MDC-T factions fighting over $3m in political funding

MDC-T factions are already fighting over $3 million in political funding from Treasury that the party is entitled to.

All parties with a prescribed presence in Parliament must, in terms of the law, get public funds and MDC-T expected slightly above $2 million last year and about $1 million this year.

A decision by the MDC-T national executive council to suspend party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, his deputy Thokozani Khupe, national organising secretary Nelson Chamisa and national chairman Lovemore Moyo over the weekend signaled another major split of the party and possible fight for money and property, among other assets.

The party's secretary general Tendai Biti attended the weekend meeting and made a statement supporting the suspensions.

The infighting has resulted in the two factions claiming that they are entitled to about $3 million, an amount that can make a difference for the cash-strapped groupings, to be released by Treasury in terms of the Political Parties (Finance) Act.

According to the law governing the State's financing of political parties, every political party represented in the legislative assembly shall be entitled to receive funding from the fiscus.

According to the Act, the government should bankroll all parties that get at least five percent of the vote and forbids political organisations from receiving foreign funding.

Against this background, both MDC-T factions yesterday claimed that they had the right to the money.

It is also understood that there is also a simmering battle for donor funding with indications that the faction which has Biti, Elton Mangoma and former Cabinet minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo as acting national chairman has support from the MDC-T's traditional financiers.

In an interview yesterday, Mangoma said there was no question as to who was entitled to the funds.

"The Act is clear on that. The money goes to the party and we are the party. There is no question about that. When the money is released by Treasury, it is coming to us," he said.

However, suspended spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said: "The Political Parties Finance Act states that the money goes to the party and not an individual. In this case, it is coming to us and not to the other MDC. We haven't received the money as yet but it is coming to us."

Asked on how much the party was entitled to, Mangoma said, "It's almost $3 million. Last year we were supposed to get over $2 million and didn't and this year, we are supposed to get about $800, 000. So it's about $3 million."

He said before Tsvangirai's suspension the party was lurching from one crisis to another and had appealed to its members to bankroll it. Over the weekend, Biti and Mangoma's faction said 138 out of the 176 national executive council members had voted on whether or not to suspend Tsvangirai. One hundred and thirty six members voted for Tsvangirai's suspension while two voted against.

Tsvangirai's suspension becomes the second such ouster bid during his stint at the helm of the opposition party.

Professor Welshman Ncube, then secretary general and the party's late vice-president Gibson Sibanda spearheaded the 2005 initial campaign that saw the party splitting into MDC and MDC-T.

Mwonzora told our Harare Bureau on Sunday that a "properly constituted" national executive council would meet today to map the way forward with regard to the future of the Biti-led faction.