Chamisa's ' electoral promises' vindicate Khupe

MDC Alliance presidential candidate Advocate Nelson Chamisa's "frivolous electoral promises that are hazardous to the public" have vindicated MDC-T breakaway president Dr Thokozani Khupe on her calls that the party should have held a congress to elect new leadership, her spokesperson said yesterday.

Dr Khupe, following the party's founding president Morgan Tsvangirai's death in February this year, called on the party to hold an extraordinary congress to choose its new leader but Adv Chamisa grabbed power.

In an interview, Dr Khupe's spokesperson Mr Witness Dube said Adv Chamisa's lack of depth and incredible bungling was shocking and it was hazardous for the public to follow his childish promises.

Adv Chamisa has grabbed every opportunity to make even the unlikeliest of political gaffes.

He has been making some unrealistic electoral promises such as introducing bullet trains, spaghetti roads while lying about meeting US president Donald Trump.

He even gambled with his 18-year-old sister saying he will give her to President Mnangagwa if he lost elections, sparking an outcry from gender activists who accused him for being insensitive to women.

Mr Dube said Adv Chamisa's wild electoral promises and lies are enough proof that Dr Khupe was right in her call for an extraordinary congress as Adv Chamisa lacks leadership qualities.

"In fact she is being vindicated by lack of depth in Chamisa's leadership qualities. The young man is definitely out of depth. We should have subjected the issue of leadership to the collective wisdom of the people," said Mr Dube.

"Nonetheless we moved on with our congress and elected the MDC-T leadership that the people want. Anyone else who wants to continue with Chamisa's child's play can do so, it's their choice. But when real issues are decided they will come to the real MDC-T house for real resolution."

He said although it is regrettable that the MDC-T could split votes in the coming election, Dr Khupe would not trade principle over compromise.

"That is always regrettable and we must always understand that the principle of good leadership supersedes damages that can be on the way," he said.

Mr Dube defended Dr Khupe-led MDC-T election manifesto titled Building an Economy to Support Transformation (BEST) that was launched on Saturday, saying it was addressing people's expectations hence there was no need for people to make noise about it.

"It didn't come up as a surprise because it came from the people. It wasn't an attention grabbing manifesto, it was putting to print what people already knew we stand for. You wouldn't expect people to start saying this could have been that. They were consulted. For people who believe in us it was a way of formalising our campaign," said Mr Dube.

The Adv Chamisa camp on the other hand is still to come up with a manifesto and has been reacting to events in Zanu-PF, to its detriment.

Last month, MDC-T deputy president Engineer Elias Mudzuri cast aspersions on the presidency of Adv Nelson Chamisa, saying members "followed the wind" in choosing him as the late founding party president Tsvangirai's successor.

He said the party could be forced to change its leadership if Adv Chamisa loses the coming elections.