Biti lashes 'nincompoop' Mwonzora

MDC vice chairperson Tendai Biti, whom many are tipping to contest for one of the party's vice president posts, angrily reacted to suggestions that MDC Alliance secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora may emerge as the new party leader after the elective congress. He said the party would not accept to be led by "a ruling party chosen half-wit".

"We will reject any nincompoop given to us by Zanu-PF. We already have a candidate in … Chamisa. So, we will not tolerate that.

"Our duty is to protect the legacy of our dear leader Morgan Tsvangirai and we know with Chamisa we will be able to do that," Biti thundered.

The MDC youth assembly also claimed that Zanu-PF wanted a "weaker candidate" to emerge as the party's leader in May "for obvious reasons" - vowing that this would not happen.

"It is saddening that Zanu-PF wants to give us a leader and we know why. We are however, clear as youths and other organs of the party that we have Chamisa as our leader and the decision is ours not Zanu-PF's," Lovemore Chinoputsa, the MDC youth assembly secretary-general, said. Zanu-PF deputy youth leader, Lewis Matutu, had earlier thrown the cat among the pigeons when he poisonously said Chamisa would receive a heavy shellacking from Mwonzora at the May congress, because "he did not have support in the MDC party structures".

"Mwonzora is likely to become the new MDC … president because the majority of Chamisa's hooligans are not in the structures of their party and they don't form part of the congress delegates," Matutu said in his controversial tweet.

The MDC youth assembly has however, insisted that Zanu-PF wants a "weaker candidate" to emerge as the party's leader in May "for obvious reasons" — vowing that this would not happen.

"It is saddening that Zanu-PF wants to give us a leader and we know why. We are, however, clear as youths and other organs of the party that we have Chamisa as our leader and the decision is ours not Zanu-PF's," said Lovemore Chinoputsa, the MDC youth assembly secretary-general.

Mwonzora recently declared that he has rights including contesting the sitting leader since he is a "full member of the MDC."

As a result, a lot of flak has been directed at him particularly following a mischievous tweet by Zanu-PF deputy youth leader Lewis Matutu, who "predicted" the fall of Chamisa come May.

A senior member of the MDC national standing committee, who refused to be named for fear of victimisation, also told the Daily News recently that Mwonzora was likely to be rejected by party supporters as perceptions grew that he was allegedly a Zanu-PF "Trojan Horse".

"This does not augur well for our SG (secretary-general) because he will now find it difficult to campaign in the structures as he is now being viewed as a Zanu-PF project, which is very sad," he said.

The charismatic Chamisa took over the party's reins in hotly-disputed circumstances in February last year, following the death of the MDC's revered founding president Tsvangirai - who lost his valiant battle against colon cancer on Valentine's Day, and soon after he had elevated the youthful politician to the party's presidium.

The 41-year-old was accused of having allegedly used his then assumed closeness to Tsvangirai's widow, Elizabeth, to torpedo the ambitions of the likes of Elias Mudzuri and Thokozani Khupe.

A titanic leadership battle subsequently ensued in the party, which eventually led to Khupe forming a breakaway faction which went on to perform dismally in last year's elections.

Chamisa ultimately prevailed over his party competitors after a consultative meeting of the MDC, which was held at its Harare headquarters - and which was attended by 639 delegates from 210 party districts — endorsed him as Tsvangirai's successor and the party's presidential candidate in the 2018 polls.