The MDC has learnt with shock and sadness the untimely death of a true national hero, National Healing minister Hon Gibson Jama Sibanda who passed away quietly last night at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo.

Hon Sibanda was a pillar of the struggle for real change, having spent over 40 years in the trenches fighting for democracy in the country of his birth. He started off as a welfare secretary in ZAPU before joining the trade union movement where he made his mark as the conscience of the worker’s struggle for peace, democracy and real freedom.

Dr Maxwell Shumba, MDC-USA chairman, the MDC USA external assembly executive  Committee, representatives of the MDC-UK and Ireland and other invited delegates  here present; I am greatly honoured and humbled at being offered this  opportunity to address the MDC-USA conference. We gather here as exiled Zimbabweans driven political and economic challenges that have haunted our country for the past decades. Our strong desire to see our country returning to normalcy pushed our dedicated sons and daughters here in America to organize this conference.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-USA) successfully held a one day Provincial conference in Dallas Texas. The conference held on July 31st was presided over by the MDC National Chairman and Speaker of the Parliament of Zimbabwe Honorable Lovemore Moyo. At the conference, whose, theme was Change Happens-Are You Ready?, the National Chairman put to rest the thorny issue that had threatened to rupture the MDC in the United States by affirming the continued suspension of six members of the provincial executive who earlier this year were found by the disciplinary committee to have deliberately violated the constitution thereby willfully putting the name of the party into disrepute.