D-day looms for MDC-T ahead of crucial meetings

via D-day looms for MDC-T ahead of crucial meetings | SW Radio Africa by Tichaona Sibanda on Wednesday, April 9, 2014

The MDC-T will on Thursday deal with the indiscipline that had crept into the party once and for all, the party spokesman said on Wednesday.

Douglas Mwonzora told SW Radio Africa that two crucial meetings of the National Executive Council and National Council set for Thursday will be decisive in dealing with the internal strife.

The standing committee of the MDC-T met on Wednesday, amid reports that several top leaders registered their displeasure at the way the movement is treating individuals who are destroying the party with ‘kid gloves.’

Mwonzora declined to reveal the agenda of Thursday’s meetings, but a well placed-source within the party said heads will certainly roll as the leadership is under pressure from grassroots structures to do something about the rebels.

‘Our only tools for survival in the last 15 years have been discipline and unity. As a party, we would rather have disciplined and dedicated cadres than a handful who are not sure where they stand,’ an MP loyal to party leader Morgan Tsvangirai said.

The fight between Tsvangirai, his loyalists and the renewal team, led by Elton Mangoma and his lawyer Jacob Mafume, is already giving party members cause for concern.

Party members said it is their belief that if nothing is done by the leadership to urgently resolve the lingering political tussle between the two camps, the crisis might spell doom for the movement in the next election.

All has not been well in the MDC-T since January, when Mangoma wrote a letter to Tsvangirai asking him to step down and blaming him for the electoral loss to ZANU PF.

In his four page letter Mangoma wrote that there was no denying that Morgan Tsvangirai had embossed his name into the history books, or that he has played a pivotal role in Zimbabwe’s quest for democracy and socio-economic transformation. But he said: ‘However, it is my humble submission that at this juncture it is time you consider leaving the office of the president of the movement.’

‘2014 marks 15 years of Morgan Tsvangirai as president of the party. You have done the best that you could and continuing will result in diminishing returns and eating into your legacy. The party is in dire need for new ideas, new thinking, a new trajectory and new stimulus,’ said Mangoma.

The contents of the letter triggered an upheaval in the party, which led to the suspended deputy treasurer-general and other senior leaders like Tendai Biti being manhandled by some party youths.