Back to Index, Back to Special Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Zimbabwe civic group forms party
Ray Ndlovu, Business Day
October 01, 2013

http://www.bdlive.co.za/africa/africannews/2013/10/01/zimbabwe-civic-group-forms-party

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a consortium of several civic society organisations, at the weekend recast itself into a political party during an annual congress in Harare.

Led by interim chairman Lovemore Madhuku, the NCA will contest the next elections, in 2018, in Zimbabwe. The assembly played a pivotal role in the rejection of the draft referendum in 2000 and was a strong ally of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), led by Morgan Tsvangirai, at its inception in 1999.

A bitter fallout, however, between Mr Tsvangirai and Prof Madhuku over whether the MDC-T should have participated in the 2008 election strained relations. The MDC-T’s support alongside Zanu-PF in the constitutional referendum held in March appears to have been the final straw in souring relations and alienating the MDC-T from one of its key allies in civic society.

The formation of a new political party under Prof Madhuku, who has broken ranks with Mr Tsvangirai’s leadership, is certain to add weight to the growing calls for the MDC-T strongman to step down from the leadership of the largest opposition party.

Several disgruntled MDC-T members are understood to be contemplating joining the new political party. Party luminaries Amon Chinhara, of Redcliff, and Emmanuel Chiroto, the former Harare deputy mayor, attended the weekend meeting.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP