News / Local
Mwonzora foe readies for battle
14 Feb 2021 at 07:37hrs | Views
MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora's challenger Abednego Bhebhe says he is not giving up the fight to overturn the outcome of the opposition party's extraordinary congress after he rejected manoeuvres to bring him back into the fold.
Mwonzora's party last Saturday said it was readmitting Bhebhe after expelling him in the run-up to the extraordinary congress for questioning alleged plots to rig the process.
The former MDC-T organising secretary spurned the olive branch extended by the party and is vowing to fight on.
"I am not quitting politics," Bhebhe said in interview yesterday.
"If you read my statement carefully, you will find that there's nowhere where I mentioned that I am quitting politics, but I mentioned correcting things which went wrong in the party."
He refused to shed light on the strategies he will use to "correct the wrong things".
Bhebhe, however, in his statement last week indicated that he did not recognise the extraordinary congress.
"I want to make it clear that I don't recognise the extraordinary congress of December 27 2020," he said.
Former MDC-T interim leader Thokozani Khupe's backers, especially in the diaspora, are said to be mulling a legal challenge against Mwonzora's election. They argue that the extraordinary congress was not properly constituted.
Khupe alleged that the voting process was rigged and at some point said she had suspended Mwonzora from the party. She then went quiet after announcing that she had contracted Covid-19 soon after the congress and has not been heard from since.
Mwonzora offered the former deputy prime minister the post of first vicepresident, but she is yet to respond publicly.
Meanwhile, Bhebhe yesterday said it was not up to President Emmerson Mnangagwa to decide the official opposition party.
On Friday the Zanu-PF leader referred to MDC-T as the official opposition party. MDC-T and MDC Alliance are engaged in a dispute over which party should be recognised as the official opposition.
"Mnangagwa shouldn't think that his opposition are political parties, but the suffering citizens," Bhebhe said.
"It's not his business to christen, which is the biggest political party in the country as citizens would choose, which party is the biggest."
Mwonzora's party last Saturday said it was readmitting Bhebhe after expelling him in the run-up to the extraordinary congress for questioning alleged plots to rig the process.
The former MDC-T organising secretary spurned the olive branch extended by the party and is vowing to fight on.
"I am not quitting politics," Bhebhe said in interview yesterday.
"If you read my statement carefully, you will find that there's nowhere where I mentioned that I am quitting politics, but I mentioned correcting things which went wrong in the party."
He refused to shed light on the strategies he will use to "correct the wrong things".
Bhebhe, however, in his statement last week indicated that he did not recognise the extraordinary congress.
"I want to make it clear that I don't recognise the extraordinary congress of December 27 2020," he said.
Former MDC-T interim leader Thokozani Khupe's backers, especially in the diaspora, are said to be mulling a legal challenge against Mwonzora's election. They argue that the extraordinary congress was not properly constituted.
Khupe alleged that the voting process was rigged and at some point said she had suspended Mwonzora from the party. She then went quiet after announcing that she had contracted Covid-19 soon after the congress and has not been heard from since.
Mwonzora offered the former deputy prime minister the post of first vicepresident, but she is yet to respond publicly.
Meanwhile, Bhebhe yesterday said it was not up to President Emmerson Mnangagwa to decide the official opposition party.
On Friday the Zanu-PF leader referred to MDC-T as the official opposition party. MDC-T and MDC Alliance are engaged in a dispute over which party should be recognised as the official opposition.
"Mnangagwa shouldn't think that his opposition are political parties, but the suffering citizens," Bhebhe said.
"It's not his business to christen, which is the biggest political party in the country as citizens would choose, which party is the biggest."
Source - the standard
