MDC president Nelson Chamisa is allegedly planning to give the boot to senior party leaders he suspects of plotting to challenge him for the presidency at Congress next year. A Newsday report claims that Chamisa has called for extraordinary meetings of the national executive and national council this week. The report says Chamisa will push for the suspension of secretary general Douglas Mwonzora and vice president Elias Mudzuri.
The Congress which was supposed to be held in February next year was pushed forward to October with Chamisa purportedly trying to buy time to outfox his rivals. A Newsday source claimed
The standing committee, national executive and national council were expected to meet for the last time this year on December 15 or thereabouts, but the president (Chamisa) has called for extraordinary meetings of these key structures next week (this week).
There will be a meeting of the standing committee on Wednesday; the national executive could meet on the same day or Thursday before a national council meeting likely on Friday. The main agenda of the meetings is to push for the suspension of Mudzuri and Mwonzora basically because internally, they have indicated their wish to challenge the president.
MDC party spokesperson Jacob Mfume confirmed the meetings. Speaking to Newsday, he said
These are meetings that were discussed at last week’s standing committee meeting and the agenda is known by all leaders. We will not discuss anything that is not on the agenda. We are in a situation where the country’s security sector has adopted a mindset that characterises the opposition as a rebel organisation with parallel military structures. It is an alarming and scary mindset and as an opposition party, we cannot afford to ignore that.
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