Another top MDC-T official quits

via Another top MDC-T official quits 19 October 2014

FORMER Gweru Urban MDC-T MP and national executive committee member Timothy Mukahlera has quit politics as chaos continues to reign supreme in the Morgan Tsvangirai led party.

Mukahlera said the opposition party had been hijacked by some powerful individuals who were using it for their own ends.

The former MP told journalists that he had quit active politics and will not be joining any political party and will instead now concentrate on his family business.

“I have called you here to announce that I have resigned from the MDC-T and I will no longer be taking part in active politics. I have made my decision and I would not like to go back to the life of fist-fights that is associated with politics now. I am at a certain level and politics does not excite me anymore.

“However, there are many forces in the MDC -T – some of them powerful individuals – playing a part in the background so that they achieve their interest using the party for their own means,” he said.

Mukahlera quashed assertions that he wanted to join the MDC Renewal team.

He said there is nothing new the Renewal Team will offer and therefore he will concentrate on his business, finishing his PhD studies as well as taking an active role at church.

The resignation by Mukahlera comes two weeks after the party held its provincial congress in which he contested for the position of provincial chairman and lost to Lillian Timveos.

The internal polls were marred by allegations of vote buying, among other irregularities.

Mukahlera bounced back to the MDC-T in 2010 after having crossed the floor to join the then Professor Arthur Mutambara-led MDC in 2005 when the party first split. He was then the legislator for Gweru Urban.

His resignation comes at a time when the Tsvangirai-led MDC-T is going through a period of turbulence after former secretary general Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma walked out of the party in protest over Tsvangirai’s leadership style earlier this year.

Biti and Mangoma are now leading a breakaway faction calling itself the MDC Renewal Team.

Political observers say the split has severely weakened the MDC-T which came within a whisker of ousting President Robert Mugabe from power in the 2008 elections.