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said the external structures’ mandate had to be refocused after it emerged that it had become a source of conflict in the party’s ranks.
Mr Biti said this at the weekend while responding to a question from the media in Washington where he was attending a World Bank meeting.
During the interview, which touched on a wide range of issues, Mr Biti was told by his host that party supporters in Washington were anxious to know the true position on whether it was true that MDC-T leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai had abolished external structures.
In his response, Mr Biti said while the existence of external structures was provided for by the party’s constitution, news coming from them had not been encouraging.
“What we have done is to re-organise them so that they are able to concentrate on the core business of assisting the struggle at home,” said Mr Biti.
“The feeling was that there is a lot of bickering in these structures. There is no good news coming and there had to be a decision to disband them and ensure that genuine members of the Diaspora remain focused.”
This means that all external assemblies such as the MDC-UK and Ireland, MDC South Africa and MDC-USA have now been demoted from provincial committees to mere associates of the party.
Mr Biti, who is also Finance Minister, was in Washington last week where he was attending a World Bank meeting.
Sources said the MDC-T national executive felt that the external structures were tarnishing the image of the party.
This prompted the MDC-T to send its national organising secretary, Mr Nelson Chamisa, to visit the assemblies to inform them of their demise.
Mr Chamisa has already visited London and is expected to visit Washington, Australia, South Africa and Botswana soon.
This means that Harvest House, through Mr Chamisa, will now be dealing directly with individual external branches.
But Mr Chamisa said his visit to the external assemblies showed that they were vibrant.
The MDC-UK and Ireland has since inception been a thorn in the flesh for the party with £57 000 still missing up to now.
The missing funds attracted international media coverage with Mr Tsvangirai’s relatives being implicated in the financial scandal that threatened to rip apart Harvest House.
Further, MDC-UK has suffered from leadership crisis, with all of its succeeding provincial chairmen being branded controversial and politically incompetent. Sources said the party leadership had reiterated that following the latest decision, external assemblies were now all defunct.
Online Reporter