By Dakarai Tembo
MDC Alliance legislators have been denied their $400 sitting allowance for boycotting the Mid-Term Budgetary Review by Professor Mthuli Ncube last week.
The boycott was engineered by MDC Alliance National Chairperson, Thabitha Khumalo and that party’s Chief Whip, Prosper Mutseyami, who summoned the legislators and directed them not to accord President Emmerson Mnangagwa a standing ovation. The pair argued that the MDC Alliance does not recognize President Mnangagwa.
Unfortunately, Mutseyami and Khumalo overlooked the stomachs of their MPs which were apparently not configured to part ways with the much anticipated sitting allowance; especially after a week of national ‘fasting and prayer.’ Speaker of Parliament, Advocate Jacob Mudenda’s withholding of the allowances came as a shocker and an ambushed for the unsuspecting honourable MPs.
The development turned out to be an own goal that irked the legislators who have since turned on Mutseyami and Khumalo accusing them of misleading them. An MDC Alliance source privy to the development revealed that “the honourable MPs were clearly miffed to miss out on the allowance. They were later to turn to Khumalo and Mutseyami accusing the leadership of misleading them.”
The source added that the MPs argued that they were made to believe that it was President Mnangagwa who was to address them and he turned out to be a mere spectator of the whole procession.
MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa did not make things any better for Khumalo and Mutseyami whom he accused of and castigated for their ill-informed and ill-conceived boycott. According to the source, Chamisa argued that the MPs should have attended the Budget Review so that they participate meaningfully in critiquing it.
Of late, there has been leadership wrangles at MDC pitying Chamisa and his peers in that party’s presidium. Plans are currently underway to recall MDC Alliance Vice President, Professor Welshman Ncube, at the instigation of Chamisa. Prof Ncube has been hosting a series of clandestine meetings at his former party (MDC-N) offices without giving feedback to his boss, who apparently did not take this act of insubordination lightly. Prof Ncube also stands accused of engineering the onslaught on Shona Councillors at Bulawayo City Council (BCC) together with his sympathizers at Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP).
On his part, MDC Alliance Vice President, Tendai Biti, together with the Youth Assembly and newfound confidant, Job Sikhala, are up in arms with Chamisa over the best way to confront Government. Chamisa has been dilly dallying on the way forward avoiding militant confrontation by calling for national prayers at a time Sikhala and the Youth Assembly were going around mobilizing for demonstrations and national shutdowns.
