MDC ‘reads riot act’ to UK members over Internet wars

By Tichaona Sibanda
17 October 2007

The national chairman of the MDC has reacted angrily to comments from some members of the dissolved MDC-UK national executive that the top leadership of the party had a hidden agenda in the whole exercise.

‘To me these attacks on the party leadership are a clear indication of indiscipline. It has also led me to conclude that some of these people were never MDC from day one,’ said Lovemore Moyo, the MDC national chairman.

The entire national executive of the MDC-UK led by former trade unionist, Ephraim Tapa was dissolved on Saturday after 33 out of 37 branches that attended the meeting moved a unanimous vote of no confidence motion.

Soon after news websites with strong links to some of the former executive members published reports attacking party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, suggesting he had transformed into another Mugabe.
Moyo said they have evidence that former chairman Ephraim Tapa set up a clandestine website (Zimdiaspora.com) to fight his political battles against his perceived enemies.
The top story on the site since Tuesday is headlined ‘Tsvangirai transforms into another Mugabe’ and describes the ouster of Tapa’s executive as unconstitutional.
Moyo who presided over the Northampton meeting said he was not surprised by the negative reaction from some members of the old executive who are quoted in the reports saying the MDC could be producing another Idi Amin in Tsvangirai.

‘Accusations that the dissolution of the executive was unconstitutional are untrue and unfounded. Everything was done above board, and the decision taken was made by all stakeholders after a long process that took us 12 hours,’ Moyo said.

Moyo, who is the MP for Matobo and part of the two man delegation from the Tsvangirai camp to the SADC mediation talks, was very critical of comments made against himself and Tsvangirai as a result of Saturday’s meeting.

‘Once you find yourself going public on issues that are internal, to us really its like you are not part of us because if you were you would raise your complaints through the right channels,’ Moyo said.

Moyo said the MDC does not condone such behaviour and that it was unfortunate there was nothing he could do to punish such individuals because ‘they are not part of us’.

‘Its just like Zanu-PF attacking Tsvangirai, myself or any other senior member of the MDC. We can’t do anything about that. We just ignore and move forward.’