Former MDC-UK Chair in Wikileaks storm, wanted to replace Tsvangirai

In some exclusive revelations by some Zimbabwean online news site Zimeye, deposed former MDC-T UK chairman Ephraim Tapa was at the centre of a Wikileaks 'revelation' that viewed him as a better replacement of Morgan Tsvangirai, it has emerged.

If relied upon, the belief may 'reveal' that the US government planned for Ephraim Tapa to replace Tsvangirai upon his return to Zimbabwe say Zimeye.

According to leaked Wikileaks cables, former US envoy Christopher Dell said he strongly believed Zimbabwe's future leaders were in the Diaspora.

He was quoted as `saying:

"The great saving grace of the opposition is likely to be found in the Diaspora. Most of Zimbabwe's best professionals, entrepreneurs, businessmen and women have fled the country. They are the opposition's natural allies and it is encouraging to see signs, particularly in South Africa and the UK, that these people are talking, sharing ideas, developing
plans and thinking together about future recovery."

Dell was also quoted saying he found Tsvangirai to be "a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgement", according to the leaked secret cable published by whistle-blower website Wikileaks.

ZimEye reveals that in 2007 the US ambassador Dell was quoted stating his diaspora-vision for Zimbabwe, and during the same year Morgan Tsvangirai would soon swiftly sack the whole Ephraim Tapa-led executive by August 2007 in a controversial move widely condemned by members in the UK. National Chairman Lovemore Moyo was sent to England in August 2007 and unilaterally expelled Ephraim Tapa together with his executive.

The ejection of the Tapa executive was met with resentment from both Tapa and many members as some also soon defected to the revived ZAPU party. Equally shocked by the sacking, Tapa soon launched his own MDC website in natural defiance. ZimEye has had exclusive access to documented evidence showing how Tapa confidently set up a parallel-MDC website without fear of the legal implications thereof, a development which evidently suggested a higher authority was backing his actions.

Speaking to our reporter early in 2009, Tapa said that Tsvangirai had removed him out of pure jealousy.

'At the time Morgan removed me from Chairmanship, people in Zimbabwe had been crying saying muno tsvakireiko vatungamiri ivo vatungamiri kuEngland variko? – Why do you look for leaders when in England they are there?" Tapa said referring to what he said were developments in the party in Zimbabwe.

The 'revelation' comes at a time when Tsvangirai's leadership is under a vicious test of internal incompetence and violence with  reports that his party is being supported through nepotism and vote buying centered around Tsvangirai's sustained grip on to the party-President post as subordinates fight each other in the fray.

Tsvangirai recently admitted that his party was being destroyed by  'money'.

Since his removal by Tsvangirai, Ephraim Tapa has led the protest organisation Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) he launched while still MDC-UK chairman. Suggesting solutions to Zimbabwe's political headache, the potential leader has also criticised Zimbabwe's government of national unity saying that Tsvangirai should have rather formed a parallel government while in exile.