News / National
Tsvangirai's MDC-T suspends Mangoma
01 Feb 2014 at 19:13hrs | Views
The MDC-T National Executive Council, in an emergency meeting today, suspended the party's Deputy Treasurer General, Elton Mangoma, pending a disciplinary hearing following his recent calls for party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to step down, the Zimbabwean reported.
While the party spokesperson, Douglas Mwonzora, was not picking his phone, highly placed sources at Harvest House separately confirmed the suspension.
"Mangoma was suspended by the NEC when it met today. Tsvangirai was present at the meeting," said an MDC-T MP.
The legislator, a senior party member, however, said the suspension could be challenged as it breached the MDC-T constitution.
"Constitutionally, the National Executive Council does not have the powers to suspend a member perceived to have made an offence. That is the work of the Standing Committee," said the MP.
Mangoma, the former energy minister under the Government of National Unity that subsisted between early 2009 and mid-2014, recently wrote a letter addressed to Tsvangirai advising him to step down and allow for leadership renewal.
He accused Tsvangirai of tarnishing the image of the party through a controversial love life and failing to guard against an MDC-T defeat in the 2013 general elections controversially won by Zanu-PF.
He subsequently made public utterances attacking Tsvangirai and accused him of setting party youths on him at Harvest House.
Tsvangirai restrained the youths from manhandling him after his call for leadership renewal, but Mangoma reportedly accused the party boss of sending them in the first place.
Other senior party members have in the past directly and indirectly called on Tsvangirai to step down following last year's defeat.
These include Roy Bennett, the Treasurer General, former National Organising Secretary, Elias Mudzuri, and an ex-MP, Ian Kay.
While the party spokesperson, Douglas Mwonzora, was not picking his phone, highly placed sources at Harvest House separately confirmed the suspension.
"Mangoma was suspended by the NEC when it met today. Tsvangirai was present at the meeting," said an MDC-T MP.
The legislator, a senior party member, however, said the suspension could be challenged as it breached the MDC-T constitution.
"Constitutionally, the National Executive Council does not have the powers to suspend a member perceived to have made an offence. That is the work of the Standing Committee," said the MP.
Mangoma, the former energy minister under the Government of National Unity that subsisted between early 2009 and mid-2014, recently wrote a letter addressed to Tsvangirai advising him to step down and allow for leadership renewal.
He accused Tsvangirai of tarnishing the image of the party through a controversial love life and failing to guard against an MDC-T defeat in the 2013 general elections controversially won by Zanu-PF.
He subsequently made public utterances attacking Tsvangirai and accused him of setting party youths on him at Harvest House.
Tsvangirai restrained the youths from manhandling him after his call for leadership renewal, but Mangoma reportedly accused the party boss of sending them in the first place.
Other senior party members have in the past directly and indirectly called on Tsvangirai to step down following last year's defeat.
These include Roy Bennett, the Treasurer General, former National Organising Secretary, Elias Mudzuri, and an ex-MP, Ian Kay.
Source - zimbabwean
