Ironically, Hwende’s warning to Mwonzora, which was supposed to be a confidential, internal party matter – going by the party’s own hypocritical stance – was splashed all over social media as soon as it was drawn up.
Even more ridiculously for a party that would like to be seen as a democratic movement, and which should work differently from Zanu-PF, other senior MDC officials continue to badmouth Mwonzora and others openly, with no consequences for their shameful actions.
Hwende’s warning to Mwonzora yesterday comes after the latter told the Daily News on Monday about his fears of former Zanu-PF bigwigs belonging to the vanquished Generation 40 (G40) faction destabilising the country’s main opposition party, while also defending himself.
Predictably, the small coterie of self-serving party officials now at the helm of the party that was founded by the late Morgan Tsvangirai took exception to the interview — resulting in the issuance of the hypocritical and scandalous warning, all this from a party that should not abhor diversity and differences of opinion.
“We note with concern that you continue to discuss party business in the media notwithstanding the decision of the party to restrict such to authorised offices. You also continue to discuss party business on social media in violation of our social media policy.
“As a member, you are entitled to redress in the event that you feel aggrieved by the actions or utterances of other members as provided in our constitution which you are bound by.
“This letter serves as a final warning to you that such conduct will not be tolerated by the party,” Hwende meowed in his letter to Mwonzora.
Contacted for comment, Mwonzora would only say that any processes that were done in the MDC were governed by the party’s constitution.
“I have not received the letter, but I believe that the party’s constitution is supreme. That is all I am prepared to say for now,” he told the Daily News.
On Monday, Mwonzora was forced to warn his MDC colleagues openly that the party needed to be wary of Zanu-PF’s G40 faction kingpins who are worming their way into the ranks of Zimbabwe’s biggest opposition party.
This was after some G40 notables recently claimed that they had funded Chamisa and the MDC’s 2018 election campaigns — even as some of their grand assertions relating to the funds that they allegedly paid for this appear to be dubious.
It also came after former minister and Zanu-PF politburo member, Jonathan Moyo, said that he had met Mwonzora and then MDC treasurer Theresa Makone ahead of the 2018 polls, allegedly at the behest of the main opposition party’s late founding president Morgan Tsvangirai.
In addition, Moyo also recently insinuated that Mwonzora was working with a famous businessman to influence the outcome of a Supreme Court case involving Chamisa and the MDC’s former deputy president Thokozani Khupe — relating to the control of the assets of the country’s biggest opposition party.
“I have never met Jonathan Moyo since he was removed from office in 2017. I have talked to him over the phone, but I never met him in person.
“Zimbabweans are being taken on a wild goose chase … so that that way people don’t organise, hoping that there will be a miracle.
“I also have got nothing to do with the Supreme Court judgment … as you may know, the party withdrew its case against me and now I am focused on my constituency,” an aggrieved Mwonzora said.
“My advice to the party is that let us be vigilant. We cannot be divided by outsiders. We have come from afar with this movement.
“I want to see the party succeed, that’s my aim and objective and I am sure that my colleagues share the same objective,” he added.
And in a further stunning revelation that exposes the rifts in the MDC relating to the party’s opaque engagements with former Zanu-PF officials, Mwonzora said outright that it was a lie that the country’s main opposition party had got any support from G40 elements in the run-up to the 2018 general elections.
“I was the secretary-general of the MDC in 2018 and part of my duty as the secretary-general was to receive and record any donation from people.
“I did not see anything from Moyo or other former Zanu-PF kingpins for that matter … absolutely nothing came to the institution,” the former MDC secretary-general said.
Mwonzora, who has been at loggerheads with Chamisa’s supporters since 2018 — following the death of Tsvangirai — said the smear campaign against him was gathering pace, which he claimed was a plot to cause divisions in the MDC.
