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(TALKZIMBABWE) Khupe in UK as MDC-T secretly fundraises for poll

Khupe in UK as MDC-T secretly fundraises for poll
By: Our reporter + sources
Posted: Tuesday, July 6, 2010 3:41 am

THE MDC-T party has embarked on a clandestine fund-raising campaign which has seen Cabinet ministers in the inclusive Government travelling out of the country without the official clearnace and without the necessary security arrangements in place in the destination countries.

The party is making frantic efforts to raise funds ahead of anticipated national elections next year outside of the law.

Zimbabwe's Political Parties (Finance) Act of 1992 bars parties from seeking external funding and also makes it illegal for foreigners to interfere in the country's domestic political processes.

Deputy party leader Ms Thokozani Khupe -- who is also Zimbabwe's co-Deputy Prime Minister -- is in the U.K. where a fundraising dinner will be held on a farm owned by a Zimbabwean farmer in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, Nyasha Gwatidzo.

Gwatidzo is believed to have set up a charity, Vana Trust, in 2003.

Khupe will not be meeting with the generality of Zimbabweans, but will instead be attending an evening discussion and dinner on Wednesday at the Commonwealth Club in London. Zimbabweans will have to fork out £25 to meet her, which goes to the MDC-T coffers.

She will also meet with a group calling itself the Zimbabwe Diaspora Focus Group Coalition (ZDFG)

[A 'project' of the Zimbabwe Growth Club - MrK]

briefly at the Royal London House in London's islington area.

Khupe is currently meeting donors of the MDC-T and is expected to meet the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe.

These meetings are not sanctioned by the inclusive Government.

Sources in the MDC-T party told the Zimbabwe Guardian that their deputy leader will not be meeting Zimbabweans for fear of being embarassed by the thousands of Zimbabweans who have lost confidence in that party after misappropriation of funds raised on behalf of that party.

At his last visit to the UK in June last year, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was booed by Zimbabweans at London's Southwark Cathedral.

He has never returned since.

Fund raising in South Africa

The MDC-T's standing committee -- the highest decision-making organ between congresses -- met a group of financiers in Johannesburg, South Africa, last Friday.

The MDC-T delegation -- which included members of cabinet -- returned to Zimbabwe on Sunday. Recently fired minister and now party organising secretary Engineer Elias Mudzuri, his deputy Mr Morgan Komichi and national youth chairman Thamsanqa Mahlangu stayed behind for unknown reasons.

It is believed that MDC-T coffers are strained and the party is making every attempt to deal with donor fatigue that has dogged their operations for months now.

The MDC-T delegation stayed at the Pivot Hotel while the meetings were held at the Plaza Hotel in Johannesburg.

Party deputy president Ms Khupe then proceeded to the United Kingdom.

MDC-T spokesperson Mr Nelson Chamisa yesterday denied the meetings.

"I was not in South Africa and I don’t know of these meetings. Gather your facts properly," Mr Chamisa said.

While Mr Chamisa denied being in South Africa, he was on Sunday seen at the Harare International Airport disembarking from a British Airways Comair flight from Johannesburg.

He was in the company of other senior officials.

However, Mr James Maridadi, who is party leader Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesman, confirmed the South Africa trip.

Mr Maridadi said: "It was just an ordinary visit and we did not hold any meetings there. Ms Khupe proceeded to the UK on Government business."

However, a source said: "On the second of June the standing committee met one of our traditional donors, Mr Max Garzio.

"Mr Garzio is based in South Africa but he also has strong links with our friends in the UK.

"Several other meetings were held with donors who promised to consider all financial issues raised by the leadership.

"The party is in need of funds to sustain the Prime Minister’s newsletter and the Changing Times, which resumed operations recently.

"The two papers are not profitable financially but we need them as a party."

The source said they needed to improve the flow of funds well ahead of elections.

Westerners have openly funded MDC-T in the past, in contravention of Zimbabwe's laws that bar external funding for political formations.

Section 6 (1) of the Political Parties (Finance) Act says: "No political party, member of a political party or candidate shall accept any foreign donation, whether directly from the donor or indirectly through a third person."

Section 7 (1) adds, "No person who is a citizen of a foreign country domiciled in a country other than Zimbabwe shall, within Zimbabwe, solicit donations from the public on behalf of any political party or candidate."

Donor fatigue has led to the forced reassignment of officials in the parallel structures in the PM’s Office to the party’s headquarters at Harvest House in Harare.

The PM’s Office is reportedly struggling to sustain the huge payroll arising from the parallel structures.

The officials reportedly earn between US$700 and US$7 000 while ordinary civil servants earn below US$265.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, MDC CORRUPTION, NELSON CHAMISA, NEOCOLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 3:38 AM