ZIMBABWE Ambassador to Senegal Trudy Stevenson says violence led to the split of the original MDC and the violent scenes at the MDC-T headquarters last weekend might lead to another split. NDUDUZO TSHUMA STAFF REPORTER
Stevenson who said she was no longer in politics because of her office said the united MDC made a mistake by failing to eradicate violence and now it had become so deep rooted in the MDC-T to eradicate.
“Violence was a major contributing factor in the split of MDC, and it looks like the “T” faction is heading that way again. I believe that our mistake was to let the very first incident go unpunished. The rot set in, and is now too deep-rooted to eradicate,” Stevenson a victim of violence that led to hospitalisation said.
MDC-T national chairman Lovemore Moyo this past week poured water on fears that the violence that saw the assault on party deputy treasure Elton Mangoma by party youths indicated an imminent split. Mangoma and party secretary general Tendai Biti who escaped the beatings from the youths by jumping into MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s vehicle are accused of plotting a coup to oust the former Prime Minister. Stevenson said the violence last weekend reminded her of violence that rocked the united MDC’s Harvest House headquarters before the 2005 split.
“Obviously the reports I have read of last weekend’s violence at Harvest House remind me of all the many incidents of violence in MDC, especially there at its Harvest House headquarters,” she said.
Stevenson said the first major incident she recalled was the election for the first Harare provincial executive at Adelaide Acres in Waterfalls sometime between 200 and 2001.
“I was supposed to supervise the election, along with others, but the whole thing descended into chaos and violence when a crowd of youths started throwing missiles and attacking candidates and National Executive members,” recalled Stevenson who was seconded for the Ambassador post by the Welshman Ncube-led MDC after the signing of the Global Political Agreement in 2009.
“Edwin Mushoriwa (now MDC deputy president) had to lock himself in the toilet to avoid serious injury, but quite a lot of blood flowed and the election was abandoned,” she said.
