MDC president Welshman Ncube last Thursday reportedly confronted President Robert Mugabe at State House over his exclusion from principals’ meetings saying the Zanu PF leader was undermining his authority.
Report by Nqobile Bhebhe
This was before Mugabe had asked Ncube to lead a discussion on sticking issues leading to a breakthrough on the new constitution. Sources said there was a heated debate on the continued inclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara as an MDC representative.
The leaders also argued over seating arrangements in the meeting.
MDC deputy national spokesperson Kurauone Chihwayi confirmed to NewsDay that Ncube confronted Mugabe and engaged “in a heated debate for close to 30 minutes” and quashed State media reports that the Industry minister was locked out for two hours.
“After consultations, I can surely confirm that Ncube did confront Mugabe on his continued sidelining and not being invited for principals meetings which is a violation of the Sadc Maputo resolution,” he said.
“Also Ncube sat throughout the meeting with Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Mutambara.
“At some point Mugabe even asked him to lead a discussion that involved devolution.”
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“The only meeting which he did not attend was when the three (Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara) met to discuss something, which was not about the constitution,” Chihwayi said.
According to Chihwayi, Ncube would not have been part of the Press conference to announce a breakthrough in the constitution-making process if he was not part of the discussions.
In a statement on Friday, MDC refuted State media reports that Ncube was locked out of the meeting for two hours.
“The truth of the matter is that President Ncube arrived at State House at 9:20 am for the meeting, at the same time that the MDC secretary-general Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and Copac co-chair Edward Mkhosi from our party and delegations from other parties arrived.
“He sat as the principal in the first phase of the meeting where the committee of seven took the principals line by line through the Copac documents, after this meeting he remained with other principals in a meeting up to its conclusion leading to the Press conference.
“Nowhere in those proceedings was President Ncube asked to leave except in the imaginations of the reporters and their handlers,” reads the statement.
The statement said the “Copac breakthrough that took place in the presence of President Ncube a constitutional law professor is a confirmation of what Zimbabweans have always said that the solution to the Copac impasse and all other national problems lay in the office of President Ncube.
“Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara have met countless times but have failed to find a solution to this problem only in the presence of President Ncube was a solution found.”
