Knives out for Chamisa

Harare Bureau
SENIOR MDC-T national executive members plan to pass a vote of no confidence in the party’s former organising secretary Nelson Chamisa for allegedly plotting to unseat party president Morgan Tsvangirai in the run-up to the 4th National Congress in October last year.

Several national executive members who spoke to our Harare Bureau on condition of anonymity said Chamisa’s future in the party was uncertain following accusations that he wanted to unseat his boss.

“We knew about the plot so we pre-emptied it by organising our people. As the organising secretary, he used to manipulate structures and he always had his way. Towards congress, the ball game changed and that resulted in him losing dismally to Douglas Mwonzora,” said one executive member.

Chamisa indicated that there could be a plot to oust him but said such people were wasting their time as he had more serious things to focus on than worrying about political positions.

“I know that there are some people with an agenda against me but generally people in the party are forward looking and do not concern themselves with party fights centering on personal ambitions. My source of comfort is that we have just gone to the stadium where we played a match that did not belong to us. The big match is yet to come,” said Chamisa.

He said problems facing the country were far beyond his enthronement or dethronement.

Chamisa said it was important that those that were plotting his ouster focused on the bigger picture away from malice, hatred and anger.

“Politics is not about engineering unhappiness for others. Politics should be a factory for the happiness of all.”

On allegations that he wanted to join the MDC-Renewal Team, Chamisa said a lot of speculation about his future was being fertilised by inadequate information and knowledge of his genuine intentions for the country.

Describing himself as a revolutionary, Chamisa said he would “not freak out at the occasional torrential political winds, but will ride the tides.”

MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu dismissed the claim as nothing but a figment of people’s imagination.

“It is news to me, I’m hearing it for the first time. I’m the national spokesperson of the party and I have never heard of anything like that. Hon Chamisa is a valuable member of our party who was recently appointed to run a very crucial portfolio in the national executive,” said Gutu.

Despite the denials by Gutu, close MDC sources said Chamisa and Douglas Mwonzora, who took over from him as the party secretary general, were not on talking terms and that the two had repeatedly clashed at party meetings.

Chamisa lost the contest for the party’s secretary general’s position to Mwonzora who in the run-up to the congress had accused him of widespread vote buying during the provincial executive elections and standing committee nominations.

Chamisa was later barred from presiding over the elections, while the party’s national executive threatened to reverse elections that were held in Chitungwiza, Harare and Masvingo provinces.

Chamisa was accused of manipulating the structures, something that irked ordinary party members who decided to vote him out of the national executive council.