via Mujuru party founders sidelined – Sunday News Mar 6, 2016
Harare Bureau
Zimbabwe People First is already divided, with younger party officials working to block those aged 70 years old and above from holding office.
Dr Joice Mujuru, expelled from Zanu-PF and Government in 2014, launched the party in Harare last Tuesday.
Already, the likes of ex-Cabinet ministers Mr Rugare Gumbo (76) and Mr Didymus Mutasa (81) have been relegated to an advisory pool of “elders” without voting powers. And steps are being taken to place a 70-year age limit in the party constitution, according to insiders.
Before last week’s Press conference, Mr Gumbo was the group’s de facto spokesperson. That post has now been officially given to ex-journalist Mr Methuseli Moyo. The national management committee comprises Dr Mujuru (president), Mr Mutasa (founding elder/advisor), Mr Gumbo (founding elder/advisor), Mr Sylvester Nguni and Cougan Matanhire (office of the president/secretariat), Mr Dzikamai Mavhaire (mobilisation), Mr David Butau (research and strategy) and Mr John Mvundura (external relations), Mr Moyo (information), Mr Gift Nyandoro (legal), Mr Christopher Ndiweni (provincial security).
Article 30 of ZPF’s draft constitution reads, “There shall be an Elders’ Advisory Council of the party, which shall be an affiliate of the party and shall be constituted of not less than two (2) and not more than eleven (11) members who are appointed by the president.
“The Elders’ Advisory Council shall not have any right to vote on any matter affecting the party and may only act in an advisory role.”
This means Messrs Mutasa and Gumbo will effectively be sidelined from decision making should the draft be adopted. Insiders told our Harare Bureau that Dr Mujuru (60) would be cast aside if she failed to win the 2018 State Presidential election. “Things are just in disarray and already people have started fighting because the younger generation is trying to block the old guard from getting top positions in the party,” said a source.
Another said younger members felt they had to act now to cement their positions lest they remain under the shadow of the expelled Zanu-PF officials. Others lamented glaring contradictions in the party’s thrust and constitution. For instance, Article 9 of the draft states that ZPF believes in term limits for elected officials in the party, State, Parliament and other offices. But there will be no term limit for the party leader.
Power has been concentrated in Dr Mujuru’s office as she will cast the deciding vote at national executive and national standing committee meetings as well as direct departmental operations. She will also be one of the signatories to the party’s bank account, according to Article 37 of the draft.
COMMENTS
ZANU PF stogies are always out there to try to discredit whatever comes or happen in the opposition. There is alright in the creation of elders/advisory council. There is every reason to have that for the benefit of having an outfit similar to ZANU PF where the entire group of voting and influential people is lead by someone from oldest people’s home. Who stands and read a speech and not know that its a repetition. Who stands and say that Zimbabweans are a happy lot when they are the saddest lost, who say that Zimbabweans if they can not access sadza they should eat potatoes, who things Zimbabwean who goes abroad are behaving like mother pig, yet he wants same people to remit funds for investing in Zimbabwe and deny them to vote. Advisory role is best afforded to someone who has interest of the public not personal interest.
This pf thing me I don’t trust. In an interview published elsewhere, Mutasa says as minister of home affairs, he was not aware of the gukurahundi atrocities and he expects us to believe him. He says he did not know that election were rigged in 2013? Given Zanu pf’s unpolarity, how else did he think Zanuck won the elections other than through rigging? He says he joked to Tswangirai saying why did you run away from an election victory. Yet he is fully aware that ZANU prevented bob from taking flight and refused to hand over power to the winner. Imagine where we would be by now! Now that he has been fired from Zanu he now thinks bob is a bad man? He is just an old lying fool who is as culpable as they all are in zanu – be it g40, gamatox, zvipfukuto, dinyane, green bombers.