By Lance Guma

04 August 2006

Reports that opposition parties in Zimbabwe will unite to form a rainbow coalition similar to the one that ousted former Kenyan leader Daniel Arap Moi have been dismissed as untrue. Nelson Chamisa a spokesman for the Tsvangirai MDC says they have made no such undertaking to form a New Patriotic Front (NPF) and that the format would not work in Zimbabwe. He says although they are committed to working with the other groups as discussed during the Save Zimbabwe Convention organised by the Christian Alliance last week, there was no way they would join a new grouping.

He says they have spent over 6 years building the MDC brand and people know what they stand for. All these groups Chamisa says, have different constituencies and different interests and combining them would be problematic. Press reports suggested that a founding memorandum of understanding for the arrangement is to be signed on the 30 th September but the former student leader dismissed the story as mischievous. A report in the weekly Zimbabwe Independent said the NPF will ‘ include political parties, civil organisations, trade unions, consumer groups, ex-combatants, women, churches, students and individuals, and is expected to hold its inaugural convention in December after Zanu PF’s annual conference, to prepare for the 2008 presidential poll if it comes.’

A meeting between Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara who heads the other MDC faction fuelled speculation the two could finally work together. Although Chamisa did not dismiss this possibility he remained adamant it was the forming of a new political party that was highly unlikely. Welshman Ncube the Secretary General in Mutambara’s MDC told the Zimbabwe Independent that Mutambara’s meeting with Tsvangirai should not be construed to mean he wants to join the other camp. Several activists are excited at the prospect of uniting the democratic forces in Zimbabwe to fight Mugabe, it is how they combine that will prove central as all of them will want to protect their political space.- SW Radio Africa.