Khupe-Mwonzora to announce extraordinary congress date tomorrow

The Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai says it will announce the date for its extraordinary congress tomorrow.

The congress was ordered by the Supreme Court after it ruled that the party’s leadership of Nelson Chamisa was illegitimate, a decision that Chamisa and his MDC- Alliance partners have refused to accept.

The court also ordered the party to revert to 2014 congress structures which gave leadership of the party to Thokozani Khupe, the elected vice-president, with Douglas Mwonzora as secretary-general.

Chamisa was secretary for policy coordination in that structure.

In an interview with the Herald, Mwonzora said the party was going to have its national council meeting online tomorrow.

“And then after that we will find ways of getting to the delegates without jeopardising their health and our technical team is looking at all this,” he said.

“On Friday, we will be announcing the date of the congress and unveiling the rules concerning the nomination of the candidates. Our hope is that if we get one candidate nominated unopposed, then there may not be need for a bigger gathering.”

The court ruling has divided the party with those loyal to Chamisa saying the ruling was of no effect.

Khupe, however, made the first strike by recalling four key legislators Chalton Hwende (the secretary-general), Prosper Mutseyami (the chief whip), Lillian Timveous (a senator) and Thabitha Khumalo (national chairman).

Mwonzora said the four were targeted because they are “senior members who ought to have acted responsibly in the discharge of their duties, particularly after the Supreme Court ruling, which directed that we revert to the 2014 structures”.

Alex Magaisa, former advisor to Morgan Tsvangirai, the founding party leader whose death led to the present squabbles, had his own three reasons why the four were targeted.

“First, these four MPs have been chosen because they are the leaders of the MDC-Alliance in Parliament. Khumalo, who is the MDC Alliance Chairperson is the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly while Timveos is the leader of the opposition in the Senate. Mutseyami is the MDC Alliance Chief Whip while Charlton Hwende is the Secretary-General of the party,” he wrote on his personal blog.

“The idea appears to be to attack the head of the MDC Alliance. Mwonzora and Hwende have had a long-standing battle which culminated in the battle for the Secretary-Generalship at the MDC Alliance Congress in 2019 in which Hwende prevailed. This part of the recall seems like a continuation of a personal war marked by a streak of vindictiveness.

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