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Mangoma faces expulsion

Politics
MDC Renewal Team treasurer-general Elton Mangoma could be expelled from the budding political party after he was accused of adultery which led to violence, sources have revealed.

MDC Renewal Team treasurer-general Elton Mangoma could be expelled from the budding political party after he was accused of adultery which led to violence, sources have revealed.

A year after fronting the factional breakaway from the mainstream Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC-T on allegations that the veteran trade unionist was a womaniser and had failed to unseat President Robert Mugabe, Mangoma was this week caught in an alleged lover triangle involving party members.

A Harare provincial youth executive member, Believe Tevera, accused the former Energy minister of snatching his wife.

A Renewal Team senior member said Mangoma would face charges of fomenting violence and dividing the party.

“He is going to be charged and we will make sure either he is suspended or better still expelled,” the official said.

“You cannot be going around trying to buy people just to be president of the party.

“It is not good for a leader to have his car used in a violent incident. Mangoma’s truck was the one used by the people who beat up Believe Tevera.”

MDC Renewal spokesperson Jacob Mafume confirmed an investigation of the matter was now underway.

“We have announced that there is a committee that is investigating and the conclusions have not been released,” he said.

“We are not sure whether anybody will be charged. There were allegations raised by Mangoma that remain unnamed at the moment and issues of violence,” he said, but refused to say whether Mangoma would be charged.

“For now, we will wait for the report and if such things are found out, then the natural consequences will follow.”

The probe committee is headed by Benson Ntini, a member of the management committee.

But Mangoma said the investigation was a plot to push him out before the party’s elective congress.

“It is a plot to push me out, to get rid of me before the congress and make sure they are not challenged for the presidency,” he told NewsDay.

“We have a group that has a superiority complex and, as I have said, there are already two conflicting ideological standpoints that seem irreconcilable.”

There have been reports of a vicious power struggle for control of the party between Mangoma and secretary-general Tendai Biti ahead of the formation’s inaugural elective congress that has continuously been moved from one month to another and is now set for October.

The situation was made worse by the sudden departure of interim leader Sekai Holland last weekend under a cloud.

A few days later, a sex scandal involving Mangoma exploded in the media with the former Energy minister accused of “snatching” Tevera’s 20-year-old wife, Yemurai Maravanyika.