/ 20 June 2005

Zimbabwe opposition accused of murder in SA

Members of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are turning Johannesburg into a bloody battlefield as they jostle for positions in the party’s structures, City Press newspaper reported on Sunday.

This has prompted the MDC to send a ”high-powered” delegation to South Africa to try and defuse the situation, the newspaper said.

The MDC has been accused of killing a man known only as Lungile, who was a member of the rival Zimbabwean Action Support Group (ZASG).

Jealousy was behind the friction between the two groups, said ZASG chairperson Remember Moyo.

”It seems MDC members are jealous of our popularity and following and think we are after the positions they hold,” said Moyo.

”We are not a political party. We support any political party that strives to bring about change in Zimbabwe. We are not interested in positions.”

City Press said Moyo believed the same MDC youths responsible for Lungile’s death are behind the kidnapping of two other ZASG youths, Musa Mhlanga and Liberty Mcube.

He said the two went missing in Joubert Park in central Johannesburg last week and have not been seen since.

Asked when exactly the MDC delegation was expected to arrive, Moyo said ”not anytime soon”.

”The problem is that right now, tempers are flying,” he said. – Sapa