Correspondent|MDC Alliance secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora has disowned a man who claims to be the party’s member and made a High Court application seeking to order Parliament of Zimbabwe to stop paying MDC-A legislators sitting allowancres and other benefits.
The man Justice Dzingirayi, argued that MDC-A MPs were susceptible to bribes from ZANU PF and should stop receiving any material things from the ruling party.
In an 87 page application, Dzingirayi claims to be a member of the opposition party and was disgruntled that MDC Alliance MPs were receiving “bribes” so they would eventually accept President Emmerson Mnangagwa as Zimbabwe’s legitimate leader.
He argues they must remain unpaid until the outcome of the party’s appeal regarding the 2018 election results from the African Court.
In an interview at Morgan Tsvangirai House on Tuesday, Mwonzora said Dzingirayi was definitely an agent of the ruling party.
“This person who has placed the application is a Zanu-PF functionary no doubt about it. What he says he is and what he displays to be are two different things, in most of this application he is mocking the MDC leadership, he is mocking the president, he is mocking the MPs and his application is not bona fide at all.
“But what is interesting in his application he has not even shown proof that he is an MDC member, none whatsoever,” he said.
The secretary general pointed out that Dzingirayi did not provide a party card in his application and said he had gone as far as to check the MDC Alliance’s registry and failed to find him listed.
“It is mischievous Zanu-PF people who tried to be too clever by half unfortunately the application is unsustainable it is a poorly constructed application and poorly reasoned,” he said.
Mwonzora described the application as “ill-conceived” and a case of “lawfare” whereby the law was being used to attack political opponents.
“It is a distraction, he thought that he would scare our MPs into recognising Mr. Mnangagwa,” he said.
The High Court application has 115 respondents consisting of all the MDC-A ’s MPs, its president Nelson Chamisa, the minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube, the clerk of Parliament and the party itself.
Mwonzora said the application was “unsustainable” as the vast majority of the coalition party’s MPs had already won in their constituencies and the appeal to the African Court was over the presidential results.
The application comes at a time when MPs within the MDC Alliance allege that they have been receiving identical death threats, especially after their demonstration last week Thursday.
“The MPs have already spoken for themselves anyway, through their chief whips they have commented on the threats that they have been getting, some of them death threats that we have been receiving and I have received mine as well on the day of the demonstration,” he said.
A text message which was sent to Mwonzora last Thursday reads.
“Zita rangu ndonzi ‘Death’. Mafreedoms nemarights amunoda kukosha aya be careful kuti security in numbers haiwanzobatsiri kana wawega. We are gunning for you!!” the message read.
Mwonzora said he was unfazed by the threats. “My answer to that person is just go to hell,” he said.
M&T