Prof Ncube denies conniving with Mbeki to split MDC

Professor Welshman Ncube has once again denied claims contained in a book by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that he and former South African President Thabo Mbeki connived to split the MDC into two factions in 2005.

In the book 'At the Deep End' Tsvangirai claims that Mbeki was a central player in hatching a plot that would have seen an MDC faction led by Ncube forming an alliance with the ZANU PF faction led by Emmerson Mnangagwa. Ncube is said to have held several secret meetings with members of Mnangagwa's faction.

Speaking to SW Radio Africa's Question Time programme on Wednesday, Ncube said it was 'preposterous' and 'ridiculous' to suggest that they were willing to work with Mnangagwa.

"You really need to be an idiot to believe that one of the architects of the murders committed by the CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) in the early eighties could be the person we would enter into a pact with to secure Ndebele interests," Ncube said.

Explaining his relationship with Mbeki, Ncube said: "As a person I have known President Mbeki since he was External Secretary of the ANC (African National Congress) during the days they were fighting against apartheid. I have known him since he was coming to the law faculty to coordinate the South African ANC students that were training in the law school."

Ncube said there was nothing 'unhealthy' about this relationship and when part of the then MDC leadership had a fall out with Tsvangirai, over whether to participate in senate elections in 2005, they travelled to South Africa hoping Mbeki would mediate. The decision to approach Mbeki was at the suggestion of party supporters, he claimed.

In his book Tsvangirai also claimed that his colleagues, like Ncube "were simply riding on my popularity, in the forlorn hope that part of it would rub off on to them. They were uncomfortable with me as a person and a leader and I sensed that they wanted to build their political careers using Tsvangirai as a seat warmer who could ultimately be dislodged as soon as the right opportunity presented itself. Little did they know how easily I saw through that."

Given how Ncube's party had performed in the 2008 elections after the split, Ncube was asked if Tsvangirai's assessment had been vindicated seeing most of them had lost their parliamentary seats. Ncube said Tsvangirai as a 'brand' benefited from being party leader and that it was them as the rank and file of the party leadership who had helped to build him up.

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