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Herald Reporter
MDC-T and the People’s Democratic Party fronted by Mr Tendai Biti were at pains to explain the prospects of them working with US President-elect Mr Donald Trump after he thumped their preferred candidate Mrs Hillary Clinton in the Presidential elections held on Tuesday.
Republican Party candidate Mr Trump emerged victorious against the odds in results announced yesterday, as he defeated Mrs Clinton of the Democratic Party with 278 Electoral College votes against the latter who managed 218.
MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday told a pirate radio station, Studio 7, that his party was behind Mrs Clinton.
On the other hand, Mr Biti attended the Democratic Party’s National Convention in July this year where Mrs Clinton was endorsed as that party’s presidential candidate.
But following the announcement of results yesterday, the parties tried to switch allegiance to Mr Trump.
“The MDC is a social democratic political party,” said MDC-T spokesperson Mr Obert Gutu.
“We respect and honour the outcome of any free and fair election. The American voters have spoken and as a party, we are willing and able to work with any democratically elected government anywhere in the world, the United States of America included.
“American voters have spoken. It’s encouraging to note that more than 110 million votes were counted and results were announced in about 24 hours. In Zimbabwe in 2008, it took us 35 days to count and announce results in a Presidential election where less than three million people had voted.
“As the MDC, we have always advocated for a transparent, free and fair electoral process that produces a result that is beyond contestation. We congratulate American voters for freely and fairly electing their new president and other elected officials.”
His PDP counterpart, Mr Jacob Mafume, said his party congratulated Mr Trump on his win as they looked forward to working with his administration.
He defended Mr Biti’s attendance of the Democratic Party’s National Convention.
“We think this is how an election should be run. The process must be predictable but the result should not be. It must express the will of the people.
“The invite while appreciated and we will remain friends of the American people as a whole and the American people have chosen Trump in a free and fair election, so we will be friends with the leader.
“We had no capacity to endorse someone for this election, ours was to watch and learn. We did watch and we learnt,” said Mr Mafume.
But lawyer and political commentator Mr Tendai Toto said Mrs Clinton’s loss was a major blow to the opposition.
“In Africa and particularly in Zimbabwe, some opposition political participants declared preference for Hillary Clinton of the Democrats taking turns to publicly ridicule the future paymaster (Donald Trump) whom they declared a ‘write-off’ and a political lunatic on the basis of political debates and results thereof, paying disregard to many factors and real possibilities that affect an election result chief amongst them the wishes of the electorate and, more importantly, that Hillary Clinton is not Barack Obama.
“The possibility is there that Donald Trump will turn his back on all those African opposition political participants that barked harder and louder against his candidature and election as President of America,” said Mr Toto.
Nduduzo Tshuma
Bulawayo Bureau
THE MDC-T has summoned three Bulawayo councillors to a disciplinary hearing that could lead to their expulsion as factionalism continues to tear the embattled opposition party apart.
The three affected councillors are Gladys Masuku, Lot Siziba and Sithabile Mataga. They are set to appear before a disciplinary tribunal on a date to be announced by the party.
MDC-T Bulawayo provincial chairperson Mr Gift Banda yesterday confirmed the developments but declined to shed light on the allegations levelled against the three.
“We are not going to pre-empt the disciplinary hearing, people are going to go to the hearing and the verdict shall be communicated afterwards,” he said.
Insiders said the three are accused of not working with party structures and in the case of Clr Mataga, there are suspicions that she is working with the Tendai Biti-led People’s Democratic Party.
“In fact in the case of Mataga, we understand that the party will be writing to the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Saviour Kasukuwere to recall her from the local authority over suspicions that she is working with Biti’s party,” said an insider.
“The other two councillors are alleged to have been shunning party programmes and not reporting to party structures on their activities. They are accused of working alone and negatively affecting the party.”
A letter written to one of the councillors accused the three of working with the Veteran Activists Association (VAA) linked to one of the MDC-T vice presidents Mr Nelson Chamisa.
Mr Chamisa and fellow vice president Ms Khupe are reportedly leading factions involved in a bitter tussle to succeed their ailing leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.
“This is a factional fight, as you know Bulawayo province is aligned to maKhupe and there is an ongoing persecution of all those suspected to be allies of Chamisa. This is an exercise to weed out Chamisa allies from the province,” said a source.
“Again in the case of Siziba, there is suspicion from some Khupe allies that he may have leaked information to a local Non-Governmental organisation about the corrupt and irregular acquisition of property by councillors – the very issue that got five councillors suspended by the government.”
Last month, Mr Tsvangirai said the party would be instituting investigations into allegations of corruption that led to the suspension of the five councillors.
This was after Cde Kasukuwere suspended Mr Gift Banda, who is also deputy Mayor together with Clrs Charles Moyo (Ward nine), Mzama Dube (Ward 25), Reuben Matengu (Ward 21) and James Sithole (Ward seven) over a raft of allegations involving underhand dealings and rampant corruption.
After the suspensions, the Chamisa-led faction reportedly tried to take advantage of the suspensions to call for the expulsion of the councillors, especially Mr Banda, viewed as a key ally of Ms Khupe.
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