By Political Reporter
The MDC Alliance is facing a revolt in Bulawayo with reports that the majority of its Provincial Executive members are planning to ditch the Chamisa led political outfit in favour of the MDC T.
According to some insiders, the current MDC Alliance Bulawayo chairperson, James Sithole and former Bulawayo chairperson, Gift Banda, are all planning to join the Douglass Mwonzora political formation.
The development has caused some ructions within MDC Alliance members in Bulawayo who fear that the intended defection of Banda to MDC T will cripple the operations of that party’s activities since he is the financier of major party programmes.
“All is not well in our structure (the Bulawayo structure).There are reports that both Sithole and Banda are planning to defect to Mwonzora’s party because they think that he is more visionary and mature than Chamisa. The defection of these men will be a massive blow to the party as they are likely to go with their followers. It’s known that both Banda and Sithole have a huge following in Bulawayo and their defection will ring alarm bells within the MDC Alliance,” said the insider.
The same insider said Banda’s faction has resources and they were the major financiers of MDC Alliance programmes in Bulawayo.
“Banda’s faction has resources and they are currently the major financiers of party programmes in Bulawayo. If indeed Banda, together with his faction, defect to MDC T, then the MDC Alliance’s activities in Bulawayo will be crippled as the party does not have resources to carry out party activities. This will be the end of MDC Alliance’s visibility in Bulawayo Province,” said the insider.
According to the insider, Banda has already created some parallel structures in Bulawayo and plans are already in motion to merge these structures with the MDC T structures in that Province.
The insider further said Sithole, who is the Makokoba legislator, is joining the Mwonzora formation because he is afraid of being recalled from parliament.
“Sithole confided in some of us that he is planning to join the MDC T so that he cannot be recalled from parliament. Sithole is saying that he used a lot of personal resources to get into parliament and he cannot lose that parliamentary seat because of his support for Chamisa. According to Sithole, Mwonzora is now the leader of the original MDC hence he is planning to defect to the MDC T,”added the insider.
The MDC Alliance has continued to lose members to the MDC T following last year’s ruling that the former was not a bona fide political party.
Since then, a lot of the opposition heavyweights such as Elias Mudzuri, Morgan Komichi, Abednego Bhebhe and Dr Tapiwa Mashakada, have all ditched the MDC Alliance in favour of the MDC T.
