HARARE – Former Hurungwe West legislator Temba Mliswa has made a passionate plea to Zanu-PF to accept him back following his ouster last year after being linked to a faction that allegedly sought to unseat President Robert Mugabe.
Mr Mliswa was touted as a vital cog in the alleged putsch whose quashing claimed several scalps, including that of former Vice President Dr Joice Mujuru, the leader of the faction.
Mr Mliswa was the first party provincial chairman to be sacked and since then he has been a wondering spirit hobnobbing with the opposition and has also tried to reclaim his Hurungwe West seat, but lost in controversial circumstances to Keith Guzah in June.
But Mr Mliswa, who has fallen out with the Mujuru-linked People First project, says his heart is with Zanu-PF. In an interview with the state-owned but Zanu PF controlled Herald newspaper, Mliswa spoke about the dim prospects of People First which up to date does not have structures and is a “newspaper and social media party”.
He claims that the rebellion in Zanu-PF and the People First Project had withered on the vine because its mastermind and Mujuru’s husband, Solomon, had died.
“You see, the truth of the matter is you are giving prominence to something which is not even registered,” he said.
“I mean, Jim Kunaka said what he said representing People First, as who? I tried to go around looking for the constitution, they have no constitution, they have no office. Who is the leader of the party? It’s speculative, it’s in the paper.
“And the truth of the matter is I have never known of a party which has no leader and which has no address . . . You see for me to waste time on people speculating on a newspaper party, on a social media party, I am not like that.
“I believe politics is by going to the ground. Even the BUILD document that they put together, who endorsed it?
“They are saying that Zanu-PF is very dictatorial. At least one thing that Zanu-PF does is call for a conference and a congress and it make resolutions. They (People First) did not even call for a conference to hear from the people and for the people to endorse it.”
He said if People First had a constituency, it should have fielded candidates in the intervening by-elections.
“David Butau is People First, why did he not stand as People First in Mbire? Bhasikiti was Mwenezi and he claims to be People First but he is allowing his constituency to go to Zanu-PF but he is People First. I have never understood such politics. Politics is about people.”
Mliswa explained: “The other issue is that who was the brains behind this (putschist agenda)? It was her husband the late General Mujuru who was the strategist, who was the driver of this. He is no more unfortunately. So who can replace him? No one. So you know when a project has a strategist and the strategist is not there, why continue with it?
“You are in a war and the commander is not there, he knows the route, do you continue with the war or you abandon the struggle? And if you can’t beat them you join them and you surrender,” he said.
Mr Mliswa is itching for a return to the ruling party.
“(I)f it is true that this country is about us being a better people and being a better people means the political party (Zanu-PF) being stable, why can’t the political party extend a hand of reconciliation and say a lot happened?” said Mr Mliswa.
“Especially for me, I wrote a letter to say but my suspension was not fair. As much as people would what they want, I wrote because I did not believe I had done anything wrong. I believe that it was in the interest of the party that if I am wrong it (disciplinary action) is done properly and I go back to the people who elected me and say I am no longer in the party because I was found guilty of ABCD.
“I have never been given an opportunity to explain my side other than talking to you in an interview, that’s the only time that I talk about that…I mean Zanu-PF forgave the white man who they went to war with and killed. I am not a white man. I never even went to war and killed anyone. But they fail to forgive me!” he bemoaned.
