Wednesday 6 November 2019

FRESH CHAOS ROCKS MDC IN BYO


MDC-Alliance Bulawayo province has been rocked by fresh chaos over the incorporation of some members into the provincial executive.

The resolution to incorporate members into the province was made after MDC-A leader Mr Nelson Chamisa buckled to pressure to include members who lost at the provincial congress in May ahead of the party’s main congress in Gweru in June.

Mr Chamisa was dragged into the fiasco with accusations that he had sided with the group comprising of present provincial chairperson Mr James Sithole at the expense of members coming from his deputy Professor Welshman Ncube’s MDC party that was dissolved and merged with MDC-Alliance.

Sources yesterday said the Bulawayo Provincial Administrative Council popularly known as PAC met in Bulawayo on Tuesday where they fiercely disagreed on the incorporation of more members into the women’s wing. 

The sources said the wing’s chairperson Luba Masotsha believed to be an ally of Prof Ncube, proposed to incorporate more members outside the stipulated 10 that was agreed on by the party.

“The party resolved to incorporate 10 members in each of the wings to accommodate members who lost at the provincial congress. Masotsha wanted to go further and incorporate 18 more members and put her people in the top five positions of the province,” said a party source.

The suggestion by the women’s wing chairperson was resisted by Mr Sithole and deputy Mr Felix Mhaka.

“Mhaka warned Masotsha against doing things that would come back to haunt her as her actions were unconstitutional while Sithole supported his deputy arguing that the women’s wing chairperson’s moves were illegal,” said a source. 

It was revealed that the opposition to the incorporation runs deeper than claims of constitutionalism as there were factional fights with tribal undertones in the province.

“Remember that Masotsha, by being an ally of Ncube, has become an opponent of the faction that runs the province led by Sithole and with direct links to Chamisa himself. So these are factional moves by the Ncube faction through Masotsha and that is why the Sithole executive was so fierce in resisting her moves,” said a source.

“The Sithole group feels that Ncube, through his proxies, wants to dilute their group in the province and what is happening at the women’s wing could spread to other wings to strengthen his grip on the province.”

Efforts to get a comment from Masotsha were fruitless.

MDC Alliance Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Mr Swithern Chirowodza yesterday declined to comment on the matter saying, “internal party politics is not for public consumption.”

In the “chaotic” Bulawayo congress, Prof Ncube was snubbed by the province which did not nominate him to retain the post at the congress. Instead, they nominated Mr Tendai Biti, Mr Morgen Komichi and Ms Lillian Timveous for the vice presidency and nominated Prof Ncube for the secretary general’s position.

Prof Ncube was retained as Vice President after he got nominations from other provinces. Chronicle

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