Expelled MDC-T National Organising Secretary, Abednico Bhebhe, had the last laugh after the party failed to hold its extraordinary congress due to anomalies in the party’s voters roll.
Sources in the party told CITE that Bhebhe had a final ace up his sleeve as he had in his possession an authentic 2014 party’s voters roll that he managed to share to delegates which discredited the one presented by Secretary-General Douglas Mwonzora.
The extraordinary congress, as according to the Supreme Court ruling in March that ordered a fresh congress, was meant to elect a party leader after the death of Morgan Tsvangirai and four candidates – Dr Thokozani Khupe, Senators Morgan Komichi, Elias Mudzuri, including Mwonzora are vying for the presidency.
Read: https://cite.org.zw/3000-delegates-for-mdc-t-extra-ordinary-congress/
The MDC-T congress had been slated for December 19, 2020 but Bhebhe filed an urgent application at the Bulawayo High Court to stop the party from going ahead with the congress.
He also wanted the High Court to first determine the legality of his expulsion before MDC-T held the elective congress.
Read: https://cite.org.zw/bhebhe-in-bid-to-stop-mdc-t-extraordinary-congress/
However, Bhebhe’s attempt to stop the congress suffered a setback after MDC-T sought an application to postpone the urgent chamber application seeking more time to go through the case.
Read: https://cite.org.zw/mdc-t-challenges-bhebhes-high-court-application/
This postponement meant that the party could hold its congress before the court sat to hear Bhebhe’s urgent chamber application.
In a last minute trick, sources told CITE the former national organising secretary, released an authentic 2014 delegates list to the elections directorate on Thursday afternoon.
This led to disputes, with some alleging that Mwonzora had availed a manipulated roll.
“The authentic voters roll then made the Standing Committee realise that they had been taken for a ride by Mwonzora. The correct 2014 voter’s roll was Bhebhe’s last minute joker which played the trick and the congress was stopped,” source said.
The party’s interim National Chairman and extraordinary congress convener, Senator Komichi, issued a notice confirming that the postponement was necessitated “by a number of technical, logistical and administrative issues some of which have affected the production of a credible and acceptable list of delegates”
He said the processes of cleaning up and certifying the Electoral College is ongoing, therefore the extraordinary congress could not go ahead as initially envisaged.
Meanwhile reports said MDC-T’s interim president Thokozani Khupe Sunday summoned all 2014 provincial structures to Harare on Wednesday to inspect the voters roll in a move to block Mwonzora.
The party’s national council also resolved to fire Mwonzora’s lieutenant, Simon Hove, who was masquerading as the Harare provincial chairperson and was reportedly causing problems in the party.
After the decision to cancel the congress, reports said another war erupted over US$29 000 that was allegedly given to some delegates clandestinely.
