Tsvangirai 'should be gagged'

2005-12-03 11:21

Harare - Zimbabwe opposition members locked in a bitter row with their leader over recent elections asked a court on Friday to slap a gag order on Morgan Tsvangirai.

The legal action against the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change came after the party's national council on Thursday decided to suspend six senior members from the leadership for refusing to heed a call to boycott the elections.

"We have filed an application in the High Court for an order to gag the president and prohibit him from performing party functions and using party property or visiting party offices during his suspension," said Gift Chimanikire, the MDC's deputy secretary general.

Chimanikire said the application was filed on behalf of a six-member party disciplinary committee which last week sacked Tsvangirai as MDC president, citing misconduct and violations of the party's constitution.

Tsvangirai has scoffed at the suspension and continued to perform his official duties and visiting the party offices.

Severe blow to the MDC

Founded six years ago, the Movement for Democratic Change has split over Tsvangirai's call to boycott the November 26 elections to a new senate.

The row has dealt a severe blow to the MDC, which had in recent years been widely regarded as the most credible challenge to President Robert Mugabe's 25-year uninterrupted rule.

Tsvangirai maintained that the elections were a waste of money at a time when the country was facing a severe food shortage, but his opponents within the MDC contended that voters should be given a choice at the ballot box.

Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) won 43 of the 50 contested seats, while the MDC picked up seven seats in the elections that were marred by poor turn-out.

Chimanikire was one of six senior MDC members who were sacked from the party leadership at a meeting of the national council, newly-appointed spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said.

The other five were secretary general Welshman Ncube, vice president Gibson Sibanda, treasurer Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, information and publicity secretary Paul Themba Nyathi and secretary for policy and research Trudy Stevenson.

But Chimanikire said the decision was "inconsequential", adding that the decision was taken by "a faction, not the national council".

Infighting in the MDC came to a boil after Tsvangirai overruled a decision of the national council and declared in late October that the opposition would not participate in the polls.

- AFP