By Trevor Makonyonga
MDC-Alliance Vice President, Welshman Ncube has referred to the court ruling that saw Thokozani Khupe being made legitimate leader of the MDC-T over Nelson Chamisa as something which will not change the order of the day.
Speaking in a statement, Ncube said that he had known about the ZANU PF infiltration and had gone as far as confronting Douglas Mwonzora and Morgen Komichi who denied their involvements in such.
“At the last meeting of the MDC Alliance Standing Committee on 10 March 2020, I put to Komichi and Mwonzora the entire ZANU-PF strategy on the Khupe case & their respective roles in that strategy. Their denials of both the ZANU PF strategy and their roles thereto were vehement.
“I ended the debate by telling them that while we had no choice but to give them the benefit of the doubt on the day of the handing down of the judgement we will know the truth. Today we know.
“I also told them that the MDC- Alliance had already held its Congress and would not hold another one and that the leadership elected at Congress was not negotiable & would never be determined by courts of law but only by the members of the party. That was true on that day as it is true today.”
Ncube also said that he agrees with the judgement before taking time to explain how the MDC- T and MDC-Alliance are different.
“I think the
judgement was proper. It clearly states that Thokozani Khupe is the legitimate leader of the MDC T upon the demise of its founder Morgan Tsvangirai.
“I agree with the judges there and on the ground, Thokozani Khupe registered her MDC T party a few years ago and she went on to contest in elections in that name. I am glad the Judge never ruled that Khupe is the leader of the MDC Alliance which we all know was formented unto existence by Advocate Chamisa who went on to register it for elections as MDC Alliance which they contested.
“So the two，MDC T and MDC alliances are different entities and one who (Khupe in this case) has a claim to ownership of the MDC T will not necessarily be able to have a claim of the MDC Alliance too. On the issue of properties，that is not an issue at all because from my understanding， the MDC T (which Khupe was given by court) and the MDC Alliance ( which Chamisa leads ) are very poor parties which do not have any substantial amount of property，the Harvest House currently housing Chamisa’s MDC Alliance does not belong to either of them but is property being let to them by a well-wisher who invariably has the right to decide who is to occupy it and whom l understand has been allowing Chamisa occupation of the building since his ascendancy to power of the said party”.
“Khupe cannot also access the MDC Alliance’s yearly allotment from the State under the Political Funds Act because it is only entitled to the MDC Alliance whose ticket upon which its MPs and Senators were elected unto parliament，so on that issue ，there is no complication.
“There was going to be a disaster if Chamisa had contested in the name MDC T，we thank the Gods who enlightened Chamisa and Co to register their party under the Alliance banner. Under the current state of authoritarian governance by the Zimbabwe government whereby courts are arm-twisted to interfere with private affairs of private organisations，Chamisa and Co can now only retreat unto the safety of the umbrella of the MDC Alliance thereby rendering Zanu’s evil overtures infertile.
Yesterday the High Court ruled out Nelson Chamisa as the legitimate ruler of the MDC T whilst granting a favourable decision to Thokozani Khupe who was said to be the legitimate ruler according to the party’s constitution.
Khupe is therefore expected to convince a congress within three months and in which she they will elect new structures.
