Tsvangirai youths lead savage attack on MP

Tsvangirai youths lead savage attack on MP

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• Priscilla Misihairabwi: The many flaws of boycott politics

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• Prof J Moyo: 'All Zanu PF want is geriatrics to be senators'

By Lebo Nkatazo

A ZIMBABWEAN opposition legislator was hospitalised Sunday after he was brutally attacked by a mob of youths loyal to party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Timothy Mabhawu, the MP for Mabvuku, was led away from Tsvangirai's rally in Highfield bleeding profusely and his shirt socked in blood following the attack.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) split irreconcilably over differences among party leaders.

Tsvangirai now leads a faction of the party while some of his most senior colleagues -- including his deputy Gibson Sibanda -- have formed their own faction.

The split was dramatised by internal differences over the party's policy and direction in the run up to Senate elections late last month.

Sibanda's group accused Tsvangirai of breaching the MDC's constitution when he rejected a tight vote of the party's national council on October 12 in favour of fielding candidates for the newly-created Senate. Tsvangirai was also accused of rehiring some of his security staff found guilty of waging a violent campaign against his internal opponents.

Although Tsvangirai has reportedly been suspended by the party's disciplinary committee, he continues with his normal activities. His supporters grouped in Harare late last week and said they had nullified his suspension, a claim rejected by the other side who say the meeting was improperly constituted.

At the rally in Highfield, Tsvangirai's supporters sang songs denouncing MP's who have opposed Tsvangirai's stance -- including St Mary’s Job Sikhala, Glen Norah's Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and Harare North's Trudy Stevenson.

Constituency T-Shirts bearing Misihairabwi’s face were also set on fire at the rally.

Mabhawu was kicked and punched by the youths who called him a "Senator", for allegedly supporting the other MDC faction's stance. The youths told him he was "at the wrong place".

Bleeding and his shirt socked in blood, the MP was rescued by two other MP’s -- Glen View’s Paul Madzore and Kambuzuma’s Willias Madzimure.

MDC national youth chairman Nelson Chamisa moved in and persuaded the MP to leave the rally and he complied.

In his address, Tsvangirai denounced the MP’s attack without mentioning his name.

He also dismissed his suspension from the party and launched scathing attack on his internal opponents. He vowed to replace them with other officials from the party's ranks.

“The agenda is to destroy the MDC. They were Zanu PF from the start. Each time we said let us remove Mugabe they would say akula mali (There is no money),” he said.

The MDC's national chairman, Isaac Matongo said he would see to it that Sibanda's faction was “finished” when the party meets for the national congress in February next year.

Harare East MP Tendai Biti described Sibanda's group as "black mambas" who were all along plotting to bite others at the party’s national congress.
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