Source: Chamisa, Khupe quarrel deepens – DailyNews Live
Fungi Kwaramba 11 March 2018
HARARE – There are growing worries within the MDC that the party is close
to completely scuttling its electoral prospects in this year’s crunch
national elections – amid revelations that the camp loyal to under-fire
vice president Thokozani Khupe may be planning to boot out of the party
newly-installed leader, Nelson Chamisa.
This comes as Chamisa told the Daily News on Sunday yesterday that Khupe –
who stands accused of playing truant, and is on notice in the party – had
been given an extra three days to repent or face automatic expulsion from
the country’s main opposition.
“We are distressed that this unnecessary infighting is continuing
unabated, mainly involving a few people who feel that Khupe has been hard
done.
“The real worry, apart from the threat of another split in the party, is
that the elections are now so close and here we are fighting among
ourselves for nothing really. We really miss (the late Morgan)
Tsvangirai,” a senior party official said.
The party’s leadership squabble is deepening despite the popular Chamisa
having been unanimously endorsed as presidential candidate in this year’s
make-or-break elections by the MDC Alliance.
Apart from Chamisa’s MDC, the Alliance includes Tendai Biti’s Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), Welshman Ncube’s MDC, Jacob Ngarivhume’s Transform
Zimbabwe, Zanu Ndonga headed by Denford Masiyarira, and the Multi-Racial
Christian Democrats which is led by Mathias Guchutu.
Biti and Ncube are former secretaries-general of the original and united
MDC which was led by Tsvangirai – whose recent passing away ignited a
damaging three-way leadership tussle within the MDC involving Chamisa,
Khupe and Elias Mudzuri.
In the meantime, the MDC’s national council – which is the party’s highest
decision-making body outside congress – has also endorsed Chamisa as the
party’s acting president, although the gathering that made that decision
is being contested by Khupe in the main, as well as Mudzuri.
Khupe, backed by party national chairperson Lovemore Moyo, organising
secretary Abednigo Bhebhe and apparently also by suspended national
spokesperson Obert Gutu, is steadfastly refusing to accept that Chamisa is
the bona fide successor to Tsvangirai.
Yesterday, the faction that is loyal to her pooh-poohed the seven-day
ultimatum that she was given by the party’s national council to make peace
with Chamisa, instead saying it was him who was now facing the boot.
Contacted for a comment, Khupe flatly refused to do so – but Gutu, who is
contesting his suspension as the party’s spokesperson, said emphatically
that she was going nowhere.
“I am not aware of any moves to expel vice president Thokozani Khupe from
the party. However, in the event that there are some people who are
harbouring such evil intentions, then they will very soon be receiving a
very rude shock of their lives.
“There are constitutional provisions that have to be rigorously followed
… It’s not as easy as congregating in a bar and planning to expel
certain cadres from the party. No!
“Khupe is a founder member of the MDC. She will not be easily pushed out
of the party simply to satisfy the evil and self-destructing machinations
of a few power-hungry and misguided political charlatans. It is those
people who should be expelled from the party,” Gutu said, in apparent
reference to Chamisa.
The seven-day ultimatum that was issued to Khupe by the national council
lapsed on Friday, with the MDC vice president using Twitter to communicate
her defiant position on the matter.
“I wrote a letter to the party’s Guardians Council for them to intervene
in terms of our constitution. They are the internal arbiters and are
seized with this matter, even as ultimatums are being issued,” she
tweeted.
But Chamisa confirmed to the Daily News on Sunday yesterday that Khupe had
been given an extra three days to repent or face automatic expulsion.
“She is being given the last chance and we are in Matabeleland for three
days and we will use these three days to persuade her. If she fails (to
repent), then she will have expelled herself,” Chamisa said.
Meanwhile, Khupe – who claims that she is the only person among the MDC’s
three vice presidents who is recognised by the party’s constitution to
lead the party – has set tough conditions for Chamisa, including him
relinquishing his claim to the leadership of the party.
Last week, thugs unleashed an orgy violence at the party’s Bulawayo
provincial offices where Khupe and other senior officials had converged
for a supposed “private” meeting.
Both the Chamisa and the Khupe camps have denied any involvement in the
violence which led to the arrest of 15 people, who have already appeared
in court facing charges of public violence.
But Chamisa appears to have won the right to lead the divided party, with
political analysts saying Khupe should take a cue from Mudzuri who appears
to have accepted that the youthful former MDC organising secretary is now
in an unassailable position.
Indeed, Mudzuri has not publicly contested Chamisa since the meeting of
the national council and the subsequent consultative meeting of the party
which was held in Harare – and which also endorsed Chamisa as Tsvangirai’s
successor and the party’s presidential candidate in this year’s ballot.
Last month, Chamisa received a ringing endorsement from the MDC Alliance
which emphatically said he would be its sole presidential candidate, and
would thus square off against President Emmerson Mnangagwa in this year’s
presidential elections which are due in less than five months time.
The watershed polls will be the first in the past two decades not to
feature 94-year-old former president Robert Mugabe and the late
Tsvangirai.
“Anyone who fails to see that we are done with the succession issue needs
to see a witch doctor. Tsvangirai gave us Chamisa and that automatically
means that he becomes the presidential candidate who will face Mnangagwa
and his junta. It’s done.
“We are already on the campaign trail having been to Epworth, Mutare and
Chitungwiza … and now we are heading to Chinhoyi. We are not going back.
We are going for Mnangagwa … we will kick out the junta this time
around.”We have a dynamic leader in Chamisa and we are brave and ready as
a team,” Biti said then.
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