MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has announced a raft of
changes to the leadership of the opposition party, including the appointment of
Welshman Ncube and Morgen Komichi as vice-presidents in a move seen as trying
to consolidate his position ahead of the elective congress next year.
Ncube, who was among the MDC founding members and served as
secretary-general before an acrimonious fallout in 2005 with party leader, the
late Morgan Tsvangirai, was part of a grouping that contested the July 30
election as MDC Alliance.
Komichi, who took over as chairman when Lovemore Moyo quit
the opposition party in the run-up to the elections and formed his United
Movement for Devolution (UMD), was appointed as one of the three
vice-presidents.
“Senator Elias Mudzuri remains vice-president, Senator Morgen
Komichi, previously national chairperson, is appointed vice-president.
Professor Welshman Ncube is appointed vice-president and Honourable Thabita
Khumalo, previously spokesperson, is appointed national chairperson and
Honourable Tendai Biti will be deputy chairperson,” said Chamisa’s spokesperson
Nkululeko Sibanda in a statement yesterday.
Biti broke ranks with Tsvangirai following the 2013
elections loss and formed the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Khumalo will be the leader of the opposition party in the
National Assembly.
Mudzuri will head the opposition in the Senate and will be
deputised by Komichi.
Chamisa’s appointments, Sibanda said, were guided by
instructions from the national council and resolutions made by the party’s
national executive.
The 40-year-old opposition leader also appointed Jacob
Mafume, a Harare City councillor, as the party’s national spokesperson.
Party secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora, who is believed
to be a likely challenger for the presidency, remains in his position despite
reports suggesting he could be purged.
“The president is also working hard to return the party to
its original strength by integrating members of the MDC Alliance into the MDC,”
said Sibanda, adding that the opposition party wants to be identified by its
original name.
“It is important that we underline the fact that the name
of the party is MDC. Both MDC-T, MDC Alliance and other names that have been
used in the past were simple electoral vehicles and were not the legal names of
the party. The party that everyone is integrating into is the MDC,” Sibanda
said.
Following the break-up with Ncube in 2005, the Tsvangirai
party began using the moniker MDC-T to differentiate his group from Ncube’s
party, which went under the name, MDC-N.
Chamisa has also been locked in a bitter tussle for the use
of the party name with former vice-president Thokozani Khupe, who now leads a
breakaway group using the MDC-T name.
Sibanda said Chamisa had also appointed Sessel Zvidzai as
secretary for local government and devolution, with Clifford Hlatshwayo as his
deputy.
Biti’s former deputy at the PDP, Kucaca Phulu, is now
secretary for constitutional affairs.
Long-serving party chief whip Innocent Gonese was replaced
in the post by Prosper Mutseyami.
Analysts said Chamisa’s appointments were meant to deal
with possible threats to his position, with loyalists now in key positions and
allowing him to control the party’s direction in both Houses of Parliament in
his absence, a move they said was undemocratic.
“Chamisa should have allowed congress to elect the leaders
as its ethos and values ought to show. The move is divorced from the grassroots
and going forward, the MDC is now being run by elitists, a far cry from a
people’s movement they portray,” political analyst Alexander Rusero said.
“It is more telling that Tendai Biti, despite all he did
during the past elections, he has been made a deputy to someone. I don’t expect
to see a strengthened MDC, but Chamisa consolidating his power base and so far
he has managed to push Biti away from the power base.” Newsday
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