REDCLIFF councillor, Nyasha Benza and some 15 other activists believed to be aligned to the Thokozani Khupe led MDC Saturday stormed MDC Alliance offices in Kwekwe and demanded the eviction of members aligned to their party rivals.
Alliance youth deputy chair for Midlands Thembinkosi Mulahleki narrated the incident.
“Fifteen people, amongst them, councillor Nyasha Benza from Redcliff stormed this building and disrupted our meeting,” Mulahleki told journalists in Kwekwe, while flanked by provincial youth chairperson Sekai Marashe.
“They told us that we were supposed to vacate the premises before the group verbally assaulted us and threatened to unleash security forces on us if we don’t vacate the premises.
“Evictions are done legally.”
The MDC Alliance youth activists vowed they will not surrender the premises without a fight.
“We are the custodians of this building,” Mulahleki said.
“There is no legal document for eviction which they produced, there is no eviction order to support that they are the real owners of these premises.
“Under normal circumstances, it is the duty of the deputy sheriff who will be in a position of a court order.
“To our surprise, they forced their way.”
The youths vowed unwavering support for their embattled leader.
“We are very clear in our support for Advocate Pastor Nelson Chamisa.
“As a party, we will remain focused, we will defend our party legally and politically, we will put everything within our means to make sure everything we do is done properly and legally.
“We are going to defend our building up until we see real reasons that state that they are the real owners of the building,” he said.
The Kwekwe skirmishes are a continuation of a fierce party take-over bid by Khupe and allies following an MDC leadership wrangle ignited by the death in 2018 of founding party leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
A recent Supreme Court ruling placed party stewardship in the hands of Khupe who however does not enjoy as much internal support as her rival, Chamisa.
The bid to seize control of the Kwekwe party premises follows the recent seizure of Harvest House (now Morgan Richard Tsvangirai House) by the MDC-T with support from security forces. – Newzim
