Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) says it has expelled vice president Thokozani Khupe, who announced a week ago that she is the new leader of the party after allegedly ousting president, Douglas Mwonzora.
MDC-T information and publicity secretary, Witness Dube, told VOA Zimbabwe Service that the party’s National Council resolved at a meeting on Friday to expel Khupe and some of her supporters.
Dube said, “The National Council sat on Friday and resolved to expel Khupe for violating the party’s constitution many times. Remember that she was suspended from the party before she addressed a press conference in Bulawayo where she claimed that she is the leader of a faction of the MDC-T. She was supposed to appear before the Arbiter general but decided to tell the world that she was the leader of a splinter group.
“The National Council stressed that there is nothing like making a public announcement that one is the leader of a faction of the party. It’s just like someone who can announce that there are now two ZUPCO (Zimbabwe United Passenger Company firms. It’s absurd. So, the National Council noted that she had violated the constitution by merely making those remarks and therefore it was resolved to expel her with immediate effect.”
Dube said several other MDC-T members, including Nomvula Mguni, Mildred Dube and Khupe’s advisor, Ntando Ndlovu, “who is always disseminating information about Khupe’s political games despite the fact that he was told to stop doing so because there is only one spokesperson for the presidium.”
He further noted that the National Council also reaffirmed the suspension of Senator Kaliphani Pugeni for allegedly siding with Khupe.
But Khupe’s advisor said Mwonzora and his group are ill-informed as they are no longer in charge of the party following his suspension by Khupe.
Ndlovu said, “This is simply child’s play. There is nobody who can be a president of two political parties at the same time. Mwonzora formed his own small party called the MDC Alliance. Khupe is still in the MDC-T is the leader of the party. There is no constitutional provision that allows Mwonzora to expel Khupe and other MDC-T members because were are not in the MDC Alliance.
“These are people looking for relevance. Mwonzora is the one who is always violating the party’s constitution. He is publicly working with Zanu PF.”