Mr Tsvangirai
Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter
MDC-T secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti blocked party leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai from chairing a national council meeting which suspended deputy treasurer Mr Elton Mangoma last Friday because of fears he intended to settle scores.
The case was first discussed by the national executive meeting where Mr Biti opposed the presence of Mr Tsvangirai in the national council meeting that was to deal with Mr Mangoma’s case.
Sources said Mr Biti and company convinced the national executive meeting that Mr Mangoma had no case to answer, but Mr Tsvangirai insisted that he had to be made answerable for his calls for leadership renewal.
Mr Biti
Mr Biti and his supporters in the national executive insisted that if the matter was to be brought to the national council for disciplinary hearing, then Mr Tsvangirai had to recuse himself because of his stance against Mr Mangoma.
Mr Tsvangirai reluctantly agreed to recuse himself before he hand-picked his right hand man, party national chairperson Mr Lovemore Moyo to chair the meeting.
Sources who attended the national council meeting said there was heated debate on why Mr Mangoma was being charged and suspended, yet there were grave cases that were never brought for disciplinary action.
Mr Biti, the sources said, had argued that it was unprocedural to charge Mr Mangoma, who is a standing committee member, without giving him a charge sheet and hearing his side of the story.
On his Facebook wall yesterday, mdc-t youth assembly secretary-general Mr Promise Mkwananzi said democracy was being “molested” in mdc-t .
He said the mdc-t national executive, which is an administrative body tasked with the day-to-day running of the party, refused to draw a charge sheet against Mr Mangoma.
“It is important to point out that democracy is being raped in mdc-t ,” said the source. “Mr Biti and other senior members protested that Mr Tsvangirai should recuse himself from this matter.
“Although he admitted, he cherry picked his blued eyed boy Mr (Lovemore) Moyo who also ensured that Mr Mangoma was suspended although the national executive had ruled out that he had no case to answer.
“Article 12 of the MDC-T constitution which stipulates disciplinary procedures for standing committee members requires two thirds majority vote of the national council for one to be suspended.
“But for the national council to make such vote, the member concerned should be given the right to know the charges in time and make a response. Surprisingly, Mr Mangoma was charged without any charge sheet and suspended without two thirds of the nominal 180 members of the national executive.”
The source said only 14 people who were strategically planted in the meeting voted in favour of Mr Mangoma’s suspension.
For instance, Harare province was represented by Mr Shakespeare Mukoyi who is not the provincial chairman, while Bulawayo was represented by Albert Mhlanga the organising secretary.
“Those people were not representing the provinces, but they were expressing their personal views,” said the source.
Mr Moyo, the source said, failed to answer some hard questions asked by Mangoma loyalists.
“Mrs Kerry Kay asked why Mangoma was the only one being persecuted for expressing divergent views in the party,” said the source. “She said Engineer Elias Mudzuri and Mr Roy Bennett also expressed their views calling for leadership renewal, but no one raised objections.
“She said Mr Nelson Chamisa and Mr Obert Gutu were fingered in the WikiLeaks reports for backbiting the (MDC-T) president and nothing was done. She said why target Mangoma who in any case expressed a view which is also shared by many people in the party?”
It also emerged that some members of the national council were barred from attending the meeting, while non members were allowed in.
“Mr Julius Magarangoma, who is the Manicaland provincial chairman, was served with a suspension letter in the meeting and was asked to go out, while Mashonaland Central secretary for information Mr Bigboy Haurovi was barred from attending.
“Mr Haurovi was accused of being part of the team calling for leadership renewal in the party. The entire Matabeleland North delegation was also barred from attending the meeting.”
On his Facebook page, Mr Mkwananzi accused Mr Chamisa of fanning divisions in the party and being over ambitious.
“The recent praise singing at a rally in Glen Norah was a deliberate ploy to give an impression of unquestioned loyalty to the president, while deflecting his own dismal performance as the organising secretary,” he said.
“In addition, Mr Chamisa seems comfortable to keep the party at abeyance, purge potential competitors and pave the way for his eventual take-over as president when he reaches the 40-year threshold. Surely, how can one individual be allowed to hold the people`s movement at ransom to satisfy his selfish, personal presidential ambitions?”
Mr Mkwananzi dismissed as falsehoods claims by party spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora that Mr Mangoma and others were assaulted by Zanu-PF members at Harvest House.