MDC to dispatch peace envoy to resolve differences in MDC-UK

By Tichaona Sibanda
11 October 2007

The standing committee of the Tsvangirai led MDC is sending a high-level mission to London on Friday to talk to the leadership of the UK national executive, which has split into two camps.

The MDC’s chief representative in the UK, Hebson Makuvise, told Newsreel that the party is dispatching national chairman Lovemore Moyo, who is scheduled to leave Harare on Thursday and then return at some point next week.

The full programme of meetings for Moyo has already been set. According to Jaison Matewu, the organising secretary for the MDC-UK, the national chairman will first meet the management committee of 10 congress elected officials. He will later meet the conference comprising four top officials from each of the 41 UK and Ireland branches, the congress elected women’s wing and youth wing members.

The meetings will take place on Saturday in Northampton and the venue and times will be made known to members by Friday. In an interview with Newsreel Matewu said the aim of Moyo’s visit is to bring the Assembly to order, stability and to refocus on the main objectives of the party.

‘It’s true we have problems within the MDC here and we haven’t been working as a unit for some time now. It’s also true there are two camps within the executive and this has also affected the relationship between the top leadership and our branches. So in essence the national chairman is coming here to sort out the problem,’ Matewu said.

The MDC-UK split, just six months before the parliamentary and presidential elections in Zimbabwe, erupted after three months of internecine warfare between chairman Ephraim Tapa and secretary Julius Mutyambizi on one side and Matewu, UK spokesman Matthew Nyashanu, plus three executives on the other side.

According to MDC activists in the UK, one faction centred on the late party chairman Isaac Matongo, and depicted themselves as loyal to him, refusing to accept instructions from any other senior party officials. On the other side is the rest of the executive claiming to represent the party rank-and-file.

This set the scene for the eruption of infighting over control of the organisation and various personal and financial issues. A farcical situation now prevails. The fiery exchanges of e-mails between the two camps threaten to spark further divisions in the feuding parties.

But a defiant Mutyambizi on Thursday told Newsreel he was boycotting Saturday’s meetings because as far as he knows there are no divisions within the MDC-UK.

‘I’m not aware the standing committee is sending Moyo here and if they are I don’t know that. To put you in the right perspective we have here five people who expelled themselves from the party and we have since moved on by filling their posts,’ Mutyambizi said.

Party spokesman Nelson Chamisa however warned those intending to boycott Saturday’s meetings that they would be kissing goodbye to their political careers. He said the decision to send Moyo, was made by a senior organ of the party, which is the standing committee.

‘It’s either you are in the MDC or not. You can’t boycott and still consider yourself a member of the MDC. You can’t boycott the Pope and remain a catholic. I strongly urge genuine members in the UK not to defy that order because if they do they are inviting or will attract some monumental punishment from the party,’ Chamisa said.

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