Wisdom Mumera
The acrimonious divisions simmering in the Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC-T have refused to die down with the trio of Vice President Thokozani Khupe, suspended National Organising Secretary Abednico Bhebhe and National Chairman Lovemore Moyo yet again refusing to attend their party’s rally to be held in Bulawayo.
In a letter released by Witness Dube, her Personal Assistant, Khupe has reiterated the absence of safety and the fear that she will be manhandled again if she attends the rally.
“The Honourable The Deputy President of MDC-T, Madam Thokozani Khupe, will not be attending the Bulawayo MDC Alliance Rally for the same reasons that she did not attend the last MDC-T National Executive Committee Meeting.
“I can assuredly say that the national chairman as well as the national organizing secretary will also not be attending this rally on the same grounds. It is the collective view of these leaders that the MDC Alliance is misdirecting itself by focusing at a rally as a way of window dressing or pushing off the table the substantive issues that were raised in the letter that was written to the MDC-T president for and on behalf of many members within the MDC-T.
“A good membership within the MDC-T asked these three leaders to raise their concerns on the seeming appearance of unilateralism in our decision making processes particularly in relation to the execution of the alliance partnering resolutions”, she said.
Khupe further hit back at Tsvangirai by accusing him, just as Bhebhe did, of sending the people who beat by insinuating that violence had been imported from Harvest House and brought to Bulawayo.
She drew parallels between the recent happenings to the infamous Gukurahundi episode that saw thousands being massacred by ZANU linked soldiers in a mini genocide that swept across the Matabeleland province in the 80’s.
“The people in Matebeleland are continuing to strongly condemn the importation of violence from Harvest House Harare to their doorsteps in Gukurahundi fashion, it is very unfortunate that some within the party have chosen to deliberately interpret Deputy President Khupe’s principled stance on such a fundamental policy and strategic issue as a fight against the President of the MDC-T party.”
Tsvangirai has denied accusations of having the trio beaten and recently suspended National Deputy Organising Secretary Chalton Hwende together with Bhebhe.
Deputy national publicity secretary, Thabitha Khumalo’s suspension has since been lifted while all the youths who were involved, including deputy national youth Chairperson Shakespeare Mukoyi remain suspended and will appear before the party’s Disciplinary Committee.
In further hints to instability within the embattled opposition party the letter revealed that clandestine maneuvers are undergoing where MP’s, Ward Councillors and Ward chairpersons have been threatened with unspecified action if they don’t support the MDC Alliance.
“For the avoidance of any doubt, the said three leaders who wrote a letter to the MDC-T President will, for all intents and purposes, not attend any official meetings of the MDC Alliance until President Tsvangirai convenes a meeting with the three to attend to the substantive issues they raised.
“Such a meeting will desirably have to be a daylight clear away from the MDC Bulawayo Alliance Rally as it will not be about this rally and its attendant business of the day as currently set out.”, Dube her PA said.
Khupe is repeatedly appearing to be vacillating between a permanent break with Tsvangirai as previously suspected and keeps on returning to the theme of Gukurahundi and the exclusionary position of Matabeleland province.
The MDC-T chaos is however proving to be another hiccup to the recently created MDC Alliance opposition coalition with Joyce Mujuru’s National People’s Party still to join whilst a host of other independent members such as Nkosana Moyo have actually denigrated the idea of a coalition.