BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba has exposed that MDC Alliance leader Douglas Mwonzora for being the ruling Zanu PF party’s project to destroy the opposition led by Nelson Chamisa.
Mwonzora and Thokozani Khupe, who heads a rival MDC faction, have long been accused of being in a marriage of convenience with Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF.
In his latest weekly column published by the State media under the pen name Jamwanda 2, Charamba described Mwonzora and his erstwhile ally Khupe as rival suitors fighting for the right to “mate” with Zanu PF.
He exposed how Khupe was used to endorse the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad), a platform described by critics as Mnangagwa’s strategy to get endorsement from opposition political parties.
“Viewed that way, Zanu PF, with its well sequenced dalliance with Thokozani Khupe and Douglas Mwonzora, is the foremost winner, followed by the two it mated with,” Charamba wrote.
“It used both to nudge the recalcitrant Chamisa into the desired corner where he has little choices but to jaw-jaw, and on Zanu PF terms… With Mwonzora at the helm of MDC whether T, Alliance or both — Polad got its myth, which became a mouth for Chamisa and all those who bankrolled him.”
The Mwonzora-led MDC-T enjoyed the backing of State institutions, including the police and army in the fight against Chamisa’s then MDC Alliance party which won parliamentary and local authority seats in 2018 general elections. Mwonzora wrested MDC Alliance headquarters, the Morgan Richard Tsvangirai House with the aid of armed soldiers and police. He also received funding under the Political Parties (Finance) Act based on seats won by Chamisa’s MDC Alliance while the courts granted him carte blanche to recall his rival’s MPs.
Chamisa has since formed a new political outfit, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party.
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“Having created Polad, Zanu PF needed an ideologue, who would run with and elaborate on, the concept, through sheer logic and cogency of argument,” Charamba further stated.
“Zanu PF’s goal is to insert a new mores in our politics where elections are followed by a de-escalation, all to allow national consensus, national focus and national effort towards betterment of Zimbabweans. That goal needed validation and echo from its opposite number, something well beyond Khupe conceptually. It needed the agile mind of Mwonzora, who swiftly outgunned Chamisa into an outcast, the black sheep of the Zimbabwe political family.”
Repeated efforts to get a comment from Mwonzora were in vain yesterday as his number was not reachable. His spokesperson Witness Dube was not picking up calls.
- Follow Miriam on Twitter@FloMangwaya
