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Mr Moyo

Temba Dube
MDC-T members reportedly almost came to blows during a provincial meeting in Bulawayo, held on Friday to discuss the issue of the recent election of the mayor and his deputy for the city.The meeting that lasted about four hours, and was held at the party’s provincial headquarters, reportedly degenerated into personal attacks and a witch-hunt for people alleged to be leaking party secrets to the Press.

Party officials said participants were sharply divided into two camps, one supporting the provincial chairperson Mr Gorden Moyo, and another siding with former Mzilikazi Senator, Mr Matson Hlalo.

“There was tension because the Hlalo faction demanded to know why the province had disowned the results of mayoral elections held by councillors (at party level) before the actual vote that saw Councillor Martin Moyo being voted mayor and Clr Earnest Rafamoyo being elected his deputy.  The vote, done before the actual election, was supervised by MDC-T secretary for local government, Mr Blessing Chebundo.

“The province nullified the election and the Gorden Moyo faction allegedly canvassed for the election of Clr Banda as deputy mayor. Clr Banda was eventually officially elected as Bulawayo’s deputy mayor,” said the official.

The official said members of Mr Gorden Moyo’s faction said the election was nullified because “there was no  need to listen to Harvest House in Harare”.

“Why should we listen to Harvest House? What did they win? They should not have sent Chebundo here to impose selection of mayors, without notifying the province. After all, Bulawayo won all the parliamentary seats and council wards when the party was thrashed in the rest of the country. They should respect us,” said one of the members, loyal to Mr Hlalo.

Another official said the Hlalo faction that had been part of the initial election maintained that the province simply opposed the results because Clr Banda was snubbed by the councillors.

“We were told at the meeting that Hlalo wrote a letter to the national leadership complaining about the provincial leadership’s actions and called for the suspension of councillors who did not vote for Clr Rafamoyo when the mayors were officially elected. Moyo’s supporters opposed that, for obvious reasons,” said the official.

The officials said a lengthy argument arose, in which former deputy mayor, Mr Amen Mpofu and MDC-T organising secretary Mr Albert Mhlanga almost exchanged blows, over the former’s recent Press attacks on the latter.

“Mr Mhlanga was furious. He said those who were saying he was mad, in apparent reference to Mpofu’s remarks in the newspapers, were free to go to Ingutsheni (psychiatric hospital) with him. The two had to be restrained,” he said.

“The meeting was chaotic. Some party members left before it was finished. It started at 5pm and finished after 9pm. The leaders began threatening people that they did not name, saying they knew them as sellouts who disclosed party secrets to the Press. This did not go down well with members who demanded the names of the sellouts.

The meeting ended without resolution to items on the agenda.”
Mr Mpofu declined to comment when contacted yesterday saying only MDC-T spokesperson for Bulawayo Mr Mandla Sibanda had been mandated to speak to the Press.  Efforts to get a comment from Mr Mhlanga also failed. Mr Sibanda could not be reached for comment on his mobile phone.

However, former MDC-T councillor for Ward 14, Mr Phinias Z Ndlovu who was fired after running as an independent candidate in the 31 July harmonised elections, said selfishness and “a laziness to read” was destroying MDC-T.

“The leaders are making many uninformed decisions that are destroying the party. They seem not to know various statutes governing affairs of State and council. They appear to make impulsive decisions that have a tendency of backfiring.

“They should learn from the embarrassment they have been suffering of late after acting on impulse to file court cases that they had to later withdraw. I think they should just let the mayors issue rest and concentrate  on solving internal fights,” said Mr Ndlovu.