When Theresa Makone took over as treasurer of the Movement for Democratic Change, after its split in early 2014, she says the party had only $53 in its account. It was not clear whether the party had more money than that before the split or not.
The treasurer-general Roy Bennett, his deputy Elton Mangoma and the secretary general, Tendai Biti, who knew about the party finances, had all left because they wanted a leadership renewal within the party. Party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, they argued had to go because he had failed for the third time to unseat Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front leader Robert Mugabe.
Makone had every reason to be shocked because only three years earlier, on 26 July 2011, Roy Bennett had registered two charitable organisations in Washington DC, to raise funds for the party to contest elections which at the time it was thought might be held in 2012.
Bennett had registered the Global Alliance for Zimbabwe and the Global Alliance for Zimbabwe Foundation.
According to the organisation’s website, which has since been disbanded, the Global Alliance for Zimbabwe was “a worldwide effort to ensure non-violent, fair, and free elections in Zimbabwe”.
“The people of Zimbabwe overwhelmingly voted for a new democratic government in 2008,” it went on. “Robert Mugabe and the ZANU-PF refused to relinquish power and atrocities have continued. New elections are scheduled for 2012. Without international pressure, the will of the people could once again be ignored.
“The Global Alliance for Zimbabwe is working to secure non-violent, fair, and free elections in 2012. The Global Alliance for Zimbabwe Foundation is working alongside to provide much needed humanitarian aid to the people of Zimbabwe. Join us and make a difference.”
It added: “Zimbabwe is a proud nation with much to offer the world — food, minerals, arts, music, industry and leadership. Unfortunately, Mugabe and ZANU-PF’s grip on the people of Zimbabwe will not be easily unlocked…”
The two organisations were launched with a lot of fanfare but the elections were not held in 2012 as predicted. They were held a year later, but the MDC ran a poorly funded elections campaign. It was so much unlike the 2008 elections where the party roared with its Morgan is More campaign which even included a mobile bus.
Historian, Blessing-Miles Tendi wrote in The Guardian in 2013 that one of the reasons why the MDC-T lost the elections was that the West had abandoned the party and its campaign was poorly financed.
“A largely unstated factor so far in debates about how ZANU-PF won this election is that for the first time in years the MDC-T ran a less effective campaign because of financial constraints. As MDC-T insiders have revealed to me, the party’s traditional Western backers were not as forthcoming with financial support as they were in 2008,” he wrote.
“During the campaigns Tsvangirai publicly criticised the West for giving up on removing Mugabe from power in preference for eventual accommodation with the Zimbabwean president. The West has been unequivocal in its public condemnation of ZANU-PF’s victory but in the coming weeks it must answer hard questions about why it abandoned the MDC-T financially prior the election.”
The questions that were not answered were: Did the Global Alliance for Zimbabwe raise any money for the elections? If it did what happened to the money?
Makone did not have a clue and was prepared to pay anyone who could find out. But what was even more surprising was that party leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he did not know about the organisations.
“We have not been aware of the setting up of the two organisations. If they were set up in the name of the party, the party President was never made aware of it. For more information on the two Foundations, we refer all questions to the former treasurer-general of the party who may have the information,” Tsvangirai’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said.
Bennett has so far refused to answer any questions about the organisation. He promised to come back almost a year ago but has never done so.
Who then was behind the two organisations?-Insider
