MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has been pressured by the
party’s Western backers to form a coalition with other opposition parties ahead
of next year’s harmonised elections as a precondition for funding, it has
emerged.
This has forced Mr
Tsvangirai, whose party headquarters was recently cleared of furniture over a
debt, to defy party protocol and unilaterally form an alliance with
little-known political parties like the Professor Welshman Ncube-led MDC, the
Tendai Biti-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Transform Zimbabwe and
Zanu-Ndoga led by Mr Denford Musiyarira under the banner of MDC-Alliance.
Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) and the Reverend Gerald
Mubaiwa-led Zimbabwe Opposition Political Parties Council are reportedly also
in the MDC-Alliance.
Impeccable sources
yesterday said Mr Tsvangirai was so much under pressure to form the coalition
that he has ditched talks with established parties.
“Western funders have set stringent conditions for possible
bankrolling efforts to remove Zanu-PF from Government and the major condition
is a coalition.
“This has put Tsvangirai under so much pressure that he has
decided to ditch all the other parties holding to their position like Joice
Mujuru’s National People’s Party.
“It also seems Tsvangirai is in such a hurry to form the
coalition and grab the money hence his rush to go into bed with the
little-known formations, some who had ditched him before,” a source said.
Tsvangirai recently shut the door on Dr Mujuru’s NPP with
whom he signed a Memorandum of Understanding sometime ago and coalesced with
small parties.
Yesterday MDC-T spokesperson Mr Obert Gutu dismissed the
allegations saying the opposition party does not require Western funding.
“We get our funding through the Political Parties Finance
Act and our members’ subscriptions. We are a party that is bankrolled by its
membership,” he said.
Mr Gutu said the MDC-T was owed over $2 million by the
Treasury.
“The Treasury has a constitutional mandate to release the
money which is what they are not doing. We are owed a lot of money, more than
$2 million. We are saying why are they holding on to our money?”
The MDC-T is broke and is failing to pay its workers. The Sheriff last week attached the opposition party’s
properties at Harvest House leaving it virtually empty.
This was after the MDC-T failed to settle a $108 000 it
owes its former employee Ms Sally Dura. Creditors are reportedly eyeing MDC-T properties as it is
failing to service debts amounting to millions of dollars.
Among them are 28 former workers who have won their labour
cases against MDC-T.
They are owed $1.1 million. Herald
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