Innocent Mujeri
MDC Alliance Bulawayo Provincial Youth Assembly chairperson Tinashe Kambarami, together with some youths, this week violently disrupted a meeting that was about to be chaired by embattled provincial chairperson, James Sithole who is being accused of selling out to the Douglas Mwonzora-led MDC T.
An impeccable source within the MDC Alliance told this publication that Sithole had scheduled a meeting at that party’s provincial office to suspend the province’s organizing secretary, Helen Zivira and spokesperson Swirthern Chiroodza who are known Sithole’s nemeses However, the meeting failed to properly convene after Kambarami got wind of the agenda of the meeting and led a group of youths who manhandled Sithole and threw him out of the provincial office.
Kambarami later held a press conference where he announced that as the Youth Assembly, they had resolved to pass a vote of no confidence in the leadership of Sithole because of his links with the MDC-T and tendency to cause divisions within that party.
According to the source, Kambarami accused Sithole of being a ZANU PF project, working with the MDC-T to destabilize the MDC Alliance and decimate that party before the 2023 plebiscite. Kambarami reportedly told Sithole that he was not recalled from Parliament like other legislators because he was Mwonzora’s blue eyed boy who was in the MDC Alliance to spy for same.
However, another source aligned to the Sithole faction said people who were fighting the provincial chairman were enemies of the party who were creating unnecessary conflict within the party. The source added that people like Kambarami, Helen Zivira and Thabitha Khumalo were jealousy of Sithole because he was not recalled from Parliament like them.
The source further said that all allegations against Sithole would not hold water and added that there was hope that the fact finding team led by that party’s co vice president, Lynnette Karenyi-Kore, deputy secretary Concilia Chinanzvavana, National Executive Members (NEC) Daniel Molokele, Bheki Sibanda and Nonhlanhla Mhlotshwa would exonerate Sithole of all the charges.
The same source added that the vote of no confidence in Sithole was a non-event as the MDC Alliance constitution had no provision for the youths to expel a provincial chairman who is also a member of NEC.
Bulawayo province had become a hotbed for factionalism in the MDC Alliance and Chamisa had since sent a fact finding team to try and quench the factional fires in that province. However, the fact finding team is expected to exonerate Sithole as it is allegedly aligned to Welshman Ncube who is an ally of Sithole.
