Source: Two ZPFs emerge – DailyNews Live
Mugove Tafirenyika 1 March 2017
HARARE – Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) elders – Rugare Gumbo and Didymus
Mutasa – have said they will not fight former ally Joice Mujuru over the
party’s name but co-exist as separate political entities using the same
name.
Gumbo told the Daily News yesterday that while he and Mutasa were the
founders and custodians of ZPF, his camp will not approach the courts in
an attempt to block Mujuru from using the party name.
“If they think they can hold a congress, they can go ahead, it is their
democratic right and we will not make any attempt to stop them because we
are going to have ours in May, if all goes well,” Gumbo said.
“What is a fact and cannot be wished away is that we formed this party and
we remain its bona fide owners after she (Mujuru) had failed in the
mandate we had given her to lead us,” he said.
“Now the reality is that we head ZPF. Anything they want to do in the name
of a congress is a circus and that is why we will not challenge them,”
Gumbo said, adding “we have other serious issues to worry about than to
think about what other parties are doing”.
This comes as Mujuru – who no longer sees eye-to-eye with Gumbo and Mutasa
following a fallout over her leadership – has reportedly drafted a list of
preferred lieutenants to take up key positions in her camp, ahead of their
convention.
These include Samuel Sipepa Nkomo and either John Shumba Mvundura or
Elliot Kasu as her two deputies.
While Mujuru’s ZPF spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire has said the congress is
set for end of March or beginning of April, the exact date is expected to
be announced tomorrow after a national executive council meeting.
He, however, said “the fact that we are going for national convention
means that all positions, including that of the president down to the
lowest position, are vacant and anyone can contest because we are a
democratic party”.
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