IT HAS emerged that warring MDC factions are engaging in
tentative talks, in a bid to end their damaging power feud, the Daily News on
Sunday can reveal.
This comes as concerned insiders have also told the Daily
News on Sunday that hardliners on both sides of the feud are working hard to
scuttle the negotiations in which some key players in the Thokozani Khupe camp
are said to be playing a central role.
It also comes after the Supreme Court recently annulled
Nelson Chamisa’s MDC presidency after ruling that Khupe should be the party’s
interim leader — with the mandate to organise an extraordinary congress to
elect new party leadership using its 2014 structures.
Now, the Daily News on Sunday can reveal that
key Khupe players — who apparently include reinstated secretary-general Douglas
Mwonzora and national chairperson Morgen Komichi — recently approached the
Chamisa camp, to investigate the scope for unity ahead of the extraordinary
congress scheduled for July 31.
Well-placed sources said the deal that has been put on the
table includes Chamisa being elected as the undisputed new party leader —
deputised by Khupe and Komichi, and Mwonzora retaining the secretary-general’s
post.
Approached by the Daily News on Sunday yesterday, a cagey
Mwonzora would only confirm the taking place of “engagements”, while declining
to give details of the exploratory negotiations.
“Yes, we have had some engagements, but I cannot disclose
much. We are determined to have unity in the party and we want everyone to
attend the extraordinary congress,” he said.
Belligerent key Chamisa ally, Chalton Hwende, also
confirmed the approach for talks yesterday, but rejected the negotiations
outright.
“They sent some emissaries and when they came up with their
proposal we rejected it. We rejected their proposals because they acknowledged
that Chamisa is popular and should be the president of the MDC.
“They wanted to poach our president and we shot that down,”
he said.
But other sources in
Chamisa’s camp told the Daily News on Sunday that notwithstanding Hwende’s
utterances, negotiations were “on-going”.
“Early in the conflict, Mwonzora and Khupe sent a team of
lawyers for us to come up with a congress. They wanted to deal with Tendai
Biti, Hwende and vice president Welshman Ncube.
“They were proposing that they would then go to the
extraordinary congress with a slate that would have a pre-determined outcome —
whereby Chamisa would be president, while Khupe and Komichi would be his
deputies.
“Mwonzora would then revert to his secretary-general post.
But we rejected those proposals because it was a proposal meant to reverse the
Alliance. That is the only sticking point,” one of the sources said.
But while these initiatory talks are going on, the Khupe
group is also pressing ahead with its preparations for the extraordinary
congress — amid reports that they are prepared “to go it alone” if the current
discussions fail.
Meanwhile, Komichi told the Daily News on Sunday yesterday
that since the Supreme Court’s judgment, the party’s national standing
committee has not been able to meet despite the fact that the party is two
months away from the planned extraordinary congress.
“We have not met as a national standing committee because
we still have challenges. Some people are still hesitant to make clear their
positions because they want to establish who has the power to recall, and now
that it is clear we hope to get started soon,” he said.
The MDC’s 2014 national standing committee included the
party’s late founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai (president), Khupe (deputy
president), Lovemore Moyo (national chairperson), Komichi (deputy national
chairperson), Mwonzora (secretary-general) and Abednico Bhebhe (organising
secretary).
The other members were Paurina Mpariwa (deputy
secretary-general), Theresa Makone (treasurer-general), Hwende (deputy
treasurer-general), Amos Chibaya (deputy organising secretary), Obert Gutu
(secretary for information and publicity), Thabitha Khumalo (deputy secretary
for information and publicity), Lynnette Karenyi
Kore (women’s assembly chairperson) and Happymore Chidziva
(youth assembly chairperson). However, with
Tsvangirai now late, while Gutu and Moyo are no longer in politics, Komichi
said they would have to get the sufficient quorum from the remaining 11 people.
All this comes as the pressure has been mounting on Chamisa
and his top allies, after more party MPs defied his decree to withdraw their
services from Parliament last week.
It also comes as
political analysts have warned that the charismatic politician’s directive was
a “bad” and “irrational” call, which was already backfiring spectacularly.
MPs David Tekeshe, Joice Makonya and Virginia Mafuta became
the latest party legislators to attend parliamentary business.
This was after their colleagues Peter Moyo and Winnie
Kankuni similarly attended parliamentary business earlier in the week.
The MPs later told the Daily News On Sunday’s sister paper,
the Daily News, that it would be a “travesty of justice not to attend Parliament”
when their constituencies expected the legislators to represent them in the
august House.
Tekeshe added that he had been “directed by people” in his
constituency to attend parliamentary business after he consulted them.
“I do not believe I am defying the party directive, but
that I am doing what the constituency has directed me to do. During this time of Covid-19, the people in my
constituency need me the most, and if I don’t come to these platforms they will
miss out on many things.
“People think that politics is about hatred and enmity, but
I think we need to unite,” Tekeshe said defiantly.
“I am not bothered if anyone recalls me because I am an
established businessperson. I did not join politics to become MP, but for the
people,” he told the Daily News.
Pressed to say if he still recognised Chamisa as his
leader, Tekeshe said the time was “not yet ripe” for him to declare his
allegiances.
“We will cross that bridge when we get to it. All I can say
is that in a democracy we have the right to make choices, and I made the choice
to come to Parliament today,” he said.
On her part, Mafuta said she had decided to defy Chamisa’s
directive after having allegedly suffered abuse at the hands of fellow MPs in
the party, who were accusing her of backing Mwonzora.
“I was removed from the party’s WhatsApp group by Lilian
Timveos (who is among the MPs who have been recalled), who accused me of being
Mwonzora’s person.
“When I begged for re-admission to the group, I was told to
wait. I only got re-admission for a short time before I was removed again.
“From that point I realised that there was a bigger hand
behind all this. So at the moment, I am standing by the court judgment. That is
my position,” Mafuta told the Daily News.
Southerton MP Moyo also questioned why Chamisa wanted them
to withdraw from Parliament for the sake of the four recalled MPs when he had
failed to do the same after he lost the 2018 presidential election.
“For the record, I voted for Chamisa and I will vote for
him again. But let us not use emotions here. The bigger question is why did we not boycott Parliament
when we said the presidential elections were rigged?
“Why should we now disengage from Parliament … simply
because four MPs have been recalled from Parliament?” Moyo said.
“The issue is that we are disputing the decision by the
party to tell us to disengage before they consult. If they are saying MPs should disengage, everyone else
should disengage. A war is not fought in bits and pieces.
“I couldn’t miss the committee meeting because that meeting
was crucial, especially during this time of Covid-19 when people in our
constituencies are hungry.
“We have people we lead who we should consult first. Let us
not put emotions everywhere,” Moyo further told the Daily News.
Chamisa and his lieutenants have appeared to be in disarray
ever since the Supreme Court delivered its ruling on the party’s leadership
ructions at the end of March.
On its part, the Khupe group has successfully recalled
Hwende (Kuwadzana), Tabitha Khumalo (MDC proportional representative), Prosper
Mutseyami (Dangamvura) and Midlands senator Lillian Timveos, from Parliament,
as it flexed its muscles and demonstrated that it is fully in charge of the
beleaguered party for now.
Complicating matters further for Chamisa is the fact that
the MDC has a total of about 107 legislators who got top-of-the-range vehicles,
including Toyota Hiluxes worth between US$40 000 and US$60 000.
Under their parliamentary privilege, they are supposed to
pay for them through a stop order for a period of five years.
Besides their average monthly salary of between $6 000 and
$8 000, the MPs are also entitled to $700 sitting allowances per session, fuel
coupons and lucrative foreign trips on parliamentary business.
The government
emphasised recently that it would withdraw all their benefits if they withdrew
from Parliament. Daily News
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