MDC defectors face arrest

Politics
MDC president Welshman Ncube has lashed out at former legislators of his party who defected to MDC-T, saying the parliamentarians lied under oath.

MDC president Welshman Ncube has lashed out at former legislators of his party who defected to MDC-T, saying the parliamentarians lied under oath when they denied belonging to the party.

Albert Ncube

Nomalanga Khumalo (Umzingwane) and Thandeko Zinti Mnkandhla (Gwanda North) claimed to belong to a splinter group of the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara, when the MDC sought to have them expelled over links with the Morgan Tsvangirai-led party.

“When (Speaker of Parliament) Lovemore Moyo was protecting them they went to court and made an oath that they were not in MDC-T. They made an oath that they were under MDC Mutambara and in law, that is called perjury and we reserved our right to lay criminal charges,” Ncube told a Press conference in Gwanda on Sunday.

Last Thursday, Tsvangirai told a rally in Bulilima that he had promised the five in 2008 that they would stand unopposed in the next election after they voted for Moyo for the position of Speaker of Parliament.

Ncube said his party would maintain a stronghold in Matabeleland despite the defections.

“They left the party a long time ago and we rebuilt the party from scratch, not yesterday when they were confirmed as MDC-T candidates, but from 2008 when they went to Botswana,” he said.

The MDC sought, without success, to have Mnkandhla and Khumalo expelled from Parliament over their allegiance to MDC-T.