MDC-T president Thokozani Khupe says she regrets working with Douglas Mwonzora in the opposition party after the two fell out once again resulting in the latest split in the party.
In December 2020, Khupe who was the MDC-T interim president
lost the influential position in a controversial manner to then
secretary-general Mwonzora at a chaotic extraordinary congress in Harare.
Khupe was later appointed the party vice president but
relations between the duo remained frosty.
She recently filed an application at the High Court seeking
an order to stop Mwonzora from recalling her from Parliament.
However, the deep divisions within the party surfaced again
this week after Mwonzora moved to suspend Khupe and Senator Khalipani Phugeni.
Khupe swiftly moved to counter her suspension, announcing
at a press conference in Bulawayo on Friday that Mwonzora had ceased to be the
party president after he announced that he was now the leader of the MDC
Alliance.
She also announced a split from the party, appointing
herself the leader of one of the splinter groups.
In an exclusive interview with Center for Innovation and
Technology (CITE’s) Breakfast Club host Zenzele Ndebele, on Saturday, Khupe
said she regretted working with Mwonzora.
“When we separated in 2018, the reason was that people did
not follow the constitution and when they came back they said, no, we have
reformed now we want to respect the constitution, we are respecting the supreme
court judgment and so now we are going to be doing things according to the
dictates of the constitution, but alas he did the opposite,” she said.
“He started by violating that supreme court judgment, where
the case in point was the issue of the second vice president. Our constitution
does not have a provision for a second vice president and the late Dr
Tsvangirai went ahead and appointed a second vice president, of which the
supreme court said it’s a nullity, your constitution does not have that
provision.”
Khupe said Mwonzora’s continued violation of the party
constitution led to the breakdown of relations.
“This is the point of departure because I have been trying
to advise for times without number, to say let’s try and do everything
according to the dictates of our constitution as he said in one of his
interviews that the constitution is the bible and must be followed in the
letter and spirit in which it was written.” Cite.org.zw
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