THE fight for control of party assets in the faction-riddled MDC-T took a nasty turn in Mutare and Kwekwe over the weekend when members of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led group were locked out of their provincial offices by a faction sympathetic to “axed” secretary-general Tendai Biti. OBEY MANAYITI/ BLESSED MHLANGA
Tsvangirai and Biti are fighting for control of the party following an acrimonious fallout last month with both camps claiming to be the legitimate leaders of the party.
After the fallout, Biti’s renewal team successfully held a consultative meeting at the offices and on Saturday barred their rivals from using the facilities.
MDC-T Manicaland provincial acting chairman Shuah Mudiwa confirmed the Mutare incident yesterday.
“It was the boom gate that was locked, but we later gained entrance,” he said.
Mudiwa replaced Julius Magarangoma who was suspended recently because of his alleged links to the Biti faction.
“The meeting proceeded successfully, but we later observed that there were elements who wanted to disrupt the meeting.
“There were, however, sticky issues over the participation of suspended councillors, but at the end the meeting went on well.
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“We called off the meeting after realising that some people were asking disruptive questions,” he said.
However, Pishai Muchauraya, who is leading the Biti campaign in Manicaland, insisted that the provincial offices belonged to his faction and accused Tsvangirai followers of trespassing.
“They trespassed into the office. They used undesignated entry points to gain entrance and for us these people were squatting at our office because most of them are suspended or they are in support of suspended people,” Muchauraya said.
“Had they sought permission earlier to use the office we would have granted them because as true democrats we always maintain an open door policy!”
In Kwekwe, the Biti faction also locked out Tsvangirai loyalists.
Acting provincial chairman Sedwell Bhebhe said members loyal to Biti had removed all the documents and furniture from the party office and left it locked.
“They were given the keys by our office administrator and took all the party documents including membership cards and the furniture as we speak the office is locked, but we are using it because we found ways of getting inside,” Bhebhe said.
Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya, who admitted being linked to Biti told our sister paper NewsDay that he was now in charge of the Midlands North provincial office and all other party assets in the province.
