More pressure for Chamisa in Bulawayo

Embattled MDC Nelson Chamisa is facing more and more headwinds as disgruntled party members here have vowed to put pressure on him to dissolve the current provincial executive or face a revolt in the region.

Disgruntled MDC Alliance officials in Bulawayo yesterday gave Chamisa a hostile reception to the city by painting graffiti at the party's provincial offices denigrating him for alleged dictatorship and tribalism as infighting in the troubled party escalates.

Mr Chamisa was in the city for the party's provincial caucus where contestants vying for posts at the party's scheduled congress were presenting their manifestos.

Before Bulawayo, he presided over similar meetings in Matabeleland North, South and the Midlands provinces.

It is suspected the graffiti attacking Mr Chamisa was written between midnight and early morning and party members who arrived at the offices earlier quickly notified their leadership.

Some of the messages written on the walls and gate to the party provincial office include, "Chamisa ule nketha betshabi (Chamisa you are tribalistic), "Chamisa usubulele i MDC" (Chamisa you have destroyed MDC), "Chamisa a worse dictator", "Chamisa uyadelela" (Chamisa you are disrespectful) among other derogatory and inflammatory messages.

To avoid embarrassment, the party moved quickly to erase the graffiti by painting over the insults and erasing the messages off the wall by 10AM.

The graffiti was washed off the wall with a substance suspected to be thinners while paint was applied on the gate to cover the insulting messages.

Chamisa has allegedly threatened to bar Bulawayo province from the party's congress next month over alleged indiscipline, prompting some members to accuse him of dictatorship.

 Mr Chamisa who reportedly sneaked into Bulawayo on Monday for a crisis meeting with members of the provincial executive vowed that the province will not be represented at the congress if they don't put their house in order.

He allegedly told the provincial leaders that approaching the courts would not yield anything as his decision would be final.

In the meeting, sources said, Mr Chamisa demanded that his deputy and ally Professor Welshman Ncube, who is facing resistance from the province, be accorded respect.

Party insiders said the MDC leader launched into a tirade over the party's loss to Zanu-PF at the recent Cowdray Park Ward 28 by-election saying the electoral loss was tantamount to treason.



Chamisa, 41, rose to become the Movement for Democratic Change interim leader last year following the death of founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai amid opposition from internal rivals, which split the party into two factions.

High Court judge Edith Mushore ruled that the process that took Chamisa to the helm of the MDC was unconstitutional and therefore null and void. In particular, she found that Tsvangirai's appointment of an additional two vice presidents in the form of Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri was unconstitutional, and that upon his death Khupe should have been acting president leading up to an extra-ordinary congress within 12 months.

The ruling followed a legal challenge from a party member to Chamisa's leadership.