Mangoma forms new political party

By Lloyd Mbiba

HARARE – Elton Mangoma has walked away from the MDC Renewal Team to form his own party — Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe.

Mangoma’s announcement comes after an ad hoc committee suspended him from the renewal team on Wednesday on allegations he hired thugs to beat up a party member, Believe Tevera, who had alleged that the ex-government minister had an affair with his wife.

“We find his role in the coordination and sponsoring of violence against party members to be overwhelming. The gang of youth and hired thugs were ferried and transported using the respondent’s (Mangoma’s) vehicle,” the report stated.

“The respondent buttressed this mischief by advising the media at his press conference that the party was headed for a split.

“We find Mr Mangoma to possess unbridled ambition where he has employed unorthodox, illegal and uncouth means to fulfil his childhood ambition to become a president of something or anything before nature takes him.”

Addressing journalists soon after a meeting he held in Harare yesterday, Mangoma said he was constituting a new party with a clear, unambiguous leadership and party identity.

“In that regard, our party will be called Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe,” Mangoma said.

“Ever since (the) Mandel (meeting), there has been institutional stagnation in terms of building the party and its institutions. We have therefore drawn a line in the sand and started to build the people institution in earnest. In doing so, we believe that we must build a strong party in our own accord.”

Mangoma has lambasted allegations he had a sexual affair with a married woman, describing the accusations as a grotesque attempt by secretary-general Tendai Biti to destroy him politically. Daily News