Another MDC-T chairman fired over Mangoma saga

THE MDC-T Matabeleland North provincial executive led by chairperson Sengezo Tshabangu has been disbanded over alleged links to the group calling for party leader Morgan Tsvangirai to step down.

An interim structure was elected into office during a provincial council meeting held at the MDC-T offices in Lupane on Saturday to pass a vote of no confidence on Tshabangu and his executive as reported by Southern Eye last week.

Tshabangu's executive was accused of, among other things, failure to perform and lack of accountability in the running of the party's affairs.

However, Tshabangu has vowed to fight his executive's expulsion citing irregularities, adding that if their ouster was not reversed, the MDC-T would not be taken seriously by ordinary Zimbabweans for failure to uphold constitutionalism.

Tshabangu said the meeting was unconstitutional and was attended by bogus delegates rendering their vote of no confidence a legal nullity.

"This is a litmus test for the MDC-T. If the party does not follow its own constitution, then how will or can ordinary Zimbabweans trust the party with the country's Constitution? The MDC-T will not be taken seriously," said Tshabangu.

"We were elected by the people and the party should not allow the will of the people to be subverted. This will only create anarchy in Matabeleland North and this anarchy will spread to other provinces and result in the collapse of the party.

"A provincial council meeting is supposed to be called by the president, provincial executive that I chair or the national council and none of the above called for the meeting. That on its own makes the meeting illegal."

He also accused MDC-T deputy national organising secretary Abednico Bhebhe of sowing seeds of divisions in Matabeleland North and being the mastermind of the ouster of his executive, a charge the latter denied in a telephone interview yesterday.

"The provincial council meeting was legal as far as we know. However, I still insist that we don't run our party affairs in the newspapers," Bhebhe said noting that the meeting was held under Clause 6,6,3,3,3 of the MDC-T constitution.

The clause says the provincial council meets to review the progress of party programmes in provinces, fill any vacant positions that would have arisen within the provincial executive and to do all things necessary for the furtherance of the party's interests, among other things.

The interim executive is as follows: Thembinkosi Sibindi (chairperson), Prince Sibanda (secretary), Bester Khumalo (deputy secretary), Nah Khumalo (organising secretary) Francisca Ncube (youth chairperson), Themba Mukombwe (information) and Lwazi Sibanda (women's assembly).

Tshabangu said the interim structure was composed of members who were part of the (former deputy prime minister) Arthur Mutambara camp.

"It was attended by bogus and illegal delegates that had expelled themselves from the party by standing as independents in the last elections.

"Those (interim structure) are the people that were part of the Mutambara camp and we can only say that their agenda is to destabilise the party," he said.

Tshabangu said they would lodge an appeal against their expulsion.

MDC-T Matabeleland South chairperson Watchy Sibanda was the first to fall aside in the ongoing infighting in the MDC-T over leadership renewal.

Insiders told Southern Eye that the party leadership was purging members aligned to deputy treasurer-general Elton Mangoma, who has been leading calls for Tsvangirai to step aside for a new leadership.