Mutambara fires spokesman

Mutambara fires spokesman

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• Tsvangirai's spokesman flees Zimbabwe

• Tsvangirai seeks refuge in Dutch embassy

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• Text: Tsvangirai's statement announcing pull-out

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• Mugabe threatens to arrest MDC leaders

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• Arthur Mutambara: Rethinking the African economic model

• Arthur Mutambara: A shameful betrayal of our Independence

A FACTION of Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) announced Tuesday it has replaced its spokesman after he attended President Robert Mugabe’s inauguration on Sunday against a party decision to snub the event.

In a brief statement, party leader Arthur Mutambara said Gabriel Chaibva had been replaced with Edwin Mushoriwa “with immediate effect”.

Chaibva’s deputy and Nkayi South MP Abednico Bhebhe was also ousted in the mini-reshuffle and replaced with Renson Gasela.

“Chaibva and Bhebhe will be deployed to other functions,” Mutambara said.

Mutambara is said to have been furious when Chaibva attended Mugabe’s inauguration after he controversially won a sixth term in last Friday’s presidential election runoff which was boycotted by his challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Bhebhe is believed to be paying the price over alleged approaches to other MPs of the faction on behalf of a rival MDC faction with offers of US$500 each to circumvent their leadership and support Tsvangirai.

Last month, the Mutambara MDC’s secretary general Welshman Ncube alluded to the approaches when he said: “There are some who are going to our members, councillors, Members of Parliament and others in leadership positions and asking them to work with them without our knowledge.

“We are a fully-fledged party and we are saying, from the president downwards, that you cannot approach our members and ask to work with them without there existing a framework for agreement with the leadership.

"We can't have a situation where people pick who in our party they want to work with and we are telling them to respect the integrity of our institution.”

The Mutambara MDC has 10 MPs in the House of Assembly and six Senators.
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