Ncube and Mutambara in deep trouble-MDC MP
It never rains but pours for the MDC faction leadership of Welshman Ncube and Arthur Mutambara,and if last night’s revelations by two MDC MPs are anything to go by tough times lie ahead for the duo.
An MDC MP has revealed that the MDC national council meeting held in Harare last week was chaotic and volatile and MDC MPs were furious when Mutambara and Ncube, allegedly accused the MPs of compromising their negotiating powers by constantly backing Tsvangirai.
“The national council meeting was dedicated to attacking us and Tsvangirai, but there is no way we can distance ourselves from our colleagues in the Tsvangirai led formation. It is surprising that our leaders now want to back Zanu PF and President Robert Mugabe,” said one MP, who spoke on condition that he is not named.
Three of the party’s ten MPs, were quizzed at the tense meeting and ordered to stop talking to the media and associating with MPs aligned to the Tsvangirai faction.
One MP charged that Ncube and some members of the national executive members are on the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and Zanu PF payroll.
“The allegations raised by the MPs were not responded to, everyone went quiet when the allegations were raised but the exchange which took place at the national council meeting is worrying as it shows that the majority of the party’s ten MPs will not support any Mutambara decision in parliament,” said the source.
Another MP revealed that the party was now disillusioned with the leadership after a dismal performance in the March election in which the entire national executive was wiped out. To compound matters the official also said there now more questions than answeres on the financial position of the faction.
“Ncube flies from Pretoria to Harare and makes a stop over in Bulawayo en-route to Harare and orders Fletcher Dulini-Ncube to sign cheques for Harare hotel bills for meetings they have not attended and for dodgy payment expense claims by the likes of Sikhala.”
The MP revealed that the party’s operations were now concentrated on a small kitchen cabinet composed of Mutambara,Mushonga,Sikhala and Ncube and party meetings are now held in South Africa and Harare.
The abuse of the party’s funds has reportedly angered Sen.David Coltart who is faction’s top fund-raiser. Coltart is the faction’s only candidate who won a senate seat in Bulawayo,the second largest city.
“Coltart is soft-spoken and will never explode like some of us but he is burning inside and frustrated” , the MP added.
Nine of the ten Members of Parliament defied the party leadership to back its election director ,Paul Themba Nyathi’s nomination for the speaker position and backed Tsvangirai led MDC’s National Chairman Lovemore Moyo.
On Saturday Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba wrote in The Herald that if the MDC faction’s MPs defy their party leadership in parliament they will encourage Ncube to expel them.
‘While a tripartite agreement is certainly welcome, MDC-Mutambara will decide in a political environment where it may not yet be available. Or even possible…they cannot worry about an internal split arising from this question. Their rebel MPs, if any do exist, would have to face a series of by-elections in which MDC-M and Zanu-PF will be collaborating against MDC-T, presumably the new home for those rebels. Not a single seat will come back to those rebels and MDC-T’, wrote Charamba.
Posted by Philip Mangena
on August 27, 2008. Filed under Local News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Socialize
Recent Comments