'Chamisa's MDC affected by greed, selfishness'

MDC Alliance secretary for rural strategies Happymore Chidziva yesterday said the opposition camp was severely affected by greediness, selfish and egos of some of its top leaders, hence the sharp divisions within the movement.

Chidziva yesterday posted the remarks on his Facebook page during commemorations of the party's late founder Morgan Tsvangirai's life, who died on February 14, 2018.

He said the late Tsvangirai once told him that the MDC movement should be a party where the leadership passes on the baton to make way for new leaders as it was a peoples' project where everyone should participate.

"His last words to me as the then commander of the MDC youth assembly were that the movement is not a one generational movement and that it must survive from generation to generation," Chidziva said.

"This can only be possible if we deal with issues like greed, selfishness and ego in the leaders of the party. The party is not a centre of elite power struggles, No! It is a people's project and all generations should be allowed their stake," he said.

Chidziva said opposition leaders should be ready to encourage intergenerational transition, which unites the party and makes it a political home for everyone.

He said it was abnormal to have 85% of the youthful population in the country being led by old people.

"The fight by Tsvangirai was never for one group of people or for one age group, but rather for all Zimbabweans. It was anchored upon continuity and growth. We have seen those that have tried to digress and detract the democratic project. Trust me, history and nature will judge them harshly," he said.

The MDC, which was formed in 2000, later broke into different factions after disagreements by its leaders. However, during the 2018 elections, several factions of the MDC coalesced and formed the MDC Alliance. The MDC-T then led by Thokozani Khupe did not join the MDC Alliance.

In response to Chidziva's remarks, MDC-T spokesperson Witness Dube said his party had no appetite to attack fellow opposition movements.

"As MDC-T we believe that president (Morgan) Tsvangirai espoused unity of purpose as a guiding principle which must define relations with one another. We, therefore, share no appetite in attacking fellow progressive movements by denigrating or labelling them as anything other than our colleagues in this movement for the full democratisation of our country in our lifetime," Dube said.

Contrary to Dube's claims, the Douglas Mwonzora-led MDC-T's virtual memorial for Tsvangirai yesterday turned into a verbal attack on MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa.

MDC-T chairman Morgen Komichi alleged that all the supporters of the MDC Alliance belonged to the late Tsvangirai, adding that Chamisa had no supporters of his own.

"All the people who were working under Tsvangirai's leadership belong to Tsvangirai, nobody belongs to Nelson ... the fact that we remained here at Harvest House, as the MDC-T, everything that belonged to Tsvangirai is ours, his wives are ours, his children are ours, young brothers ours, the party is ours, the MPS and councillors are ours, and the MDC Alliance is ours. We took Tsvangirai's heritage, so everything that was owned by Tsvangirai is ours, why sell the name of the party to other people," Komichi said.

Guest speaker and leader of the National Constitutional Assembly, Lovemore Madhuku, attacked MDC Alliance vice-president Tendai Biti, describing him as a temperamental person.