By Innocent Mujeri

….as party members engage in bloody battles for positions

Factional fighting in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) reared its ugly head again over the weekend as Masvingo Provincial members engaged in violent clashes during the process of electing a new Provincial Chairperson for the party, Harare Post can report.

Mr Muranganwa Chinyau and Gibson Murinye were battling out for the chairmanship position when the fracas ensued. The chairmanship position was left vacant after the dissolution of MDC Masvingo Provincial executive by its leader Nelson Chamisa last month.

An MDC supporter Pride Nyamande said the chaos that erupted in Masvingo was planned by Tongai Matutu, the former Masvingo urban legislator, after realizing that his preferred candidate for the Chairmanship position, Mr. Gibson Murinye was losing against the Chafungamoyo Gumbi backed candidate, Muranganwa Chinyau.

Gumbi was the chairperson of Masvingo Provincial executive which was dissolved by Chamisa.

Matutu is alleged to have instructed one Munashe Bande to disturb the voting process by snatching the ballot boxes before the counting was completed.

Bande acting under Matutu’s instructions, snatched the ballot boxes and tried to run away with them while tearing some ballot papers.

He was apprehended by members from the other faction who meted instant justice as all hell broke loose. Members who were on Bande’s side retaliated and a bloody fist fight ensued which left many people seriously injured.

Nyamande also informed this publication that two elderly men are battling for life at Masvingo General hospital after they had been battered mercilessly by other MDC members when they tried to calm the situation.

It is believed that by the time Bande snatched the ballot boxes, Chinyau was leading Murinye by a wide margin.

Matutu is battling with Chafungamoyo Gumbi, his longtime rival, for the control of MDC Masvingo structures and they are using their proxies, Chinyau and Murinye to fight their battles.

Gumbi is alleged to be a member of the Mwonzora faction, which is now slowly being taken over by Tendai Biti and Job Sikhala while Matutu is believed to be Chamisa’s blue-eyed boy.

MDC Masvingo member who only revealed her first name as Lisa said there is a huge deficiency of democracy in MDC as shown by the factional fights that are currently happening.

“The MDC leadership sold us (supporters) a dummy at the inception of the party, when they claimed to be a democratic party. The fights that continue to occur in the MDC are testimony of a deficiency of democracy in MDC.  Chamisa wants to be everything in the party and has relegated Organizing Secretary Amos Chibaya to the periphery as he is dictating all events in the party,” said Lisa.

Another MDC Masvingo member who preferred anonymity said the fights in the MDC are a result of Chamisa’s dictatorship tendencies.

“Chamisa is to blame for the chaos witnessed in Masvingo over the weekend as his hand was visible in the selection of candidates to be elected in the Provincial executive, clearly sidelining anyone aligned to Gumbi”.

Factional fights in the MDC are not new, in 2018 party members aligned to Chamisa attacked and threatened to burn a hut where Thokozani Khupe and Douglas Mwonzora had taken refuge from rowdy youths who were baying for their blood at Morgan Tsvangirai’s funeral in Bikita.

The same year, the then MDC vice president Elias Mudzuri was whisked away from Morgan Richard Tsvangirai House as rogue youths aligned to Chamisa wanted to beat him up after he had publicly disputed Chamisa’s leadership.

Efforts to get a comment from MDC Masvingo Provincial spokesperson Derrick Charamba and MDC Secretary General Chalton Hwende were fruitless as their phones went unanswered.