Source: Big test for Mujuru, ZPF – DailyNews Live January 6, 2017
Mugove Tafirenyika
HARARE – Former Vice President Joice Mujuru and her Zimbabwe People First
(ZPF) outfit’s political weight will be put to test in two weeks‘ time
when her party participates in the Bikita West by-election.
With opposition parties under pressure to perform from Zimbabweans who
have suffered for more than three decades at the hands of President Robert
Mugabe and Zanu PF due to their misrule, many people are waiting to see
what value Mujuru – the nonagenarian’s former second-in-command – will
bring to opposition politics.
Since her brutal ouster from both Zanu PF and the government in late 2014,
as well as her subsequent formation of ZPF the following year, Mujuru has
been shying away from participating in such polls – leading cynics to say
that this was because she still harboured ambitions to return to the
ruling party.
ZPF and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC have, together with
other smaller parties, coalesced under the banner of the National
Electoral Reform Agenda, where they are demanding electoral reforms to
level the playing field which they say is heavily tilted in favour of Zanu
PF.
But a confident ZPF spokesperson, Jealousy Mawarire, told the Daily News
yesterday that his party would win the Bikita West by-election, in which
their candidate is Kudakwashe Gopo.
“We have lined up the president’s (Mujuru’s) rallies in the constituency
in the coming few days and our campaign is going on well. Our message of
peaceful engagement to build our country is resonating well with the
people of Bikita West,” Mawarire said.
In a previous interview with the Daily News, Mawarire has also rubbished
the possibility of Mujuru re-joining Zanu PF, saying that it did not make
sense for her to do this as their party has, since its formation, grown in
leaps and bounds to a size bigger than the ruling party’s.
“Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) has grown bigger than Zanu PF. It will be
folly for someone in the case of Mai Mujuru, who started a political party
that is bigger than Zanu PF to even contemplate going back to Zanu PF
which is disintegrating every other day.
“If she were to go back to Zanu PF, which Zanu PF will she go to, because
there are so many splinter groups. There is Lacoste, G40, Grace, Mugabe
and his group and expelled war veterans on the other hand,” Mawarire said.
COMMENTS
Those who talk of Mujuru going back to ZANU are CIO that we know fully well and to hell with them. To people in Bikita West I say don’t ever foolishly, sheepishly stupidly and unknowingly follow behind your paramount chief, or chief or headman and or sabhuku to go vote in brutal killer ZANU pf, no no, be free, use your wisdom given to you by the Almighty, I say vote wisely for your children. Change is needed like yesterday THINK!!!!!!
There already is a viable option for Zimbos in the name of the MDC.
A party that’s withstood the test of times in the name of the S Makonis, the Ncubes, the Bitis and the ZPF.
Zimbos now know that MPs are nada in terms of deliverance and governance.
Parliament is a charade in our country.
ZANU controls everything, or should one say, Bob is the master puppeteer?
There won’t be any point in going to the polls without a proper voter’s roll and electoral reforms, for one and independent observers from outside the SADC region.
Divine intervention is not going to cut it, either.
Dunlop, it’s true our parliament is useless but it needs to be changed by adding as many people who do not “tow the line” as possible. As for electoral reforms let’s not delude ourselves – it’s like asking your adversary to surrender their gun so that you can shoot them with it. Zanu deliberately created this mess to retain power, it’s the cornerstone of their political theft. The opposition (and the citizens) just have to win the battle against all odds. As for ZPF it is important to go to the next step – can they confront Zanu and prove to the nation that they can compete? They also need to show that they are not Zanu with another name.