By Jeffrey Muvundusi
BULAWAYO – Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC has accused the breakaway formation led by Tendai Biti of failing to follow set down rules in their attempt to dethrone the party leader.
Speaking during a debate organised by local civic society groups on Thursday, MDC deputy national organising secretary Abednico Bhebhe said Zimbabweans were aware of what was transpiring in the labour-backed movement,and therefore cannot be fooled.
He queried why Biti’s so-called national council meeting was held at Mandel Training Centre instead of the party headquarters Harvest House. Bhebhe said that alone invalidated the meeting.
“Let’s say we wanted to impeach Robert Mugabe today, surely we will not go to Botswana and seat there,” Bhebhe said.
“I don’t think that’s possible. If you want to do that, you go to Parliament and do what is supposed to be done.
“And now how then can you say these people suspended the top seven of the party? At Harvest House, we have a hall which carries over 750 people.
“We have got a group of people led by the so-called renewal team who go into hiding somewhere and then come up with silly propaganda saying they have suspended the leadership. It shows that there are some people who take Zimbabweans for lunatics, who assume Zimbabweans don’t think.”
The meeting, which was attended by representatives from all the major political parties, intended to unpack the discord and map the way forward within political movements.
Bhebhe said the idea by the Biti camp to continue to hold on to the “MDC-T tag” betrayed their desperation.
“These people now hold on to the name MDC-T which is a clear sign that these guys are crooks who want to fool the people of Zimbabwe by insinuating that T stands for Tsvangirai,” he said.
However, Lobengula MP Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, who was representing the renewal team, described Tsvangirai and his acolytes as violent in nature.
“The reason why we held our meeting at Mandel was because at Harvest House you get beaten,” said Nkomo.
“Freedom of expression is not allowed, getting near that place you would be beaten. The national council decision was to de-personalise the party. I have seen people creating a monster in the party. The intimidation that is going on in that organisation is alarming.”
Bhebhe however, dismissed the allegations as baseless, urging Nkomo to learn to tell the truth as an elder in the party.
During the 2005 split, Sipepa-Nkomo initially joined the Welshman-led formation but made an about-turn and rejoined the mainstream MDC where he served as minister of Water Resources Development and Management in the coalition government. Daily News
