Rowdy MDC-T officials disrupt Komichi presser as party splits AGAIN

Some rowdy MDC-T officials aligned to Douglas Mwonzora on Wednesday disrupted a press conference by former party national chairperson Morgen Komichi who had just declared himself the new leader of the opposition outfit.

Komichi, who had finished the press conference and was now fielding questions from the media, had to leave the venue in a huff after the Mwonzora loyalists heckled him and accused him of staging a palace coup.

In addition to declaring himself the new leader, Komichi said henceforth the party would be reverting to the structures that existed in 2014 and he invited all those who were either expelled or voluntarily left the party to return.

Komichi had also told the press conference that all opposition leaders in the country lacked charisma and were not capable of dislodging the ruling Zanu PF party.

“With me in charge, we will witness the days of the late MDC leaders Morgan Tsvangirai, Gibson Sibanda and Isaac Matongo. This is what we miss today and people have lost confidence in where the democratic struggle is going,” he said.

“We are relaunching that MDC today, the one you knew as at 2014. I call upon those who either left the party or defected to come back home and we unite together again.

“We are going for elections and the general mood of people is not focused on that and the opposition is the least prepared, my party has been reduced to nothing and no one talks of it anymore.

“That cannot be allowed to take place, we still have the energy, leadership, qualities, capacity and capabilities to revive the MDC.”

It was however during the question-and-answer segment that saw Mwonzora sympathizers hijacked the proceedings and accused Komichi of staging a palace coup.

One of them asked him why he was addressing the media outside the party headquarters at Harvest House.

“How can you sell out Mwonzora like that? You lost during the congress and only garnered 3 votes, you are not supposed to be in the structures but you are the chairperson because of Mwonzora’s benevolence.

“You cannot even stand as a councillor and win in any ward and you talk of leading a whole party, what kind of a joke is that? You are like the biblical Adonijah who wants to usurp power through illegal means,” he quipped while Komichi sat stone faced throughout the confrontation before being whisked away by his security details.

Fissures in the beleaguered party began last year over a US1 million government grant that insiders allege was abused by senior party officials.

The rifts spilled into the media as top officials openly differed on policy issues of the party with the latest split, which has become synonymous with the party that the late veteran Morgan Tsvangirai founded, comes barely two months before the August 23 harmonised elections. New Ziana