'Morgan Tsvangirai is a failure' say MDC-T Senator

MDC-T Senator for Bulawayo's Gwabalanda constituency, Agnes Sibanda, has courted the ire of the party after she told a meeting on Saturday that party leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has failed to deliver.

Sen Sibanda, who is popularly known as MaMloyi, made the remarks at Beit Hall in Luveve.

Supporters had at the district meeting took her and the Member of Parliament for Luveve, Mr Reggie Moyo, to task for failing to deliver.


Party supporters who were at the meeting told Chronicle that Sen Sibanda shot back and said members were asking for too much from them as Mr Tsvangirai, as the head of the party, had also failed to deliver.

They said Sen Sibanda told them that there was no way she could perform according to people's expectations when the party's president was failing to lead by example.

The district encompasses Luveve, Gwabalanda and Cowdray Park suburbs.

"After we had expressed our dissatisfaction over the performance of the party leadership in the constituency during the meeting, Senator Sibanda told us not to expect her to perform when the party president, Morgan Tsvangirai, is a failure. She said it was only after Tsvangirai has executed his duties well that she would be able to do the same," said a party member, who was at the meeting.

He said Sen Sibanda repeated the statement three times until Mr Moyo spoke to her in private and warned her against uttering negative remarks about their leader in public.

The supporters said Mr Moyo, who is also the party's provincial secretary, and Mr Albert Mhlanga, the organising secretary and MP for Pumula, later approached police officers who were at the meeting and pleaded with them not to take the issue to the Press.

Contacted for comment yesterday, Sen Sibanda could neither confirm nor deny that she made the remarks, saying they were not for public consumption. "What we spoke about that day is information only for the party not for public consumption. It has got nothing to do with you," said Sen Sibanda.

Mr Moyo confirmed that a district meeting was held in Luveve on Saturday, but declined to comment on the issue.

"I cannot comment on the issue because I did not attend the whole meeting. Maybe the remarks were made when I had gone out to attend to other things. I kept going out and coming in during the meeting," said Mr Moyo.

However, party supporters castigated her and Mr Moyo for allegedly fuelling factionalism in the party.

"They have done absolutely nothing to enhance development in the constituency. They do not even make efforts to support people in the constituency, but they have the energy to create factionalism which is making the party suffer.

"There are three wards in each district in the constituency, which has about 550 members in the structures. This means that a district rally should be attended by at least 1 600 members. But because of factionalism, only 130 people turned up for the rally," said a furious member of the party, who asked not to be named.

He said the leadership in the constituency was suspending people under unclear circumstances at the expense of the party.

"The biggest problem that we have is that the Senator and the MP do not want to be challenged. Instead of mobilising people, they are busy suspending party members. If your opinions differ with theirs, they quickly serve you with a suspension letter or call you for a disciplinary hearing.

"We have a lot of problems here in Luveve and we are pained to see that party leaders are bent on destroying it," he said.

On factionalism, Sen Sibanda refuted the allegations and said suspension of members was only a corrective measure.

"There is no factionalism in Gwabalanda or anywhere else in Bulawayo. When people do wrong we suspend them as a way of sorting out the problems and this does not mean that we have expelled them from the party," said Sen Sibanda.

Mr Moyo said he was working at provincial level as the party's secretary and did not having anything to say about the structures and problems of the party at district level.

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