The 

Movement for Democratic Change was founded in 1999 as an opposition party to the Zimbabwe

African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party led by President Robert Mugabe. The MDC
was formed from members of the broad coalition of civic society groups and individuals that
campaigned for a "No" vote in the 2000 constitutional referendum, in particular the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions. The party split following the 2005 Senate election, with the main faction
headed by founder Morgan Tsvangirai and the other formation headed by Arthur Mutambara. At
the 2006 congress, Thokozani Khuphe was elected for Vice President replacing Gibson Sibanda who
was now part of MDC-M.

The two factions subsequently won a combined majority in the March 2008 parliamentary election.

The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) is a Zimbabwean political

party that was the ruling government in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, led by Robert
Mugabe, first as Prime Minister with the party simply known as ZANU, and then as President from
1988 after taking over ZAPU and retaining the name ZANU-PF. In the 2008 parliamentary election the
ZANU-PF lost sole control of parliament for the second time in party history.
Officially, ZANU-PF is socialist in ideology, and is modeled on communist parties in other countries.
The party maintains a politburo. However, the party had abandoned much of the egalitarian aspects
associated with conventional Communist Party practice, instead choosing to pursue a mixed
economy. But Mugabe has since pursued a more populist approach on the issue of land
redistribution: encouraging seizure of large farms—usually owned by members of the white minority
—"for the benefit of landless black peasants." Nevertheless, critics of this policy argue that it is to
maintain his grip on power as supporters of his government directly benefit from their personal gains
of land redistribution far more than the landless population. And now He is talking about “Economic
Empowerment” for the benefit of Zimbabwean nationals where foreign nationals own 49% and locals
51% in any given company operating legally in Zimbabwe.