BY MOSES MATENGA
moves to rally MDC veterans behind Nelson Chamisa in the fight for the control of Zimbabwe’s mainstream opposition party have taken a new dimension with reports that former party chairman Lovemore Moyo could return to the fold.
Moyo, the former MDC-T chairman, resigned from the party in 2018 following the death of founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the eruption of a leadership wrangle pitting Chamisa against Thokozani Khupe.
He formed his United Movement for Devolution party, but a picture of him with one of Chamisa’s deputies Welshman Ncube after they met in Bulawayo yesterday sparked speculation that he is siding with the MDC Alliance.
Ncube is leading a committee that also includes national party chairperson Tabitha Khumalo that was set up to handle former party members that wanted to rejoin Chamisa’s group.
Moyo yesterday downplayed prospects of him returning to the MDC, saying his meeting with Ncube had nothing to do with politics in the party.
“Our meeting had nothing to do with what you are asking,” said Moyo when he was asked if he was on the verge of returning to MDC.
“We have always met, me and Prof.
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“For your own information, this is our fourth meeting.
“Remember we are both farmers and we come from the same region and worked together for so many years, so he is no stranger to me and I am no stranger to him.
“We always discuss issues of national interest and also things of mutual interest either politically or about farming.”
In March the Supreme Court ruled that Khupe was the legitimate leader of the MDC-T and ordered her to hold an extraordinary congress to elect Tsvangirai’s successor within three months.
The ruling sparked a fight for the control of MDC-T 2014 structures that the court ruled would be eligible to elect the party’s new leader.
Moyo was elected chairman of the party at the 2014 congress, but yesterday said he had not made a decision on whether to return to the party.
“I am no longer active in the MDC in either of the two factions,” he said.
“So if I am going to make a decision, it will be based on a neutral point of view, but as things stand at the moment, I am not in either of the two factions that are fighting.
“That is my position, but about what the future holds and other things going forward, you can’t foretell the way forward and what will happen.”
Ncube posted a picture of him and Moyo on Twitter with a caption: “Mr Speaker Sir, Honourable Lovemore Moyo, also national chairman of MDC-T 2014 structures, visited me today at my office where in Trumpian speak we had a very beautiful catching up on subjects of mutual interest ranging from market gardening to national politics.”
Khupe has since recalled four MPs from Parliament, who were elected on the MDC Alliance ticket and the High Court is expected to rule on the dispute on Friday after the legislators challenged the expulsions, saying they were not members of her party.
