STAFF WRITER
MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora has come to the defence of the party’s treasurer-general Tapiwa Mashakada after allegations surfaced accusing Mashakada of embezzling tens of thousands of the party’s political finances fund.
MDC-T party youths are said to have recently threatened to manhandle Mashakada over the allegations before the intervention of party official. The matter is also said to have been brought up at an MDC-T standing committee meeting.
Mwonzora, however, said there was no need for a probe as the allegations are false.
“The allegations of misappropriation on the part of the Treasurer-General Dr Tapiwa Mashakada are false,” said Mwonzora.
“The information about him being manhandled by some youth are equally false. These are just malicious calculated to taint his image. There has not been financial misappropriation at the MDC-T. This is just malicious you know, people who want to denigrate another. If there is financial misappropriation at the MDC we will take action against that person and we are not afraid to take action.”
Mwonzora added that the MDC-T was currently disbursing funds towards payment of workers’ salaries while some funds were being channelled towards research and elections.
“Right now the MDC-T is in the process of disbursing the funds it is holding towards the various departments,” Mwonzora said.
“Right now I can tell you that our workers are being paid some of their outstanding payments. We are also devoting resources towards organising election and research.”
Mwonzora’s camp was, amid contestation from the Nelson Chamisa formation, recently awarded $59 million while Government disbursed $140 million to Zanu PF under the Political Parties Finance Act.
Mashakada did not respond to questions sent to him regards the misappropriation claims. However, he has previously said that there were some people trying to tarnish his name.
“All those things you are running with are complete fabrications. I don’t want to go into internal politics, but there are people attempting to soil my image because they want my position,” Mashakada said.
