MDC Alliance President Nelson Chamisa has described his
former colleague Douglas Mwonzora, as a sell-out who was fighting an unwinnable
petty agenda.
For close to six months, Mwonzora, MDC-T interim
secretary-general, has been on a warpath, frustrating the operations of the MDC
Alliance through recalls on MPs and councillors claiming they had ceased to be
MDC-T members.
His strength is drawn from an earlier Supreme Court
judgment that ruled Chamisa was not the legitimate leader of the MDC-T.
The court judgement placed Thokozani Khupe as interim
president of the party.
The MDC-T has since been reconfigured using its 2014
structures and Mwonzora, who had been relegated to deputy secretary for
international relations in the MDC Alliance, bounced back as interim secretary
general.
Since then, he has been recalling MPs and councillors who
have publicly showed allegiance to Chamisa. At least 21 MPs and 10 Harare
councillors have lost their positions following their recall by MDC-T.
Speaking at a church service for late Kuwadzana MDC
Alliance MP Miriam Mushayi in Harare Thursday, Chamisa said he was disappointed
by his erstwhile colleague's actions as he was destroying the legacy of late
MDC founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai died in 2018 and an extraordinary congress is
expected to be held to find his replacement.
"I am really
disappointed with his level of selfishness and that Mwonzora has sunk so low.
He is claiming to defend the legacy of the late Morgan Tsvangirai by destroying
what he (Tsvangirai) built. You claim you want to defend his legacy when you do
not even know the origins of Tsvangirai," Chamisa told mourners.
"Mwonzora, we picked you from the wilderness, and now
you want to be more MDC than us? Just because you are pursuing a petty agenda,
an agenda which you are not even going to win?"
"MDC supporters picked it long back Mwonzora was a
sellout and they urged me to expel him from the party but I called for
patience. I said let's not expel him from the party, let's give him a long rope
to hang himself. Look where he is now?
"How can you defend the legacy of Tsvangirai when you
do not want to be part of the MDC Alliance which Tsvangirai laid the
foundation?"
The MDC Alliance leader said Mwonzora's actions had
resulted in taxpayers footing a $18 million bill to allow the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) to conduct by-elections in all constituencies and
wards left vacant following the recalls.
ZEC announced this week that it required $18 million to
conduct by-elections now set for 5 December 2020.
"Look at how much the unwarranted recalls by a bitter
Mwonzora are now costing the taxpayers? Why do you want to condemn the whole
country into a by-election?
"What kind of a country is it that always stays in an
election mode? Worse (President Emmerson) Mnangagwa is an accomplice who just
says ‘let's go for elections' knowing very well that nurses and doctors need
money, hospitals have no medication. Why not use that $18 million?"
"Why should we be an election country? Why should we
be electioneering all the time? Are the by-elections going to help us to sort
out the crisis in this country? NewZimbabwe
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