Former MDC-T deputy president Elias Mudzuri has said he will resist attempts to expel him from the party following his suspension last week.
The MDC National Council suspended Mudzuri, Norest Marara, Mashonaland West province chairperson Gift Konjana, Masvingo province chairperson John Nyika, US province chairperson Den Moyo, secretary for Education, Edwin Dzambara and national executive member Edwin Kakora.
Posting on Twitter, Mudzuri, a former Harare mayor, claimed that an MDC-T national council meeting held on Saturday in Harare was meant to expel him from the party. He wrote:
I am reliably informed that today the illegitimate MDC national council will expel me from the party.
How can a founder member be expelled for insisting that leaders must always be chosen by the base structures and not the elite and for merely chatting with customers at Duriro Bar?
Mudzuri owns Duriro Bar in Harare. Speaking in an interview with The Standard on Saturday, Mudzuri said he cannot be expelled from a party he “founded”. He said:
They may expel me on paper, but I will remain MDC. I believe in MDC principles. You should be asking Mwonzora why they have abandoned the MDC tradition.
They should have consulted the people. No one is bigger than an institution. The council has taken its powers too far.
The council has no power to override the congress and a congress must start from the ward.
If I am the one who is wrong the people should judge. It is the masses who should judge.
MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora’s spokesperson Lloyd Damba dismissed Mudzuri’s claim that he was a founding member of the party. He said:
I cannot give a response to his expulsion before it happens but as always the guilty are always afraid.
Mudzuri has been lying to the world that he is a founder member of the MDC, but this is not true.
He joined the party in 2002 after he was co-opted as deputy ward chairperson for Budiriro where he was operating his nightclub.
His first party card was facilitated in the same year by Alois Masepe.
The MDC-T has failed to win a single parliamentary or local government seat since Mwonzora was elected president in December 2020. | The Standard