Veteran politician Pauline Mpariwa leaves Chamisa’s MDC-Alliance




Paurina Gwanyanya-Mpariwa
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VETERAN trade unionist and MDC Alliance Women’s Assembly chairperson Paurina Gwanyanya-Mpariwa has been muscled out of Nelson Chamisa’s MDC-Alliance as infighting continues in the opposition movement, with Chamisa’s camp getting increasingly packed by former student union leaders.

The former Mufakose MP, who was now a proportional representative legislator, stepped aside from Chamisa’s camp citing differences over fundamentals of freedom as well as deviation by Chamisa from MDC founding values and principles.

“She is also clear that she does not enjoy fighting amongst the MDC family. She just wanted MDC to go back to its founding values and principles of democracy, and feels the party led by Chamisa has been hijacked by external forces who do not respect the values of democracy that the MDC has always been about,” said a source close to the former Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union member.

Sources told the Zimbabwe Voice that two weeks ago, Mpariwa’s cattle were stolen in Chinhoyi.

“She then travelled to Chinhoyi due police investigations over the theft of her cattle. The culprits have since been apprehended.

“However the MDC Alliance leaders demanded that she should have attended the Standing Committee meeting rather than tracking her stolen cattle,” said the source.

However, it also has emerged that officials close to Chamisa, in particular MDC Alliance Secretary-General Chalton Hwende, accused Mpariwa of being “friendly and soft to Khupe, Doug (Mwonzora), (Morgen) Komichi and (Engineer Elias) Mudzuri.”

Hwende is quoted as having told a Standing Committee meeting which Mpariwa had excused herself from, that it was strange that the story of her stolen cattle was known first by the “Constitutionalists” before members of the Chamisa camp became aware of it.

The term “constitutionalists” is being used by the Chamisa group to refer to members of the MDC led by Thokozani Khupe who have chosen to respect the Supreme Court judgment of March which called for a extraordinary congress as per the MDC constitution.

It also has emerged that the fight to expel Mpariwa heightened yesterday when she also absconded yet another Standing Committee meeting.

Sources in the MDC Alliance say she excused herself saying she was erecting a security fence at her farming project to ensure that her cattle were safe.

“That is the moment Hwende blew up and said he was not going to have it anymore. Hwende demanded that Mpariwa be removed from all MDC-Alliance WhatsApp groups immediately as she had proven to be a sellout.

“Murisi Zvizvayi went further and said “kana muchida kuona kuti Pauline itsotsi tumirai vanhu ku cattle post ikoko auye ku meeting then totumira vapfana kuti vavake Danga rake”, the source told Zimbabwe Voice.

Mpariwa tried yesterday without success to rejoin the WhatsApp groups, but was shifted from one admin to another.

Zimbabwe Voice heard from another member in the Chamisa camp, who said she is a only a mole and will soon also join Khupe camp: “Her (Mpariwa) pain was not at being removed, but at the kind of uncouth slander and derogatory language that was being used by top party officials against her.

“MDC under Morgan Tsvangirai had no history of being insulting and being disrespectful to women. Chamisa has taken the MDC project down a dirty road, and Mpariwa wanted to address that in the group.”

The source continued: “This knew trend of attacks and insults on women started after Tsvangirai died. It’s a shameful character that has been brought in by the vanquished G40 faction of Zanu-PF who were bitter at being knocked from power by their Lacoste comrades.

“Many among us also suspect that former renegades like Tendai Biti, who is popular with vulgar language, is behind the dirty, vulgar tonic now synonymous with the MDC.”

Mpariwa has refused to talk over her predicament, but confirmed that the handwritten letter trending on social media is indeed genuine.

In the letter, Mpariwa accepts her fate and said she saw it coming.

The letter penned by Mpariwa after failing to gain access to the MDC-Alliance WhatsApp Groups.

“She is a 56 year old veteran of the opposition movement, having been in Parliament since the early 2000s and having also led key Parliamentary Committees such as the Public Accounts Committee.

“It’s a loss to the Chamisa camp that such institutional memory is being lost and replaced with greenhorns like Fadzayi Mahere who we all know is not in this for the long haul,” said the source. – Zimbabwe Voice