KweKwe MDC MP Chebundo defects from Mutambara led faction

By Tichaona Sibanda
11 April 2006

The pro-senate faction of the MDC has suffered a major setback following the defection of their parliamentary chief whip and director of elections Blessing Chebundo. This comes amid reports that more will follow suit.

Chebundo, the MDC MP for Kwekwe, served as the health shadow minister under Tsvangirai before aligning himself with the pro-senate side soon after the party split on October 12 last year.

Already several MPs and senators from the pro-senate side have approached national chairman Isaac Matongo stating their intention to rejoin the Morgan Tsvangirai led camp, after they allegedly failed to win the support of their constituents.

Chebundo, who defeated Zanu (PF) strongman Emmerson Mnangagwa for the Kwekwe parliamentary seat in the Midlands province, confirmed to us Tuesday that he tendered his resignation from the Mutambara led camp on Monday in respect of the wishes of people of Kwekwe. He has also informed Secretary-General Tendai Biti of his decision to resign from that camp.

‘To be honest the community in Kwekwe felt they couldn’t afford to be split into two camps and the fact that I failed to convince the majority of them to join the other faction led me to think again, and because I respect their wishes I had to resign from the other camp,’ he said.

In his resignation letter addressed to Secretary-General Welshman Ncube and copied to Arthur Mutambara and his deputy Gibson Sibanda, Chebundo said his decision was due to ‘very personal reasons’ and was with immediate effect.

But in his interview with us Chebundo, who twice nearly lost his life after being attacked by Zanu (PF) thugs in the run up to the 2000 parliamentary elections, made it clear the electorate in his constituency had influenced his decision to change sides.

National chairman of the Tsvangirai faction of the MDC, Isaac Matongo, said he was informed of Chebundo’s defection on Monday and said their former health shadow minister was always free to ‘come back.’

Matongo also said that more big names from the Mutambara camp have approached him seeking advice on how they could rejoin the Tsvangirai led MDC. Some of the MPs and a senator from the pro-senate camp met him in Bulawayo last weekend when he was preparing for the MDC rally that was held at the White city stadium.

It’s believed that several of the MPs would be announcing their decisions in the coming weeks.

Matongo said he told the senator to resign from his position first before coming back to their side, which he said would welcome back anyone with open arms. He stressed though that they don’t have senators in their camp and as a result it was the best advice he could give to the senator.

He said; ‘I am talking about big fish from the other side, big names and there are going to be plenty of them. What I’m saying is we will welcome back all our prodigal sons.’