Chiredzi: MDC deputy national chair Tendai Biti has vowed his allegiance to party leader Nelson Chamisa whom he says was tasked by late founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai to finish the job of reuniting the party\u2019s breakaway factions.<\/p>\n
Biti was addressing party followers at Chamisa\u2019s election \u2018thank you\u2019 rally in Chiredzi on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The former Finance Minister ironically wielded more party influence than Chamisa until his shock exit to form his own People\u2019s Democratic Party 2014.<\/p>\n
Ncube was first to ditch the party 2005, and just like Biti, he cited what were widening differences with Tsvangirai over the running of the popular opposition<\/p>\n
In his Sunday address, Biti said the two MDC former secretary generals made the decision to track their steps back to the mainstream MDC in keeping with Tsvangirai\u2019s wishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe late Tsvangirai called me and Professor Welshman Ncube at his Highlands home and he said \u2018please come back and we rebuild our party to what it was in 1999\u2019,\u201d Biti said of a charismatic politician who later died of colon cancer at a South African hospital February 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he (Tsvangirai) was going to South Africa for the last time, he called us again on the 5th of January 2018 and he said \u2018I am going and you two, Biti and Ncube, I leave you with Nelson Chamisa\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalk together and work together. If I come back, I will join you; if I don\u2019t come back, that\u2019s it\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe asked him why he was saying that and he said \u2018I am an old man and I understand my health situation\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biti, who is vying to be elected one of the three MDC vice presidents during this week\u2019s MDC elective congress, declared his loyalty to Chamisa.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the commitment that I and Welshman Ncube gave to Baba Tsvangirai, we will stand irrevocably, unbreakably with Advocate Nelson Chamisa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But while Biti attaches his return to the wishes of the once State Prime Minister, the decision to accept back what many MDC loyalists feel was an act of resurrecting party rebels\u2019 political careers, has not been too popular with a section of the opposition\u2019s membership.<\/p>\n
A group of disgruntled opposition MDC activists calling calling themselves \u2018in Defence of Morgan Tsvangirai Legacy (DMTL)\u2019 wants Biti, Ncube and their followers barred from contesting for any leadership positions in the mainstream MDC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chiredzi: MDC deputy national chair Tendai Biti has vowed his allegiance to party leader Nelson Chamisa whom he says was tasked by late founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai to finish the job of reuniting the party\u2019s breakaway factions. Biti was addressing party followers at Chamisa\u2019s election \u2018thank you\u2019 rally in Chiredzi on Sunday. The former Finance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[458,113,123,88,150,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-9060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-biti","10":"tag-chamisa","11":"tag-defense","12":"tag-mdc","13":"tag-ncube","14":"tag-tsvangirai"},"yoast_head":"\n