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Zimbabwe's Elections 2013 - Index of Articles
Mutambara
drops bid to challenge MDC leadership post
Alex
Bell, SW Radio Africa
August 28,
2013
View this article
on the SW Radio Africa website
The former Deputy
Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has withdrawn his bid to challenge
the leadership of his old party, now led by Welshman Ncube, in the
wake of the disputed
elections.
In 2011, Mutambara launched
a legal battle vying to have Ncube’s ascent to the Presidency
of the MDC nullified. This was after a national congress voted Mutambara
out of power in the breakaway MDC faction.
The party then tried
to have Mutambara booted out of his Deputy Prime Minister position,
which he was granted as part of the unity deal with the MDC-T and
Zanu-PF in 2009. The MDC led by Ncube argued that Mutambara, who
at that point represented no one, should make way for the legitimate
MDC leader.
Two years ago, Bulawayo
High Court Judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha declared that Mutambara
was not the party leader. Mutambara went on to appeal this at the
Supreme Court, and, until this week, a ruling on the matter was
‘indefinitely reserved’.
The appeal, which was
withdrawn this week, meant Ncube was prevented from taking part
in the now defunct unity government after Robert Mugabe and Morgan
Tsvangirai both said they would wait for the final court determination
before replacing Mutambara.
Ncube’s spokesperson
Nhlanhla Dube said this was a deliberate ploy, accusing Mutambara
of being a Zanu-PF functionary.
“The reality is
that Arthur Mutambara was a hand held political baby of Zanu-PF
and when they had used and abused him enough, in keeping Ncube away
from table of (unity government) principals, his use had come and
gone,” Dube told SW Radio Africa.
He continued: “Mutambara
needed to rejuvenate his usefulness to Zanu-PF and part of that
means he is washing off his claim of the MDC party leadership.”
“He can now continue
and wave his Zanu-PF card in public and we are absolutely certain
that if he doesn’t already have one, he will soon have one.
His political survival depends on him publically declaring himself
Zanu-PF,” Dube added.
SW Radio
Africa is Zimbabwe's Independent Voice and broadcasts on Short Wave
4880 KHz in the 60m band.
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.
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