Govt owes MDC-T $3m, says Mwonzora

via Govt owes MDC-T $3m, says Mwonzora – New Zimbabwe 12/04/2015

THE opposition MDC-T party says government owes them $3 million in political parties finance funding.

Zimbabwe’s political parties finance law gives annual funding to parties in proportion with the number of votes or seats they have in Parliament.

Zanu PF and the MDC formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai are currently the only beneficiaries.

In an interview with NewZimbabwe.com in Harare Sunday, MDC-T secretary General Douglas Mwonzora said government owed them $3 million.

“We were owed $4 million until recently when the government disbursed at least $1 million in instalments though,” said Mwonzora.

“The problem is that they give us the money when they feel like doing so and this has been happening since the formation and dominance of our movement more than a decade ago”.

MDC received its last funding under the scheme in October 2014 on the eve of its national congress. Some senior party members who lost the contest (Nelson Chamisa) accused the party of abusing the funding through vote buying.

The party however, dismissed the allegations saying they were made by power hungry individuals who were bitter at losing the democratic intra-party elections.

Some political parties which are not represented in Parliament have complained that the laws must be reviewed so that they may also obtain state funding.