The party congress of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)'s, an electoral exercise whose main purpose was to reinvigorate the party in preparation for the 2018 elections, has come and gone. Much of what happened was conveyed by the headlines in local newspapers; 'Tsvangirai emerges weaker from the Congress,' 'Without Unity, MDC is fighting a hopeless cause', and 'Did the MDC-T Congress enhance 2018 electoral chances?'. Often, a sad, dithering photo of Morgan Tsvangirai, the party leader, accompanied such headlines, completing the media's suggestion that the opposition group is a cause that continues to retreat. As the MDC's congenital failure, Tsvangirai's retention as leader has not gone down well with some sections of the party's traditional support. Indeed, following an emphatic thumping by ZANU-PF in the July 2013 elections, many thought that the leadership problem had become so serious that the opposition group needed a replacement if the party was to successfully rejuvenate itself. The most touted party apparatchik to succeed Tsvangirai was the youthful and charismatic Nelson Chamisa, who until the congress at the end of October, was the MDC's Organising Secretary. A scion of the student movement that shook Zimbabwe's political establishment in the late 1990s, party enthusiasts expected him, [...]
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