Mwonzora sweats over 'Zanu-PF links'

OPPOSITION MDC leader Douglas Mwonzora and his party are struggling to shake off the Zanu-PF tag that is stalking them since the ouster of Nelson Chamisa as the party's president.

Since the Supreme Court stripped Chamisa of the MDC presidency and conferred it on Thokozani Khupe on an interim basis before Mwonzora was elected substantive leader in December last year, the party leadership has been accused of being on the Zanu-PF-led government's payroll.

MDC spokesperson, Witness Dube, told the Daily News yesterday that the party's members were so miffed by the tag that the matter was raised during a national council meeting recently which resolved to come up with a media strategy to set the record straight.

"The matter was raised in the national council which resolved that a media strategy be developed to debunk that myth. We are not an appendage of any other political party. We are our own selves. The reason behind the myth is that we have taken a position that when we speak about issues of concern, such as the abuse of human rights in the country, we will not use megaphone politics.

"While we raise those issues, we may not use the tone that others want to prescribe. We resolved that we take the issues to a higher level, which explains our call for national dialogue where we hope those issues will be raised," Dube said.