THINGS took a turn for the worse in the warring MDC on Tuesday when party hooligans stormed a meeting that was being chaired by its leader Nelson Chamisa, threatening to deal with former secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora in full view of the party’s big guns, the Daily News reported.
Tuesday’s ugly developments were confirmed by both Mwonzora and the MDC itself – badly exposing the folly of some of the main opposition’s officials, including Chamisa’s spokersperson Nkululeko Sibanda, who have ridiculously accused journalists of writing falsehoods about the party’s upheavals.
A senior party official who attended the Tuesday meeting told the Daily News yesterday that had Chamisa not intervened and asked the thugs to leave – before ordering MDC security personnel to escort Mwonzora after the meeting – the former SG would have been “mincemeat”.
Molokele also confirmed Tuesday’s incident, which came hard on the heels of an attack on Mwonzora’s car by some MDC youths during last weekend’s meeting of the national executive council (Nec).
This comes as there is growing animosity towards Mwonzora by some party officials. This week, in a move which has seen its former SG’s political future coming even more under the spotlight, the MDC said it would initiate disciplinary proceedings against him — fuelling growing suspicion that the party’s bigwigs are pushing him to the exit door.
Mwonzora, a widely respected member of the MDC’s Nec, has never been forgiven by some officials after he expressed interest in challenging Chamisa for the leadership of the MDC ahead of the party’s congress which was held in Gweru in May this year.
MDC secretary-general Chalton Hwende fuelled the talk that the country’s biggest opposition is readying itself to jettison Mwonzora when he said this week that the party’s leadership is taking allegations by the youths against his predecessor very seriously, and would initiate disciplinary proceedings against him.
Mwonzora has had a love-hate relationship with some MDC bigwigs and youth assembly members since he expressed his interest to contest Chamisa at the party’s Gweru congress.
