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Nduduzo Tshuma Political Editor
THE internal revolt against MDC leader Professor Welshman Ncube is set to spill to the courts after he indicated intention to sue rebel members circulating a petition calling for his resignation.

In an interview with online publication NewZimbabwe.com, Prof Ncube said the lobby carried in it defamatory allegations against him.

Last week the party suspended six members including former acting secretary general Moses Mzila Ndlovu for circulating the petition calling on Prof Ncube to step down accusing him of leadership failure.

Mzila Ndlovu and national executive committee members Esaph Mdlongwa and Abednicho Moyo, Bulawayo provincial director for elections Victor Nyoni, fellow provincial member Lucky Fengu and Greenfield Moyo from Midlands South were suspended on allegations of acting in contravention to the party’s constitution.

The suspension came days after Mzila Ndlovu was relieved of his duties over allegations of failing to execute tasks to the satisfaction of the party although some members have said that his sacking was a culmination of personality clashes between him and Prof Ncube.

Asked about the petition, Prof Ncube responded, “Yes, I’m aware of the petition including its false, scurrilous and defamatory allegations on which I have already sought and received legal advice.

“If the leadership collective in the party approves, I will be instructing my lawyers to take legal action against those responsible for the publication of the false and defamatory material,” he said.

Prof Ncube went on to discredit the petition claiming that from the 62 “purported” signatures of members calling for his ouster, 48 of them were not bonafide members of this party leaving the lobby with only 12 signatures.

“Two or so were party intelligence operatives deployed by our security department to monitor the activities of the group which started its clandestine meetings long ago as in or around about October last year,” said Prof Ncube.

“I give these details in order to make the point that it is an extraordinary act of political bravado for a group of 12 party members in some two out of 12 party provinces to believe that they can petition a party president elected by nearly 5,000 delegates to stand down against the wishes of the overwhelming majority in those provinces and in opposition by some 10 of the remaining provinces.”

Prof Ncube, in an apparent reference to Mzila-Ndlovu said there was a plot to turn the party into a regional organisation.

“The real intention of the group of 14 including the real two senior movers of the plot who lacked the courage to put their signatures on the petition is to dismember the party and turn it into a regional party under the leadership of someone who can only ever speak on one and only one issue he thinks defines the three provinces in which the regional party would exist,” he said.

“What they should have done was to place the issue of a regional party transparently on the agenda of party structures and organs for open debate instead of clandestinely seeking to dismember the party.

“It’s their democratic right to go regional. We wish them well in their endeavours to construct a regional party. What we will not do is to allow them to build their party on the ruins and ashes of the MDC.”