PROMINENT civic activist Abigale Mupambi, who is an official of the opposition MDC, has expressed frustration with the way leadership wrangles have taken supreme in the party at a time the people of Zimbabwe needed accountable local authorities and government to improve livelihoods.
Supreme Court judge Justice Bharat Patel on Tuesday delivered a judgement which removed Nelson Chamisa from the party presidency and reinstated Thokozani Khupe in an interim capacity awaiting an extraordinary congress within the next 90 days.
Mupambi, a proportional representative candidate MP for the party in Matebeleland North province, said people of her generation can no longer afford to be cowardly bystanders while personal ego and disregard of party constitution were threatening to render the MDC irrelevant ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Mupambi, who came short of telling the Chamisa camp to stand aside and respect the Supreme Court ruling, said the leadership had dragged the party southwards over the past two years and it was now high time she occupied her role and contribute towards reasserting the MDC as a people entered movement.
“MAYBE L SHOULD SERIOUSLY CONSIDER OCCUPYING MY POSITION IN THE MDC, THERE IS SERIOUS LEADERSHIP VACUUM THERE.
“The people need a serious team that should quickly focus on the deliverables. For the record, leadership must realize that people our worried about the deliverables that put food on the tables and improve livelihoods.
“People want to be spared the power wranges and get to see how the MDC can contribute in parliament and at local government level in changing the lives of the people for the better,” Mupambi told Zimbabwe Voice.
While she said squabbles in a party as big and national as the MDC were virtually unavoidable, Mupambi said at worst, such squabbles must not take precedence over party deliverables and drag on as has been the case. Mupambi said the fights were also a letdown to the many people who sacrificed even with their lives for the party to grow and survive the past twenty years.
“The MDC didn’t just happen on its own or survive the last two decades without sacrifice. People lost lives for the movement.
“This is the movement most of the colleagues of my generation invested in so much one way or the other, the movement whose values are underpinned on democracy, constitutionalism and Respect of the Rule of law.
“People sacrificed a lot in this movement, others paid with their lives. The most painful thing is to watch and see it drowning as if we are all a bunch of cowards. Someone has to quickly give a sober signal,” she said.
Newly reinstated MDC Secretary-General Douglas Mwonzora has also come out guns blazing, warning Chamisa and ousted party Vice President Lynette Karenyi-Kore that they risked being disciplined if they did not tow the party line.
Speaking to Zimbabwe Voice on Thursday, newly reinstated MDC national chairperson Morgen Komichi said that other ousted Vice Presidents Professor Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti were no longer in the mainstream movement and revert back to their parties which were in the MDC Alliance prior to the 2018 elections.
Komichi also warned that the new leadership would not tolerate disregard of court ruling by party officials who felt they stood to lose the benefits they were getting from an unconstitutional arrangement they had with Chamisa. – Zimbabwe Voice
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