MDC faces acid test

For Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), little has changed in Zimbabwe's politics after its three-year-old spell in the unity government with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

Several MDC rallies were banned last year, its supporters beaten up by Zanu-PF's youth militia and its key ministers arrested on trumped-up charges. This week, police raided its Harvest House headquarters in retaliation for the beating up of an officer by vendors, in the first sign of an inflamed political environment ahead of new elections.

The prospect of an election this year to end the current union, although titillating, also remains a very difficult choice for the opposition to make as the reforms needed to ensure "free and fair" elections have not been implemented.

And as the new year sets in, Tsvangirai's MDC-T finds itself at the crossroads - faced with a choice to either hold on or to join in on Zanu-PF's call for elections and break away from the unity government.

This week we look at the MDC-T's five power brokers who will influence the direction the party will take, as it is faced with the Herculean task of going into an election when the political odds are visibly staked up against it .

MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, PRESIDENT

This will be the third time Tsvangirai will be standing against arch-rival Mugabe in an election, after face-offs in 2002 and 2008. Tsvangirai's slim victory against Mugabe in the March 2008 presidential poll, is negligible in the prevailing political environment. And unlike in 2008, when Tsvangirai was the clear favourite to win, he now faces a grilling in the court of public opinion and is under scrutiny over his support of gay rights and issues around his personal love life.

The MDC strongman will need to avoid courting new controversies this year, while he continues to press Zanu-PF to fulfil the outstanding terms of the Southern African Development Community-brokered unity government.

TENDAI BITI, SECRETARY-GENERAL

Biti has never hidden his opposition to the decision by the MDC-T to join the unity government. As finance minister, he has kept a hawk's eye on Zanu-PF's manoeuvres to apportion blame for the slow economic recovery on the MDC, while it credits itself with the marginal economic successes.

This year, he faces numerous battles, chief among them a "parallel government" funded by Marange's diamonds that threatens to overshadow his policies and overstep Treasury.

Revenue remittance from the Marange diamonds will be a top concern as he tries to rein in the diamond companies - virtually a preserve of Zanu-PF and the military.

Trevor Maisiri, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group said: "Part of Biti's projected income stream in the national budget is from diamond revenues. I suspect his ministry will take more interest in ensuring that they trace and account for diamond sales - so there are more eyes watching and more hands involved in Marange than ever before."

Biti will also need to be vocal and be the go-between for Saviour Kasukuwere and Zanu-PF's belligerent stance against foreign-owned firms in the form of the indigenisation campaign. Foreign investors may perceive Biti's silence as tacit agreement with the controversial law and this could prejudice the MDC-T's international support.

DOUGLAS MWONZORA, NATIONAL SPOKESMAN

Mwonzora is certain to take a front-row seat in the MDC-T as attention shifts to the ongoing constitution-making process. As a co-chairman of the constitutional parliamentary committee, he has so far acquitted himself well as the MDC-T's eyes and ears on the drafting of a new constitution, which is expected to be completed next month.

As the new constitution will be the basis of rule for the next government, his task will be to resist and expose Zanu-PF manoeuvres to "smuggle" in points of view favourable to it.

Mwonzora has assumed a vigilant stance on the constitution-making exercise, castigating Zanu-PF for attempts to influence drafters.

NELSON CHAMISA, NATIONAL ORGANISING SECRETARY

Rated the country's "minister of the year" by the Daily News, Chamisa is a high-flyer whose energy and vigilance the MDC needs as it sets out to mount a vigorous election campaign.

He is said to be the brains behind moves in the party to re-brand itself - complete with a new logo and colours to woo voters and differentiate itself from the rival MDC groups. Given the blunders made by its leadership, a make-over may go a long way in revitalising support for the party, criticised for having become "acerbic and an extension of Zanu-PF".

Chamisa's task will involve launching election campaigns and going into traditional Zanu-PF strongholds.

LUCIA MATIBENGA, PUBLIC SERVICES MINISTER

Matibenga is new in her post, following the death of Eliphas Mukonoweshuro last year. Yet, she has already been thrown into the deep end by threats of a nationwide civil servants strike.

How she handles the contentious salary squabbles by unarguably the country's largest workforce, will be a litmus test for the MDC-T.