Battle Of The MDC Rages On As Mwonzora Camp Accuses Rival Faction Of Planning Hostile Takeover

The Douglas Mwonzora led MDC has accused the Elias Mudzuri led faction of planning a hostile take over of MRT House, formally known as Harvest House.

The opposition party claims to be in possession of credible intelligence linking Mudzuri’s faction of the plan to forcefully take over what was for years known as the ceremonial home of opposition politics.

This comes as the protagonists fight for the heart and soul of the party, with the latest theatre of the fighting spilling into the courts.

The Elias Mudzuri faction was bolsted by a recent High Court Judgement which nullified the party’s December 2020 congress that retained Harare Lawyer Douglas Mwonzora as President.

Mudzuri, an Engineer by profession and former Mayor of the City of Harare challenged the congress, citing several consistitutional violations that he said made the congress as an illegality.

In March this year, the High Court in Harare rulled in Mudzuri’s favour and nullieifed the congress.

After the victory, Mudzuri called a press conference, at which he claimed control of the party, announcing the “firing” of Mwonzora.

He went on to propose an interim leadership arrangement to rebuild the once mighty party.

However, in response, Mwonzora poured scorn at the court ruling, citing several inconsistencies and went on to file an appeal with the Supreme court.

The highest court in the land is yet to make a ruling on the appeal.

The appeal, at law suspends the High Court Ruling, and thus inadvertently restores the status quo as the leadership of the party.

Whilst also filing an appeal, Mwonzora sent emmisarries to the Mudzuri camp, extending an olive branch and proposing a coming together of the erstwhile colleagues.

His peace overtures however seem to have been spurned, with the Mudzuri faction taking a hard line stance and demanding that Mwonzora step down from his position.

The following statement is the MDC’s response to the alleged planned hostile take over of its headquarters:

STATEMENT ON PLANNED ILLEGAL TAKE OVER OF MDC MRT HOUSE

It has come to our attention that some hired thugs from Elias Mudzuri’s small camp want to come and occupy the MDC headquarters violently.

A shadowy character, a one Mbidzo, confirmed as such in one of his social media posts. He was fired from the MDC, where he used to work by the previous administration.

Their aim is to instal a puppet administration led by Elias Mudzuri as president outside any democratic process, which would then surrender the party and the Presidency to another force.

They are basing on the High Court Judgement. But,

– The High Court judgement has been appealed against in the Supreme Court, and it is awaiting determination. The effect of the appeal is to suspend the judgement of the Justice Zhou judgement of the High Court.

The High Court never nullified Senator Mwonzora’s presidency for two good reasons

– The first one is that the effect of the judgement is to restore the leadership of the Party immediately before the Ordinary Congress of 18 December, 2022. That leadership was elected at the Extra Ordinary Congress. Senator Morgan Komichi polled 9 votes, Mudzuri 14, Khupe 118 votes, while Senator Mwonzora scored 888 votes.

– By virtue of the Extra Ordinary Congress Senator Mwonzora remains the legitimate President.

– The second one is that President Mwonzora was not elected president on the 18th of December 2022, but he was nominated unopposed and declared duly elected President on 20 November 2022, a month before the nullified congress. So by the time of the Congress Senator Mwonzora had already been elected president and was openly declared as such by none other than the then National Chairman Senator Morgan Komichi.

– (We will have our day in court)

– Elias Mudzuri was only appointed Vice President by President Mwonzora after the Extra Ordinary Congress only in January 2021 from the position of Deputy National Chairperson were he had been appointed by former acting President Dr. Thokozani Khupe in 2020 after the supreme court judgement. He can not claim any superior mandate than President Douglas Mwonzora.

Following the judgement of the High Court, we initiated dialogue with the Applicants including Mudzuri. The discussions are still going on, and the case is still pending in the Supreme Court.

_Why does the Mudzuri camp want to raid MRT House before the conclusion of the discussions?_

– We are aware of the evil design to distabilise the MDC and President Douglas Mwonzora due to his principled stance against the Third Term Agenda.

– As the youth, we stand by our leader validly and democratically elected at the Extra Ordinary Congress, and secondly, on 20 November 2022, when he was nominated, unopposed.

– We will never brook anyone who wants to take power in the MDC through undemocratic means.

– We are aware of treacherous elements based outside the country that are sponsoring violence to be started at MRT House. We are aware of some treacherous elements who are within the leadership who are working with the enemy to undermine our internal democracy. We put them on notice. We declare that MRT House is a No Go area to those who want to start violence. As the Youth Assembly, we are the last bastion for the defence of our party. We stand solidly behind our principled, consistent, and democratically elected leader DTM.

This is not the first of such an attempt, for others were thwarted, and the mercenaries faced the full wrath of the law.

The MDC Youth Assembly is ready to defend our citadel of democracy and order, and we will not allow arnachist and disorderly hostile takeover.

We are not even afraid of any Congress because we have convincingly won them before against all odds, even if it’s to be held today but what we will not allow is a violent and hostile take over of our party headquarters and imposition of responsibilites but self imposed leaders.

Membership of the MDC comes with great responsibilities, and one can not claim to be a member of the party that you do not respect its processes and does not fully comprehend its constitution as well as the country’s laws. The MDC deserves administrative justice just like everyone else.

I, therefore, call upon all responsible members of the MDC Youth Assembly countrywide and all party members to be alert and vigilant in the wake of any planned hostile and violent takeover of our headquarters

Lastly, we also call upon the people of Zimbabwe to reject Zanu-PF’s attempts to amend the country’s constitution so that President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa can be a life President.

Albert Chidakwa

*MDC Youth Assembly National Chairperson*