By Bevan Musoko

MDC-T Secretary General, Douglas Mwonzora has castigated the MDC faction pledging loyalty to Nelson Chamisa describing the grouping as a gang of third grade student politicians.

Speaking on the sidelines of a Parliamentary public hearing on the Cyber Security and Data Protection Bill at Luveve Beit Hall in Bulawayo on Monday, Mwonzora said the Chamisa grouping had betrayed the founding values of the MDC. He said Chamisa had sidelined MDC founding members from the labour and constitutional constituencies in favour of former student leaders who he described as third grade in terms of intelligence, maturity and competence.

Mwonzora added that Chamisa had engaged in a “systematic purge” of seasoned MDC members after the death of Morgan Tsvangirai, replacing them with his friends from his days as a student political activist, a development he said had brought the party into a post ideological phase. He accused Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) of seeking to hijack the opposition party.

Mwonzora’s attack on Chamisa comes at a time the opposition party’s factions are involved in cut throat fighting over control of the party and its assets. Mwonzora and Dr Thokozani Khupe’s faction has decimated Chamisa’s faction through recalling its legislators and Councilors.

He said recalls would continue as long as the legislators continue pledging loyalty to Chamisa and refusing to abide by the Supreme Court ruling on convening a congress to elect the party’s leader. Mwonzora said recalls were not new in MDC as Tsvangirai once recalled 21 MPs who included Tendai Biti who had formed his own party, the People’s Democratic Party.

“The MDC is not an incubation center for people with ambitions to form their own parties,” Mwonzora said.

In conclusion Mwonzora revealed that, he intends to make an announcement this coming Thursday, 9 July 2020, on whether he would contest for the MDC-T presidency during the elective congress.