Sikhala withdraws MDC funding claims

Sikhala withdraws MDC funding claims

• MDC youths on violence charges

• D Muleya: MDC goes down, fighting itself!

• Msekiwa Makwanya: Rank hypocrisy in MDC senate debate

• Nigeria, Ghana reject funding MDC

• Ncube not for turning

• Bekithemba Mhlanga: Label food, not people

• Nixon Mao: Our darkest day

• Tsvangirai threatens 'political action'

• Tsvangirai on ropes after senate rebellion

• Nigeria, Ghana sucked into MDC crisis

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

• Stanford Mukasa: Rejoinder to PT Nyathi

• Bloody Monday for MDC

• Paul T Nyathi: Tribal slurs easy to make, but extremely dangerous

• Brilliant Mhlanga: MDC no longer an alternative

• Patrick Mlambo: Tsvangirai has lost plot

• Nyathi hits back at Tsvangirai bribery claims

• B Mhlanga: Tsvangirai fell for Zanu PF bait

• Alex Magaisa: Handling a fledging democracy

• Elliot Pfebve: Tsvangirai and Mugabe, larvae and butterfly scenario

• MDC moves to impeach Tsvangirai

• Sibanda: Tsvangirai in breach of constitution

• Tsvangirai accuses officials of vote-buying

• Itai Zimunya: MDC split good for Zimbabwe

• Tsvangirai bid to heal rifts

• Chenjerai Hove: The MDC and a very Zimbabwean disease

• Tsvangirai must 'come to terms' - Nyathi

• M Makwanya: Tsvangirai, lessons in democratic process

• Heads must roll

• MDC splits widen after senate vote

• Tsvangirai: We are out

• Nyathi: We are in

• MDC to boycott senate - Tsvangirai

By Staff Reporter

TAIWAN on Thursday rejected a Zimbabwe lawmaker's allegation that it made a US$2 million donation to the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

"The Republic of China is unlikely to intervene in internal affairs of any other countries, let alone make political contributions to Zimbabwe," foreign ministry spokesperson Michel Lu said.

Taiwan followed Nigeria and Ghana who have both angrily denied funding the MDC to the tune of US$500 000 between them.

Job Sikhala, a member of parliament from the squabbling MDC, said at a press conference that the party had accepted more than $2.5m in illegal donations from Taiwan, Ghana and Nigeria.

However, Sikhala appeared to have shifted his position on Thursday. He told a Ghanaian radio station that he had been misquoted.

Under Zimbabwe's Political Parties Finance Act, it is illegal for parties to receive foreign funding, and justice minister Patrick Chinamasa said he would report the matter to the country's police chief.

Lu said it is impossible for Taiwan to avoid a required parliamentary review and monitoring to make such a political contribution.

The MDC is deeply divided about whether to boycott or field candidates in a senate election next month.

On Thursday, Sikhala was singing a different tune: "The information is not true (MDC funding claims). I retracted it through the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation...the information was not true, it was just some rumours circulating within the party which cannot be substantiated.

"It was an inconclusive statement, so I have long clarified my position in Zimbabwe and retracted the innuendo statement portrayed to the world. It was based on rumours which turned out not to be real."

Sikhala's summersault was not surprising, according to party insiders who talk of him as a "political clown". Party officials said Sikhala had miscalculated as his claims had been met with "common revulsion" by both factions of the divided MDC.

Early this week, Professor Welshman Ncube, the MDC secretary general said Sikhala's claims were "baseless".
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com