HARARE - Prof Arthur Mutambara “As you are aware, there have been some leadership differences in my party, MDC, which have led to court proceedings. My approach to these challenges has been to handle them in such a manner that there is minimal disruption to the GPA dialogue and the implementation thereof,” Mutambara’s letter to Zuma says.
“Unfortunately, the two negotiators our party has kept in the process, with my blessing (Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and Moses Mzila Ndlovu), are now abusing both the GPA process and the other four negotiators by seeking to settle internal party differences through the negotiations. This must not be permitted.”
Ahead of the SADC summit held in Namibia over the weekend, Joubert Mudzumwe, chairman for Mutambara’s party adddressed a news conference and said the two negotiators were attempting to rewrite the GPA.
“According to the agreement signed on 15th September 2008, a party called MDC-Ncube cannot participate in the GPA negotiations. Nor does a party called MDC-Ncube have a mandate to use negotiators for any purpose related to the GPA,” Mudzumwe told a news confrence last week.
Mutambara hopes the issue is resolved before the next SADC summit in Pretoria in June that is poised to discuss the Zimbabwe election roadmap which recognises Ncube as the MDC president and not Mutambara.
The matter, which was slated as an agenda item at the SADC summit over the weekend was deferred after Zuma failed to pitch up because of local government elections in his own country.
“Specifically, in the GPA road map under discussion, they have sought to rename our party MDC-Ncube and yet, in the GPA, the name is explicitly indicated as MDC-Mutambara,” Mutambara’s letter to Zuma says. “This is violation of the GPA, as there is no succession clause allowing them to do so. The negotiators have no mandate to rewrite the GPA.
“Secondly, the two negotiators have sought to put a definition of a GPA principal (as president of a party) in the road map,” he says.
“Again, this is a total abuse of the GPA process as they are aware that so far the courts of Zimbabwe have explicitly denied them this definition. They went to court seeking to stop me acting as president of the party and also to stop me acting as GPA principal, as two separate requests.
“This is acknowledgement that the two functions are different.”
Nhlanhla Dube, spokesman for Ncube’s MDC said: “Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga does not represent Arthur Mutambara’s party if Arthur Mutambara has a party at all. Mzila-Ndlovu does not represent Arthur Mutambara’s party but the MDC and neither is there any party called MDC-Ncube. There is the MDC. The only MDC that had a letter in front was MDC-T after Morgan Tsvangirai. So he needs to go back and understand the GPA which by the way he never understood because he
never participated in.”
Post published in: News