'We can't single-handedly topple Mugabe,' says MDC-T

MDC-T national executive member Samuel Sipepa Nkomo yesterday admitted his party is not capable of dethroning the ruling Zanu-PF and its leader President Robert Mugabe.

Speaking during a public meeting organised by the Bulawayo Agenda in conjunction with Sapes Trust   to discuss the topic "Wither Zimbabwe at 34," Nkomo said there was no way his party could single-handedly take over power hence there was need  for all parties to join forces if there was to be regime- change in the country.

"MDC-T is not capable and we cannot as opposition continue failing to work together  saying this is my party and mine alone. If opposition parties continue with their fiefdoms we will get nowhere and we will not be able to defeat Zanu-PF," he said.

"As opposition parties, it is high time we started working together if we are to remove Zanu-PF which has been in power since Independence," he said.

Nkomo, who was booed while making his contribution to the discussion, also said it was not MDC-T alone which was plagued by factionalism as Zanu PF also facing the same problem.

"If as a party we have factions, we know very well that we are not in this alone because Zanu-PF has factions as well."

MDC-T has been rocked by infighting as a group led by former deputy-general Elton Mangoma has openly called for the party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai to step down as he had become a "liability" to the party.

Mangoma has since been fired along some members of his team for spearheading the leadership renewal agenda in the MDC-T .

In an effort to repel attacks on him Tsvangirai has been going around the country trying to convince the party's grass-roots membership that he is the "chosen Moses who can deliver the children of Israel into the promised Canaan" and has also extended the olive branch to members of the MDC-T who left the party after the 2005 split.

Last month, the leader of MDC 99, Job Sikhala heeded the call and rejoined the MDC-T .

But some of the founding members of the original MDC like Welshman Ncube have dismissed Tsvangirai's "big tent politics" as ramblings about a "rotten tent" suffering a democracy deficit.