Chamisa, Khupe in fresh war of words

MDC Alliance presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa and his colleague-turned-political rival, Thokozani Khupe, are accusing and counter-accusing each other of working with the ruling Zanu-PF.

This comes as the courts are yet to determine which faction of the MDC is the bona-fide owner of the party trademark after Chamisa lodged an application at the High Court.

Addressing party supporters in Karoi on Thursday, the MDC Alliance leader alleged that Khupe was working with the ruling party to rig the July 30 harmonised elections.

"I heard there are some who are calling themselves MDC-T here. There is no longer MDC-T. It has expired because it has outlived its usefulness. We now have the MDC Alliance. We have our daughter who was troublesome and we said you can't fight the vision of the visionary.

"We said you are causing divisions. We told Khupe that you are wrong. She said she wants to be a president even of a burial society. We said to her you have demons.
Beware of her, she has tried to rig the election, helping Zanu-PF. Don't vote for that party, her party is called MDC-Tokoloshe. If you vote for her, tokoloshes will terrorise you at your homes," said Chamisa.

He claimed the letter T was used to distinguish the original MDC, then headed by Morgan Tsvangirai — now late — party from the other splinter formation that emerged in 2005.

"I want to educate Khupe and her brother (MDC-T vice president Obert Gutu) that the party has never been called MDC-T. The party is called MDC but we have used a distinguishing mark for the purpose of election. We then added T to distinguish it from other MDC but it does not change the name of the party. Now it's MDC Alliance…

"I authored that constitution but I feel sorry for Gutu because he is a bad lawyer, he doesn't understand legal issues. The party is called the Movement for Democratic Change. We started this party with the likes of (Welshman) Ncube, (Tendai) Biti and we are now working together again. Tsvangirai told us to unite. I respect the vision of the visionary. We want to go forward following the visions of our visionary, Tsvangirai," said Chamisa.

During the same rally, Biti described Gutu as a "bush lawyer" after being asked by Chamisa to assess Gutu's legal competence.

Khupe broke away from the mainstream MDC after losing her battle with Chamisa over who should succeed Tsvangirai.

She now leads a faction of the MDC and is one of 23 presidential candidates in the July 30 election.

Their fallout can be traced back to Chamisa's appointment as one of the opposition party's vice presidents, along with Elias Mudzuri, a development which Khupe felt was meant to elbow her out of the MDC succession matrix.

Contacted for comment on Chamisa's attack, Gutu said the MDC Alliance presidential candidate, whom he described as childish, was the one who had all along been working with the ruling party.

"Chamisa always talks a lot of childish hogwash. He is trapped in a world of childish fantasies. Anyway, who takes Chamisa seriously anyway, besides his drunken band of uncouth vanguards and thugs?

"President Thokozani Khupe is not working with Zanu-PF. If anything, it is Chamisa himself who is being funded by Grace and Robert Mugabe. Chamisa has been doing business with the Mugabes for several years. He should just shut up," said Gutu.

The former MDC spokesperson, who is now the second in command in Khupe's faction, also had no kind words for Biti.

"As for Biti, he is a mental patient. He is a brainwashed self-hater who has got a very low opinion of all black people, including himself. In his warped and twisted mind, he thinks all black people are inferior to whites.

"That's why he unashamedly gives idiotic promises of bringing truckloads of foreign currency from white people outside the country in the unlikely event that their collapsing so-called alliance wins the elections. He is a foul-mouthed idiot. I am one of the very few black lawyers who have set up a highly successful law practice from a very young age. Just check my record," said an angry Gutu.

Chamisa and Mnangagwa are widely touted as front-runners in the battle to lead Zimbabwe after the July 30 polls.

Biti and Ncube are former secretaries-general of the original and united MDC which was led by Tsvangirai — whose death ignited a damaging leadership tussle within the country's largest opposition party.

The MDC Alliance includes Biti's People's Democratic Party, Welshman Ncube's MDC, Jacob Ngarivhume's Transform Zimbabwe, Zanu Ndonga headed by Denford Masiyarira, the Multi-Racial Christian Democrats which is led by Mathias Guchutu and the Zimbabwe People First led by Agrippa Mutambara.