news media would not tell us why.

And if we needed to understand why there was no decision, we would be well advised not to look for the explanation of the failure to reach a decision to the British, the host nation, the sponsor, the strategists and above all the funders.

It would appear the MDC-T cannot make substantial decision without the authorisation of the British. The party rhetoric may give the impression that they will not participate in the run-off but observers see this as a way of buying time until a decision is made in London. The British are funding their programme and as I reported last week, he who pays the piper calls the tune. Informed sources say the meeting Mrs Khupe chaired could not reach a decision because an instruction that was expected from London did not arrive.

This is understandable because, with the London mayoral and local government elections in the UK, ministers were tied up to their eye balls. It is one thing if you are winning the elections. It is quite a different matter if you are losing as badly as this Labour Government did.

Labour's London Mayor Ken Livingstone lost the election convincingly to Conservative Boris Johnson. Poor Ken. He is a fine chap but the tide has turned against Labour, especially since Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair.

But that is not all. In the local elections, Labour lost even more dramatically. It came third to Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in terms of the national share of the vote, plummeting to only 24 percent, even lower than during the depth of Tony Blair's woes brought about by his adventures in the Iraq war when the party garnered 26 percent of the vote. Gordon Brown was heralded as the man who would turn things round and spearhead New Labour's recovery. But we saw how he dithered about calling an election. We have seen how some of his tax policies as Chancellor have turned out to be so unpopular with the voters because they hurt the poor.

Now the electorate had its say last week. Gordon Brown was given a drubbing that left the party in government stunned. Ministers had a huge task of explaining to the British electorate what went wrong and Zimbabwe's MDC-T had receded way down the priority list.

British ministers are understandably fighting for the future of the Labour Government. Foreign projects in support of the benighted heathens in Zimbabwe have to take their place in a long list of priorities and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary could not get to the meeting that would have given the MDC-T meeting a steer they needed on to how to proceed.

The importance of this meeting could not be underestimated. It was not only supposed to give direction as to what the MDC should do, it was also important for financial reasons.

The MDC-T depends on the British financially. Informed sources say a decision to participate in the run-off could not be made without the authority of the British Government since they would have to fund the MDC-T campaign as they did the campaign for harmonised elections at the end of March.

And there is the other problem. Sources say the Ministry of Defence is hopping mad about alleged misappropriation of funds within the ranks of the MDC-T. They say the MDC-T were given funds to campaign very hard not just for a win but for a victory that would ensure there was "no shadow of doubt" as to who had won. Sources say it is the MOD that is funding the project although the Foreign Office has a strategic lead role.

The MOD is said to be dismayed with allegations that some of the funds that should have been used to campaign for an MDC-T victory were used to buy properties in South Africa and neighbouring countries. The MOD is said to have launched an investigation to get to the bottom of this. A team of investigators has gone out to find out if the allegations are true. They are looking for property exchange details, properties bought by individuals as well as personal bank accounts. If the allegations turn out to be true that their surrogates have been spending British tax payers' money like confetti, enriching themselves in neighbouring countries rather than working with the suffering masses of Zimbabwe, this would be a huge embarrassment for the British.

And while they are so intricately involved in the politics of Zimbabwe in such a partisan way, it is difficult for them to refute President Mugabe's contention that it is the British that he is fighting for bringing about the country's problems.

It is difficult for them to explain also why, if it is not their wish to fight for their kith and kin in the battle for the land in Zimbabwe, they have not left Zimbabweans to deal with their own problems!