KWEKWE — The internecine MDC-T fights triggered by calls for leadership renewal took a nasty turn over the weekend after supporters aligned to former Kwekwe Central MP Blessing Chebundo chanted slogans denouncing the party’s Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya during a rally addressed by party leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA STAFF REPORTER
The drama occurred in Zhombe where Tsvangirai was addressing a campaign rally to assure members that the party was still intact despite the internal fights that rocked the MDC-T top leadership in the past two months.
Chebundo’s followers accused Chikwinya of being sympathetic to suspended MDC-T deputy treasurer-general Elton Mangoma and belonging to a camp pushing for Tsvangirai’s ouster. It took the intervention of MDC-T organising secretary Nelson Chamisa to stop the demonstrations as Chikwinya’s supporters threatened to fight back.
Chikwinya described the demonstrations as unfortunate and dismissed allegations that he was campaigning for Tsvangirai to step down.
“It is unfortunate that Mr Chebundo took his personal fight with me to the Zhombe rally where he sponsored a handful of youths to wave placards denouncing me,” Chikwinya said.
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“It is common knowledge that Chebundo remains the only senior member in the province who once defected to Welshman Ncube, but now wants to appear as if he is a super supporter of Morgan Tsvangirai. The problem between me and him have nothing to do with the Tsvangirai-Mangoma fallout, but simply that he is failing to accept that I am in Parliament and he is not.”
Chebundo, however, denied sponsoring the placard-waving youths.
“I can’t sponsor people to be involved in scuffles to denounce Chikwinya. In any case, only a fool will deny that there are differences in the MDC. We know that there are people who are pursuing a renewal agenda and some of them have come out in the open, others are still hiding,” he said. “For Chikwinya to try and say I am fighting him will be foolish because we are at completely different levels. It’s like me trying to equate myself to Tsvangirai. We are not even equal and we don’t match.”
However, sources who refused to be named said the tiff between Chikwinya and Chebundo had stalled most party programmes in Midlands province.