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Chiwenga alliance ‘haunts’ Mwonzora

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OPPOSITION MDC deputy secretary for international relations, Douglas Mwonzora, has been accused of consulting for the army during the military coup that led to the ouster of the late former President Robert Mugabe in November 2017.

OPPOSITION MDC deputy secretary for international relations, Douglas Mwonzora, has been accused of consulting for the army during the military coup that led to the ouster of the late former President Robert Mugabe in November 2017.

BY MOSES MATENGA

The former MDC secretary-general was accused of having confided in National Patriotic Front spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire that he (Mwonzora), together with Zanu PF secretary for legal affairs Paul Mangwana, spent time at the army headquarters doing consultancy work for Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, then Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces on the legality of the coup.

But Mwonzora came out guns blazing, accusing the G40 faction of wanting to cause divisions within the MDC.

Mawarire told NewsDay yesterday that he mentioned Mwonzora in the context of the fact that the former MDC secretary-general and Mangwana were not qualified to argue on the legality of the coup because they were consulting on behalf of the army.

“I made the statement in August and I made it in the context that Mangwana cannot argue for the legality of the coup because he and Mwonzora were hired for that purpose. Chiwenga hired them because they are the people who did the Constitution. That is why the duo was called to look at the Constitution closely and he is the one who told me while we were in South Africa,” he said.

“He even said they were given army escort for the two days they were doing the consultancy work.”

Mwonzora and Mangwana, however, denied the allegations.

“When the two of us met, we talked on the impeachment procedure in terms of the parliamentary process, how we were to co-ordinate ourselves,” Mangwana said.

“We were doing the political process while the army was doing its own process.”

On his part, Mwonzora accused the G40, a grouping of former Zanu PF stalwarts who had coalesced around former First Lady Grace Mugabe, of wanting to divide the opposition and create a separate powerful opposition force from their camp.

“The lie by the G40 kingpin is meant to prepare for something evil. They want to create discontent within the opposition so that they weaken it before they either re-join Zanu PF or put their own candidate to lead the opposition,” Mwonzora said

“It is an open secret that the MDC supported Mugabe’s removal. It is a historical fact that the MDC helped organise that historic March in November 2017. Our Members of Parliament actually played a leading role in Mugabe’s impeachment proceedings,” Mwonzora said.

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