Back to the wilderness

ZIMBABWE’s MDC party, shocked by its overwhelming election defeat, has a battle on its hands to convince supporters it has any chance of taking power in the years to come.

The Movement for Democratic Change’s survival may depend on a shakeup of its leadership, which many say was naive in entering a four-year unity government with Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF after a decade of acrimony and conflict.

State media are already sounding the death knell for the party led by former trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai, who since 1999 has been the only man to have offered serious opposition to Zanu-PF — until his hammering in the Jul 31 polls.