MDC-N says they have donated Mutambara to ZANU PF

After appearing to have stepped down gracefully Mutambara made a u-turn on Monday, issuing a statement saying he did not recognize Ncubes leadership of the party. He vowed to remain as Deputy Prime Minister until the High Court rules on an application challenging the validity of the congress that elected Ncube.

On Wednesday Mutambara claimed to have fired Ncube from the party, using the letter head of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to write his statement. Ncubes camp retaliated by holding an emergency meeting of their National Council on Thursday, later holding a press conference to announce they had fired Mutambara from the party.

MDC-N Secretary General, Priscilla Misihairabwi, said Ncube met Mugabe for a second time this week, on Wednesday, and the ZANU PF leader made it clear Mutambara was going nowhere. She revealed that Mugabe told Ncube sarcastically; You can tell your national council that mina (me) as Robert Mugabe angifuni (I dont want). She also conceded that what Mugabe says, carries the day.

We are now saying, given Mugabes stance they (ZANU PF) can have that position that was allocated to us, so that Mutambara becomes their Deputy Prime Minister. We have effectively donated the DPM post and Mutambara to Zanu PF, she said.

“We want to give Arthur the position that he so desperately wants and hopefully we will have less public fights than we are having, because we know its driven by him wanting to be Deputy Prime Minister. He said it to me personally,” Mishairabwi said.

She added that the refusal to swear in Ncube as DPM was a violation of the GPA and that Mugabe had done this before. He promised that if Roy Bennett was acquitted he would be sworn in as the Deputy Minister. We know that has not happened, she said. The MDC-N now wants the GPA to be amended to reflect the new developments.

Developments this week mean there are now four factions of the MDC. The MDC-T led by Tsvangirai, MDC-N (Ncube), MDC-M (Mutambara) and the MDC 99 led by Job Sikhala. Some observers have noted that the common denominator in all the splits is Welshman Ncube, who was Secretary General in the run up to each split.