Expelled Hlalo insists that he was still a member of MDC-T

MDC-T Senator Matson Hlalo yesterday insisted that he was still a member of the beleaguered party, accusing its spokesperson Obert Gutu, who last week confirmed he been sacked, of misrepresenting facts.

Gutu last Friday said the MDC-T's national council had on Wednesday passed a resolution to expel Hlalo from the fractious party adding that constitutional provisions would be followed to effect the resolution.

However, Hlalo yesterday insisted that he had not been expelled from the party but was only called to explain his conduct.

"It's news to me. I don't know anything of that sort, what I know is nothing in that direction. What I know is that they've to get to hear my side of the story. It's just some people who just don't know how to use words," he said.

"As far as I know, I'm still a member of the party. I've only been called to explain my conduct."

Hlalo, party insiders said, was accused of bringing the name of the party into disrepute by defying a directive for him to withdraw a court case challenging the election of Bulawayo deputy mayor Gift Banda as provincial chairperson last year.

Banda was voted chairperson after beating Hlalo in a chaotic Bulawayo provincial congress ahead of the party's national congress.

The former councillor approached the courts seeking a nullification of the election results.

In the provincial congress, Tsvangirai got himself involved in the chaos by personally accrediting delegates.

Sources last week said Tsvangirai bowed to pressure from his deputy Thokozani Khupe's faction to expel Hlalo as he is aligned to former organising secretary Nelson Chamisa.

As the fall-out deepens between Tsvangirai and Chamisa, accused of campaigning for an early congress to depose the embattled leader, more purges are expected in the party especially in Bulawayo.

Insiders said the party would announce more expulsions of members next week as Tsvangirai and the Khupe faction gang up on Chamisa's grouping.

The party, at a meeting of the national council, also snubbed an application by the MDC-T Veteran Activists' Association (VAA) to be the party's affiliate member and have Tsvangirai as their patron after the Khupe faction reportedly convinced the former Prime Minister that it was composed mostly of "Cobra" people, a term associated with Chamisa's grouping.

The group was also reportedly blamed for causing chaos at the late Nkulumane legislator Thamsanqa Mahlangu's burial last month when party youths engaged in violent clashes as the two factions battled to control funeral and burial processes.

The youths clashed again when Tsvangirai, who had snubbed Mahlangu's burial, visited the late legislator's relatives in Bulawayo.