The MDC national executive committee meeting had to be abandoned after members boycotted in anger over attempts to expel deputy presiden...
The MDC national
executive committee meeting had to be abandoned after members
boycotted in anger over attempts to expel deputy president Elias Mudzuri.
Sources told Newsday that the meeting was then moved to
Saturday where it was held concurrently with the national council.
“The agenda was to fire Mudzuri, but this failed because
members of the national executive stayed away. In fact, at the time the meeting
was supposed to start only one member outside the standing committee, Gilbert
Shoko from Bulawayo, was there.
“The national council itself had problems with numbers,
because we had to rely on apologies to get a quorum. Still, the open hostility
towards the push for Mudzuri’s ouster was so real that the issue was never
brought for a vote in the national council.”
Party spokesperson Jacob Mafume, however, denied Mudzuri’s
issue was ever on the agenda.
“Yes, we moved the national executive meeting to Saturday
and held it at the same time as the national council, but not because of
numbers. The standing committee meeting held on Friday took too long, and we
wanted to allow people to attend the presidential Christmas dinner.
“The Mudzuri issue is a footnote in the greater scheme of
things. Zimbabweans are struggling to make ends meet. They don’t know what tomorrow
may bring, and we cannot, as a party that has people at heart, be transfixed
with one person.
“The issue about vice-president Mudzuri is between him and
his principal, the president. It is the president who is dealing with it, and
he has told the party that he needs to give the vice-president time to explain
himself.”
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