MDC-T president Thokozani Khupe says she regrets working with Douglas Mwonzora in the opposition party after the two fell out once again resulting in the latest split in the party.
In December 2020, Khupe who was the MDC-T interim president lost the influential position in a controversial manner to then secretary-general Mwonzora at a chaotic extraordinary congress in Harare.
Khupe was later appointed the party vice president but relations between the duo remained frosty.
She recently filed an application at the High Court seeking an order to stop Mwonzora from recalling her from Parliament.
However, the deep divisions within the party surfaced again this week after Mwonzora moved to suspend Khupe and Senator Khalipani Phugeni.
Khupe swiftly moved to counter her suspension, announcing at a press conference in Bulawayo on Friday that Mwonzora had ceased to be the party president after he announced that he was now the leader of the MDC Alliance.
She also announced a split from the party, appointing herself the leader of one of the splinter groups.
In an exclusive interview with Center for Innovation and Technology (CITE’s) Breakfast Club host Zenzele Ndebele, on Saturday, Khupe said she regretted working with Mwonzora.
“When we separated in 2018, the reason was that people did not follow the constitution and when they came back they said, no, we have reformed now we want to respect the constitution, we are respecting the supreme court judgment and so now we are going to be doing things according to the dictates of the constitution, but alas he did the opposite,” she said.
“He started by violating that supreme court judgment, where the case in point was the issue of the second vice president. Our constitution does not have a provision for a second vice president and the late Dr Tsvangirai went ahead and appointed a second vice president, of which the supreme court said it’s a nullity, your constitution does not have that provision.”
Khupe said Mwonzora’s continued violation of the party constitution led to the breakdown of relations.
“This is the point of departure because I have been trying to advise for times without number, to say let’s try and do everything according to the dictates of our constitution as he said in one of his interviews that the constitution is the bible and must be followed in the letter and spirit in which it was written.”
Watch the full interview here:
