HUGE cracks have emerged in Tendai Biti’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Joice Mujuru-led National People’s Party (NPP) following reports that their lieutenants in Matabeleland region were pursuing a separate regional coalition pact without the blessings of their leaders.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
PDP secretary-general, Gorden Moyo (pictured) and NPP vice-president, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo announced last week that they had formed a separate alliance which also includes Zapu to prepare for next year’s general elections. But, Biti yesterday described the move as “tribal” and committed his party to the MDC Alliance led by MDC-T president, Morgan Tsvangirai.
“The People’s Democratic Party is part of the MDC Alliance; the party has no intention of forming another parallel coalition,” he said, accusing Moyo of trying to pull the PDP out of the MDC Alliance over his alleged personal vendetta against Tsvangirai,” he said.
“It’s tribal and Gorden (Moyo) knows it. He hates Tsvangirai but he forgets he was plucked from nowhere and was made minister (during the Government of National Unity). Our joining the MDC-T and the MDC Alliance in particular is not by choice. We have a duty and owe this to Zimbabweans to deliver this country from bondage. Our people have cried out to us and we must respond and respond we have through the alliance.”
Contacted for comment, Moyo said he was not aware of any personalisation of issues with Tsvangirai.
“Someone would need to educate me. I have no idea about personalisation of issues regarding Tsvangirai. Our general council, which is a body mandated with authority to join or not to join any alliance, last met on November 2016. I am not aware of any other authority vested with such powers, which mandated those who claim to have joined the MDC Alliance,” he said.
NPP secretary-general, Gift Nyandoro also trashed Nkomo’s claims of a regional alliance. “There is no such thing,” he said. The latest fissures in the PDP and NPP came as Tsvangirai and his deputy, Thokozani Khupe clashed over the same issue.
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Khupe, national chairman Lovemore Moyo and organising secretary, Abednico Bhebhe have maintained their opposition to the MDC Alliance and they are yet to find common ground with Tsvangirai after recent efforts to mend the rift collapsed over disagreement over choice of venue for the crucial indaba.
