MDC-T youth leader face disciplinary action

MDC-T Youth Assembly secretary-general Promise Mkhwananzi found himself in the firing line for speaking out against the ongoing purge of party members suspected to be backing moves to oust party leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mkhwananzi on Monday accused Tsvangirai's backers of being averse to divergent views, especially on calls for leadership renewal.

He also took aim at party organising secretary Nelson Chamisa for praise singing Tsvangirai, accusing the youthful politician of being behind the purging of competitors to pave way for his ambition of taking over as MDC-T president.

But the MDC-T youth assembly's national spokesperson Clifford Hlatshwayo yesterday said Mkhwananzi's comments violated the MDC-T constitution.

"We expected the secretary-general as a representative of the assembly to toe the line," he charged.

"We take great exception to the fact that the secretary-general can divulge party proceedings in the public domain and such an act is tantamount to a security breach.

"We are no longer sure how much of such sensitive information the secretary-general churns out to people. Appropriate decisions will be made at the appropriate time on the conduct of the secretary-general which we feel has been a violation of the constitution," Hlatshwayo said in a Press release.

Hlatshwayo refused to comment further when contacted for comment and referred Southern Eye to the Press release.

The statement said Mkhwananzi committed a punishable offence by continuing to disregard advice to stop uttering statements on leadership renewal.

"We wish to point out that the secretary-general has been communicated with to the effect that there is a clear way of channelling information to the public from the assembly and that such responsibility lies in the office of the spokesperson.

"It has also been communicated to him that he should desist from uttering unsubstantiated statements contrary to the views and standing resolutions of the assembly and party in general no matter how different it might be to his personal views and aspirations as we operate as a collective," Hlatshwayo said.

Mkhwananzi, who was roughed up at the MDC-T Harvest House headquarters recently, was unreachable for comment.

On Monday, he accused bootlickers of Tsvangirai of setting "a very dangerous trajectory for a movement that not only provided enormous hope for the people of Zimbabwe, but one which claimed to be a big church of divergent ideas".