By Political Reporter
Expelled MDC T Organizing Secretary Abedinigo Bhebhe has been accused of tampering with that party’s 2014 structures, replacing bonafide members with his cronies.
A source who spoke to this publication said Bhebhe, who wanted to contest for the MDC T presidency before he was expelled from the party, removed names of people he thought would not endorse his candidature and replaced them with his supporters.
“Bhebhe as the Organizing Secretary was the one responsible with the compilation and verification of the voters roll. The final copy of the voters roll was supposed to be availed to candidates in September; however the Organizing Department failed to avail it in time. It later came out that Bhebhe had kept people who had crossed floor to MDC Alliance in the voters roll so that he would boost his chances of winning the presidency since he was being backed by the MDC Alliance,” said the source.
Same source further alleged that Bhebhe conspired with the MDC T Secretary for Elections Gande Mudzingwa to remove all perceived MDC T Secretary General Douglass Mwonzora supporters from the voters to reduce his chances of winning the elections.
“Bhebhe knew that his main challenger for the MDC T presidency would be Mwonzora so he conspired with Mudzingwa to remove all perceived Mwonzora supporters from the voters and replaced them with known MDC Alliance sympathizers. The idea was to jeopardize Mwonzora’s chances of winning the elections,” added the source.
In an interview with this publication, MDC T National Chairperson Morgan Komichi agreed that the voters roll was in shambles and there was need to clean it to the satisfaction of all candidates. Komichi further said they had been requesting the voters roll from people who were compiling it but they only got it two days before the aborted Extra Ordinary Congress (EOC).
He said it was not practical to proceed with the EOC with a shambolic and questionable voters roll.
In another interview, Mwonzora said he supported the idea of having a voters roll that is accepted by all contestants so that no one will complain after the EOC.
He further said that the National Standing Committee of MDC T has agreed that the EOC will be held on 27 December 2020, with venues being decentralized across the country because of COVID 19 regulations.
Mwonzora informed that the party has settled for Thomas Masvinge, a lawyer and member of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU), to lead the Independent Electoral Commission that will run the elections.
In March this year, the Supreme Court ruled that Chamisa was not the legitimate leader of the MDC T and reinstated Khupe as interim president with a mandate to lead the party to a congress to select a new leader to replace the late founding MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai.
Khupe is facing off with Mwonzora, Morgan Komichi and Elias Mudzuri.
