Madhuku, widely known to be leading the group, said no formal meetings were being held to form a new political party. “We have a meeting on September 28, which is an NCA meeting not for the movement,” he said.
“They are no formal meetings that have yet started…We meet every day with different people. It’s not anything to talk about at all,” he told The Zimbabwean.
Madhuku broke ranks with the mainstream MDC-T, a long standing ally of the NCA, soon after the party joined the Government of National Unity. In particular, the NCA was against the manner in which the process leading to the new Constitution was instituted, insisting that it was supposed to be “people-driven”. The MDC-T and civil society endorsed the Constitution-making process that was spearheaded by a select committee of Parliament (COPAC). Madhuku, the NCA and Job Sikhala, leader of a small political party named MDC 99, protested but failed to stop the process.
In the run-up to the July 31 election, the MDC 99 refrained from contesting while Madhuku and the NCA announced they were keen to form another party before the end of the year. Reports indicate that the NCA and Madhuku have been courting disgruntled former MDC-T legislators, councillors and supporters in a bid to woo them to the proposed formation.
The meetings with former MDC-T officials are said to be organised by Felix Mafa, a former Bulawayo legislator who failed to get an endorsement in the party’s primary election confirmation process, and Tedius Chimombe, a former Gweru mayor dismissed early from the party on allegations of corruption.
Since the fall out between the NCA and the MDC-T, Madhuku has become the party’s most acerbic critic, targeting its leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
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