Nepotism destroying Zanu PF: Sibanda

via Nepotism destroying Zanu PF: Sibanda – DailyNews Live 19 August 2014 by Mugove Tafirenyika

HARARE – War veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda says the ruling Zanu PF party has gone off the rails owing to endemic nepotism and corruption.

In an interview with the Daily News last weekend, Sibanda said his party was no longer respecting the egalitarian principles of the liberation struggle as evidenced by growing cronyism.

Citing the example of how the party allocated proportional representation parliamentary seats, the outspoken Sibanda claimed the seats were given mainly to those women whose husbands are in the top echelons of the party.

“On this one, I want to be very frank with you, the revolutionary party has lost the revolutionary way because of nepotism and corruption,” Sibanda said.

“If you look at our women, how many of them benefited from proportional representation? It is only wives of party bigwigs because they are influential, at the expense of the ordinary women who are the genuine cadres of the party.”

Last year’s poll in which Zanu PF won a crucial two thirds parliamentary majority continued the party’s legacy of  “power couples.”

Sibanda said a number of senior officials and their spouses were finding their way into Parliament.

Notable figures include Umguza legislator Obert Mpofu who was joined by his wife Sikhanyisiwe in the august House.

Sikhanyisiswe got into the National Assembly through the women’s quota.

Tambudzani Mohadi, wife of Home Affairs minister, Kembo, again retained her position in Parliament through the women’s quota. In the 2008 elections, she won the Beitbridge senatorial seat.

Zanu PF secretary for legal affairs Emmerson Mnangagwa and deputy Foreign Affairs minister Christopher Mutsvangwa’s wives, Auxillia and Monica respectively, also got into the National Assembly through the women’s quota.

Mutsvangwa’s wife is also Labour deputy minister. She represents Chimanimani Constituency.

Constance Tsomondo Shamu, wife to Zanu PF national political commissar Webster Shamu, is also a beneficiary of the proportional representation system.

Sibanda said the party’s patronage system was not in tandem with what the liberation struggle was about.

“The party no longer has direction because of this and that is why there are factions threatening to tear the party into pieces. This is not what Joshua Nkomo envisaged, what he stood for has been lost,” he said.

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