Tsvangirai’s MDC house burning

Source: Tsvangirai’s MDC house burning – DailyNews Live

Mugove Tafirenyika, Blessings Mashaya and Andrew Kunambura      4
September 2017

HARARE – MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s latest presidential bid could run
into serious trouble as he battles to steady the ship rocked by internal
party strife.

This comes as the MDC leader is at loggerheads with his longest serving
deputy Thokozani Khupe, who snubbed his Bulawayo rally on Saturday, along
with national chairperson Lovemore Moyo and national organising secretary
Abednico Bhebhe, over the formation of the MDC Alliance, without prior
consultations.

Tsvangirai was launching the MDC Alliance – a union of seven opposition
parties – in Bulawayo, Khupe’s home area.

Information obtained by the Daily News  suggests that currently,
Tsvangirai is making frantic efforts to placate the trio, who were
recently attacked by alleged MDC youths after they registered their
displeasure in the manner the former trade unionist has been handling
coalition talks with other parties.

The trio has since been targeted for censure by some militant party
members intolerant of voices against Tsvangirai.

The party hawks are also targeting secretary general Douglas Mwonzora and
spokesperson Obert Gutu, in a move that could see the labour-backed
opposition party split again – for the third time since its formation in
1999.

The gravity of the crisis was exposed in highly charged WhatsApp
conversations from an MDC group chat seen by the Daily News  in which the
party’s youth assembly secretary general Lovemore Chinoputsa was involved
in a jaw-jaw exchange with Gutu, whom he accused of incompetence as well
as fighting Tsvangirai on behalf of Khupe.

According to the leaked chats, Gutu insisted that he was competent in his
job, saying “…I am pretty sure that my boss is extremely happy with my
performance”.

Chinoputsa confirmed to the Daily News  that the WhatsApp exchanges did
take place, adding that their tiff was emanating from disagreements over
the coalition proposals.

“Yes, it happened. They are issues to do with the coalition,” he said in a
terse response.

However, Gutu refused to comment on the social media exchanges, suggesting
that it was the work of State security agents out to destabilise the MDC.

“I am not going to respond to leaked WhatsApp messages whose authenticity
I don’t even know about,” he said, blaming it on “State agents who are not
resting in their attempts to divide us and cause confusion in our ranks”.

In the WhatsApp chat, Gutu is also bombarded by other party members,
mainly from the MDC youth assembly and the main body.

The most vocal members included youth assembly spokesperson, Brian Dube,
treasurer Tawanda Kureva and Mashonaland East organising secretary
Tapfumaneyi Muzoda.

The altercation came after Gutu shared Tsvangirai’s statement announcing
that several party members, including Bhebhe, had been suspended in
connection with the violence in Bulawayo that had resulted in the assault
of Khupe and company.

After the statement was shared on the group, Chinoputsa accused Gutu of
releasing information only when it suits his factional interests.

“You come to life only when you think that the decision is in your
handlers’ favour. Pathetic communication,” Chinoputsa said.

In response, Gutu described Chinoputsa as “a miserable nonentity not
worthy of my attention”.

But Chinoputsa would not be silenced, telling Gutu that “you are not
anywhere close to what I’m worthy, relax. You could have ignored it if
it’s not worthy your attention”.

Gutu drew the wrath of Chinoputsa and his allies when he went on to tell
the party’s youth assembly secretary general that “you are not even fit to
be my garden boy”.

Chinoputsa responded: “You have dismally failed as a spokesperson and
we’re coming for you as the vanguard, you can’t protect the party and you
shall fall. I can take you through elementary media management at no cost
(sic).”

Muzoda, on his part, said “vaGutu muchirikuita mushe here (Gutu are you
still okay up there) kkkkkkkkk”, while Kureva said “we have incompetent
spokesperson in Mr Gutu”, adding that “Gutu you are a political novice my
brother. You can be a law expert but izvi ndezvedu (this is our stuff)”.

Dube said it was baffling that Gutu would say “our SG, and NEC member and
member of the finance and admin committee is a nonentity and not worthy to
be the national information secretary’s garden boy, ndagwadziwa (I am
hurt)”.

The youths blamed Gutu for most of the challenges the party is currently
facing because of his alleged poor communication skills and inability to
take the party out of any mess.

Dube wrote: “We need to take action to protect our brand vanhu (people)
they don’t love mudhara (Tsvangirai) especially chi main (our main) board
chedu chinemharapatsetse (which is full of sell outs).”

“Gutu and his enemies of the president mastermind the suspension of our
esteemed deputy treasurer general (Charlton Hwende) and deputy information
secretary (Tabitha Khumalo). We have a crisis of leadership especially in
the offices of secretary general (Mwonzora) and information and
publicity,” Muzoda weighed in.

While Khumalo has since been absolved of any wrongdoing following
investigations by the party’s arbiter general, Hwende remains suspended
over the Bulawayo violence.

Clifford Hlatshwayo, a former youth leader, said the youth assembly should
“immediately summon Mr Gutu for his dishonourable utterances, he must
repeat these words before leadership of the YA”.

“I saw him kudhara (long back) he is not one of us. If u (sic) see another
leader as a garden boy it means you are not part of this struggle. You are
there for other reasons with your colleagues. We are watching you. Time
shall come and you will fall mese (in one swoop). You always fight in the
wrong side. You were the one who was fighting Tsvangirai chete chete
slogan, we know it. How can u (sic) call an SG of the whole YA a garden
boy? (sic)”

Meanwhile, an MDC extraordinary national executive meeting has been
tentatively set for next Friday to deal with the deadly rumpus, amid a
fresh turf war between party vice president, Nelson Chamisa and Mwonzora.

The duo’s vast differences came out during last Friday’s national
executive meeting held at the party’s Harvest House headquarters in
Harare, where an investigative report over the Bulawayo violence was
tabled, implicating Chamisa.

Senior MDC officials who attended the meeting told the Daily News  that
the report, which cleared deputy spokesperson Tabitha Khumalo and nailed
Bhebhe, opened a can of worms after it quoted Mwonzora on record exposing
Chamisa’s alleged role in opposing the planned MDC Alliance, which
Tsvangirai forged with former top lieutenants – Tendai Biti and Welshman
Ncube.

Mwonzora is quoted in the report as having told the tribunal set up to
investigate the violence that Chamisa was the architect of the boycott of
the Alliance launch by Khupe, Bhebhe and Moyo.

Contacted for a comment, Chamisa said “there is no such report and nothing
of that sort ever happened” while Mwonzora promised to respond later, but
his phone was unreachable afterwards.

But sources said discussions which followed the tabling of the tribunal’s
18-page report exposed the bad blood between Mwonzora and Chamisa.

“The report exonerated Khumalo and implicated Chamisa in the whole crisis.
In the report, Mwonzora openly accuses Chamisa of engineering the fight
against the Alliance. He told the tribunal that Chamisa was the instigator
as he was in constant communication with the Matabeleland leadership
before, during and after the meeting. Mwonzora accused Chamisa of using
Khupe, Moyo and Bhebhe to do the dirty work while he operates from behind
the scenes,” said senior MDC official who attended the meeting.

Mwonzora is said to have further told the tribunal that Chamisa was not
happy with the fact that Tsvangirai had courted Biti and Ncube without the
approval of the MDC leadership.

At the launch of the MDC Alliance at Zimbabwe Grounds on August 5,
Tsvangirai said he had personally invited Biti and Ncube to his house to
ink the deal.

Chamisa and Biti have a well-publicised acrimonious relationship.

After the presentation of the report, the sources said Chamisa was put to
his defence and strongly denied opposing the Alliance and playing any part
in the violence that saw Khupe and company being bashed.

He is said to have pledged “undying loyalty to Tsvangirai”.

An insider said Chamisa then turned his guns on Mwonzora whom he
reportedly said was accusing him of fomenting trouble in the party when it
was actually him who was behind the opposition of the Alliance.

He reportedly told the meeting that he was ready to expose Mwonzora’s
underhand dealings, but said he would only do so in his presence.

“Chamisa said he preferred to expose how Mwonzora has been working with
Khupe, Moyo and Bhebhe to fight the Alliance in their presence. He
therefore, asked that further deliberations be moved to a later date when
the quartet would be in the meeting,” added the source.

The tide turned on women’s assembly chairperson, Lynette Karenyi Kore, who
was also being implicated of opposing the Alliance.

Unlike Chamisa, who put up a spirited defence, Kore reportedly got
overwhelmed by the tension and burst into a Christian hymn: “Ndoda Mwari
Muyamuri wangu, Munoziva kusasimba kwangu (I need you Oh Lord my saviour,
you know my weaknesses)” in an attempt to soothe the atmosphere.

At the same time, Tsvangirai’s cause has not been helped by reports that
former vice president Joice Mujuru is sponsoring rebellion in the two
parties signatory to the MDC Alliance.

Highly-placed sources both in Biti’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and
Mujuru’s National People’s Party (NPP) told the Daily News that Mugabe’s
former second-in command was holding secret talks with Khupe and Biti’s
secretary general Gorden Moyo promising them positions in a separate
coalition deal.

Both Moyo and Khupe’s phones were not reachable yesterday.

Mujuru’s spokesperson Gift Nyandoro, who also doubles as the NPP secretary
general and chief coalition negotiator, said while they last had formal
talks with Biti two months ago, informal meetings were still being held.

“We are not at liberty to discuss in the media who we are discussing with
either informally or formally but being a big organisation we have
diversity and some people could be involved in informal talks but the
thing with such talks is that they do not reflect a party position,”
Nyandoro said.

He further described suggestions that Mujuru was out to destabilise the
MDC Alliance as “mischievous”.

“Any suggestion that NPP is clandestinely approaching some of the PDP
members and Khupe is mischievous to say the least…”

But sources close to the NPP coalition talks said Mujuru – who recently
said that she will not be part of the Alliance – was seeing an opportunity
to “fish from Biti and Tsvangirai’s ponds” in officials that have openly
opposed the alliance.

“Mujuru’s emissaries have been meeting with top officials in our party
behind Biti’s back encouraging them to refuse to be part of the
coalition,” said a senior official who preferred anonymity.

The sources also revealed that Mujuru had told a meeting of her party’s
national executive last week that she had rejected Tsvangirai’s offer of
60 seats during their negotiations.

“She said the party’s negotiating team had taken Tsvangirai’s team to task
over the proposal asking them where they will get the seats when they have
already shared amongst themselves in the MDC Alliance to which they
promised to repossess those that had been given to other parties” said an
NPP national executive member.

“It was then revealed that talks were going on with the PDP and Zapu with
a view to coming up with a strong coalition that will not be bullied by
the MDC Alliance.”

Contacted for comment Biti encouraged Mujuru to join the MDC Alliance.

“…we know that the need for convergence is not negotiable, we know that
what is negotiable are conditions for coming up with a coalition which we
will sign very soon,” Biti said.

“I want to urge the NPP to become part of it. I know they have their
reservations and they raise very valid points on issues about name and
stuff like that but that can be discussed on the table because nothing is
cast in stone. What is important to realise though is that only one idea
will win the day at the end of it all”.

On the other hand, Mujuru has also been fingered in the turbulence that is
currently obtaining in the MDC.

In response to that, Nyandoro said: “These allegations are a figment of
their own imagination, as a party we have made resolutions concerning the
coalition where we have said we will not be part to a coalition that seeks
to use another party’s name but a common logo and slogan which is no way
related to political party as well as that seats be allocated in
consultation with the membership of political parties involved.”

“We are, however, continuously engaging others but we have no intention to
destabilise anyone. We will not disclose those we are negotiating. It is
not our desire to negotiate in the newspaper,” he said.