The co-ordinator of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, Marakia Bomani, says the political group’s secretariat has recommended the suspension of its leader Douglas Mwonzora following their dismal performance in the just-ended council and parliamentary by-elections.
Bomani, who is the secretary general of the Zimbabwe People First led by Agrippa Mutambara, told VOA Zimbabwe Service that Mwonzora also allegedly grossly violated some provisions of the MDC Alliance agreement signed by the Alliance’s principals.
He claimed that the MDC-T has also failed to account for millions of dollars belonging to the MDC Alliance, adding that the poor council and parliamentary by-election results forced them to recommend the suspension of Mwonzora.
Bomani said, “We feel that during the election period the MDC-T never consulted us. We would ask them about what is going on and they will tell us the president is busy with the campaign and we would wonder ‘what are they talking about’, we are an alliance. If anything, all our members should be campaigning together. We should be coordinating our events and activities. So, we basically felt that the MDC-T let us down in this campaign. We feel we could have done better if we had worked as a united alliance.
“There was no unity among us. If anything we were divided. So, we honestly felt if we had run an effective and well-organized campaign we would have given Zanu PF and CCC (Citizens Coalition for Change) a run for their money. But obviously when a campaign is being mismanaged and the organizing team is basically sleeping on the job, this is what you get. We are not happy that we got zeros at certain polling stations. That’s unacceptable.”
Bomani noted that sometime last year, the group’s composite political cooperation agreement was amended to include a budget for the MDC Alliance activities.
“The Alliance left almost ZWL$8,8 million in the in MDC-T coffers. That money disappeared. It was never accounted for and sometimes we would have principles asked to travel as far as Bulawayo, Marondera with no funding. There would be left there stranded. So, we are of the view that MDC-T are in violation of these clauses (section 5 and 6). These are the foundations of a functioning Alliance. If you breach those things, we don’t think president Mwonzora is competent enough to lead us into 2023. But, however, as the secretariat we have no mandate to fire him. We have left that responsibility with the principals. It is up to them to make a final decision. We feel that in order to allow investigations to be thoroughly carried out we think president Mwonzora should be suspended as the MDC Alliance leader.”
Reacting to the recommendations, MDC-T information secretary, Witness Dube, said they have not yet received an official letter from the secretariat on Mwonzora proposed suspension.
“I can’t talk about that because there are so many things that are circulating on social media,” he said.
MDC Alliance failed to get a single seat in the council and parliamentary by-elections. In some places where the party had election agents, it did not get a single vote.