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Sydney Kawadza, Harare Bureau
MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai allegedly hired the thugs that assaulted party bigwigs in Bulawayo on Sunday, it has emerged.

One of the opposition party’s vice presidents Ms Thokozani Khupe, national chairman Mr Lovemore Moyo and organising secretary Mr Abednigo Bhebhe were bashed at the Bulawayo party provincial offices where they were holding a meeting.

Sources told our Harare Bureau yesterday that the senior officials were beaten up for boycotting Saturday’s launch of the MDC-Alliance by Mr Tsvangirai in Harare.

The alliance is a marriage of MDC-T and several small political parties ahead of next year’s harmonised elections.

Some senior party officials, including those who were assaulted on Sunday, are said to be against the MDC-Alliance.

They cite unilateralism by Mr Tsvangirai.

Investigations by our Harare Bureau, corroborated by images posted on social media, showed that the hoodlums who beat up Ms Khupe, Mr Moyo and Mr Bhebhe attended the MDC-Alliance launch where they provided security at the Zimbabwe Grounds.

In an interview yesterday, Mr Bhebhe said the thugs claimed to have been sent by Mr Tsvangirai.

“Yesterday (Sunday) I did not say Tsvangirai sent the youths,” he said. “I said it was the youths themselves who told us that they were sent by Tsvangirai. I do not know whether they were telling the truth or lying, but that is what they claimed.

“All I can say at the moment is that I am optimistic that the investigations the party is conducting will come up with results. However, it is also clear that these youths do not have the capacity or resources to hire a car to travel from Harare to Bulawayo. We want to establish the hand behind all this.”

Mr Tsvangirai yesterday hurriedly convened a press conference at his Highlands residence and condemned the violence.

He insinuated Government involvement, but failed to substantiate the claims.

“We are investigating this incident with the intention of taking stern action against any of our members who may have been involved in this dastardly act,” Mr Tsvangirai said.

“At the same time, we are not ruling out the invisible hand of the State as it had a huge motive to douse the successful script of the Alliance on Saturday.”

MDC-T sources yesterday dismissed Mr Tsvangirai’s claims and insisted he was responsible for the Bulawayo violence.

“It is in fact our guys who were attacked by Khupe’s thugs. If you look closely at the video, our guys did not attack anyone but they were attacked when Khupe tried to throw them out of the office,” countered a source.

One of the youths who appeared in a video that has gone viral on social media is MDC-T deputy national youth chairman Mr Shakespear Mukoyi.

He appeared in court early this year for allegedly threatening to assault police officers.

On Sunday, MDC-T deputy-treasurer general Mr Charlton Hwende celebrated the assault on his twitter account, saying “organising a caucus meeting” against the party was “irresponsible” and attracted “unnecessary problems”.

“The youths are angry and impatient, anyone who still stands in the way of change will have no one to blame. We are tired. We want change,” said Mr Hwende.

Mr Tsvangirai yesterday said Mr Hwende would be censured for violating the party’s ethos and values.

“If a leader of a party which is committed to these values acts against these values, he equally must face the same censure,” he said. “Charlton Hwende will face the same censure like everyone else.”

MDC-T sources also revealed that Ms Khupe, Mr Moyo and Mr Bhebhe were not happy with events that led to the formation of the MDC Alliance.

“The problem was on the allocation of constituencies in the run up to the agreement with other parties who joined the coalition,” said a source.

“Firstly, Tsvangirai appointed Jameson Timba as the chief negotiator during the coalition talks and when he agreed to the constituencies’ allocation, he favoured Welshman Ncube.

“When Khupe and her supporters objected, it was agreed to remove Timba from the negotiating team and secretary general Douglas Mwonzora took over the negotiations.”

The sources further revealed that Mr Mwonzora was re-negotiating the allocation of constituencies.

“Khupe had successfully argued that when Welshman deserted the party, Khupe led the onslaught to recover the seats in the 2008 harmonised elections, so it was not proper to hand the deserters these constituencies,” the sources said.

Mr Tsvangirai signed the coalition agreement with Transform Zimbabwe, Professor Welshman Ncube’s MDC, Zimbabwe People First, the Multi-Racial Christian Democratic Party, People’s Democratic Party and Zanu Ndonga.

Mr Tsvangirai said the coalition talks were still work in progress.

“I am sure our negotiators are making progress in order to adjust where they may have some reservations,” he said.

The opposition leader is expected to travel to Bulawayo to quell the rising tension threatening to split the opposition party.

In the coalition agreement, MDC-T will contest in 114 constituencies; MDC 32; ZimPF 20; MCD 1; PDP 14; and Transform Zimbabwe 19.

The constituency distribution plan has the MDC-T fielding candidates in most urban areas, while the majority of rural constituencies have been reserved for the remaining six parties.

Mr Tsvangirai has reportedly been pressured by the party’s Western backers to form a coalition with other opposition parties ahead of next year’s harmonised elections as a precondition for funding.

The MDC-T is broke and cannot even pay its workers.

Last week, its property at Harvest House, its head office, was taken away by the Sheriff and will be auctioned   to settle salary arrears for one of the party’s former employees.