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Wallace Ruzvidzo Herald Reporter

MDC-T president Dr Thokozani Khupe has shot down reports by MDC-Alliance that her party supporters in Victoria Falls have defected to the Nelson Chamisa-led faction, describing them as lies.

This comes after MDC-A’s Matabeleland North party leadership claimed the renegades were citing lack of direction in the former MDC vice-president and ex-deputy prime minister Thokozani Khupe-led party.

Speaking to The Herald yesterday, Dr Khupe said the reports by the Chamisa-led MDC-A were fake news, a gimmick meant to aide their political propaganda.

“The reports are fake news, it’s political propaganda,” said Dr Khupe.

The supporters backed Dr Khupe after MDC split following the death of its founding president, the late Morgan Tsvangirai, in February last year.

MDC-A provincial organising secretary Goshen Zhou, who is also Victoria Falls councillor for Ward 11, had confirmed the development saying they had received calls from MDC-T supporters who wanted to jump ship.

“We have received a number of calls from MDC-T supporters who want to defect from the party to MDC-Alliance. They have expressed their desire to come back.

“Some of them have approached the provincial leadership begging to be allowed back into the party. We have requested that they put their applications in writing and we are still waiting for their letters,” he said.

MDC-T vice president Dr Obert Gutu dismissed the reports saying the allegations were an exercise in futility and frivolity.

“Anyone alleging that MDC-T cadres in Victoria Falls have defected to a rag-tag political formation which is now evidently in terminal decline doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. This is actually a joke that isn’’t funny at all,” said Dr Gutu.

The Khupe-led MDC-T joined President Mnangagwa’s Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) with other leaders of political opposition parties which participated in last year’s harmonised elections.

MDC-T national chairman Mr Abednico Bhebhe described the claims as barefaced lies which must be dismissed with the contempt they deserved.