Mwonnzora suspends Khupe as MDC-T feud gets ugly

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

MDC-T on Thursday said it has suspended its deputy president Thokozani Khupe and her top ally Khaliphani Phugeni as the tussle for the control of the fringe opposition party intensifies.

The Douglas Mwonzora led outfit announced Khupe’s suspension that was allegedly made on January 12 in a brief press statement.

Elsewhere, the party’s spokesperson Witness Dube told an online publication that Phugeni, a senator who was only appointed last year to replace an MDC Alliance legislator that was recalled by Mwonzora, had also been suspended.

The announcements followed an invitation to journalists by Khupe’s team to a press conference that she will reportedly address in Bulawayo on Friday.

“The suspension was with immediate effect, pending investigations into the various allegations levelled against her,” MDC-T said in the statement signed by Dube.

“Investigations are being conducted by a team led by the party’s arbiter General and the suspension is in line with the party constitution.

“This is a result of certain issues that arose. Once the said issues are investigated and fully resolved the party will communicate such.”

The former Makokoba MP’s lawyer Nqobani Sithole told another online publication that the suspension was “null ad void.”

Sithole argued that Mwonzora had expelled himself from the MDC-T after he wrote a letter to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission saying he was leader of the MDC Alliance.

In December last year, Khupe took Mwonzora to the High Court seeking to block alleged attempts to recall her from Parliament.

The former deputy prime argued in court papers that MDC-T’s standing committee had passed a resolution in November 2021 to recall her and other officials from Parliament and local government positions.

Khupe and Mwonzora, who reuinited in 2020 after a controversial Supreme Court ruling that nullified Nelson Chamisa’s succession of the late Morgan Tsvangirai as leader of the original MDC, were behind the mass recall of MDC Alliance legislators and councillors.

The duo, however, fell out spectacularly after the party held its controversial extraoridnary congress in December 2021.

Khupe accused Mwonzora of rigging the elections that landed him the top post.

The party says it will hold its elective congress in March.

Since emerging as the party leader Mwonzora has expressed an interest to work with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling Zanu PF party.

He has met Mnangagwa twice at State House.

His critics accuse him of hobnobbing with the ruling party for selfish reasons.