News / Local
Professor Welshman Ncube snubs Tsvangirai
17 Mar 2014 at 08:56hrs | Views
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party leader Professor Welshman Ncube has snubbed calls by MDC-T president Morgan Tsvangirai to join forces and create a formidable opposition aimed at toppling President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party, even before the next elections slotted for 2018.
Ncube, who was the secretary-general of the MDC at its formation in 1999, had a fall-out with Tsvangirai, ostensibly over a decision to participate in the senatorial elections in 2005, resulting in the party spiltting.
Recently, Tsvangirai , who is battling to contain an internal revolt in his party demanding a leadership cleansing, including that he steps down as president, extended an olive branch to founding members of the united MDC, including Ncube and Job Sikhala – who had formed their own MDCs.
Tsvangirai also pronounced he had initiated unity talks with the leader of Mavambo,Kusile, Dawn party, Simba Makoni.
Sikhala has since joined hands with Tsvangirai and was paraded at an MDC-T rally addressed by the party leader at the Stanley Square over the weekend in Bulawayo, but in a telephone interview on the eve of the meeting, Ncube scoffed at the former prime minister's call for unity.
"How can I join hands with someone who beat up ( Elton) Mangoma (suspended MDC-T deputy treasurer) then says he is reaching out?" asked Ncube.
Mangoma was early last month assaulted at the party headquarters at Harvest House in Harare, allegedly by MDC-T party youths after he wrote a letter to Tsvangirai calling for him to step down in order to renew the party and turnaround its fortunes.
The MDC-T deputy treasurer charges that Tsvangirai set the youths on him, a claim the MDC-T leader denied, saying he, in-fact, shielded Mangoma from further lynching.
Ncube said Tsvangirai has been all over the press, abusing and insulting him and as such his efforts at reaching out were not genuine.
"It's a lie that he is reaching out, he has not tried talking to me because he was insulting me in one of the newspapers and he was abusing me on ethnic claims," he said.
In the build-up to the elections last year, Tsvangirai was in the press saying he had approached Ncube to have him on board, Ncube later accused Tsvangirai of ‘approaching him only in newspapers'.
Meanwhile, Tsvangirai managed to win back some of the members that left the party in the past years, whom he paraded at the MDC-T rally at Stanley Square.
Tsvangirai paraded former Insiza South MP Siyabonga Malandu Ncube, former Gweru mayor Tedious Chimombe, former Mangwe MP Edward Mkhosi, among other defectors.
Malandu and Mkhosi had a fall-out with Ncube over the decision to have the party's secretary-general Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga nominated as Senator for Matabeleland South while based in Harare.
The journalist turned politician Misihairambwi-Mushonga's mother hails from Umzingwane in Matabeleland South.
Ncube, who was the secretary-general of the MDC at its formation in 1999, had a fall-out with Tsvangirai, ostensibly over a decision to participate in the senatorial elections in 2005, resulting in the party spiltting.
Recently, Tsvangirai , who is battling to contain an internal revolt in his party demanding a leadership cleansing, including that he steps down as president, extended an olive branch to founding members of the united MDC, including Ncube and Job Sikhala – who had formed their own MDCs.
Tsvangirai also pronounced he had initiated unity talks with the leader of Mavambo,Kusile, Dawn party, Simba Makoni.
Sikhala has since joined hands with Tsvangirai and was paraded at an MDC-T rally addressed by the party leader at the Stanley Square over the weekend in Bulawayo, but in a telephone interview on the eve of the meeting, Ncube scoffed at the former prime minister's call for unity.
"How can I join hands with someone who beat up ( Elton) Mangoma (suspended MDC-T deputy treasurer) then says he is reaching out?" asked Ncube.
Mangoma was early last month assaulted at the party headquarters at Harvest House in Harare, allegedly by MDC-T party youths after he wrote a letter to Tsvangirai calling for him to step down in order to renew the party and turnaround its fortunes.
Ncube said Tsvangirai has been all over the press, abusing and insulting him and as such his efforts at reaching out were not genuine.
"It's a lie that he is reaching out, he has not tried talking to me because he was insulting me in one of the newspapers and he was abusing me on ethnic claims," he said.
In the build-up to the elections last year, Tsvangirai was in the press saying he had approached Ncube to have him on board, Ncube later accused Tsvangirai of ‘approaching him only in newspapers'.
Meanwhile, Tsvangirai managed to win back some of the members that left the party in the past years, whom he paraded at the MDC-T rally at Stanley Square.
Tsvangirai paraded former Insiza South MP Siyabonga Malandu Ncube, former Gweru mayor Tedious Chimombe, former Mangwe MP Edward Mkhosi, among other defectors.
Malandu and Mkhosi had a fall-out with Ncube over the decision to have the party's secretary-general Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga nominated as Senator for Matabeleland South while based in Harare.
The journalist turned politician Misihairambwi-Mushonga's mother hails from Umzingwane in Matabeleland South.
Source - zimmail
