ROWDY MDC-T supporters yesterday violently disrupted a fellow party member who was addressing a Press conference in Harare to expose party leader Douglas Mwonzora’s alleged misuse of party funds, assaulted and forced him to abandon the event.
Kudzanai Mashumba, believed to be one of the MDC-T founding
members, had to run for dear life after about 10 youths led by youth
chairperson Yvonne Musarurwa stormed into the conference room baying for his
blood.
During the melee, business came to a standstill along Jason
Moyo Street in the central business district as Mashumba sought to escape the
attacks.
Luckily, he was whisked away in a passerby’s vehicle after
the assault that left him nursing multiple injuries.
MDC-T youths also threatened to assault journalists who
were interviewing Mashumba. They chanted slogans disowning Mashumba, claiming
that he had been sent by their rival faction, the MDC Alliance led by Nelson
Chamisa to tarnish Mwonzora’s image.
MDC-T party spokesperson Witness Dube, however, described
the attack as “a clean political exchange” between the youth and Mashumba.
He said the “intervention” by the youth was meant to stop
their party name from being brought into disrepute by Mashumba.
“Kudzanai Mashumba is not a member of the MDC-T party. He
was expelled about six months ago from the party over a myriad of offences
which include absenteeism, alcoholism and bullying of other workers. He was
never a politician. He was a mere worker who rose through the ranks to become
vice-president Thokozani Khupe’s aide until he was dismissed,” Dube said.
“He cannot, therefore, be competent enough to speak on
alleged abuse of funds and other party affairs when he was never directly
involved in the affairs. The intervention that was conducted by the youth was
within the youth’s responsibility as the vanguard of the party.”
Mashumba claimed to be a serving chief of protocol in the
MDC-T, a position he was appointed to by party vice-president Thokozani Khupe.
He accused Mwonzora of abusing $6 million allocated to the
party under the Political Parties Finance Act.
Mashumba also accused Mwonzora of imposing himself as the
party leader.
“The constitution of the party is very clear on the
timetable for any congress. The term of
office of the 2014 office bearers expired in November 2019 and one wonders how
and why the current office bearers continue to exercise their functions,” he
said.
Mashumba said the MDC-T was being led by unelected leaders.
“It is in the public domain that this self-imposed leadership
has blocked the people’s rights to elect their own leaders and has unashamedly
left one person to appoint and co-opt his own cronies into the party
leadership, a custom well-orchestrated in Zanu PF,” he said in a written speech
he had given to the media before the attack.
In a statement issued later by Dube, he claimed that the
commotion was caused by a member of the public who wanted to disrupt the event,
with video evidence showing Musarurwa intervening.
He claimed Musarurwa was actually protecting Mashumba. Newsday
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