By Staff Reporter
Suspended senior members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Douglas Mwonzora have dismissed the impending disciplinary committee that will be instituted by the party saying it is illegal.
The seven long serving and high-ranking members were suspended over gross misconduct and these include former vice president Elias Mudzuri, Norest Marara, Gift Konjana, John Nyika, Den Moyo, Edwin Dzambara and Edwin Kakora.
Suspended party secretary for business Norest Marara said they will not appear before an unlawful committee instituted by an illegal leadership.
“I cannot appear before an illegal individual or body, I won’t be appearing before any disciplinary committee those illegal structures. Mwonzora is not the duly elected MDC president therefore I don’t recognise him, his people and anything that they represent.
“I did not write to any chairperson, my letter was written by Mwonzora himself and then there is one that was issued by the so called chairman ‘Socks’ (Solomon Chikohwero). What we did as the suspended seven was to issue a statement as a response to say we do not recognise you,” said Marara
He added “The way forward is going to be spelt out by our team, we are going to give direction because we believe that Mr. Mwonzora and his cohorts do not represent the larger MDC family or the opposition at large therefore we do not recognise them. The MDC supporters know the kind of leadership they want and it’s not represented by Mr. Mwonzora and his behaviour.”
MDC national spokesperson Witness Dube dismissed Marara’s statements saying it will be unfortunate if they do not appear before the disciplinary committee.
“Every member of the MDC is bound by the party Constitution and they have got an obligation, responsibility and rights to exercise in accordance with our constitution. It will be very unfortunate if these members are going to take a stand not to subject themselves to the internal processes of the party which actually encompass us as members in terms of our conduct and our duties, therefor they leave the party with no choice but to invoke other organs like the national council to make a determination of their case in their absence.
“Assuming even in the worst case scenario that was going to be correct are they the MDC ceased to exist during the congress, these are people bent on causing chaos from the look of it. There is no way that they will stand at this moment and abrogate themselves the duty to adjudicate which structure is correct and which structure is not and maybe they are the only ones legitimate when in fact the party took all necessary efforts to have a congress and there were no objections to that congress, the processes to that congress even themselves have not objected to those processes,” Dube said
