Rebels accuse Khuphe, Moyo of trying to destroy MDC-T

MDC-T deputy president Ms Thokozani Khupe has been accused of being on a mission to destroy the party through replacing founding members with her friends, allegedly in a bid to build an "empire" to succeed the party's leader Morgan Tsvangirai in 2016.  

Addressing journalists at the Bulawayo Press Club on Thursday evening, two former MDC-T MPs, Mr Felix Magalela Mafa and Mr Samuel Sandla Khumalo, who have left the party to contest as independent candidates in the harmonised elections, said Ms Khupe was working with Bulawayo provincial chairperson Mr Gorden Moyo in the "project."

They said cronyism that had gone unchecked in the party, despite numerous complaints by members, was likely to result in the party losing the election.

Mr Mafa said the problems started in 2011 when Mr Moyo, a former Zapu 2000 secretary for information and publicity, was imposed as Bulawayo chairperson.

"This left the party divided into two main factions, one that supported justice and democracy and another, led by Mr Moyo and Ms Khupe that wanted power at all costs.

"Remember we had a bloody and very dangerous congress in 2011 where the founder members were discarded and replaced by omafikizolo. Just imagine somebody who defected to Mutambara who denied Tsvangirai the chance to be State President by eight percent of the votes because he was campaigning for Simba Makoni being catapulted to the standing committee. The person is Abednico Bhebhe. These are the same people who were saying 'uTsvangirai asimfuni uzingcolisile ibhulugwe lakhe liyanuka, kabuyele kibo eMashonaland'. In the twinkle of an eye, the person is in the standing committee," said Mr Mafa.

He said after the congress the majority became victims of a few people who were in power.

Mr Mafa said Ms Khupe and Mr Moyo had made sure that he did not win the primary elections in Magwegwe constituency because they said he was not a Ndebele.

He produced a bunch of letters that he wrote to the party leadership, protesting about the election.

"None of these letters was responded to. I won the election by 183 votes to Anele Ndebele's 176 votes. Only to be told three days after the election that I had lost. They are pursuing an agenda to get into power in 2016 when Tsvangirai is expected to step down. They are busy replacing older members of the party with bootlickers," said Mr Mafa.

He said MDC-T was courting members who had left the party to go it alone in the election but said the strategy would not work if Mr Tsvangirai did not deal with the "menace" of his deputy and Mr Moyo.

"They just want us to withdraw our candidature in the elections because they are afraid that if we win we will dilute the number of seats they can get in the Senate. The negotiation is false and they cannot fire us. Mr Tsvangirai just needs to come down and address the havoc that has been caused by these two," said Mr Mafa.

Mr Khumalo said the present MDC-T would ruin the country if it went into power.

"If our own party is involved in a lot of injustice even before we get into power, what would happen if we hold the reins of power? It would be a disaster. I have been quiet for too long, thinking that maybe somewhere along the line, issues would be resolved," he said.

Mr Khumalo said he had been framed in a court case. He alleged that mbanje had been planted in his car so that he could be arrested and prosecuted.

"Some members of the party actually collaborated with the police to try to make the charge stick. We have not abandoned the party. We just want this mess to be cleaned. We have always known MDC (T) to be a people's project but it has turned out to be something else. The party has been personalised. The vice president is imposing people ignoring party rules. What is the reason for setting rules when they will be ignored? As we were trying to fix things in 2011, some of us were already focusing ahead to 2013 and 2016 that Mafa reffered to," said the dreadlocked Mr Khumalo.