by Innocent Mujeri

Leader of the little known United Democratic Movement (UDM), Daniel Shumba is allegedly dangling wads of US dollar notes to members of the MDC Alliance in Bulawayo in a bid to lure them to join his political movement.

A contact within the MDC Alliance Bulawayo executive who spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Shumba is desperate to revive his waning political career and has resorted to using cash to entice people to join his party.

“Its true that Shumba (Daniel) is enticing people to join his party. Recently most of our Provincial executive members received calls from Shumba urging them to join his party. Shumba is taking advantage of the disgruntlements within the MDC Alliance to lure people to his movement. The MDC Alliance leaders have already been informed that some of the members are contemplating ditching the MDC Alliance and join Shumba’s party as he is considered to be more mature and focused than Chamisa (Nelson),”said the contact.

The contact  went further to say that Shumba is offering US$50.00 to each MDC Alliance provincial member who would have joined his party.

“Ndiani angarambe mari. (Who will say no to cash).At least Shumba is offering something. The MDC Alliance is good at forcing us to pay subscriptions but we get nothing in return. It’s better to join UDM than being an unrecognised MDC Alliance member,” added the source.

The same source revealed to this publication that a number of the MDC Alliance members had already defected to Shumba’s party citing disgruntlement over lack of direction and incessant infighting in the embattled opposition party as their reason for deserting the party

However, the contact refused to divulge the names of those who had defected to Shumba’s party for fear that they might be harassed by the notorious MDC Alliance’s Vanguard.