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MDC slams 'out of touch' Bennett over rift claims
By Staff
Reporter
ZIMBABWE'S main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has
been hijacked by corrupt opportunists driven mainly by personal greed,
a former MP has said.
Roy Bennett made the comments in South Africa after his recent release from prison for contempt of parliament after shoving Patrick Chinamasa, the justice minister.
South Africa's Business Day newspaper paper reported that there were reports of an intense political rivalry between two factions in the MDC - one said to be led by party leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the other by secretary-general Welshman Ncube.
An MDC spokesman immediately dismissed Bennett as "out of touch" following his prison stint.
Bennett said he and a growing number of MDC supporters were frustrated by the party's lack of aggression towards the government of President Robert Mugabe.
Business Day reported Bennett saying that although Tsvangirai was a good leader, he had surrounded himself with a group of "opportunists who ended up in senior positions within the ... party and who are only interested in the own financial gain". He continued saying, "I believe they will be exposed and they will be removed and the right people, who represent the grassroots, will replace them."
Bennett said that the MDC leadership should stand up for its followers, and put itself at risk rather than follow Mugabe's agenda, the paper reported. It further reported that Bennett's comments came amid criticism that the MDC failed to capitalise on Mugabe's "Operation Restore Order" to rally Zimbabweans.
It reported William
Bango, Tsvangirai's spokesman, saying that although Bennett's views
were welcome he might be out of touch after eight months in prison.
Bennett spoke to Business Day while in South Africa en route to visit
friends in Britain. - Sapa
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