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Suspended Manicaland chairman threatens to sue MDC-T

Politics
SUSPENDED MDC-T Manicaland chairman Julius Magarangoma has threatened to take his matter to the High Court after his disciplinary hearing scheduled for April 15 failed to take off at Harvest House.

SUSPENDED MDC-T Manicaland chairman Julius Magarangoma has threatened to take his matter to the High Court after his disciplinary hearing scheduled for April 15 failed to take off at Harvest House.

Paidamoyo Muzulu

Magarangoma, who has been suspended for more than two months, is facing six charges among them bringing the name of the party into disrepute, disrespecting and undermining party organs and elected officials, creating and promoting divisions within the ranks of the party and participating in faction activities.

He wrote an explosive letter to MDC-T national chairman Lovemore Moyo after the disciplinary hearing failed to take off as had been earlier advised.

“I want to assure you that if I do not hear anything from you by Friday the 18th of April 2014, you will leave me with no choice, but to approach the High Court of Zimbabwe to protect my rights,” Magarangoma wrote. He said the charges were meant to muzzle him for speaking out about leadership renewal in the party.

“I did not commit any crime and I am just being victimised because I have made my position very clear that there should be leadership renewal in this organisation,” Magarangoma said.

Party spokesman Douglas Mwonzora and national organising secretary Nelson Chamisa could not be reached for comment. It was not yet clear why the hearing was aborted.

The defiant chairman said it was unprofessional for him to be called to a hearing where he did not find anyone except secretaries at the venue. “I am also disappointed that I attended at Harvest House this morning, for my hearing and you Mr Chairman was not there. There was basically no one there except the president’s secretary Edith Muyaka and Kudakwashe Matibiri,” he wrote.

Magarangoma is one of the several MDC-T senior executives who have either been suspended or expelled from the party since deputy treasurer-general Elton Mangoma wrote a letter exhorting party leader Morgan Tsvangirai to resign after losing to Zanu PF for the third time in a row.

Mangoma has since been expelled together with national youth secretary-general Promise Mkwananzi and former Tsvangirai adviser Jacob Mafume.