Mr Tsvangirai, you are offside again

Lazarus Sauti

Sir Alex Ferguson once said, “That lad [Filippo Inzaghi] must have been born offside.”

He was responding to the news that Filippo Inzaghi is the most offside player in the history of the game.

In politics, Movement for Democratic Change-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, like Inzaghi must have been born offside. In May 2013, during the launch of the party’s national policy, Tsvangirai threatened media houses that wrote negatively about him and the party. He threatened those media houses with closure should he prevail in the July election.

He was caught in an offside position again when he wrote to all MDC-T members on February 4, 2015 directing them to exit all social media groups they belonged to that have not been approved by his office.

“As the president of the party, I have noticed with dismay the manner in which social media has been abused in pursuit of glorification at the expense of the part. The proliferation of this abuse has reached alarming proportions and cannot be ignored anymore. I, therefore, issue the following order;

“Any WhatsApp group administered by anyone who is an MDC member, without exception be shut down with immediate effect. All members of the party must exit on their own will with immediate effect.

“Any part structure which needs to run a social media group, must access forms from the office of the president. All those who have been found on wrong side must, consider this an official first warning,” said Tsvangirai in a statement.

He is offside because his statement is against the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as well as his party’s position regarding freedom of speech and expression.

Zimbabwe’s new constitution includes articles that aim to protect the rights to expression. Section 61 guarantees freedom of expression as it states that “every person has the right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom to seek, receive and communicate ideas and other information.”

In unison, Article 9 of the ACHPR indicates: “Every individual shall have the right to receive information. Every individual shall have the right to express and disseminate his opinions within the law.”

Article 19 of the UDHR also provides: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

More so, Article 4, part 6 of MDC’s constitution provides: “The MDC firmly believes in freedom of speech, freedom of expression and further, the free circulation of ideas and information within the movement.”

Without doubt, social media groups have amazing power in facilitating interactive communication beyond the boundaries of space and time; therefore, banning such platforms shows that Tsvangirai cannot accept meaningful debate as he is suppressing the circulation of ideas and information within his party.

Maxwell Saungwene, a development analyst, described the move as very medieval. “Banning members of a political party from participating in social media is “Stone Age”-like and very medieval. It is just not expected,” Saungwene explained.

Sharing same sentiments, Nhlanhla Ngwenya of Misa-Zimabwe, said: “We thought he (Tsvangirai) would embrace freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is not about what he wants, so no matter how unpalatable, he should embrace it. What he should know is that media is not television and newspapers only. As someone who says he speaks on the side of democracy to do that smacks of double standards.”

Further, to borrow the words of Professor Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Information, Broadcasting and Media Services, those who do not use social media in one way or another and those who want to ban their use are doomed.

Tsvangirai is, therefore, doomed.

Someone should quickly advice him that people have the right to seek, obtain, receive and hold information; as a result, instead of banning social media groups, he should utilise them to ensure that party cadres are able to publicise and circulate information as well as criticise the failure of the party.

Maybe Tsvangirai is so desperate and scared of his own shadow because his orders follow reports that there is a group of disgruntled party members who are lobbying through social media groups for the party to hold another congress in 2016 in line with original plans.

Party members claimed they were not happy with some of the constitutional amendments adopted at the congress, especially the decision to give Tsvangirai wide executive powers to run the party.

Whatever the case, Tsvangirai must not stifle internal debate. In fact, he should exploit social media platforms to speak with the party faithful as well as to defend free speech within his own party.

His offside position, however, triggered this question, “If Tsvangirai cannot defend free speech in his own party, can he defend is at national as well as regional level?”