Mahlangu named in party cards scandal

Members of the Movement for Democratic Change-United States (MDC-USA) Province are expressing deep frustration over the non-delivery of their membership cards almost eight months after they paid for them.  The cards issue has equally frustrated the Executive of Mr. Den Moyo, who together with his Secretary Mr. Andrew Chaponda, have attempted without success to get MDC Harare to clarify the position on the cards.

"As an Executive we have tried everything in our power including writing emails, memos and telephone calls to the responsible officials in Harare. What really frustrates our members is the fact that Harare has not even bothered to address the situation despite numerous promises to do so. We have followed every protocol there is and we have reached a total dead end. Our members are frustrated and this is the last resort to get an answer from them", said Chairman Moyo.

At issue are the membership cards the MDC required all its members at home and in the diaspora to purchase anew following the expiration of the old card December 31, 2010. The new cards and registration forms were required to register and participate at the Congress. In the US, the MDC held their Congress March 25-26, 2011 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Congress was presided over by the then MDC Youth Chairman, member of MDC National Council and MP for Nkulumane, Tamsanqa Mahlangu.
At the conclusion of the Congress, the new Provincial Executive handed the membership fees and registration forms to Mahlangu to take to Harare, so the cards could be issued. In June Chairman Moyo was in Harare and at the time met with party administrators and the new Organizing Secretary Nelson Chamisa. Chamisa promised to look into the issue then and again in subsequent phone calls between the two of them. At the request of the Assembly, Secretary Chaponda wrote several emails and memos to the Organizing Secretary and to Secretary-General Tendai Biti, and also to members of the MDC National Standing Committee. All those efforts yielded no results leading to the members of the External Assembly to pass a Resolution at their meeting of October 23, 2011 to take the issue to the media as a last resort.

"The reasons why we did not wish to take this route earlier on still stand. As a means to resolve this issue once and for all we are appealing to our leadership in Harare to clarify the position of the MDC-USA membership cards.  We have broken the trust of our members as well as demoralized them. It has become even more difficult to recruit and retain members in the United States", said Chairman Moyo.