MDC-Renewal Team secretary-general Tendai Biti yesterday admitted to talking to “individuals” in former Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s People First project with a view to forming a grand coalition to challenge the Zanu PF government in the next general elections.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
Biti was addressing a Press briefing that followed a hastily arranged national executive committee meeting following the departure of former treasurer-general Elton Mangoma who formed a breakaway party, Renewal of Democrats Zimbabwe (RDZ), early this week.
“We have not talked to them as a collective and we are not sure whether they have formed a party. I have talked to them in my capacity as a lawyer and I cannot deny them that constitutional right,” Biti said.
“However, when they finally form a party, we will sit down as a collective and talk to them and we will not make an apology for that. If anyone does not see the rationale of a coalition as the salvation for the people of this country in 2018, then we will leave them to enjoy their right to idiocy.”
Mujuru was expelled from Zanu PF towards the end of last year along with a host of other party stalwarts on allegations of plotting to oust President Robert Mugabe. Since then she has been under pressure to formally announce plans to form an opposition party to challenge Zanu PF.
Early this week, Mujuru intimated in a statement that she had made up her mind and would announce her future political plans at the appropriate time.
The MDC-Renewal Team has been in tailspin in the last few weeks after the sudden resignation of interim president Sekai Holland under a cloud and the allegations of sexual impropriety against Mangoma.
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Party chairperson Samuel Sipepa Nkomo told journalists yesterday that they were planning to convene a congress by the end of this month to formalise their structures and map the way forward.
“We have made bold decision, including a roadmap towards a convention for all our members who are supposed to attend congress. We still need to confirm the party name because we think it is time we moved and stopped using the acronym MDC as well as elect substantive leaders by the end of June into early July,” Sipepa Nkomo said.
He, however, denied reports that the departure of Mangoma and Holland had forced them to revise the congress dates.
