By Staff reporter
The opposition party, the MDC is reeling under financial pressures with creditors threatening to take a legal course to recover their money, Harare Post reports.
Sources say the ruined party is in aggregate arrears of over 11 million dollars with workers going unpaid for months.
While the top leadership blames the general economic challenges in the national economy, party insiders apportion blame on the leadership which they accuse of spending much of their time in the air.
“Just like the government which spends the bulk of its budget on salaries, three quarters of our budget go towards funding our leaders’ jaunts. We have been accusing (President Emmerson) Mnangagwa of the same crime that our leaders are now abundantly committing,” said one source whose name is protected for his security.
He says there has not been much return from the pricey trips that Mr Nelson Chamisa is taking.
According to Mr Chamisa’s travel plan, which the source favoured this publication with; the youthful leader has taken a total of eight foreign trips within a period of two months. A check with his travel agency reveals that Mr Chamisa has been using business class, which is the most expensive travel class on a plane.
On 23 October, Mr Chamisa left the country for South Africa on board a South African Airways. On 13 November, same, together with the party’s secretary for International Relations, Gladys Hlatshwayo, flew to South Africa en route to Frankfurt, Germany. Two days later, Mr Chamisa was once again in the air heading for Stockholm, Sweden to attend Progressive Alliance (PA) Convention.
On Monday, 2 December, Mr Chamisa left the country aboard a South African Airways to Johannesburg en route to London. Two days later, on 4 December, the MDC leader left London for Germany. He is expected to leave Germany for France on Saturday, 7 December.
Other MDC top leaders on the globe-trotting extravaganza are Hlatshwayo, Dr Tapiwa Mashakada, the party’s co-vice leaders, Tendai Biti and Professor Welshman Ncube.
A Namibian based political analyst, Chipo Mhembere says the sudden interest in foreign trips by the MDC was triggered by President Mnangagwa’s re-engagement enterprise.
“The whole plot is to counter the re-engagements efforts by the New Dispensation. While the New Dispensation is telling the world about the reforms it is implementing, the MDC is telling the same audience about the perceived human rights violations in the country. This is the reason why they are provoking the police, just to make their claims authentic.
“Unfortunately, Chamisa has not been meeting the people who matter in the countries he is visiting. Its folly for the MDC to squander a fortune just to meet an opposition politician,” said the Windhoek based political science lecturer.
While the MDC top leaders are being prodigal in their expenditure, the party has failed to complete restructuring exercise owing to financial challenges.
The party owes Harare and Bulawayo city councils a total of over a million dollars. However, the insolvent party has been abusing its majority in urban councils to default on paying rates.
Although the bust party had structured some payment plans to liquidate their debts, they have disregarded that arrangement prompting creditors to threaten to attach the party’s assets.
