Morgan Tsvangirai
Nduduzo Tshuma, Political Editor
MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has reversed a resolution by the party’s Bulawayo province to postpone their 17th anniversary celebrations to be held in the city on Saturday as chaos and factional fights continue to dog the party.
The Bulawayo provincial executive, which hosts the celebrations, held a crisis meeting on Tuesday evening where it resolved to postpone the anniversary from Saturday to a later date due to lack of funds.
The postponement, if allowed, would have been the second after the party moved the date from the second week of September.
“The party provincial executive met in Bulawayo on Tuesday evening where it resolved that the celebrations be postponed.
“The resolution was communicated to the party leadership and Tsvangirai reversed the decision and directed that the celebrations proceed,” said an MDC-T insider.
The party has since sent WhatsApp messages asking for donations of $3 per individual towards the holding of the anniversary.
MDC-T Bulawayo provincial chairperson Mr Gift Banda yesterday confirmed that the province had their resolution to postpone the anniversary celebrations cancelled.
“It was like that because there were some challenges but they have since been resolved, the celebrations are going on as planned,” he said.
Insiders said rival factions were also engaged in a bitter war over flyers advertising the anniversary resulting in the blocking of the distribution of banners with a picture of the MDC-T leader and one of the recently appointed vice presidents, Mr Nelson Chamisa.
Mr Tsvangirai in July appointed Mr Chamisa and Engineer Elias Mudzuri as his deputies in addition to Ms Thokozani Khupe in a move that heightened infighting in the already faction-riddled party.
The appointment, insiders claimed, was a ploy by Mr Tsvangirai to weaken Ms Khupe who reportedly leads a faction pitted against another fronted by Mr Chamisa.
“Issues were raised during the meeting over the use of fliers printed by the Chamisa group. In their flyer, there is a picture of Tsvangirai handing Chamisa a parcel which has been interpreted to mean the president was handing him power,” said a party source.
“The theme of the celebrations is ‘Redefining the end game’ and with a picture of Tsvangirai handing a package and then that kind of message, many felt that there was an element of mischief on the part of the Chamisa group.
“There are other flyers that will now be distributed bearing the face of Tsvangirai.”
Mr Banda dismissed reports of tension over flyers saying, “There is nothing like that. We’ve one flyer that we’ve been distributing which bears the face of the president.”