Biti camp forges ahead

Politics
THE MDC Renewal Team yesterday held its first all-structures meeting in Harare as the party prepares for a congress to be held early next year amid indications that a final break-up of the MDC-T is now inevitable.

THE MDC Renewal Team yesterday held its first all-structures meeting in Harare as the party prepares for a congress to be held early next year amid indications that a final break-up of the MDC-T is now inevitable.

EVERSON MUSHAVA STAFF REPORTER

The meeting attended by about 1 000 people from Harare’s 24 wards, was meant to explain the team’s ideology and identify vacant positions to be filled.

The meeting came barely a day after the team’s tribunal handed a default judgment on “suspended” party leader Morgan Tsvangirai and national chairman Lovemore Moyo. The judgment will be announced tomorrow, according to the Renewal Team spokesperson Jacob Mafume.

This was despite a High Court interdict barring the internal hearing from going ahead until the courts had made a determination on Tsvangirai’s application seeking to be declared the legal custodian of the MDC-T.

Renewal Team secretary-general Tendai Biti said people who attended the all-structures meeting made a clear statement that they were tired of poverty and “sterility of ideas” by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF government and the leadership of Tsvangirai.

“Zimbabwe needs change and the people here have come to make a statement that Zimbabwe needs a restart and a revitalising movement,” Biti said.

He said Zanu PF owed the people an apology for throwing the country into a deep structural economic recession. He said Mugabe should repeal the indigenisation laws that have failed to attract foreign direct investment for the country while there was need for a technical transitional team to revive the country’s economy.

Renewal Team Harare province chairman Paul Madzore said the structures meeting will cascade to all provinces as the party aims at establishing and filling in vacant positions in the structures.

“This is our first meeting after the Mandel assembly where we suspended leader Morgan Tsvangirai. This is a follow-up to the Mandel meeting and it will cascade to all provinces. The meetings will issue out the team’s roadmap,” Madzore said.

He said all the people came to the meeting holding positions they previously held before the suspension of Tsvangirai. Madzore said the team would fill positions left vacant by people who have remained with the former prime minister. Mafume said the structures meeting was the first step in interacting with the generality of the party’s followers.

He said the team would not be deterred by Tsvangirai’s court challenges which helped to prove effectively that he recognised the Mandel meeting that suspended him. Mafume said the party proceeded to deliver a default judgment on Tsvangirai and Biti because they had not been served with the court ruling.

“We have not been served with the court order, so we had to proceed,” Mafume said.

He said Tsvangirai cited the wrong people in his application to stop the hearing.

“He cited Biti, Mangoma (Elton Mangoma – former treasurer general) and Sekai Holland (leader of the party’s guardian’s council) and Samuel Sipepa Nkomo. Tsvangirai cited the four on their individual capacity, and did not cite the tribunal which proceeded with the hearing and gave him a default judgment,” Mafume said.

He said Tsvangirai remained suspended.

“The tribunal appointed in terms of the MDC constitution met on 27 June 2014 at Mendel Training Centre at 10am as had been scheduled from the earlier postponement,” Mafume said.

“The two individuals involved Morgan Tsvangirai and Lovemore Moyo were in default and the consequences of default judgment followed. A full judgment will be given by the chair of the tribunal Gift Nyandoro in due course.”

He said no court order was made available till this day for the tribunal to stop the proceedings.

Most of the people at the meeting of structures were dressed in orange. Mafume said orange was always used by social democrats around the world. He said using orange signified the “ripening of the revolution”.