Thokozani Khupe has sensationally claimed that the Nelson Chamisa led MDC Alliance and her MDC-T party are now ONE thing under her leadership. She made the statement hours after she was fired by her Secretary General Nickson Nyikadzino who declared himself the Acting President of MDC-T saying Khupe can not be a leader of 2 parties at the same time.
Khupe has recently been accused by opposition activists of being an agent of the ruling Zanu PF party. The Mnangagwa led government is reportedly set to release Z$7,5 million to Dr Khupe and MDC Alliance rebels Douglas Mwonzora and Morgen Komichi as a thank you for their opposition to Chamisa’s leadership.
See Khupe’s full statement below;
We have noted with concern some misleading and disgusting statements attributed to the former MDC-T Secretary General Mr Nickson ‘Mao’ Nyikadzino wherein he masquerades as the new MDC-T Acting President.
For the avoidance of doubt, we want to make it unequivocally clear to all and sundry that all MDC-T legislators remain loyal to the party as led by Dr Thokozani Khuphe and the leadership collective elected at the party’s 4th Congress.
Mr Nyikadzino makes baseless and unfounded allegations that the MDC-T had an inaugural congress in 2018. This is wholly untrue, the fact of the matter is that a dispute within the party arose soon after the death of our founding father Dr Morgan Tsvangirai on the procedure to fill his vacancy. Informed by a legal opinion from Adv Matinenga, the party held an extra ordinary congress at Stanley square in Bulawayo as provided for in the MDC constitution clause 9.21.1. This extra ordinary congress was attended by more than 5000 eligible delegates drawn from our party structures and at no point did we invite non-members to that Extra Ordinary Congress. We want to further put it on record that we did not register as a new party with ZEC, it is on record that our party was already registered before the death of our late leader, what we only did was to remove the face of our late icon from the open palm & contested under the MDC-T brand.
We want to remind Mr Nyikadzino that that the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe handed down a landmark judgment on the 30th of March 2020 that effectively put Dr Khuphe firmly in charge of the party that was left by Dr Tsvangirai and ordered her to convene an Extra Ordinary Congress within 90days. All decisions and actions done after the 14th February 2018 are thus null and void. The net effect of the Supreme Court ruling is that the two warring MDC-T formations i.e. the MDC-T component in an electoral pact called the MDC Alliance and the original MDCT led by Dr Khupe are now ONE thing.
Furthermore, the ruling is clear on what must be done to return the party to its founding values of internal democracy, constitutionalism and collective leadership. We have no doubt whatsoever that the leadership collective as elected at the party’s 4th Congress in Harare led by our Acting President Dr Thokozani Khuphe is capable of convening the much awaited Extra Ordinary Congress to elect a successor to our late President Dr Morgan Tsvangirai.
As MDCT legislators we took an oath of office to uphold, defend and protect the Constitution of the Republic and therefore we associate ourselves fully with the Supreme Court judgment. We want to warn Mr Nyikadzino that his infantile and illogical statements are directly in contempt of court and if he continues with such actions we will not hesitate to seek legal recourse.
