MDC to summon Bennett

via MDC to summon Bennett – DailyNews Live by Chengetai Zvauya 15 SEPTEMBER 2013

Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC will summon  exiled treasurer-general Roy Bennett to seek clarification on statements he made that the MDC president must quit.

Bennett, who is in self-imposed exile, called for a new leadership of the troubled opposition party, suggesting that Tsvangirai’s continued stay in power did not reflect the will of the people.

In an  interview with the Daily News, MDC chairman Lovemore Moyo, said his party was summoning the former Chimanimani legislator for clarification on his statement.

“I am yet to read the interview where Bennett made these statements but I can confirm that I have heard about it,” Moyo said.

“As the party chairman I am going to summon and ask him to explain these statements you are referring to.  We have internal processes which we use to discipline our members who make statements that bring the party into disrepute.”

“Bennett is a senior member of party and should know better, and he has to explain to us what he meant in the interview he made about the party leadership. Otherwise, I don’t want to comment much on the issue without hearing his side of the story.”

Bennett, now living in South Africa and United Kingdom since he fled the country in 2010 facing charges of treason, told South African newspaper Business Day that Tsvangirai should resign.

“Tsvangirai has served two terms and is nearly completing a third,” Bennett said.

“Deep introspection needs to be undertaken by our national collective leadership not for purposes of looking for scapegoats but for our party to reinvigorate its leadership with a leadership which reflects the will of our people. Regrettably, some within our leadership, as is the case with many political parties, do not wish the grassroots democratic will of the people to prevail.”

Notwithstanding Bennet’s stance, Moyo said the party still believes in the leadership of Tsvangirai and other members of the national executive who were chosen at the party’s congress.

“We still believe in Tsvangirai as our leader as I know that he has the mandate of the party members to lead them,” said Moyo.

“I am still the national chairman of the party until 2016 when we go to the national congress for the elections of new leaders of the party.”

“The struggle for democracy is not yet over, and the elections results are a minor setback, we shall bounce back. I can tell you that if Zanu PF had not rigged the elections we had defeated them and this is why we had gone to the courts to challenge the elections results.

“We are not going to cooperate with Zanu PF in any way as we don’t want to legitimise them because they stole the elections.”

 

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