By Andnetwork .com
Former Matabeleland North Governor, Mr Welshman Mabhena, who last week distanced himself from the MDC faction led by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, has reportedly been nominated for the post of vice-president of the group, which Makokoba legislator, Ms Thokozani Khuphe, hoped to win, it emerged yesterday.
The faction’s spokesman, Mr Nelson Chamisa, who is tipped to land the post of secretary for information and publicity, confirmed that nominations from the provinces had started rolling in ahead of the group’s congress to be held in Harare this weekend with 13 000 delegates expected to attend.
He would not be drawn into releasing names of the members of the group that have been nominated to assume the top leadership of the faction.
“What I can tell you is that the speculation on the nomination process and the names that are being thrown around are pretty within the realm of speculative reality. We have agreed that we will not release the names for fear of prejudicing the independence of the electoral process and, by the way, even on the day of the elections people can be nominated from the floor to contest certain positions, ” he said.
However, reports on a website and sources yesterday said Mr Mabhena, a former Zanu(PF) politburo member dropped from the Government in 2000, was nominated by Manicaland province ahead of elections at the faction’s congress this weekend. As part of the faction’s ethnic powersharing act, the vice-presidency has been reserved for someone from the Matabeleland region.
Ms Khuphe is reported to command support from all provinces except Manicaland which threw its weight behind Mr Mabhena and Midlands North which is reported to be backing Ms Gertrude Mthombeni, who is Ms Khuphe’s former ally in the women’s section of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
This leaves the Matobo legislator, Mr Lovemore Moyo, who had also been linked to the position, in the cold. Although there were earlier reports suggesting that Mr Mabhena was being “courted” by the leadership of the faction to be vice president as part of the group’s quest to infuse “credible leadership from Matabeleland” into its structures and gain lost ground in the region, sources said he was likely to lose as the faction was hardpressed at the same time to have some “gender balance”.
The appointment of Cde Mujuru as one of the two Vice Presidents of the country and Second secretaries of Zanu(PF) seems to have prompted an outcry from the women’s league of the MDC faction, for the need to emulate the ruling party on the gender composition of the leadership of the group.
Last week, Mr Mabhena said he had not been approached to stand in the elections and said he was not a member of MDC, which he described as lacking an ideology that people could identify with.
“We were sympathisers not members. We liked what they were doing not what is happening now,” he told Chronicle last week. Efforts to get a comment Mr Mabhena yesterday were fruitless as he was reported to be “away”.
Sources said former legislator for Chimanimani, Roy Bennett, who has been linked to last week’s arms cache in Mutare and served a year jail term for contempt of Parliament after assaulting the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Cde Patrick Chinamasa, in the august house, was also likely to land the post of treasurer general.
Lawyer and member of the House of Assembly, Mr Tendai Biti, who at one time was reportedly contemplating crossing the floor to join the proSenate group is being tipped to shrug off a challenge from Mr Tapiwa Mashakada to claim the secretary general position.
The leader of the faction, Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Isaac Matongo are likely to sail through unopposed as president and national chairman respectively. Bulawayo South legislator and former MDC secretary for legal affairs, Mr David Coltart, who turned down an offer to be committee member in the proSenate group led by Professor Arthur Mutambara, after being elected in absentia, is not likely to be part of the weekend’s proceedings in the Tsvangirai camp.