'Zanu-PF dangling money to MDC activists'

FORMER Nkayi South MP Abednico Bhebhe (MDC Alliance) was allegedly approached by Zanu-PF officials who dangled money to entice him to join the ruling party.

The claim was made by former Zanu-PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo, who alleged that a ruling party's top executive in the Midlands province, whose name has been withheld, had approached Bhebhe with the offer.

"He (the provincial executive) was recently rebuffed by Abednico Bhebhe, who has rejoined MDC Alliance," Moyo claimed in a tweet.

Bhebhe yesterday could neither confirm nor deny the issue to NewsDay, saying his life was in danger. He said he was receiving "disturbing" calls over the matter, hence could not shed more light.

"Unfortunately, I am receiving some disturbing phone calls because of that, so I won't comment any further," the former MDC-T organising secretary said.

"If you read the finer details on my statement, you will see the answer," he told NewsDay.

In a statement he sent to NewsDay, Bhebhe hinted that there were some opposition officials who fell for "Zanu-PF trinkets".

"In that same interview, I posed the rhetoric question: Are you available to the highest bidder? Does it mean if Zanu-PF offers more than the MDC is prepared to give, then you will join them?' At that time, I was neither prophetic nor even thinking it possible that some of our colleagues, not one or two, but a horde of them would indeed rejoin Zanu-PF after all what it (Zanu-PF) has done to this country," Bhebhe said.

"As a mature politician, I will not be tempted to say I told you so. I believe that it is my duty to en-gage fellow comrades genuinely and truthfully all the time. And I have always done so," he said.

Several former MDC officials including ex-Kwekwe Central MP Blessing Chebundo, former MDC Alliance deputy treasurer-general Lillian Timveos, among others, have since joined Zanu-PF and were recently paraded at State House by Mnangagwa.

Zanu-PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo rubbished claims that the ruling party was using money to lure opposition figures.

"That is hogwash," Moyo said.

Zanu-PF Midlands provincial chairperson Daniel Mackenzie

Ncube could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone went unanswered yesterday. Recently, MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere claimed that Zanu-PF was cloning their party cards and T-shirts to portray a picture that several people from the Nelson Chamisa-led opposition were defecting to Zanu-PF.