THE MDC led by Douglas Mwonzora has seized Bulawayo party offices that had been taken over by a camp aligned to self-styled Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) secretary-general, Sengezo Tshabangu.
Tshabangu, Mwonzora and a faction aligned to former CCC leader Nelson Chamisa have been fighting for control of the offices for some months now.
The offices, which once belonged to the MDC led by the late Morgan Tsvangirai, later to the MDC Alliance before the CCC took control, were repainted blue in February.
The blue movement has been associated with Chamisa’s yet to be launched new political party after he lost control of the CCC.
All along, the offices were painted yellow — the CCC’s colours.
However, Tshabangu’s camp later took control of the offices.
A visit to the offices showed that the building had been painted red with Mwonzora’s face emblazoned on the party building.
MDC spokesperson Lloyd Damba said the offices were the property of the party under a company called Lamphone investment that was formed several years ago.
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“All the properties were bought by MDC,” Damba said. “CCC is a new party formed about two years ago.
“It never bought any properties.
“We won a court order; we started with Harvest house.”
Damba said the MDC is also going after party safe houses, which were allegedly under the control of the CCC. The opposition has some properties called safe houses where victims of political violence are sheltered while they receive treatment and protection.
“CCC is the one that seized the properties. We do not subscribe to anarchy, property rights must be respected,” Damba said.
“We repossessed them because they were forcibly taken from us. We have also traced and located 10 safe houses, we now know where they are.”
The spokesperson of Tshabangu’s CCC camp, Jacob Mafume, accused the rival Mwonzora group of taking the law into its own hands.
“And that is wrong, and never a good idea as that fuels violence,” he said.
Mafume said he was not aware of the alleged safe houses that Mwonzora’s camp was targeting.
“I have no idea what they are talking about,” Mafume said.
“We are not a real estate company.
“We are a political party; we look for votes and more votes:
“Who really cares about property for a political party, does it declare a dividend?”
Tshabangu seized control of the CCC from Chamisa resulting in the latter resigning in protest in January this year.
Chamisa has not announced his next political move. He has dismissed Tshabangu as a Zanu PF proxy, a charge he denies. Zanu PF now has a two-thirds majority in Parliament after Tshabangu recalled a number of CCC legislators from Parliament.
