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Bulawayo Bureau
MDC-T deputy president Engineer Elias Mudzuri has cast aspersions on the presidency of Mr Nelson Chamisa, saying party members “followed the wind” in choosing the late founding party president Mr Morgan Tsvangirai’s successor.

In an interview, Eng Mudzuri, who was non-committal on his support for Mr Chamisa’s presidential bid in the forthcoming elections, said it was regrettable that the party had split following the sacking of Dr Thokozani Khupe and her allies.

Eng Mudzuri, one of the three MDC-T deputies who were angling to succeed Mr Tsvangirai, but fell into line as it became clear that Mr Chamisa had grabbed power, said Mr Tsvangirai had wished for the party to remain united.

He said he was not sure if the party was taking the correct path following its recent split.

“There is a lot I can say, but he is already there and we have to find a way of working with him and to see whether we can deliver the political goods,” said Eng Mudzuri.

“Opinions sometimes don’t matter about public office, it is the public that judges people.

“The only thing that I can say is he has reached 40 years. That’s the age you are allowed to become a president. And we have to work to find if we get there.”

Eng Mudzuri said Mr Chamisa’s fate would be determined by the outcome of the elections.

“But if we don’t (win elections) that will be unfortunate, but people would have seen that maybe, that is when people revise what they would have done,” he said.

“People never revise when they are in a certain mode. There is a saying by Confucius a great Chinese philosopher; ‘when the wind blows all the grass bends towards the wind’. I mean the grass can only rise when the wind has stopped. But if the grass goes against the wind it will break.”

Eng Mudzuri said the party should have tried to bring Dr Khupe and her allies back into the fold.

“My personal thinking is that we should have been together,” he said.

“That was the thinking of our leader. We should have tried to be accommodative. He told me to try to work to unite the party.

“My comment might be more unconstructive than being constructive. We should have found a way of having the MDC family together. I still believe while Khupe is away we should talk to her and find a way of coming together, that is my thinking. If we are to get anywhere we should work together, we should be able to talk to each other.”