In September 1999, Zimbabwe witnessed the birth of the strongest opposition political party since the swallowing of PF ZAPU by the ruling ZANU in 1987.
The Morgan Tsvangirai led Movement For Democratic Change (MDC) became the strongest opposition to the Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF from its launch in September of 1999, nearly defeating the ruling party at the 2000 parliamentary elections where the new party won 57 of the then 120 house of assembly seats.
The rise of the MDC brought the strongest competition to ZANU PF and Tsvangirai as MDC leader presented former President Robert Mugabe with his strongest challenge in over a decade.
The Mugabe led ZANU PF regime later unleashed a reign of terror on opposition members which saw the politically motivated killings of many MDC activists including Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya, who were Tsvangirai’s personal aides.
However, Six years after its formation, the MDC was rocked by divisions which led to an acrimonious split that resulted in two formations emerging, the MDC T led by Tsvangirai and MDC M led by Arthur Mutambara. The latter formation later became MDC N, as Secretary General Welshman Ncube took over leadership.
The MDC T went on to win the March 2008 general elections, with a slim majority of 99 seats in the house of Assembly, while the smaller MDC M only managed 10 seats.
Tsvangirai won 47% of the Presidential vote while the incumbent Robert Mugabe got 44%.
This meant that for the first time in the country’s history an opposition had beaten the ruling party.
The MDC M did not field a candidate in the presidential poll but opted to support Dr Simba Makoni who was running as an Independent candidate after a shock exit from the ruling ZANU PF.
The inconclusive result led to the formation of a Government Of National Unity that included the ruling ZANU PF and the two MDC formations. This coalition Government ran the country from 2009-2013.
Stability in the Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC T camp proved to be a mirage as in 2014, the party split again with Secretary General Tendai Biti leading a breakaway formation that was known as MDC Renewal. Biti’s party later rebranded to People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
In 2017 an ailing Morgan Tsvangirai called all his former comrades to reignite their political romance and form an Alliance that would face the ruling ZANU PF at the 2018 plebiscite. The veteran opposition leader and Trade Unionist was however unable to see this Alliance as he died before it was consummated.
Tsvangirai’s dream however came to fruition as the MDCT, MDC N, MDC99 and the PDP came together with a few other smaller parties to form the MDC Alliance.
The MDC Alliance elected Nelson Chamisa as its leader and he went on to garner a very respectable 2.14 million votes, coming a close second to ZANU PF Emmerson Mnangagwa who polled 2.46 million votes.
The MDC Alliance also proved not to be immune to the split culture, as in the 2018 harmonized elections Tsvangirai’s former deputy Dr Thokozani Khupe ran in the polls under the MDC T banner, getting a measly 45 000 votes.
The power wrangles between MDC formations raged on even after the elections until the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that Chamisa was not the legitimate leader of the MDC T, which he had used as the backbone of his leadership of the MDC Alliance.
The Alliance’s agreement was that the leader of the MDC T would be it’s leader and candidate in the elections for the period that the alliance subsisted.
Khupe assumed leadership of the MDC T after the court ruling while Chamisa stayed on as MDC Alliance leader. The MDC Alliance eventually rebranded to the Citizens Coalition For Change (CCC).
The newly born CCC went on to win 19 seats and tens of local government seats in the March 26 2022 by-elections that were a result of Khupe recalling MDC Alliance legislators and Councilors who refused to acknowledge her leadership.
The CCC is now the country’s main opposition party.
The MDC experienced another split as Khupe and her Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora fell out and fought bitterly for the control of the party. Mwonzora eventually overpowered Khupe, winning the leadership race at a contentious extra ordinary congress.
Dr Khupe later announced a split of the MDC, claiming to be the legitimate leader and pouring scorn at the congress whose result she said was illegitimate. She later dumped the party to join the Chamisa led CCC.
Douglas Mwonzora’s controversial assumption of power in the MDC did not end the party’s “split culture” as former Vice President and senior party leader Engineer Elias Mudzuri announced another split, claiming he was now in charge of the party and Mwonzora has been fired. Mwonzora’s faction responded by announcing the firing of Mudzuri and his recall from Parliament where he was Senator for Warren Park.
There was yet another split as former party Chairperson Morgan Komichi announced the “firing” of Mwonzora and the launch of the United MDC, which he claimed was the restoration of the original MDC.
Komichi also announced that he would be the interim leader of the party, adding that all MDC business would be under his control.
Komichi said Mwonzora had failed, adding that he was the most hated leader in the country.