MDC remains intact: Mwonzora

via MDC remains intact: Mwonzora – DailyNews Live by Chengetai Zvauya and Xolisani Ncube

Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC says it remains intact and strong even after its failure to dislodge Zanu PF during the July 31 harmonised elections.

MDC spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said although his party was disappointed with the outcome of the harmonised elections claiming they were rigged in favour of Zanu PF, it faced no prospects of mass defections.

He said he was unaware that Tsvangirai’s adviser Alex Magaisa was resigning and returning to the United Kingdom to continue his work as lecturer.

Magaisa a lawyer, was head of the political and legal affairs department in the Prime Minister’s office and with Ian Makone heading the administrative unit.

“I have not heard anything about any of our members resigning. I am on good talking terms with Magaisa and he has not hinted that he is going to resign.

“Everyone is determined to work for the party and we endorsed our leader Tsvangirai to lead us in the democratic fight,” said Mwonzora.

The MDC spokesperson said the party was still operating in full force and was going to be defending the political space it gained in the elections after its members of Parliament participated in the swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.

He said the MPs will attend the official opening of the 8th Parliament by President Robert Mugabe.

Two weeks ago, Tsvangirai held a two-day seminar with his top leadership to review the July election and map the way forward.

Meanwhile, staff who worked in the abolished Prime Minister’s office, have vowed not to join the public service saying they are going back home to Harvest House, the MDC headquarters.

Responding to a story that was carried by the State-controlled media yesterday, Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka said those who think he was ever a civil servant are living in dreamland.

According to the report, Tamborinyoka along with top officials who served under Tsvangirai during the tenure of the inclusive government should report to the civil service offices.

But yesterday Tamborinyoka, said he was never employed as a civil servant.

“In 2010, I joined the Prime Minister’s Office from Harvest House, where I had worked for six years as its Director of Information and Publicity,” Tamborinyoka said adding that “upon joining the PM’s Office, I was never attested into the civil service ostensibly because they said I was a party activist, only to read in today’s (yesterday’s) newspaper that I am a civil servant.”

Yesterday, the State-controlled media quoted Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba warning Tamborinyoka together with other ex-Tsvangirai staffers not to make public pronouncements on national issues since there are mere civil servants.

“If he (Tamborinyoka) wanted to pursue a career in the civil service, he is better advised to report to the Civil Service Commission.

“But also for him to know that he can no longer just speak, there are rules,” said Charamba.

“He is not in the president’s office, he is not a presidential spokesperson, he is not a ministerial spokesperson, so he cannot just speak as if he does not know that July 31 (election date) has come and gone.

“You do not just open your mouth in the service. He must resign and then he can become a spokesperson of whoever he pleases and no one will ask questions.

“He must not pronounce himself as long as he is a civil servant on behalf of a politician. He must resign,” Charamba said.

Tamborinyoka brushed Charamba’s assertions saying: “I have never been attested into government service, I don’t have an EC number and have never received any salary from my purported employer. If this fiction is anything to go by, then this government owes me a salary for three full years!” he said.

“It is a status that only Charamba knows about and not me, the purported civil servant.

“He should tell and show the world any evidence they have that I am a civil servant including any documents and/or contracts that I signed when I joined the civil service,” he stated.