Mutinhiri explains decision to join MDC-T

By Lance Guma

Former ZANU PF Women’s League Political Commissar and Marondera East MP Tracy Mutinhiri has told SW Radio Africa that she was attracted into joining the MDC-T because the party prioritises “putting bread and butter on people’s tables.”

Mutinhiri represented ZANU PF as Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare in the shaky coalition government before she was expelled in August last year for allegedly de-campaigning the party. She joined the MDC-T a few days after the expulsion but the switch was only announced early this month for her own safety.

On Wednesday the ex-wife of retired army Brigadier-General, Ambrose Mutinhiri was a guest on SW Radio Africa’s Question Time. She said when the MDC was formed she was serving as a diplomat in the former Yugoslavia and like many in ZANU PF believed the ‘propaganda’ about ‘how bad the party was’ for Zimbabwe.

“But when I joined the inclusive government and seeing how they were working, how they were functioning, how they would want to reach out to people and bring bread and butter on peoples tables, I said after all this party is not as bad as it was being portrayed and some of their core values I respect them,” she said.

Mutinhiri said her problems in ZANU PF started because she had a good working relationship with her boss, the Minister for Labour and Social Welfare Paurine Mpariwa who is from the MDC-T. She explained: “They (ZANU PF) preferred me to fight with Paurine from time to time, disrupting our government programmes.”

Mutinhiri said things came to a head when she and Mpariwa conducted a government work programme close to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s home area. The PM invited them over to his home and when pictures of Mutinhiri and Mpariwa were published in the MDC-T newsletter, her problems began.

In the interview broadcast Wednesday evening Mutinhiri claimed State Security Minister Sidney Sekeramayi was behind most of her problems because she had turned down his sexual advances. She also blamed the breakdown of her marriage to Brigadier-General Mutinhiri on Sekeramayi and his ‘emissaries.’

Mutinhiri also tackled issues around how she and her ex-husband violently seized their farm from its former white owners, the killing of MDC-T supporters by the Central Intelligence Organisation and the dumping of the bodies in the Wenimbe Dam in Marondera and whether she will stand as an MDC-T candidate. SW Radio Africa

To listen to the full interview with Tracy Mutinhiri: Click Here