THE fight for MDC-T presidency has taken a new turn amid reports of a plot to push out acting party leader Thokozani Khupe from the race because of her close association with President Emmerson Mnangagwa\u2019s Political Actors Dialogue (Polad).<\/p>\n
Khupe\u2019s MDC-T and several other fringe opposition parties are members of the Mnangagwa-initiated platform to resolve the country\u2019s political contestations, but MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has sarcastically dismissed the platform as a \u201cZanu PF choir\u201d.<\/p>\n
Khupe has since threatened to take over Chamisa\u2019s party on the strength of a recent Supreme Court ruling that recognised her as acting party president and ordered the warring factions to revert to the MDC-T structures of 2014.<\/p>\n
But Douglas Mwonzora, who assumed the post of MDC-T secretary-general following the Supreme Court ruling, has reportedly started campaigning for the party presidency against two other contenders, Morgen Komichi and Gift Chimanikire.<\/p>\n
Mwonzora is in charge of organising an extra-ordinary congress (EOC) to choose the MDC-T\u2019s substantive executive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe structures are clear that Khupe can\u2019t be our president because she is too compromised, she is seen as a Zanu PF project and they don\u2019t even want her to remain acting president for three months, they want the EOC to be done faster,\u201d a Mwonzora aide said.\u201cKhupe has never been in the contention for MDC presidency, she was vice at (founding leader) Morgan (Tsvangirai)\u2019s death, that entitled her to act pending EOC.<\/p>\n
But it ended there. She has to be realistic. The moment is not hers,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
Former MDC-T secretary-general Nixon Nyikadzino, who has appointed himself acting party president, said Khupe stood no ground against Mwonzora and Komichi.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has thrown herself to the wolves. They are using her to satisfy their own ends. For instance, Komichi can\u2019t claim to be a constitutionalist now, when he was the one who presided over the elevation of Chamisa to the position of president. She has fired herself from our party and she is going to fall by the wayside in Mwonzora\u2019s MDC, it\u2019s a dog eat dog affair,\u201d Nyikadzino said.<\/p>\n
But Komichi insisted he was well grounded to take over the party leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Gwanda, people are phoning me, in Binga they are also calling me. They are committing themselves to come, they are prepared even to sell their goats and cattle to come and attend this congress.<\/p>\n
They are prepared to come and sleep outside for the sake of this congress. Some people are saying to me \u2018Morgan Tsvangirai has risen from the dead\u2019. They are saying our party is back on track,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Komichi, however, said it was up to the people to elect him into the presidency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is up to God and the people to decide the position they want for me. That question is, therefore, really difficult for me to answer, it is up to the people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Chamisa has ramped up his MDC Alliance party structures to ring-fence his position and those of his allies, with his close confidante Jameson Timba saying they would stop Mwonzora\u2019s machinations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not worried about Mwonzora, he is a small boy. He will be stopped politically. We are looking for solutions that will change the country and not to satisfy a few individuals who are power hungry. This matter will be decided by the people,\u201d Timba said.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Chamisa\u2019s loyalists gathered at the party headquarters in Harare with legislator Johanna Mamombe where they vowed to defend their youthful leader as lawyers brainstormed over a legal solution to the leadership wrangle in the MDC camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE fight for MDC-T presidency has taken a new turn amid reports of a plot to push out acting party leader Thokozani Khupe from the race because of her close association with President Emmerson Mnangagwa\u2019s Political Actors Dialogue (Polad). Khupe\u2019s MDC-T and several other fringe opposition parties are members of the Mnangagwa-initiated platform to resolve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":22467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[615,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-23037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-parties","9":"tag-khupe","10":"tag-tsvangirai"},"yoast_head":"\n