The leadership of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change and the party's members of parliament remained divided Thursday as party chiefs instructed lawmakers not to accept a central bank offer to give them automobiles.
Party sources said Mr. Tsvangirai and senior MDC officials have warned that any lawmaker in the party who accepts a vehicle from Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono will face disciplinary action by the party’s national executive and national council.
But some parliamentarians complained that MDC ministers in the national unity government formed with President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF have received automobiles.
Gono has offered to provide vehicles to members until the government takes charge of the cars in his institution's hands and sets up a vehicle loan scheme.
But the MDC in a statement issued Thursday blamed the central bank for the collapse of the economy and said its parliamentarians should not have dealings with Gono.
Chief Whip Innocent Gonese of Tsvangirai’s MDC formation told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that he knows of no parliamentarians of the Tsvangirai MDC grouping who have accepted vehicles from the Reserve Bank.
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