ZANU PF Using Mwonzora To Destroy MDC Alliance - Ncube
MDC Alliance vice president Professor Welshman Ncube says the State has employed various tactics to dismember their party, including sponsoring a “fake” opposition party.
In an interview with CITE on the Breakfast Club, on Monday, Prof Ncube said these tactics involve taking away their Members of Parliament, sponsoring a rival faction and even handing it their share from the Political Parties Finance Fund while using COVID-19 regulations to restrict their political activities.
Prof Ncube declared that the party led by Douglas Mwonzora was also a part of the state’s chicanery as it received support from the military-led government to elbow the MDC Alliance out. He said:
It’s been quite tough, let’s remember that the official point of ZANU PF and the military-led government is actually to dismember the MDC Alliance that defeated it in 2018, at least in the presidential election. There have been systematic efforts to dismember MDC.
They have basically taken our MPs and given them to other political parties. They have taken our properties such as the Harvest House and given them to Douglas Mwonzora. They have taken our money, which we are definitely entitled to.
There can be no ambiguity about that because the law simply says that a party that wins more than five per cent at an election is entitled to a certain proportion of the political party’s money.
Prof Ncube noted how the hypocrisy of these tactics was astounding. He said:
In the beginning, they were claiming this money belonged to the MDC-T and they openly brazenly gave it to Mwonzora. Now Mwonzora is trying to reconstitute another party altogether and is still calling it the MDC Alliance.
The government gazette last week states that the money will be paid to the MDC Alliance and this is a new MDC alliance led by Mwonzora, not the MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa which in fact won those votes.
Prof Ncube noted the MDC Alliance, “was made up of the MDC-T that time led by Chamisa, PDP led by Tendai Biti and the MDC led by myself, ZANU Ndoga, MCD, ZimPF led by Agrippa Mutambara, Transform Zimbabwe led by Jacob Ngarivhume.” He said:
Most of Ngarivhume’s leaders remained in the MDC Alliance but he left with those who wanted to and Ngarivhume is certainly not with Mwonzora.
ZANU Ndoga is certainly not with Mwonzora. So who is with Mwonzora? Seemingly, there is only the MCD but they continue to call themselves the MDC Alliance although they created a new entity.
The MDC Alliance vice president argued that the law is very clear as it spelt out that if the MDC Alliance led by Chamisa was for some reason not recognised, then no one could receive a share of funds. He said:
If you don’t recognise the MDC Alliance that contested the election in 2018 and for whatever reason, you say it no longer exists or didn’t exist or you claim that it didn’t have a legal personality of its own and therefore cannot claim any money, no one then will be entitled to that money.
The Political Parties Act does not say constituency elements of an alliance would then be given that political parties money.
Either that money belongs to the MDC Alliance led by Chamisa which contested that election or it doesn’t belong to anyone. That is the bottom line.
