Tofa, The Bible and the Quest for Democracy and Democratization in AfricaThe Movement for Democratic Change and the Land Reform
Programme
The Movement for Democratic Change was formed in 1999 under the
leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai. Like the Movement for Multi-party
Democracy in Zambia, the MDC was formed out of the labor movement,
viz. the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The ZCTU has
been critical of ZANU PF especially following the adoption of the IMF-
World Bank sponsored Structural Adjustment Programmes in 1991.
As a result of the adoption of economically lethal policies (such as the
granting of $50 000 per individual war veteran as compensation in 1997
and Zimbabwe’s involvement in the DRC war in 1998), Zimbabwe be-
gan to experience daunting economic problems beginning the late
1980s. The period was characterized by galloping inflation, critical short-
age of foreign currency, poor housing, shortage of basic commodities,
and rampant corruption. All of these problems resulted in the inordinate
impoverishment of workers in particular and the population in general.
The MDC proved to be a strong and organized political party with the
capacity to wrestle power from ZANU PF. Since its formation, it was
criticized as “puppet party” which seeks to reverse the gains of inde-
pendence. The seating president got this impression because the whites
openly supported and financed the MDC. Initially, the MDC got much of
its support from the urban population. It contested the 2000 elections,
the first hotly contested ones in post-independence Zimbabwe and on
realizing that the MDC threat was really credible, the ruling party
unleashed terror of the worst sort^8.
The country witnessed the extensive use of state security agents in order
to ward off the MDC threat. In the 2000 elections the MDC won 56 of
the 120 contested seats^9. The MDC fared quite well especially consider-
ing that it was still a budding political party. Had it not been of rampant
electoral malpractices, chances that the incumbent party was going to
lose elections were great and the subsequent elections were character-
ized with unprecedented levels of political violence against supporters of
opposition political parties. The MDC was labeled as a party of “sell-
(^8) See Amandah Nerwande “Mugabe Steps up Violence,” The Independent, March 07,
2000, Editorial Section. Wongai Zhangazha “ZANU PF Unleashes Unprecedented
Violence,” The Standard, February 20, 2000, Main Paper Section
(^9) See Tatenda Makaru “MDC is a Credible Opposition Party,” The Standard, September
10, 2000, Main Paper Section