Tsvangirai to discipline Hwende over Khupe assault
Main News Zimbabwe

Tsvangirai to discipline Hwende over Khupe assault

Morgan Tsvangirai said they had set up a team that will discipline Charlton Hwende, the MDC-T’s deputy treasurer, for condoning violence within the opposition movement.

Hwende was, on Sunday, after the bashing of MDC-T deputy President Thokozani Khupe by hired party youths at their Bulawayo offices, quick to celebrate the thuggish behaviour.

The former Harare Poly student leader posted on social media saying the Khupe and colleagues deserved the barbaric attacks because they had organized an illegal meeting.

Khupe was attacked alongside the party’s national chairman, Lovemore Moyo and Abedinico Bhebhe, the MDC-T organizing secretary.

The trio’s Bulawayo aborted meeting was viewed by Hwende and other MDC-T senior officials as a coup against Tsvangirai who, on Saturday, signed an alliance with former MDC founder members like Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti.

Khupe did not attend the Saturday MDC Alliance event which was held in Harare.

In his own words on social media which he later deleted, Hwende said: “Organizing a caucus meeting which is against the spirit of the MDC constitution is very irresponsible, you end up attracting unnecessary problems”.

Addressing journalists at his Highlands home in Harare, Monday, Tsvangirai said Hwende was irresponsible and deserved punishment.

“If a leader of a party which is committed to those values acts against those values, he equally must face the same censure. There is no value for the young people; there is no value for the old people, or standing committee members or national leadership. Everyone is accountable to the values of the party and so Charlton Hwende will face the same censure like everyone else,” said Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai said his party remained a peace loving movement and shifted the violent behaviour to Zanu PF.

“Our party has been a victim of state-sponsored violence for many years of our existence. We have never been perpetrators of violence and we have never adopted the Zanu PF template of violence.

“We have lost over 500 of supporters and leaders due to political violence. I, for one, have been a victim of violence at the hands of the State, bashed in a police station, on many circumstances left for dead while there been many attempts on my life,” he said.

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