The MDCT extra-ordinary congress held at the Harare International Conference Centre degenerated into a charade as thugs assaulted and slapped acting president Thokozani Khupe.
This was after Khupe, who is one of the candidates who was contesting for the opposition party’s presidency attempted to call off the election in the middle of the process. Khupe claimed that there was massive vote-rigging allegedly orchestrated by Secretary-General Douglas Mwonzora.
Mwonzora, along with senators Elias Mudzuri, Morgen Komichi and Khupe were all contesting to replace the late Morgan Richard Tsvangirayi as the substantive president of the opposition party.
Khupe could be heard saying,
“This whole election process must be stopped,”
“It is a charade. It is a shameful election. I will challenge the outcome.”
Things came to a boil when Khupe tried to call off the election alleging that there was massive electoral fraud and vote-rigging. However, militant youths who are alleged to be aligned to Mwonzora did not take this well and started throwing cans and water bottles at the top table, seemingly targeting Khupe and Komichi.
Khupe and Komichi were forced to flee from the venue as the militant youths pursued them and bayed for their blood. The youths were shouting obscenities at Khupe and chanting ” Hure (Whore)” as well as other salacious allegations against her.
As Khupe was making her way out of the venue, an as-yet-unidentified person slapped her on the face and the assault was captured on camera. At the time of publishing, it was not clear if Khupe suffered any injuries from the assault.
Below are some of the videos of the chaos and violence which occured at the HICC which saw Thokozani Khupe being slapped.
Khupe has since suspended Douglas Mwonzora saying that the violence has brought the name of the opposition into disrepute. Mwonzora on the other hand has laughed off the suspension saying that he cannot be suspended by a fellow contestant.
