Members of the embattled MDC-Alliance who worked as the
party’s polling agents during last year’s harmonised elections besieged the
party’s headquarters in Harare on Monday night demanding payment for their
services.
They also demanded the dissolution of all the party’s
structures. This comes as the cash-strapped opposition party faces a lawsuit
from a Bindura-based company, Ishline Investment Private Limited, which is
claiming it is owed US$286 000.
One of the youths camped at the opposition party
headquarters said: “We are tired of this leadership for lying to us, we only
need them to pay us for hiring us.
“We are not asking for what is not ours, we worked as
polling agents last year and up to today we have not received anything. They
keep on telling us that the money is there and we are wondering why we are not
being paid. We have tried engaging our leaders, but they are not willing to pay
us. We appeal to the president (Nelson Chamisa) to pay us and we will leave
them alone, but one thing for sure is we will never work for them again, they
are dishonest.”
Another MDC Alliance supporter who refused to be identified
said they want all the party’s structures to be dissolved before the party
congress set for May.
“We are approaching the party congress, all the structures
are supposed to be dissolved, but we hear there are some structures which will
not be dissolved,” said the supporter.
“We also discovered that there are new individuals
occupying certain positions, which will not be contested, we are against that,
we want to choose our people not for them to be imposed on us.”
MDC spokesperson Mr Jacob Mafume professed ignorance over
the protests.
“I am not even aware that some people protested at Morgan
Tsvangirai House, in fact that is not the conduct of our members,” he said in
an interview.
“Concerning the issue of polling agents, I am certain that
all polling agents are aware of the party status and situation at the moment
and in any case most of those agents were working on a voluntary basis.”
In the Bindura company court case, a pre-trial conference
presided over by Justice Mary-Zimba Dube was held at the High Court last
Friday.
Mr Graciano Chapupu Manyurureni of Manyurureni and Company
Legal Practitioners represented Ishline Investment Private Limited, while Mr
Innocent Gonese of Gonese and Ndlovu Legal Practitioners represented MDC
Alliance.
Both Mr Gonese and Mr Manyurureni confirmed the development
in separate interviews yesterday and said they were waiting for the Registrar
of the High Court to set a trial date.
Ishline Investment (Pvt) Limited, which is being
represented by Mr Ishmael Jeki, claimed that the MDC-T represented by the late
Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and Mrs Theresa Makone borrowed US$363 800 from him in
2016 and the party re-paid part of the money into Mr Jeki’s CBZ account in 2016
and 2017.
The company is now claiming the remaining figure. Herald
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