Staff Reporter
Warring MDC Alliance factions are at each other’s throat fighting for the control of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) as elections to replace outgoing CiZC Chairperson, Rashid Mahiya draw closer.
A source who spoke to this publication revealed that the MDC Alliance Maruva cabal is fighting with the MDC Alliance Comrades faction led by Nelson Chamisa for the control of CiZC and the two factions have already identified candidates to replace Mahiya.
According to the source, the Maruva cabal is in support of Vendors Initiative for Socio-Economic Transformation (VISET) Director, Samuel Mangoma Wadzai to be the next CiZC chairperson, while the Chamisa faction is campaigning for former Zimbabwe Congress for Trade Union (ZCTU) chairperson, Peter Mutasa.
The source revealed that the Maruva cabal faction had the support of the former US Embassy Political Officer, Washington Katema, who is currently the Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network team leader. The same source added that Mangoma-Wadzai was likely to win the elections as he was being backed by political strategists who know how to sail the field of civil society politics.
The source added that the Chamisa faction was working overtime to ensure that Mangoma –Wadzai does not become the next CiZC chairperson as he was not supportive of the MDC Alliance activities. Mangoma-Wadzai and other members of his faction are considered to be people of questionable loyalty as they have repeatedly snubbed Chamisa’s plans of appointing them in MDC Alliance structures preferring to be outside players.
The source further revealed that the Chamisa faction had roped in the services of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI) director, Pedzisai Ruhanya, to campaign for Mutasa. The Chamisa faction has a belief that Mutasa still commands a huge following among the Civil Society Organisations, hence they want to use him to rival Mangoma –Wadzai.
In trying to prop up Mutasa, Ruhanya is believed to be going around insinuating that Mangoma-Wadzai cannot be the next CiZC chairperson as he was a political flip flopper who abandoned the MDC in 2013 after clashing with the late Morgan Tsvangirai. Ruhanya is also telling the electorate that Mutasa was a better candidate as opposed to Mangoma-Wadzai who was not recognised by the CiZC founding fathers like Professor Brian Raftopoulos.
Efforts to get a comment from Mutasa and Mangoma-Wadzai were futile as their mobile phones were not reachable.
