The fight for the control of the country’s main opposition party Movement for Democratic Change is far from over after a rival faction fronted by Thokozani Khupe led MDC-T threatened to approach the courts to reclaim the name and symbols of the party from the Nelson Chamisa led grouping.
The Thokozani Khupe grouping has already grabbed the party headquarters, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai house from the MDC Alliance with the assistance of the police and soldiers.
This followed a Supreme Court ruling that restored the movement to its 2014 status, a move that placed Khupe at the helm of the movement pending an extra-ordinary congress to elect a successor to the late founding President Morgan Tsvangirai who succumbed to cancer of the colon in February 2018.
Speaking to 263Chat, MDC-T spokesperson Khalipani Phugeni confirmed plans to eventually stop the rival camp from using the MDC name and symbols.
“We haven’t started that because we are still dealing with other matters, there are five to six cases which they have filed before the High Court and the other one is now at the Supreme Court so it’s not something that we are rushing but as soon as we are done with this we will indeed enforce our rights to our name and make sure that they stop this infringement of using our name,” said Phugeni.
Contacted for comment, MDC Alliance spokesperson Advocate Fadzayi Mahere said political power lies within the people not party names or symbols.
“Obviously, strategy and tactics can’t be debated in the media however what’s critical at the end of the day is that political power lies in the people, not in names, symbols, buildings or any of the other petty obsessions that Zanu PF and its proxies would want to distract us with,” said Mahere.
She said the nation is in a decline and the MDC Alliance will not be distracted but will remain focused on improving the lives of people.
“The nation is burning. The economy is in decline. The Constitution is under attack. The cost of living is beyond reach. Livelihoods have been destroyed. We will remain focused on improving the lives of the people. That is our strategy – to win Zimbabwe for change,” she said.
