Staff Reporter
Members of the separatist group, Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) were at it again last week when they violently disrupted a Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) meeting at Rainbow Towers in Bulawayo.
A source who spoke to this publication said CiZC members who had converged for a meeting to elect new leadership were left nursing wounds after violent MRP members stormed the meeting and started pelting stones at them, leaving CiZC members scurrying for cover.
“It was an ugly scene my brother. The MRP members disrupted a meeting that was being chaired by the outgoing CiZC chairperson Rashid Mahiya and demanded that all members should vacate Bulawayo as soon as possible. The MRP members were visibly drunk and they didn’t want to negotiate with anyone. Some members were left with wounds after the fracas,” said the source.
The source added that the MRP was arguing that CiZC should not hold their meetings in Bulawayo when they had failed to address the concerns of the Matabeleland residents. MRP accused CiZC of being a Harare organisation. The MRP members allegedly shouted at CiZC members and accused them of using the organisation to enrich themselves, while purporting to stand for the people.
According to the source, the chaos at the meeting was also fuelled by National Coordinator for the Youth Environment Management and Protection Trust (YEMPT), Pride Mukono, who was accusing Mahiya of turning CiZC into a personal project. The source said that before the meeting was disrupted by MRP thugs, Mukono had earlier threatened to beat Mahiya and CiZC Programmes Manager Nickson Nyikadzino for disrespecting the CiZC constitution and lacking transparency in running the organisation.
The source added that after the disruption of the meeting, Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) Executive Director, Samuel Wadzai Mangoma tried to convince Mahiya to reconvene the meeting so that new leadership could be elected. However, Mahiya vehemently refused to reconvene the meeting and instead accused Mangoma of being power hungry as he was also vying for the CiZC chairmanship.
Efforts to get a comment from Mahiya were futile as his mobile phones were not reachable.
