MDC-UK & Ireland chairman denies spying for Mugabe
By Peter Nyoni
THE United Kingdom chairman of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Mr Jonathan Chawora has denied reports that he was responsible for the police raid at the party’s headquarters in Harare a fortnight ago in which 250 people were raided and taken into custody.
Mr Chawora, a retired Harare senior Assistant Commissioner is being accused for allegedly extracting information from the MDC national chairman Lovemore Moyo about the presence of villagers at the party’s Harvest House and then passing it over to the police resulting in a raid.
Police raided the MDC’s headquarters and took into custody men and women in a development that sparked off an international human rights outcry. The raid reportedly happened a day after Mr Moyo had informed Mr Chawora in a telephone conversation about the plight of the supporters who were flocking the offices. Mr Chawora now lives in Britain’s Birmingham city.
What triggered off the accusations against Mr Chawora is that, during the raid police are said to have repeated “exactly” the information relayed to Mr Chawora by the national chairman.
The MDC says that the people raided had sought shelter at the MDC offices from retributive attack at the hands of pro-ruling party war veterans and militants.
There were several theories to the raid including that Mr Chawora could have unwittingly passed over the information to his former colleagues in the police force or was indeed a police informer who has penetrated the MDC, or the conversation was tapped by Mugabe’s security men.
There are reports that the MDC leadership is considering steps to verify the truth behind the claim that Mr Chawora could have passed over the information to Mugabe’s security men, which if found to be true could be the biggest penetration of any political party of our generation.
Contacted for comment Mr Chawora said: “I cannot do such a thing against the background of Zimbabweans who are already suffering. My conscience would not allow me to do that”.
He added: “Above all, I don’t think that it was a secret that there were MDC supporters at Harvest as the headquarters is right in the centre of Harare. It can not be secret to have up to 250 people coming in and going inside a building”.
The High Court had to intervene and ordered the police to release them.
Meanwhile, trouble seems to be brewing within the MDC-UK. The most burning issue is the appointment of vice Treasurer and vice Information and Publicity which is not catered for by the constitution. Such a move which flagrantly violates the party’s constitution would destabilise the party at a time when unity is most expedient.
There is already a chorus of complaints about the issue by some disgruntled members of the executive who feel that the whole process is undemocratic and a total breach of the MDC constitution.
While they agree that the issue of addressing gender imbalance is of paramount importance, however, it will be a political suicidal to bend the constitution under the label of gender balancing.
I wish to argue that the idea of lacking women in the influential positions needs correction but two wrongs cannot make a right.
It is imperative that a credible political party maintains the parameters of its constitution, in the events of changes it is respectable that such changes come from a redrafting or amendment of the constitution rather than bending our own laws.
There are also reports that the issue of MDC-UK district formation which is currently underway has left some party members disgruntled. Many argued that the issue of districts was a travesty to socio-political justice as it would result in some districts having more branches than others.
Party members who contacted The Zim Diaspora urged Mr Chawora to address the problems sooner rather than later in a manner that would not disadvantage others.
Mr Chawora was in February this year elected MDC chairman amid several grumblings by certain sections of party in regard to his role as a former police commander in Harare.
However, this will turn out to be Mr Chaworas’ acid test of his leadership qualities in dealing with what some people have come to call it “the curse of MDC-UK”.
Quotable quote“Given that human beings are selfish by nature, our brief as a Party is to safeguard and demand the upholding of the Party Constitution in all respects and promote accountability and equality of all before the law.” Zimdiaspora, 2007
