Tsvangirai calls for unity following failed plot to oust him By Mugove Tafirenyika HARARE - Opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, w...
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Tsvangirai calls for unity following failed plot to oust him |
HARARE - Opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been shrugging off internal calls for him to step down, on Saturday won overwhelming support to stay on from the party’s rank-and-file.
Following his controversial drubbing by Zanu PF leader President Robert Mugabe in last year’s elections, Tsvangirai has been under pressure to step down from the party leadership to allow the party to reinvent itself.
However, the former Prime Minister, who has indicated that he has no intention to immediately relinquish his post, on Saturday proved to his internal party foes that he had the support of the grassroots after receiving the overwhelming confidence from the party’s 210 district chairpersons.
Addressing the media after Tsvangirai’s meeting with the chairpersons, Douglas Mwonzora, the MDC spokesperson, said the party was embarking on a grassroots restructuring exercise from branch level to provincial structures.
The meeting had been called by Tsvangirai to outline the party’s agenda for this year.
Mwonzora said while the district chairpersons had resolved to remain united under Tsvangirai, there was a possibility of an early congress in 2016, though not necessarily an extraordinary one.
“In their submissions, the MDC district chairpersons resolved not to be deterred by what happened on July 31, 2013, and said the party will remain focused on its principal goal, which is to deliver the people of Zimbabwe from poverty and misery”, Mwonzora said.
“They all unanimously resolved to remain united under the leadership of president Morgan Tsvangirai.
“To that end, a programme of restructuring all our structures from grassroots, the branches, wards, districts and provincial structures is going to be embarked upon with haste.”
Mwonzora said the meeting took notice that Zanu PF had taken advantage of calls for leadership renewal in the party to sow seeds of division amongst the party leadership.
Flanked by the MDC leader’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka, Mwonzora claimed that Zanu PF had even come up with its preferred MDC leadership which it was allegedly publishing on social networks.
He claimed there were two lists of the preferred party hierarchy, designed to alienate certain leaders, bring distrust and initiate infighting in the MDC.
“To that end, the leadership of the MDC shall as has always been the case, be determined by congress, whether this congress is held in 2016 or earlier if the national council so desires”, Mwonzora said.
The MDC spokesperson said Tsvangirai had also proffered an eight-point plan which he said has the solutions to what he termed the crises of legitimacy, governance and expectations bedevilling the country.
“The plan to national revival is; engaging in a national dialogue where all national stakeholders participate in economic revival, political and economic reforms, social sector, global engagement, national cohesion, holding free, fair and credible elections and infrastructure rehabilitation,” he said.
While Mwonzora maintained the party was not going to take disciplinary action against those calling for the veteran opposition politician to go, the Daily News on Sunday witnessed some party youths loyal to Tsvangirai flushing out and assaulting youths from Mbare and Chitungwiza whom they accused of pushing for the MDC leader’s ouster.
Speculation was rife prior to the meeting that it had been called to decide the fate of party deputy treasurer-general Elton Mangoma, who is accused to plotting to oust Tsvangirai after penning a damning report urging the ex-Premier to relinquish the party leadership in favour of party vice-president Thokozani Khupe.
Mangoma was manhandled by MDC youths as he emerged from a meeting accompanied by Tsvangirai.
His jacket and shirt were torn in the scuffle while his spectacles were damaged and he sustained a swollen lip.
The meeting with the district chairpersons, Mwonzora said, was a prelude to a series of “national engagement meetings by the president and entire MDC leadership with the people of Zimbabwe at all levels which are going to commence”.
Provincial chairpersons, youths and provincial women assemblies all attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, a buoyed Tsvangirai addressed a rally at Glen Norah Community Hall in Harare on Sunday. Daily News
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