By Own Correspondent| There is furore in the MDC T led by Nelson Chamisa amid allegations that the party is imposing candidates like what happened in the Zanu PF primary elections where convicts and “criminals” were elected to represent the party in the national elections due in a few months.
One of the MDC-T officials who has been cleared to contest in the party’s weekend primaries for Mabvuku Tafara House of Assembly seat, James Chidhakwa is according to disgruntled party members not fit for political office since he was from 2003 up to 2007 imprisoned on car hijacking charges.
MDC-T stalwarts who requested anonymity said the dreadlocked youthful politician was being backed by the MDC-T youth wing supported by Chamisa to stand in the party’s primaries with the sitting constituency’s MP, James Maridadi.
Social media was this week awash with images of a police clearance letter with Chidhakwa’s fingerprints purportedly posted by him in a bid to clear himself from the criminal allegations leveled against him by fellow party members.
“This is going to give an advantage to Zanu PF which knows that Chidhakwa is a criminal and what they will simply do is to wait for the day when all the names of aspiring MPs have been submitted and should he win the primaries and then they inform the nomination court that there is a criminal who is in the race.
Once that has been noticed, the nomination court will withdraw him and declare the Zanu PF candidate as an uncontested winner,” said one of the senior MDC-T officials who requested not to be named for fear of victimization.
MDC T supporters alleged that all this chaos was being caused by the party’s national chairman, Morgen Komichi.
“Komichi is imposing youths on these positions in a bid to impress Chamisa so that he keeps his position in the party safe,” another MDC-T senior member said.
Another MDC-T official who also requested anonymity said Komichi was the one pushing for the ouster of senior party members the same way Harare west MP Jessie Majome was elbowed out of the primary election race leading to her decision to contest the forthcoming polls as an independent.
According to the source, the chairman was doing this so that if Chamisa wins there will be no competition on government positions since the party would now be having “new comers”.
Contacted for comment on the criminal allegations leveled against him , Chidhakwa who acknowledged having been cleared for the primaries confirmed that he was arrested for more than 20 times since 2000 but not on robbery related cases.
“I was arrested many times and have more than 20 cases all of which are politically related and most of which i was also acquitted with some dying natural deaths,” he said.
“This is election time and i know where this is coming from.
If what you are claiming is true, the party has a security department which vets candidates and surely they would not have cleared me,” he said.
On the police clearance document bearing his name and ID number circulating on social media, Chidhakwa said although the name and ID number were his, he did not post such material on social media.
“Why would i post that on social media and for what reasons,” he said.
Komichi, who is being accused of being the chief architect behind Chidhakwa’s candidature was not available for comment.
Clearing “criminals” to contest for public office was seen in the just ended Zanu PF primaries where a number of party officials with tainted history were elected to represent the party in the forthcoming elections.
The tainted Zanu PF members who won the party’s primaries included
musician-cum-politician, Elias Musakwa‚ Gilbert Muponda ,Campion Mugweni, Killer Zivhu, and Energy Mutodi.
Musakwa was early this year named in a list released by President Emmerson Mnangagwa of people who illegally externalised funds.
He is however Zanu PF’s nominee for the Bikita West National Assembly seat whose election he won in the party’s chaotic primary polls.
According to President Mnangagwa’s list of looters Musakwa allegedly externalised US$9 million to Portugal.
Muponda on the other hand revokes sad memories of the early 2000s when the banking sector all but collapsed after exposure to ENG an asset management company he was running together with his friend.
The duo were engaged in Trust Bank , Time Bank and other businesses that closed shop.
Another Zanu PF aspiring MP who won the party’s primary elections Killer Zivhu was in 2005 convicted and sent to jail for duping cross boarder traders through an organization he was leading.