Source: Gumbo, Mutasa walk out of ZimPF meeting – NewsDay Zimbabwe May 3, 2017
ZIMPF founding elders Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa and part of their supporters reportedly walked out of a meeting on Monday that sought to endorse Agrippa Mutambara as the interim leader, NewsDay heard.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
Gumbo and Mutasa have been the caretaker leaders since the acrimonious split with a group led by the now NPP leader Joice Mujuru.
The two were appointed caretaker leaders to allow the party to re-strategise and find another leader.
Sources who attended the Monday meeting held at the party office told NewsDay that after disagreeing on Mutambara taking over, the founding elders and their supporters walked out.
“They walked out in protest. They are saying it is not possible to have Mutambara as leader. They are saying he is not suitable for that position. However, the challenge is that Mutambara has a lot of supporters and he is loved by the structures as opposed to the elders. After failing to convince others, the elders left,” said a close source who attended the meeting.
Mutambara said he would deal with the matter at a Press conference today.
Asked about the incident yesterday, Gumbo refused to comment and referred all the questions to spokesperson Patrick Chitaka, who confirmed the walkout.
He alleged that Mutambara had proposed to give the party some money claiming there was a bigger hand to destroy the party.
“We could not stand by and endorse something that is strongly disagreeable. So the elders walked out and told them they were going back to their original ZimPF. As far as the elders and some of us are concerned, they have formed their own party because, like it or not, the custodians of this party until congress are the elders,” Chitaka said.
COMMENTS
It’s very clear that this Didymus-Rugare duo want to establish their own version of One-Centre-Of-Power, whereby, just like the emperor who fired them from zanu pf, they are the emperors zimpf who can hire & fire. In any case, they have successfully did so with Joice – they hire in the first place and later fire as she failed to toe the emperors’ line. Clearly, zanu pf & zim pf are just two sides of the same coin. Democracy is alien to these two organizations. nxaaaaa
Shaya was once Soccer Star of the Year 5 times, he cannot even kick a stationery ball now. As with the leg so with the mind. This whole nonsense of old age and wisdom was just meant to keep old man happy and feeling relevant. Everyone reaches a peak beyond which they are worse than before. These “elders” are just cartoons. Old memories they might have, new ideas certainly not.