Suspended senior members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Douglas Mwonzora have vowed not to appear before the party’s disciplinary committee in a move that is likely to throw the party into a new chapter of turmoil.
On Monday, MDC-T suspended seven long serving and high-ranking members over gross misconduct. The seven are former vice president Elias Mudzuri, Norest Marara, Gift Konjana, John Nyika, Den Moyo, Edwin Dzambara and Edwin Kakora.
In an interview with 263Chat, suspended party secretary for business Norest Marara said the seven will not appear before an unlawful committee instituted by an illegal leadership.
“I cannot appear before an illegal individual or body, I won’t be appearing before any disciplinary committee those illegal structures. Mwonzora is not the duly elected MDC president therefore I don’t recognise him, his people and anything that they represent.
“I did not write to any chairperson, my letter was written by Mwonzora himself and then there is one that was issued by the so called chairman ‘Socks’. What we did as the suspended seven was to issue a statement as a response to say we do not recognise you,” said Marara
He said the seven will converge to map the way forward and clip Mwonzora’s wings as he does not represent party supporters.
“The way forward is going to be spelt out by our team, we are going to give direction because we believe that Mr. Mwonzora and his cohorts do not represent the larger MDC family or the opposition at large therefore we do not recognise them. The MDC supporters know the kind of leadership they want and it’s not represented by Mr. Mwonzora and his behaviour,” he said.
MDC national spokesperson Witness Dube dismissed Marara’s assertions saying it will be unfortunate if they do not appear before the disciplinary committee.
“Every member of the MDC is bound by the party Constitution and they have got an obligation, responsibility and rights to exercise in accordance with our constitution. It will be very unfortunate if these members are going to take a stand not to subject themselves to the internal processes of the party which actually encompass us as members in terms of our conduct and our duties, therefor they leave the party with no choice but to invoke other organs like the national council to make a determination of their case in their absence.
“Assuming even in the worst case scenario that was going to be correct are they the MDC ceased to exist during the congress, these are people bent on causing chaos from the look of it. There is no way that they will stand at this moment and abrogate themselves the duty to adjudicate which structure is correct and which structure is not and maybe they are the only ones legitimate when in fact the party took all necessary efforts to have a congress and there were no objections to that congress, the processes to that congress even themselves have not objected to those processes,” Dube said
He added “As we speak today there is no member of the MDC who has gone to court to challenge our congress or our leadership so for them to then say they are not going to appear before the organs of the party it’s very unfortunate, it actually exposes them that may be the allegations that are being levelled against them have better chances of sticking and actually finding them on the wrong side of our law.”
