'MDC-T a Zanu-PF surrogate,' says Chamisa aligned MDC veterans

MEMBERS of the MDC Veterans Activists Association (VAA) have joined civil society organisations and opposition parties in condemning the Douglas Mwonzora-led MDC-T for supporting Zanu-PF in passing the controversial Amendment Bill Number 2 last week.

Some MDC-T senators last Tuesday joined hands with their Zanu-PF colleagues and traditional leaders in voting for the Second Amendment Bill.

It was signed into law by President Emmerson Mnangagwa Friday and is now part of the Constitution.

However, civil society organisations, opposition parties, lawyers, and ordinary Zimbabweans have been very vocal in rejecting the amendments, arguing some of the changes, like the removal of the presidential running mate clause, were draconian.

In an interview with NewZimbabwe.com, MDC VAA spokesperson Blessing Mandava said the MDC-T's support of the amendments had vindicated the association's consistent reference of the opposition party as a Zanu-PF surrogate.

VAA structures have refused to work with the MDC-T preferring the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC Alliance as they accuse Mwonzora of rigging the party's elective extraordinary congress held last December to choose a new president.

"Today, we stand on moral high ground as Douglas Mwonzora and his MDC-T have exposed themselves as surrogates of Zanu-PF by aiding and abetting the regime to reach the constitutional two-thirds majority to enable them to pass the amendment No. 2 through Senate," said Mandava.

"Zanu-PF no longer commands a two-thirds majority in both the upper and lower houses, hence Mwonzora's MDC-T donated the much-needed votes to attain the majority. It does not need a rocket scientist to figure out the relationship between the MDC-T and Zanu-PF."

The spokesperson further accused the MDC-T of abandoning the party's founding principles and values in pursuit of personal egos.

"It is sad, the MDC-T has brought in a new culture in the opposition politics which is totally foreign and very much ‘unMDC'. A culture of serving their pockets than serving the people, and culture of imbecility.

"They have abandoned the people's cause and are focusing on their personal cause. They have abandoned the ethos of the people's struggle and have hoped into bed with the dictator in return for fringe benefits at the expense of the masses languishing in abject poverty," said Mandava adding Mwonzora and his MDC-T colleagues had betrayed the party's late founding president Morgan Tsvangirai by siding with Zanu-PF.

"Dr. Morgan Tsvangirai is turning in his grave as his name is being used and abused on matters that are not of national importance but personal. We, however, want to remind Mwonzora and his entourage that no amount of imbecility, treachery, and egocentrism can stop the people's quest for democracy and egalitarianism.

"The real winds of democratic change blowing are unstoppable, worse still for those who dig their own graves by romancing with thugs that have murdered hundreds of veterans of the democratic struggle.

"We stood solidly and continue to stand behind the MDC Alliance and its leadership because we have noticed the MDC-T's treacherous and Luciferous ways which are totally divorced from the founding principles of the people's struggle.

"It is our duty not only to serve victims of the democratic struggle but also to safeguard the gains of our struggle and party from the (Abel) Muzorewas of today," added Mandava.

The late Abel Muzorewa was leader of the United African National Council (UANC) and is accused of supporting the then apartheid regime of Rhodesian prime minister, Ian Smith during the short-lived period of the internal settlement in 1979.