Bitter infighting brings down MDC-UK national executive

By Tichaona Sibanda
15 October 2007

The entire national executive of the MDC-UK, led by former trade unionist Ephraim Tapa, has been dissolved and a co-ordinating committee led by John Nyamande has been installed in its place.

Tapa’s fragile administration was undermined by a bitter power struggle and the personal animosity between members of his executive virtually brought the operations of the party in the UK to a halt.

This forced the standing committee of the MDC to send national chairman Lovemore Moyo to the UK to try and resolve the crisis. But on Saturday in Northampton, 33 out of 37 branches that attended the meeting unanimously felt the executive needed to be dissolved because the working relationship of its leaders had been grounded from the start by acrimonious infighting.

Moyo’s first task on Saturday was to meet separately with the congress elected women’s and youth wing members, before meeting the rest of the group, comprising four members each from the 41 branches in the UK and Ireland.

The national chairman told newsreel on Monday he was satisfied he did a fairly good job because he gave all stakeholders an opportunity to express their views and chart the way forward. He said according to his own analysis, the problems in the executive were not major but minor issues such as lack of communication, which inevitably led to back stabbing.

‘I told them to bury their differences and move forward. However a decision was made and was made after consultations with all stakeholders. 33 branches favoured the dissolution of the executive while 4 wanted the group to carry on and be given another chance to iron out their differences,’ Moyo said.

Tension prevailed before, during and after the meeting as several groups engaged themselves in verbal duels and scuffles. The MDC’s chief of security in the UK, Taurai Chamboko had to intervene to prevent any untoward incidents.

The chairman of the incoming co-ordinating committee John Nyamande said his first task would be to regroup all the branches and pick up from where Tapa’s executive left off, adding that his other major task would be uniting the fractured province. Nyamande’s committee will serve for six months before an extra-ordinary congress is convened to elect substantive office bearers.

‘I cannot think of a more appropriate time than now to call upon all members of the MDC in the UK to heal the rift that opened between us in the last couple of months and confront the major tasks that lie ahead of us including fighting for our right to vote next year,’ Nyamande said.

The national executive of the MDC-UK split into two camps after months of internecine warfare between chairman Ephraim Tapa and secretary Julius Mutyambizi on one side and Jaison Matewu and Matthew Nyashanu, the UK spokesman on the other side.