A MAN who claims he coined the name Movement for Democratic Change in 1999 wants those using that designation to pay him US$330 000 for his contribution.
Mr David Muzhuzha, who was at the time a journalist and Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions employee, said those using the name had made a lot of money out of it while his contribution has never been acknowledged.
Mr Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T has dismissed the claim as “heretical”, while Professor Arthur Mutambara’s party is yet to respond to the claim.
In a letter to MDC-T secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti on 19 July, Mr Muzhuzha — through his lawyer Mr Joel Mambara — said: “Despite the party’s rich pickings over the years, our client’s contribution towards its name has remained largely unrecognised.
“David Muzhuzha has nothing to show that he is indeed a member of the Movement for Democratic Change, and more importantly that he christened the party.”
Mr Muzhuzha says he wants US$30 000 for every year that the name MDC has been in use since 1999, giving a total of US$330 000.
MDC-T responded acerbically through its director-general, Mr Tondepi Shonhe, on 29 July this year.
“David Muzhuzha did not coin the name Movement for Democratic Change nor was he in any manner involved in the formation of the MDC,” he wrote to lawyer Mr Mambara.
“The statement ‘our client’s ingenious and historic contribution to your party’s establishment and sustenance’, is self-serving mendacious glorification that is . . . insulting, unbalanced and heretical.”
Mr Shonhe went on: “From a legal standpoint, the basis of your client’s claim is totally non-existent under both public and private law; a fact that should be self-evident to any self-respecting lawyer, unless that lawyer is driven by other nefarious motives.
“In short, the claim as currently formulated is so grossly unreasonable that no half-lawyer properly applying his mind would have brought himself to bring the same.”
That letter touched a raw nerve with the lawyers, and Mr Mambara wrote back on 4 August saying: “With all due respect, your letter is an insult of the worst kind.
“We did not expect such a base response from such an esteemed office.
“We are simply our client’s mouthpiece, and did not deserve the heap of insults you levied on our selves.”
MDC-T is yet to respond.
Mr Muzhuzha points to an article that appeared in a ZCTU publication, Raw Deal, in early 2000 — when he was editor of The Worker newspaper — in which he is credited for coining the name MDC.
“That this process commencing from the post-convention meeting be known as the Movement for Democratic Change . . . thanks to David Muzhuzha, the editor of The Worker, who proposed this name.”
Mr Muzhuzha says since then those using the name have not done anything to acknowledge him while they have used “MDC” to make millions of dollars and buy properties both inside and outside Zimbabwe.
In an interview on Wednesday he said: “Those in the know are aware that I coined that name at the Women’s Bureau Centre in Eastlea in 1999.
“For some queer reasons some people are trying to rewrite that fact and history.”
Asked if he was not just being greedy, he said: “It’s not as much about the money as the recognition.
“What really pains is the response that I got from Shonhe. I am sure Zanu-PF would not have responded with such language had someone asked them for recognition for contributing to their party.”
A senior MDC-T official yesterday said: “Why does he want so much money?
“If it is true that he came up with the name, is he suggesting that he did so because he wanted glory?”
Presented with this question Mr Muzhuzha replied: “People have made themselves fortunes using MDC.
“Just the mere mention of MDC in some corridors results in purse strings being loosened.
“How then can I be the one being called greedy?”
An official from the MDC secretariat headed by Prof Welshman Ncube, yesterday said: “We saw Mr Muzhuzha’s letter and we will respond in due course as per the instructions of our legal department.”

By The Chronicle