News / National
MDC ripped by serious divisions and suspicions as Mugabe's Zanu-PF
14 Nov 2011 at 07:15hrs | Views
PM Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC was ripped by serious divisions and suspicions as President Mugabe's Zanu PF, Wikileaks cables from 2001 to 2005 show.
Local US diplomats learnt of the chaos, infighting and poor organisational framework of the then opposition party after meeting scores of the MDC's senior leadership ' including then deputy secretary general Gift Chimanikire and other executive committee members such as Trudy Stevenson, David Coltart, Paul Nyathi and Tendai Biti.
Stevenson, now Zimbabwean ambassador to Senegal, was particularly scathing about her colleagues, making it clear to the Americans that she did not trust anyone in her party as she believed that many of her colleagues were Zanu PF plants.
A fired up Stevenson told US diplomat Earl Irving in February 2001 that she did not trust her fellow members of parliament Tafadzwa Musekiwa, Job Sikhala and the Late Learnmore Jongwe, as well as Youth leader Nelson Chamisa because she thought they were Zanu PF spies.
She said this group of MDC youths and others, whom she described as gatekeepers, stuck to Tsvangirai like glue and prevented anyone else from getting close to him.
She similarly did not trust Tsvangirai's special advisor Gandi Mudzingwa either, adding emphatically: "I don't trust anyone."
Local US diplomats learnt of the chaos, infighting and poor organisational framework of the then opposition party after meeting scores of the MDC's senior leadership ' including then deputy secretary general Gift Chimanikire and other executive committee members such as Trudy Stevenson, David Coltart, Paul Nyathi and Tendai Biti.
Stevenson, now Zimbabwean ambassador to Senegal, was particularly scathing about her colleagues, making it clear to the Americans that she did not trust anyone in her party as she believed that many of her colleagues were Zanu PF plants.
A fired up Stevenson told US diplomat Earl Irving in February 2001 that she did not trust her fellow members of parliament Tafadzwa Musekiwa, Job Sikhala and the Late Learnmore Jongwe, as well as Youth leader Nelson Chamisa because she thought they were Zanu PF spies.
She said this group of MDC youths and others, whom she described as gatekeepers, stuck to Tsvangirai like glue and prevented anyone else from getting close to him.
She similarly did not trust Tsvangirai's special advisor Gandi Mudzingwa either, adding emphatically: "I don't trust anyone."
Source - Daily News on Sunday
