News / National
Violence rocks Harvest House again
03 Nov 2020 at 08:37hrs | Views
VIOLENCE has once again rocked the MDC after youths aligned to the Nelson Chamisa camp allegedly broke into the party's Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (MRT) House headquarters on Sunday night in an unsuccessful bid to seize it from the Thokozani Khupe-led faction.
This comes as party youths aligned to secretary general Douglas Mwonzora last week kicked out their colleagues led by Harare province chairperson Paul Gorekore from MRT House, popularly known Harvest House.
Gorekore had taken over the building in September in a bid to force Khupe and Chamisa to engage in unity talks. Police national spokesperson Paul Nyathi yesterday confirmed that several youths had been arrested after the altercation.
"We actually recovered some of the weapons they were using," Nyathi told the Daily News. "Eight youths, including Gorekore, were arrested." Addressing the media at MRT House yesterday, Mwonzora said the latest bid to violently take over the iconic building came despite the fact that the MDC had a court order giving it the sole authority to occupy it.
"Last night (Sunday) at around 11.30 pm, MDC-Alliance youths broke into the regalia shop at the Morgan Richard Tsvangirai House. "They tried to gain entry into the main building, but were thwarted by our alert internal security personnel. "Police were then called in and eight of the intruders were arrested," Mwonzora said.
"It is surprising that these youths are being sent to violate a clear order of the court. We have instructed our youths not to fight these people, but to call the police to minimise personal injury. "The MDC-Alliance has now resorted to sacrificing the youths by inciting them to engage in acts of anarchy and lawlessness.
"They take advantage of the poverty among these youths and pay them ridiculously low sums of money and with cheap liquor to engage in violence." He added: "These youths are drawn from Mbare and similarly poor neighbourhoods where poverty is rife. This is wrong and evil. We appeal to the youths to desist from being abused like this.
But MDC-Alliance deputy spokesperson Clifford Hlatshwayo rubbished the claims, saying his party youths had not been to Harvest House ever since Mwonzora brought in members of the security forces and grabbed 'our' headquarters.
"Mwonzora is a Zanu-PF project so he is only implementing what his masters are directing him to do. If he is having problems with people in his party, he must not involve our youths.
"He has turned Harvest House into a Zanu-PF headquarters, so we have nothing to do with it," Hlatshwayo said. The MDC has been consumed by senseless ructions ever since its much-loved founding father Morgan Tsvangirai died from colon cancer in February 2018.
The party's infighting escalated after a Supreme Court judgment earlier this year upheld last year's ruling by the High Court that nullified Chamisa's ascendancy to the leadership of the country's biggest opposition party
This comes as party youths aligned to secretary general Douglas Mwonzora last week kicked out their colleagues led by Harare province chairperson Paul Gorekore from MRT House, popularly known Harvest House.
Gorekore had taken over the building in September in a bid to force Khupe and Chamisa to engage in unity talks. Police national spokesperson Paul Nyathi yesterday confirmed that several youths had been arrested after the altercation.
"We actually recovered some of the weapons they were using," Nyathi told the Daily News. "Eight youths, including Gorekore, were arrested." Addressing the media at MRT House yesterday, Mwonzora said the latest bid to violently take over the iconic building came despite the fact that the MDC had a court order giving it the sole authority to occupy it.
"Last night (Sunday) at around 11.30 pm, MDC-Alliance youths broke into the regalia shop at the Morgan Richard Tsvangirai House. "They tried to gain entry into the main building, but were thwarted by our alert internal security personnel. "Police were then called in and eight of the intruders were arrested," Mwonzora said.
"It is surprising that these youths are being sent to violate a clear order of the court. We have instructed our youths not to fight these people, but to call the police to minimise personal injury. "The MDC-Alliance has now resorted to sacrificing the youths by inciting them to engage in acts of anarchy and lawlessness.
"They take advantage of the poverty among these youths and pay them ridiculously low sums of money and with cheap liquor to engage in violence." He added: "These youths are drawn from Mbare and similarly poor neighbourhoods where poverty is rife. This is wrong and evil. We appeal to the youths to desist from being abused like this.
But MDC-Alliance deputy spokesperson Clifford Hlatshwayo rubbished the claims, saying his party youths had not been to Harvest House ever since Mwonzora brought in members of the security forces and grabbed 'our' headquarters.
"Mwonzora is a Zanu-PF project so he is only implementing what his masters are directing him to do. If he is having problems with people in his party, he must not involve our youths.
"He has turned Harvest House into a Zanu-PF headquarters, so we have nothing to do with it," Hlatshwayo said. The MDC has been consumed by senseless ructions ever since its much-loved founding father Morgan Tsvangirai died from colon cancer in February 2018.
The party's infighting escalated after a Supreme Court judgment earlier this year upheld last year's ruling by the High Court that nullified Chamisa's ascendancy to the leadership of the country's biggest opposition party
Source - Daily News
