Rival MDC UK faction to meet in Leicester on Sunday

By Tichaona Sibanda
20 January 2006

A rival MDC faction in the UK led by Sipho Nkala has called for meeting in Leicester this Sunday, exactly two weeks after District chairman Washington Ali held a successful meeting in Birmingham.

In an interview in London on Friday, Nkala said her faction does not recognise the Ali executive that organised that meeting and that everything that went on in there was null and void.

Nkala, who has long been accused of serving the interests of the MDC faction led by Gibson Sibanda, said the agenda for their meeting on Sunday would be to define if the group wants to follow the party constitution or support individuals.

However Nkala’s group has been sending out e-mails all over the world, denouncing activists from the pro-Tsvangirai camp, accusing them of not following the party constitution. Most of those on her side are activists who fell out of favour with the senior MDC leaders who support Tsvangirai.

The MDC leadership in Zimbabwe split after the pro-senate faction led by Gibson Sibanda and Welshman Ncube accused party President Morgan Tsvangirai of defying and not following the constitution.

When asked if she was aligning herself with the Sibanda faction because of the similarities in their support of the pro-senate camp Nkala, who was at pains to distance herself from that faction, said the MDC UK district does not support any faction in Zimbabwe.

However the camp that held its meeting in Birmingham proclaimed during its deliberations that they were fully behind party President Morgan Tsvangirai and were severing ties with the Sibanda faction.

When this was pointed out to Nkala she insisted the UK district has not declared support for anybody. Patson Muzuwa, who attended the Birmingham meeting said Nkala was fighting a losing battle.

‘Who doesn’t know that Nkala belongs to the Gibson Sibanda faction? If you look at their agenda, that of protecting the constitution, it is the same as those opposing Tsvangirai in the first place,’ said Muzuwa.

In any case, said Muzuwa, the UK district has already split into two camps, one led by Ali and one led by Nkala, adding the fact she was calling for a meeting on Sunday confirms that she’s leading a separate faction.