Chamisa, Mwonzora tussle drags on

By Patience Rashai

In a typical Chamisa style, Nelson Chamisa (MDC-A leader) seized the microphone to turn a church service into a political rally, at the late Kuwadzana MDC Alliance MP funeral, taking a swipe at MDC T Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora, and calling him a sell-out.

Speaking at a church service for the late , Miriam Mushayi, this Thursday, Chamisa said that he was disappointed with Mwonzora for destroying the late MDC founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s legacy.

“I am really disappointed with his level of selfishness that Mwonzora has sunk so low. He is claiming to defend the legacy of the late Morgan Tsvangirai by destroying what he (Tsvangirai) built,” said Chamisa.

“MDC supporters picked it long back that Mwonzora was a sell-out and they urged me to expel him from the party but I called for patience. I said let’s not expel him from the party, let’s give him a long rope to hang himself. Look where he is now?

“How can you defend the legacy of Tsvangirai when you do not want to be part of the MDC Alliance which Tsvangirai laid the foundation?” argued Chamisa.

These statements have however attracted criticism from political analysts who said Chamisa was being hypocritical, as he was not the legit MDC torch bearer.

Raymond Mwando, a political analyst said that MDC squabbles would never be resolved because the party is disorganised.

“The genesis of problems daunting MDC today can clearly be traced back to 2016, if not earlier as the party has a brave tendency of choosing populism over constitutionalism.

“For instance no one dared to question moves by Tsvangirai when he controversially appointed two vice presidents, Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri, in addition to Thokozani Khupe who had been elected to this position during the party’s 2014 Congress. And now we have confused Chamisa who thinks that he is the legit leader yet he was never constitutionally elected by the party he claims to represent.”

In all these rantings, hypocritical Chamisa is of course foregoing the fact that after the passing on of Tsvangirai, in 2018, he rose to power without going for the constitutionally mandated extraordinary congress in order to have him as his replacement.