adminHe said the party’s leadership imposed candidates from Harare to fill the positions for the woman’s quota in Manicaland.
“The Senate and Provincial Council women’s quota were snapped by people who never lifted a finger in support of this struggle,” he said.
Mr Magarangoma also said the MDC-T Manicaland provincial executive council was rendered powerless and sidelined in the selection of the candidates. However, MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora said Mr Magarangoma’s utterances were worrying his party’s leadership.
“It is one of the issues that is worrying the leadership. We do not know why he is doing that and we do not agree with what he is saying. It is not with the sanction of the party. He must just know that the party is bigger than him,” he said.
Mr Mwonzora said Mr Magarangoma was attacking MDC-T yet was a beneficiary of the party’s proceeds. Although he is the MDC-T most senior member in the province, Mr Magarangoma claimed that he did not even know the people on the list of candidates submitted by his party to the Nomination Court for the province’s women quota.
“Everything is being done at Harvest House by people who probably have never set foot in Manicaland,” he charged.
Mr Magarangoma linked the imposition of candidates to Agenda 2016, a code name for the party’s secretary general, Mr Tendai Biti’s scheme to depose Morgan Tsvangirai.
He claimed that the rebel candidates in MDC-T were a creation of Mr Biti’s faction so as to frustrate the candidates belonging to Mr Tsvangirai’s faction. Mr Magarangoma had a huge following on his Facebook page with some members threatening that the party would reap the results of their actions on the ballot. A few party members posted on Mr Magarangoma’s wall urging him to use the party’s internal channels to express his grievances.
He, however, remained adamant saying: “The only process I see right now is gagging.”
Mr Magarangoma went on to say that the Biti faction, which he christened “snakes, cups and kitchens” wants him to quit politics before he could speak his mind. According to Mr Magarangoma some of the constituencies where people were imposed included Buhera West, Chipinge Central, Mutasa South and Makoni South. He said among the people who were imported from outside Manicaland is Funny Chirisa, the director of Women In Politics Support Unit (WIPSU). Divisions are rocking the MDC-T as the two factions battle for the control of the party.
At least 41 candidates who lost in the controversial confirmation and primary election processes chose to go solo in the upcoming elections.
Online Reporter