Former National Healing co-minister Moses Mzila Ndlovu and several other officials yesterday quit the Welshman Ncube-led MDC party.
By Khanyile Mlotshwa
Ndlovu, a former MDC deputy secretary general, made the announcement at a press conference in Bulawayo.
“Having carefully studied our situation and the conditions in the MDC, we do not regret this important decision,” he said.
“I therefore, publicly announce that my colleagues and myself have resolved to terminate our membership from the MDC forthwith.
“There were irreconcilable differences and after serious deliberations we individually and collectively arrived at this decision.”
The event drew about 150 people, most of them former MDC members who chanted a slogan Simunye Mthwakazi (We are together as a nation).
Ndlovu said they tried to use both formal and informal means to resolve some of the problems through the laid-down internal processes to no avail.
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“Indeed the problems are deep rooted and complex to even try and narrate them,” he said.
“At this juncture and chapter of our protracted struggle, it is no longer a question of [who] did what and why. We have come to accept and to let bygones be bygones. It is time to close that chapter.”
However, the former minister paid tribute to Ncube and “all colleagues we have struggled together with in the MDC.”
“There are life-long lessons we learnt and would continue to cherish, especially from the president of MDC, Welshman Ncube,” Ndlovu said.
“Those amongst us who have worked with him since the formation of the MDC are well aware of his many qualities and commitment to democratic change. He always led from the front.”
Ndlovu claimed not less than 65 people had turned in their MDC membership cards and regalia as a show of leaving the opposition party.
“As Zimbabweans, we have been exposed to cruel ways of terminating one’s party membership, like burning T-shirts,” he said. “We are going to do things in a civilised way. If our colleagues insist that it belongs to them, we will engage in negotiations with them. For now, we are keeping custody of this [cards and regalia].”
Ndlovu dismissed suggestions that he was leaving the MDC to lead a regional party, but insisted that, “there is so much energy amongst us, we have no intention to say our departure from the MDC should also mark our departure from politics.”
Contacted for comment, MDC national spokesperson, Kurauone Chihwayi said their former members should stop “chasing a wild goose.”
“No amount of lies will help them to draw public attention,” he said. “It is their democratic right but it may be catastrophic for them to lie or believe that they are a fraction of a drop in the ocean.”
