'Recalls a result of serious factional fights in MDC'

FORMER top MDC-T official, now staunch Zanu-PF supporter, Obert Gutu says the opposition MDC remains in denial that the party is structured along deep-seated factional lines, and that arrangement is leading to its pending demise.

The former deputy justice minister, who recently defected to Zanu-PF, said the MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa, should also desist from blaming the governing party for its downfall because it (Zanu-PF) was "not a super party".

Gutu was speaking during a recent Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) sponsored ZOOM meeting on; "Recalls and Defections – An Anathema To Representative Democracy".

"The MDC people tend to blame Zanu-PF even when it is even not there. Someone goes even to the pub and they drink themselves to madness. They go back to their house and engage in domestic violence and they will blame Zanu-PF."

"Someone gets into a car, drives recklessly and gets involved in an accident and they blame Zanu-PF. What I am trying to say is some people tend to see the hand of Zanu-PF everywhere.

"We are simply saying if people are having problems in their own party they should solve them on their own. There are all these factions in MDC, I know that because I was in this party from 2000 thereabouts. From the time it was formed."

During his time in the MDC, Gutu also served as national spokesperson and Vice President to Thokozani Khupe.

"I know there are factions. I know there are even factions within factions. So when you look at it now to say who was recalling these MDC Alliance Members of Parliament from either the National Assembly or Senate, it's the other factions of factions of the same party. So how then do you see Zanu-PF being involved?" said Gutu.

He added; "Unless Zanu-PF is so powerful that they will enter into our systems, they invade our brains, then it's a super party! Isn't it? I do not think they operate that way; this is a direct result of factionalism.

"For as long as people are in denial, when they see the hand of Zanu-PF when it's not even there, they are in denial. They do not want to accept that factionalism is actually driving the MDC in its various formations."

Over 80 MDC Alliance MPs and councillors have been recalled after their rival formations in the MDC-T and People's Democratic Party claimed they were no longer party members.

However, the MDC Alliance alleges the recalls are being bankrolled by Zanu-PF which is using state institutions to decimate the main opposition party ahead of the 2023 elections.

Senior Zanu-PF officials have, however, distanced the former liberation movement from the claims.